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Archive Introduction


UN Performance Problems

UN Management Accountability Struggles


Where is the Rule of Law?
Inadequate UN Oversight
Recent Developments

 
  

 

 


Top Related Sources and Websites  

                                                                                                          

 

 

 

                    

IO Watch has found more than 70 websites or other media sources (most of them only in English) that provide useful information on UN (and other international organization) management accountability, reform, and performance issues. They are presented briefly and informally below, in very rough descending order of relevance and usefulness.

  

 

1.       The International Herald Tribune, at www.iht.com, published daily and available in many cities around the world, is the most up-to-date and comprehensive source on UN issues.  In addition to news stories, its "Views" pages (Editorials & Commentary, and Opinions & Letters) do an excellent job of providing "an international forum for provocative debate" on current and emerging international issues.  The IHT is also available on-line and has an archive and search process.  Many of the IHT articles originated in the New York Times, which became a joint owner in 1967 and sole owner of the IHT in 2002.

2.       The Economist, published weekly, is found at www.economist.com. It has provided the most steady chronicle of the UN's performance over the last several decades. It also systematically covers international affairs issues and developments at the country, regional and international level, and provides regular in-depth special reports which often address UN-related topics.  The Economist is also available on-line and has an extensive archive and search process for its print edition.

3.       The Financial Times (UK), at www.ft.com/home/europe, also has a surprisingly steady flow of excellent specific articles and expert commentary on UN issues, operations, and problems, as well as relevant news and special reports on such things as governance issues. It has as well excellent search tools to allow its subscribers full access to a five-year archive and a World Press Monitor & Archive that provides over 60,000 new articles every week.

4.       The heart of this archive, for the 1945-2000 period, is articles from UN staff journals such as the UN Staff Report in New York and the UN Special in Geneva.  The Internet now provides vast new flows of insider information and investigative websites and articles on the UN (see in particular items 5-18 below) which have made UN operations and problems much, much more transparent than in the past.  But it was the staff journals that, over the decades, provided the bulk of the candid and informed assessments and critiques of UN performance issues and reform needs, at a time when the UN Secretariat kept almost all performance information and issues tightly bottled up.

5.       Claudia Rosett has more than 20 years of experience as an award-winning journalist on international affairs.  She was instrumental in drawing out information on the UN Iraq Oil-for-food programme scandals, and IO Watch believes that she has become the most astute and knowledgeable observer of the UN’s dysfunctional management culture and its continuing scandals.  Her work can be found via Google Search for “Claudia Rosett UN” (some 150,000 sources), or in “The Rosett Report” at www.pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett, which now includes an archive of her articles going back to August 2006.



6.       As the UN’s recent scandals drag along and many new ones emerge, Matthew Russell Lee has become, literally, the “go-to guy” for UN staff disgruntled with the Secretariat’s feeble corruption-fighting and whistle-blowing policies and inaction. Mr. Lee is a lawyer and veteran muckraker, and some 90,000 distinct visitors a month view his reports at Inner City Press on UN mismanagement and malfeasance.  He has also recently been elected to the executive committee of the UN Correspondents Association. His (usually daily) articles for the most recent months can be found at www.innercitypress.com, and many more through a Google search for “Matthew Russell Lee”, then “more results from … [inner city]”, totaling some 400  of his articles.)

7.       Eye on the UN, a project of the Hudson Institute and the Touro Law Center, is found at www.eyeontheun.org. Its purpose is to make transparent the UN's record on its fundamental promises on human rights actions and responses to international peace and security threats.  Its information base includes not only daily articles but extensive archived articles on "serious shortfalls exposed in the UN record", under such categories as Corruption and Mismanagement, Management Issues, Oil-For-Food Scandal, Sexual Harassment, U.N. Peacekeepers, and U.N. Expansion.


8.       UNDP Watch, found at www.undpwatch.blogspot.com, began in June 2007, and its content has expanded rapidly.  It is dedicated to, and open to, all UNDP staff to submit documents, analyses, and opinions on its mismanagement, non-transparency, and non-accountability (which became widespread in 2007, see UNDP,rogueagency?, 2007, UNDP, corruption, 1998-2002, and UN, whistleblowers, 2007 in the IO Watch dark sides feature.)  UNDP Watch exposure has already had some success in getting dubious UNDP management decisions reversed.  It would be excellent if such Internet blogs could be established at other agencies – in particular in the UN Secretariat.


