Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- There are only two big issues, a major human rights group told Inner City Press on Frday, in the UN's Third Committee: Gaza and the gays. The reference was to Richard Goldstone's report on Gaza -- which now seems destined not for the Committee but the full or plenary General Assembly -- and a forthcoming report by Martin Scheinin which touches on the lesbians, gay, transgendered and bisexual issue.

  This is sure to draw fire from Egypt, Syria and other countries which last year when a motion for decriminalization of homosexuality was proposed, countered with amendments referring to bestiality. Only at the UN.

  Blocked out by these two super charged issues are appearances of the UN's other special rapporteurs, who travel the globe, from rural Russia to Brazil to yes, the South South Bronx to assess government's compliance with the treaties that they sign. On Friday Raquel Rolnik, the special rapporteur on housing, told the Press how climate change will mostly hurt the poor.

  Inner City Press asked Rolnik about her entreaty to the governments of Cambodia and Nigeria to stop their mass evictions. In the Cambodian case, the cleared site is now being offered to South Korean businessmen for profit. The news is not good, Ms. Rolnik said. She said evictions have also continued in Angola, where UN HABITAT claimed to have gotten a commitment to the contrary.

  Ms. Rolnik is a law professor in Brazil, so Inner City Press asked for her views on President Lula's much touted plan to limit land use for ethanol. Ms. Rolnik said as a Brazilian she might be biased, then said the problem goes beyond ethanol to all of agri-business. She noted that Brazil grows the soy beans to feed cattle all over the world. One wanted to hear also about the favelas, and recent surge of violence. Next time.

Housing Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik, next stop CCNV in DC

  Rapporteur Manfrek Nowak spoke, not only about torture but also imprisonment. He said that in Uruguay, people were kept in metal boxes called las latas, but later were released. Inner City Press asked if he'd look into the two UN system staff in Sri Lanka who reportedly were tortured by the government. Not personally, he said. Doesn't charity begin at home? Said otherwise, if the UN system can't even defend its own people, what can it do for others?

  An event sponsored by UN University featured the Bruce Jencks of the UN Development Program bragging about UNDP's work with local entities like Catalonia. He apologized for not speaking Spanish, much less Catalan. But one wondered if UNDP likewise has an agreement to work not only with northern Sri Lanka, but South Ossetia, and if not, why not. Madrid gives a lot of money to UNDP, and is said to not be happy with the UN's hype of Catalan. But to actually oppose it would be bad politics at home. And so UNU goes forward, webcasting to the world.

  Radhika Coomaraswamy, herself from Sri Lanka, hosted a film screening early in the week. To make a film about the brutal lives of child soldiers cannot be easy. The Dutch production "Silent Armies," based on a thinly veiled Lord's Resistance Army, is far from a perfect film. But it aims high, or low, to confront the audience with children being forced to kill their own parents, children blown up by casually mislaid bombs, and a United Nations more concerned with the "big picture" of working with governments than the fate of children pulled into the bush and a hellish life. Sounds about right.

  In  an attempt to draw in European audiences, "Silent Armies" plays up a Dutch restauranteur who son befriends an African boy the same age. While the Dutch boy mimics machine gun killings on Play Station, the African boy has a wooden console carved by his father in a wheelchair. Regardless, the screening of this film at the UN was more appropriate than the one slated for October 25, when the UN is given to Disney to put on Tinker Bell, who -- or which -- will be named a "Goodwill Ambassador of Green." For the green?

Footnote: An argument being advanced for taking the Goldstone report straight to the full General Assembly is that it will somehow show the United States respect. "They took the leap to join the Human Rights Council in Geneva," one insider said. "We don't want their first time in the Third Committee on this to be overshadowed by Goldstone, which we know they'll have to oppose. Let them have their moment." Really? To be continued.