Citizens for Global Solutions believes that the U.S. and U.N. need one another to build a safe and better world for Americans and for everyone. Furthermore, we believe that consensus-building, not arm-twisting, is the most effective way to work with other countries and improve the U.N.

In 2006, the U.S.-U.N. relationship was severely tested, but by year’s end we helped make the case for multilateralism and effective international institutions to address some of the most complex challenges of the 21st Century.

Early in the year, with our U.N. campaign, we swung into gear to promote a strong and effective United Nations. Hard-core opponents of the U.N. not only sought to stifle the U.N. reform process, but also attempted to fundamentally discredit the institution.

This past year we brought together like-minded organizations, engaged our members and worked with our allies on Capitol Hill. Via this strategy, Citizens for Global Solutions successfully helped the U.S.-U.N. relationship navigate one of its most turbulent years. We successfully worked around John Bolton’s threat to effectively shut down the United Nations. We held off a push by some Members of Congress to tie our legally obligated U.N. dues to an exhaustive set of demands. And we even helped boost contributions to U.N. peacekeeping. Key to these efforts was a new online tool, The U.N. Minute, designed to help U.N. supporters hone in on key messages and highlight the value of the U.S.-U.N. relationship.

Citizens for Global Solutions played a strong role in these elections, helping to elect 8 new Senators and 13 new Representatives. Global Solutions PAC, our affiliated nonpartisan Political Action Committee also helped return 138 incumbent globally-minded Members of Congress. Overall, 159 of 176 candidates endorsed by our PAC won. For more stories, see Our Candidates and News and Analysis sections.

This past fall we saw competitive races in both the House and the Senate, pitting globally-minded individuals against those who would squander an opportunity to address the challenges of the 21st century. Climate change, global infectious diseases, peacekeeping, and prosecuting heinous acts of violence are major issues both inside and outside the Beltway.

Citizens for Global Solutions members mobilized to engage candidates and their communities in this important process. Through our Congressional Report Card and candidate questionnaire, we provide insight into how our leaders will engage with the issues that matter most in creating a just and sustainable world.

During the summer, the conflict over the U.S.-U.N. relationship returned to a familiar arena: the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Political experts considered our bid to block Mr. Bolton’s confirmation in the Senate a long shot, just as they did the first time he was nominated in 2005. And just as in 2005, we succeeded against all odds in preventing Mr. Bolton’s confirmation, sending a loud and resounding signal that Americans value the work of the United Nations and favor a cooperative approach with other countries.

Our work on the crisis in Darfur led to some important developments in 2006. Citizens for Global Solutions analyst Fatema Abdul Rasul wrote an article calling on Arab and Muslim leaders to take a stand against the genocide in Darfur. This led to Fatema being interviewed by a number of journalists and cited by Nicholas Kristof, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at the New York Times.

We brought together a number of Muslim and Arab groups to discuss how they could be more active in the advocacy efforts on Darfur. This meeting was the first of its kind and some of the groups have since joined the Save Darfur coalition and begun to actively engage their constituents on Darfur.

Our analysis of the unintended consequences of the United States’ policy to withhold foreign aid from ICC member states that refuse to sign a Bilateral Immunity Agreement with the U.S. helped persuade Congress to pass an amendment that exempts certain types of aid from being cut—in effect recognizing the counterproductive U.S. policy toward ICC member states. This amendment was an important first step to reversing that policy.

The second Citizens for Global Solutions Flash Movie Contest had more than 9,000 participants, compared to 3,000 in its first year. The movies came from 15 countries across five continents – including the U.S., Mexico, Australia, Colombia, Great Britain and Nigeria.

The winners were a group of students from Mexico between 11 and 14 years-old. They created a wonderful animation about the environment and showed that with a sustained and systematic approach, damage caused by human pollution can be reversed if we act now. Their movie also included a punk version of the Louis Armstrong classic, "What a Wonderful World.”

See what else we've done:

+ CLICK HERE FOR 2005 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
+ CLICK HERE FOR MID-2004-2005 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
+ CLICK HERE FOR 2004 ACCOMPLISHMENTS