9.       The Center for UN Reform Education, found at www.centerforunreform.org, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research group founded in 1978 to participate in reforms and restructuring the UN through its publications, fora and conferences. It concentrates on the history of, and ongoing developments in, UN management reform.  The Center is associated with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and does not take positions regarding specific proposals. Of particular value are its UN Reform Watches,, which began in June 2005.

10.   The UNforum is an open and independent forum on UN news and issues, not connected with the UN.  It is found at www.unforum.com, where it provides a very incisive, well-informed, and ongoing analysis of behind-the-scenes activities inside the UN Secretariat. It reporting stands in marked contrast to the concurrent flood of official UN "public information" materials. The UN Forum is particularly useful for its "Insider" and "Agenda" archives, which extend back to the year 2000.


11.   Reform the UN Now! believes the UN is systematically corrupt due to the immunity some 5000 of its senior officials enjoy  from international law, which they often abuse with impunity, and that the only hope for real UN reform is to eliminate this immunity, urgently!  This new website, located at www.unreform-now.org, seeks to raise awareness of the incompetence and misfeasance of the UN and other international organizations, to provide a resource for international staff caught in the UN’s so-called internal justice system, to present news on recent and emerging UN scandals, and to propose countervailing actions.


12.   Fox News reported extensively on the UN Iraq oil-for-food program scandals from the very beginning, and has continued with investigative reporting of mismanagement and corruption issues in the UN and, increasingly, in other international organizations.  Its website, at www.foxnews.com, lists recent stories under “World”, then “United Nations”, while a “search” on the FoxNews.com site identifies some 4,000 total stories on UN developments, scandals, and operations.


13.   The New York Sun has an increasing number of articles on UN operational problems and performance issues, particularly by Benny Avni.  Among other things, the Sun periodically runs a United Nations’ rogues’ gallery chart in which the alleged bribers, schemers, and other wrongdoers at “Turtle Bay” are named and shamed.  A recent “search” at www.nysun.com under “United Nations” yielded more than 500 of Mr. Avni’s articles.


14.   The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been issuing independent, external reporting to the US Congress for more than three decades on UN management issues, including major reports in 2000 and 2004 and half-a-dozen new ones on UN oversight, internal control, procurement, and audit independence in mid-2006 alone, which are available at www.gao.gov.  As the largest and most professional national oversight office, the GAO also pursues best practices and a leadership role for accountability and performance audit issues, strategic planning and risk assessment, and anti-fraud work (through its FraudNET).

15.    The Government Accountability Project (GAP), found at www.whistleblower.org, is a nonprofit public interest group and the leading US whistleblower protection organization.  GAP's mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms. Its International Reform program focuses on the multilateral development banks and on the United Nations, which it recently advised on its new whistleblower policy.

16.   The United Nations Transparency and Accountability Initiative (UNTAI) was established in late 2007 in the US Mission to the UN, in light of revelations of abuses in UN funds and programmes.  Found at www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/Issues/reform_untai.html, UNTAI focuses, inter alia, on public availability of oversight and operations reports and documentation; whistleblower protection, financial disclosure, ethics, accounting standards, and other related reforms, and tracks their status on a continuing basis.  Material available includes UN oversight and transparency reports, to ensure that the billions of dollars the UN spends are delivered efficiently and effectively.


17.   ReformtheUN.org, found at www.reformtheun.org, provides very up-to-date information and resources on UN reform.  It covers many UN reform topics, by category and by issues, with an overall emphasis on tracking developments and ensuring transparency and accountability.  Its also provides very recent UN documents and an email newsletter.  ReformtheUN.org is a project of the World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP), a global membership organization seeking a strengthened and more democratized United Nations.



18.   Newsweek magazine often has useful articles and information on UN operations and issues in its Periscope or Opinion features, as well as in some very topical special reports.  The site is at www.newsweek.com. It also has an extensive archive of more than 1500 articles under a search for “United Nations.”


19.   The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is found at www.unodc.org.  Among other things, it supports a Judicial Integrity Group to strengthen judicial integrity and capacity worldwide (use “search” for  “Judicial integrity” on the site), and has extensive Justice and Prison Reform and anti-corruption activities. [Most unfortunately, however, UNODC has never connected these important global principles and standards to the UN Secretariat’s own (acknowledged and) very defective internal justice and accountability processes, as discussed in this Archive's subsections on UN war crimes judge …, UN officials … outside the law, External experts justice reform review, and A real UN fraud prevention programme.]

