"No chance, no chance, no chance...ever," said Vitaly I. Churkin, Russian envoy to the United Nations Security Council, in response to whether or not Russia would ever support economic sanctions in Syria. 

Today the Arab League will be sending a delegation to the U.N. Security Council to advocate a political transition in Syria.  The Arab-European draft resolution will push for President Bashar al-Assad to step down within 15 days of implementation.  Morocco will introduce the draft resolution, which also calls for sanctions on Syria, hoping it will push for compliance from the regime.  The Obama administration, as well as most European governments, has expressed support for this plan.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will attend the U.N. Security Council meeting today, as she condemns the escalation of Syrian government attacks on its civilians.  Yet Russia is expected to stand in the way of its implementation, promising to veto any resolution that strives to remove Assad's regime.  

The Tweet-Up was an amazing opportunity to actively participate in the State of the Union address! To give a brief recap, the speech heavily focused on the economy and job creation through American innovation.  In fact, the President only devoted 13% of his address to international affairs, astounding considering the United States and the world are facing many global challenges.

 In a speech that was full of specific plans and detailed programs on domestic policy, Obama’s commitment to combating violence and intimidation by supporting human rights worldwide was surprisingly bare of specifics.  While saying that America has a huge stake in the outcome of transformations happening around the world, there was no explanation of what the U.S. is doing to actually save lives and protect the human rights of those at risk.  He could have mentioned progress on the Atrocities Prevention Board he established last year, additional U.S. actions to help the Syrian people or his Administration’s efforts to work more closely with the U.N. Human Rights Council on preventing and monitoring human rights violations.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced this week that it will try four defendants from Kenya in connection with the post-election violence which broke out in the country in late 2007. 

William Samoei Ruto, Joshua Arap Sang, Francis Muthaura and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta will be tried by the Court for crimes against humanity.  Kenyatta and Ruto were both presidential candidates and holders of high-level positions in Kenya.  The ICC declined to confirm charges against two other Kenyans who had been investigated.

Following elections in late 2007, violence broke out in Kenya which resulted in 1,2000 deaths and the displacement of 600,000 people, many of whom still have not returned home.

It’s great news that the ICC is moving forward on the Kenya case and working to bring to justice those responsible for the events that occurred four years ago.  Hopefully the trials will hold the perpetrators accountable and help ensure justice is served on behalf of the Kenyan citizens who suffered greatly during the violence.

The United States Mission to the United Nations has issued a statement today that lays out how America plans to lead on U.N. reform in 2012. While the global community has long called for such reform, the statement details some progress that the U.S. has already made, reforming the U.N. budget for only the second time in 50 years, saving American taxpayers $100 million. The U.S. has also pushed for increased transparency, especially promoting public disclosure online of all internal audit reports starting in 2012.

The statement outlines how the U.S. Mission believes the U.N. can move forward on further reforms to make the U.N. more effective and efficient. They suggest several recommendations, including steps to make the U.N. more cost-effective, reduce administrative bureaucracy while increasing accountability, address issues of corruption and unfairness, and increase overall efficiency throughout the U.N. system.