20.   The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership – International is dedicated to “making humanitarian action accountable to beneficiaries” and opening accounts and control systems to public auditors’ reports. Found at www.hapinternational.org, the HAP has created a very welcome and ground-breaking framework for achieving accountability and transparency in all kinds of international humanitarian groups worldwide, and providing training, standards, and certificates (valid for 3 years) for organizations which qualify. Applying this guidance firmly to the biggest such organizations – the UN’s humanitarian and peacekeeping programs -- would, of course, be a very big step forward.


21.   James Bone, the New York correspondent of the Times of London, has reported “in minute detail” on goings-on at the UN ever since 1988. Nevertheless, in late 2005 Kofi Annan labeled him “cheeky”, “an overgrown schoolboy”, and suggested he was not a “serious journalist” for persistent questioning (with no answers provided) at UN news conferences about a troublesome Mercedes purchased for his son Kojo.  A recent “search” at www.timesonline.co.uk under  ”James Bone United Nations” found some 360 of his UN articles going back to 2002.

22.   The Heritage Foundation is a "think tank", found at www.heritage.org, which generates and promotes conservative public policies and solutions to contemporary problems to provide, inter alia, a safer, more prosperous, freer world.  Its work on United Nations and International Organizations, under “Research,” “Foreign Issues,”  has provided many ongoing WebMemos and Backgrounders, in considerable depth, on UN operations and problems, with an archive going back to 1977.

23.   UN Watch is a non-governmental organization formed in 1993 to monitor the performance of the UN by the yardstick of its own Charter.  UN Watch areas of interest include: UN management reform, the UN and civil society, equality within the UN, and the equal treatment of member states, and it follows UN human rights work and deliberations closely.  Its website, at www.unwatch.org, provides relevant news, comments, and essential documents; a blog from Geneva; some 160 UN Watch briefings stretching back to 1998; and a series of reports.

24.     Betsy Pisik of The Washington Times (USA) has been writing useful and incisive analyses of UN operational problems and developments for many years.  Her articles on the UN for the past few years are found at www.washingtontimes.com, via a search for her name and then under the subsection “News”, “World.”



25.   IPS - Inter Press Service was set up in 1964 as a non-profit international cooperative of journalists.  It has since become a public-benefit organization, as an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath. Found at http://ipsnews.net, the IPS covers many global topics as an independent global news agency.  In particular, its Global Affairs section has useful, ongoing articles, especially by Thalif Deen, on UN operations and problems.

26.   The Development Gateway Foundation, through its Development Gateway portal, puts the Internet to work for developing countries, by providing innovative solutions for effective aid and e-government, and to increase knowledge-sharing, improve public sector transparency, and build local capacity to empower communities.  Among its 25 dgCommunities, which are found at www.dgfoundation.org, is one on Aid Effectiveness and another on Governance, which includes subsections on Corruption, Data on Governance, Judicial and Legal Reform, Governance and Parliament, and Public Sector Reform.


27.   Global Integrity, found at www.globalintegrity.org, is an international, independent, nonprofit organization which seeks to provide credible, comprehensive, and independent information on governance and corruption for global citizens, without any partisan agenda.  Following pilot projects in 25 countries in 2004, Global Integrity plans soon to report annually on its Integrity Indicators and Global Integrity Index, ranking 50-100 countries in more than 290 indicators of openness, governance, and anti-corruption mechanisms.  It also plans to launch the world's first regular newsletter and online portal systematically tracking governance and corruption.


28.     Global Compact Critics is an informal network of organizations and people with concerns about the Global Compact, partnerships between the UN and companies, and corporate accountability.  Found at www.globalcompactcritics.blogspot.com, this site is not a database, but rather a collection of opinions, news items and background information.  It produces a digest of blog updates twice a month.


29.      The Institute for State Effectiveness was founded following state-building efforts on the ground in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004.  In early 2005, it moved to broader issues of state effectiveness, and mobilized a group of leading experts and practitioners on the subject to develop and pilot innovative solutions.  Found at www.effectivestates.org, the ISE has developed a unique approach to relations between citizens, the state, and the market, which includes a range of tools for an integrated system for state and market-building.


30.   Integrity Interactive, at www.integrity-interactive.com, is the global leader in ethics and compliance for companies.  It provides a variety of publications and surveys, as well as risk-based training courses, code of conduct services, risk assessment and compliance services, program management and reporting systems, and certification and disclosure services to companies worldwide, with culturally targeted courses to Asia, Europe or the US. Its Web-based course library offers training in more than 400 ethics and compliance areas in multiple languages.


31.    The United Nations Staff Union, found at www.u-seek.org, works to protect the welfare of UN staff members.  In addition to information on its structure and activities, it provides occasional hard-hitting statements on such issues as staff security, the UN’s administration of justice system, accountability, human resources management, and staff-management relations.


32.    UNdemocracy.com is an intriguing website project begun by volunteers who realized that UN online documents are not user-friendly.  They set out to provide easy, Web 2.0 compliant access to key UN, Security Council, and General Assembly records, and also encourage visits to read UN-related articles on the United Nations Portal on Wikipedia – and help improve them. There is obviously much work to be done, but the effort at www.undemocracy.com has great potential for “shining the sunlight of the web” on a secretive UN.


33.     Avaaz.org is a community of global citizens, working in many countries on the major issues facing the world today, including UN-related areas. Found at www.avaaz.org, the organization has grown in just one year to over 3.2 million members.  They help connect people across borders, and to use technology and the internet to mobilize citizen action.  Avaaz.org was recently cited for its potential to deliver “a deafening wake-up call” to world leaders. 


34.    Global Voices is a multilingual, non-profit citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School.  It focuses on the Internet’s impact on society.  Bloggers from around the world are invited as contributors or editors to attempt to make sense of all kinds of online media on a daily basis, and the preoccupations of the blogging communities in their countries, as well as helping marginal communities to be heard. Found at www.globalvoicesonline.org, its slogan is “The world is talking. Are you listening?”


35.    The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a private, nonprofit organization which, since 1910, has been dedicated to advancing international cooperation and achieving practical results.  In 2007 the Endowment undertook a fundamental transformation to become the first truly multinational – ultimately global – think tank.  It now has operations not only at its Washington, DC headquarters, but also in Moscow, Beijing, Beirut, and Brussels, and produces many books, policy briefs, Carnegie papers, e-newsletters, and other resources.  It is found at www.carnegieendowment.org.


36.   The UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, comprised of the executive heads of the UN system organizations, is found at www.unsystemceb.org. In 2000, it established high-level committees on programmes and on management (including networks on human resources; finance and budget; and information, communication and technology.)  Recently it has emphasized system-wide coherence and plans for harmonizing and reforming UN system business practices.  It provides a very useful archive of its main reports (including those of its predecessor, the ACC) going back to 1995.


37.    Foreign Policy, at www.foreignpolicy.com, is a very dynamic and award-winning bimonthly journal on "how the world works" and how the process of global integration is reshaping nations and institutions, with an emphasis on "iconoclastic thinking" and "a healthy dose of irreverence."  FP has an online archive and search process going back a decade, and a network of international editions.  Many FP articles also have an excellent "Want to know more?" feature which provides references to related books, articles, reports, broader perspectives, and websites.


38.   Global Governance is a quarterly journal which, since 1995, provides a forum for practitioners and academics to discuss the impact of international institutions and multilateral processes.  Found at www.acuns.net, it welcomes articles challenging the conventional wisdom, and has produced a number of useful articles on UN operations and problems. The journal is a project of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) and the United Nations University (UNU).

39.   The UN Board of Auditors, found at www.un.org/auditors/board, is the only fully professional and well-respected unit among an overlapping group of diplomat/amateur-dominated UN oversight bodies.  Its three rotating national audit organization members make independent financial and management audits, and the Board reports regularly (some 30 reports per biennium) thereon to the General Assembly and other bodies  The Board is also associated closely with the UN Panel of External Auditors, who perform audits for all agencies of the United Nations system.

40.   The International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), which is found at www.intosai.org, is composed of more than 170 national audit institutions (SAIs).  It is the internationally recognized leader in public sector auditing, and plays a major role in auditing government accounts and operations and promoting sound financial management and accountability worldwide.  INTOSAI members also provide the external auditors for the UN and the UN System, as noted above.

41.   The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), located at www.acfe.com, has 36,000 members working in more than 100 chapters and 25 countries worldwide to fight fraud globally. The ACFE fraud examiner certification program, many anti-fraud education and training programmes, and other resources could greatly aid the weak anti-fraud activities which the UN Secretariat has now finally promised to strengthen. The ACFE's well-established and professional whistleblower hotline (at "Fraud Resources", then "EthicsLine"), under the UN's new desire to do more outsourcing, could certainly meet the UN's confidential reporting needs far more effectively and cheaply than the current OIOS and other channels that are now patched together.


42.   The Center for the Accountability of International Organizations (CAIO), at www.caio-ch.org,  was formed to promote means and criteria to ensure that international organisations are held properly accountable for their actions, prevent the abuse of privileges and immunities, ensure that the rights and standard of legal protection of those dealing with them (including employees) are properly respected, and achieve conformance with the organisations' obligations under international and national law.  CAIO engages in research, development, and other activities to these ends.

43.   The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), found at www.icj.org, is dedicated to the primacy, coherence and implementation of international law and principles that advance human rights.  Its has sixty eminent jurists representing different legal systems, an  International Secretariat, and a network of autonomous national sections and affiliated organisations worldwide. The ICJ takes an impartial, objective and authoritative legal approach to the protection and promotion of human rights through the rule of law. Its Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (CIJL) was established in 1978, and it maintains an extensive, searchable database at its Legal Resource Center.

44.   The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), found at www.aei.org, is a large private, nonpartisan, research institute founded in 1943.  It sponsors research and conferences and publish works on economic, social and political, and defense and foreign policy studies, seeking to elevate political debate and improve the substance of government policy.   Its research area on National Sovereignty and Global Governance contains some 400 items, many of them dealing with the UN, its performance, and multilateral organizations in general.

45.   The IFIwatchnet, found at www.ifiwatchnet.org, connects organizations around the world that monitor international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, the IMF, and regional development banks.  Its nearly 60 organisations from 35 different countries seek to make global governance institutions accountable to the people they serve.  IFI pools information about IFI’s, improves communication between IFI-watchers, and seeks to improve the their efficiency and effectiveness.

46.   The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), found at www.ifitransparency.org, is a network of civil society organisations promoting openness in the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and Regional Development Banks.  It brings together groups campaigning for both full accountability in the use of the public power vested in the IFI's, and the right to access to information at the nation-state level.  The GTI believes that such public disclosure, when properly implemented and complied with, can help change the rules of the game and make a real difference to the public accountability of these institutions.

47.   The One World Trust, at www.oneworldtrust.org, promotes education, training and research into changes required within global organisations to make them publicly accountable and ensure that international laws are strengthened and applied equally to all.  Its key projects include a Global Accountability Index, and a parliamentary oversight program.  Its Global Accountability Project has developed an extensive GAP Framework for increasing and improving organizations' accountability to their stakeholders.

48.   freedominfo.org, found at www.freedominfo.org, is the online network which links freedom of information advocates worldwide. It describes best practices, consolidates lessons learned, explains campaign strategies and tactics, and reports on freedom of information laws and how they function.  It provides many case studies on the more than 60 countries that now have such laws, and published its most recent global survey of such laws in 2006.

49.   Although one might not think so, international business magazines and newspapers often have relevant articles on international organizations or related topics.  In addition to the Financial Times (UK) already mentioned above, general articles on issues of governance, transparency, corruption, and legal issues worldwide -- which are quite timely and useful because of their coverage and investigative bent -- can also be found in Business Week, at www.businessweek.com; Fortune International, at  www.fortune.com, and the Wall Street Journal (US and Europe),  at  online.wsj.com/public/us.

50.   The Stanley Foundation, at www.stanleyfoundation.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, private operating foundation, seeking a secure peace with freedom and justice, built on world citizenship and effective global governance.  Since 1960, it has convened many expert groups to discuss and report on UN policy issues, including some excellent reports on UN management and administration.  The Foundation's reports since 1994 are available on the website.

51.   The Internet is of course becoming an invaluable source, providing a degree of easy availability, transparency and coverage which makes many large and non-transparent organizations such as the UN very uncomfortable.  IO Watch would cite here only three diverse examples:

Google,  at www.google.com, and other major search engines, with a careful search, can hone in on details and news about the UN and UN system organizations, and their operating problems, mismanagement, scandals, officials, or other subjects to a degree unimaginable even a few years ago;

Booksellers, such as www.amazon.com (and its related sites in other countries) or Barnes&Noble.com, at www.barnesandnoble.com, are very useful not simply to find books to buy but to learn what is available.  A recent search at Barnes & Noble for the key words "United Nations", under "Bestsellers", found 5,000 titles (of which IO Watch has only gone through the first few hundred), and also an additional 3,300 titles for used and out of print books; and

Some "blogs" do very diligent data-gathering -- an example for the UN is a blog, now apparently inactive, but containing hundreds of news articles on all aspects of the UN oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, which can be found at www.acepilots.com/unscam.

52.     AccountAbility is the leading international non-profit institute that brings together members and partners from business, civil society and the public sector from across the world.  Found at www.accountability.org/uk, it is dedicated to promoting accountability for sustainable development by developing innovative and effective accountability tools and standards, undertaking cutting-edge research that explores best practice for practitioners and policy-makers in organizational accountability, promoting accountability competencies and professional certification across the professions, and securing an enabling environment in markets and public policies.

53.      The Democratic Governance efforts of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which are found at www.undp.org/governance, help to build democratic governance around the world.  They develop partnerships and share ways to promote participation, accountability and effectiveness at all levels. UNDP has seven practice areas under this topic, including Justice and Human Rights and Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption.  Also, the UNDP Human Development Reports, at http://hdr.undp.org, annually present critical issues for human development worldwide.

54.     The Public Governance and Management program of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found under "By topic" at www.oecd.org/home, conducts work on  public governance, including activities on e-government; regulatory reform; public sector budgeting, management, and accountability; sustainable development; citizen participation in policymaking; and fighting corruption. Information on its many publications and documents in these fields is presented on the website.

55.     The  WBI Governance & Anti-Corruption Resource Center of the World Bank Institute, found at www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance, views good governance and anti-corruption as central elements of its mission.  Its strategic approach, in collaboration with many Bank units, includes empirical diagnostic surveys and their application, learning programs, operational research, and a comprehensive governance databank. Many working papers, publications, and some 20 key linkages are available at the site. In addition, the World Bank's Public Sector & Governance group focuses on building efficient and accountable public sector institutions. It is found at www1.worldbank.org/publicsector.

56.     The Peace and Governance Programme of the United Nations University, found at www.unu.edu, seeks to contribute to the promotion of sustainable peace and good governance though research and capacity-building by a network of scholars, institutions and practitioners worldwide, to produce policy-oriented recommendations for pressing global problems, and identify longer-term trends and patterns.   The programme concentrates on basic research, policy studies, capacity building and training, and dissemination through an extensive list of publications.

57.      The Global Policy Forum, at www.globalpolicy.org, is a non-profit organization with consultative status at the UN.  It monitors policy making in the United Nations, promotes accountability of global decisions, educates for global citizen participation, and advocates on vital issues of international peace and justice.  The site has very extensive text files and regularly posts new documents.  Perhaps its strongest areas are materials on the Security Council and the long-running UN financial crisis.  It also has considerable descriptive information on recent UN management reform efforts, but not on their results.

58.      The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group), at www.crisisgroup.org, is an independent, non-profit organization with over one hundred staff members working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. Crisis Group  has its headquarters in Brussels  and over a dozen field offices, with analysts working in over 50 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents. It publishes numerous reports and briefing papers available at its site, including the monthly bulletin, CrisisWatch, with updates on the most significant conflict or potential conflict situations.

59.     CorpWatch, found at www.corpwatch.org, is a very active website dedicated to holding corporations accountable.  It is valuable for its CorpWatch Research Guide for researching or investigating a corporation (or other organizations) on the Internet.  In addition, the CorpWatch issue library includes the topics of Corruption, Human Rights, Trade Justice, and World Financial Institutions, which contain ongoing news and CorpWatch Exclusives and blogs.

60.      The Corporate Library (TCL), found at www.thecorporatelibrary.com, is the leading independent source for corporate governance and compensation issues. TCL provides information resources and products including the most comprehensive collection of corporate governance and company performance data ever assembled.  TCL also has its proprietary performance ratings (formerly known as Board Effectiveness Ratings), a fully-customizable corporate governance Screening Tool, an ongoing list of good-governance reading picks, and a corporate governance blog with commentary and news.

61.      The International Peace Institute is an independent, international, nonprofit institution, found at www.ipacademy.org,  which concentrates on working with others to promote prevention and settlement of armed conflicts around the world through policy research and development.  The IPI is active in research and policy analysis, meetings, networking, and outreach to promote the peaceful and just settlement of armed conflicts, and to produce high-quality and timely policy reports, monographs, and edited volumes.

62.       The Human Security Centre seeks to make human security-related research more widely available, especially through its annual Human Security Report. Found at www.humansecuritycentre.org, the Centre provides articles, books, and reports, an online database of human security resources (the Human Security Gateway) and two online bulletins.  It also undertakes independent research and hosts workshops on human security-related issues.

63.      The Henry L. Stimson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to enhancing international peace and security by offering high-quality research projects to provide creative solutions to national and international security problems. Found at www.stimson.org, the Centre has followed UN peacekeeping operations for over a decade, and its Future of Peace Operations Program includes a focus on rule of law and UN reform issues.

64.      The Center for International Governance Innovation is an international think tank founded to study and solve the world's most pressing governance challenges, including desired reforms of multilateral governance.  Found at www.cigionline.org, its broad agenda includes developing a body of knowledge on UN reform, and a massive online research portal structure (IGLOO) on all aspects of international governance.


65.      The Center on International Cooperation, found at www.cic.nyu.edu, promotes policy research and international consultations on effective multilateral responses to transnational problems.  CIC engages in strategically-designed and applied research to assist key multilateral institutions as they address important problems of collective security, conflict management, and international law, and attempt to overcome their underdeveloped policy-making capacities and political constraints. Its current projects include International Security Institutions and Peacekeeping as Statebuilding.

66.      Amnesty International, found at www.amnestyusa.org, (and at its sites in other countries), is a Nobel-Prize winning grassroots organization with about 1.5 million members in 150 countries worldwide.  AI undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of human rights, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.  No funds are sought or accepted from governments for AI's work investigating and campaigning against human rights violations.   Its website contains extensive information on relevant worldwide news articles, as well as on its own reports.

67.      Human Rights Watch, at www.hrw.org, conducts fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world, and publishes the results in dozens of books and reports every year.  It emphasizes even-handed and accurate reporting and also does not accept financial support from governments or government-funded agencies.  Its website provides its annual reports since 1989, many other reports organized by country, region, and themes.

68.      The New Internationalist is a financially independent cooperative, found at www.newint.org, which reports on issues of world poverty and inequality and the radical changes needed in the fight for global justice.  Each monthly issue, stretching back over more than 30 years, presents a priority global theme in a very readable and informative format.  All issues since 1981 can be read for free on the website, and NI has other publications available for sale, including its World Guide and a set of No-nonsense Guides to major global issues.

69.      The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA/USA), at www.unausa.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that, for 40 years, has supported the work of the UN and encourages active civic participation in the most important social and economic global issues.  It does policy research on the United Nations, educates Americans about the work of the UN, and encourages public support for strong US leadership at the UN.  For more than 20 years, it has published "A Global Agenda" each year on the key issues and full spectrum of UN activities.  Its website also offers a catalogue of other research and educational sales publications about the UN.

70.      Transparency International (TI), found at www.transparency.org, is leading a worldwide coalition and global network to promote action, raise awareness, and devise practical actions to address corruption.  Its more than 90 local chapters promote transparency and lobby governments to implement anti-corruption actions, although TI does not itself undertake investigations or expose individual cases of corruption. TI has a vast array of surveys, indices, research, best practices, news articles, and other tools for fighting corruption.


71.      Public Integrity is a quarterly journal on ethics and leadership for the public service, of interest to both practitioners and scholars.  It features articles, essays, profiles, and book reviews on the broad spectrum of ethical concerns in local, state, national, and international affairs.  Abstracts of articles over the past six years are available at the publisher, www.mesharpe.com, under journals, and the articles, and subscriptions, can be purchased there.

72.      Human Rights Internet, at www.hri.ca, was founded in 1976.  It is a leader in information exchange within the worldwide human rights community, working with more than 5,000 organizations and individuals for the advancement of human rights.  It produces and provides access to human rights databases and a comprehensive documentation center, carries out human rights research, produces human rights materials, fosters networking and work in international fora, and supports good governance and human rights protection through training and educational programs.