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	Political & community leaders must encourage tolerance and respect for diversity by John von Doussa Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission Australia   Aug. 2005   The President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, John von Doussa, has stressed that strong leadership and constructive engagement are essential in the current climate of fear and suspicion between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Australia, to develop mutual understanding and respect for diversity and the law.   “The government has an important role to play in showing support for the Islamic community as a whole, and to encourage people not to stereotype and vilify people based on the views or actions of a few extremists,” said Mr von Doussa.   “The government needs to reaffirm the fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country are law abiding and peaceful citizens who do not bear any responsibility or sympathy for the criminal actions of those on the other side of the world.   “Muslim leaders also have a responsibility to themselves, their followers and the wider Australian public to denounce the actions of these extremists and reassert their commitment to the rights and responsibilities that everyone is expected to respect in this country.   “Muslim groups and individuals, like any others in society, who come across followers who are openly preaching hatred and advocating violence, should act to bring these people to the notice of the authorities.”   The President said that many of the findings and recommendations of the Commission’s Isma project, which was conducted following reports of increased hostility and vilification of Arab and Muslims in Australia following 9/11 and the Bali bombings, are still valid and relevant to address issues which have arisen following the attacks in London.   Education and strong leadership at a national, state and local level were seen as the keys to long-term change in the way Muslims are viewed in Australia. The report recommended that political and community leaders encourage Australians to uphold the multicultural values of mutual tolerance and respect for cultural and religious diversity.   Feedback from the Isma Reference Group indicates that the government and community organisations have been actively working and undertaking projects to address anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice. Some of the initiatives mentioned were developed as a direct result of the Isma project and others have used the project information to assist in the development of their own initiatives.   “Government and Muslim leaders can play a part in encouraging communities to exercise their rights in a way that ensures others can also enjoy their rights. Both can play an important role in ensuring that rights can be enjoyed by all groups by encouraging tolerance and respect through dialogue and education,” Mr von Doussa said. Visit the related web page
	Controversy surrounds Bolton's appointment as UN Ambassador. by The Nation / IPS / CNN USA   August 2, 2005   "The Bolton Embarrassment ", by John Nichols. (The Nation)   When the United States sought to be a true world leader, as opposed to a petulant global bully, this country's seat at the United Nations was occupied by great men and women. Consider just some of the amazing figures who have served as U.S. ambassadors to the international body: former Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., two-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, former Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, former civil rights leader and Georgia Congressman Andrew Young, academics and public intellectuals Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jean Kirkpatrick, and Richard Holbrooke, former State Department aide and New Mexico Congressman Bill Richardson, former Missouri Senator John Danforth.   These ambassdors came from different parties and from different ideological backgrounds, they had different styles and different goals, but they had one thing in common: They served with the broad support of official Washington and the American people. When they spoke, they spoke for America. And they did so in a tradition of U.S. regard for the mission of the UN, which was perhaps best expressed by an American who served for three decades as a key player in the world council, Ralph Bunche. "The United Nations," said Bunche, "is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world."   To make that hope real, U.S. ambassadors had to be both strong and pragmatic advocates for the best interests of their own country and visionaries who recognized that all United Nations member states merited at least a measure of diplomatic regard. As Adlai Stevenson, who capped a brilliant career in American politics by representing his country at the UN during some of the hottest years of the Cold War, explained, "The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations--great or small--to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century."   Needless to say, John Bolton has never expressed any sentiment regarding international affairs or the United Nations so well or wisely as Stevenson. Bolton is a hack politician, a career retainer of the Bush family who is famous for nothing so much as his disrespect for the diplomacy and international cooperation in general, and for the United Nations in particular.   So creepy has been Bolton's partisanship -- he was a prime player in moves to shut down the recount of Florida votes following the disputed 2000 presidential election -- and so crude has been his behavior that thoughtful Republicans such as Ohio Senator George Voinovich determined that the nominee would not be an appropriate representative of the United States. But President Bush has forced Bolton on the U.S. and the UN, making a recess appointment that places his controversial nominee in the same position once occupied by Lodge, Stevenson and Moynihan.   Bolton will serve differently than his predecessors. For one thing, he is neither the intellectual nor the emotional equal of those who came before him. For another, he will be seen as a representative only of the Bush White House -- not of the United States or its people.   At a time when the United States should be a full and active participant in the United Nations, it will instead be marginalized force - an embarrassed land represented by one its most embarrassing sons.   U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been a leading advocate for bipartisan approaches to foreign policy, spoke well for America - and for this country's shattered tradition of respect for the UN - when he said on the day of the recess appointment: "Mr. Bolton is fundamentally unsuited for the job, and his record reveals a truly disturbing intolerance of dissent. Mr. Bolton did not win the support of a majority of members of the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate refused to make a final decision on this nomination pending review of documents that the Administration declined to provide in blatant disregard for the Senate's constitutional rights and responsibilities. But despite all of the warning signs and all of the red flags, the President has taken this extraordinary step to send a polarizing figure with tattered credibility to represent us at the United Nations. At a time when we need to be doing our very best to mend frayed relationships, encourage real burden-sharing, and nurture a rock-solid international coalition to fight terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the American people deserve better than John Bolton."   © 2005 The Nation   Aug 1, 2005   "Bush's Man at the U.N. Draws Cheers, Jeers", by William Fisher . (IPS)   U.S. Pres. George W. Bush poked a thumb in the eye of Senate Democrats today with his recess appointment of John Bolton as the United States' ambassador to the United Nations.   Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called it a ”devious maneuver” that ”further darkens the cloud over Mr. Bolton's credibility.”   Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, ”The president has done a real disservice to our nation by appointing an individual who lacks the credibility to further U.S. interests at the United Nations.”   And Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Bolton was a ”seriously flawed and weakened candidate.”   Democrats' reaction to the president's circumvention of the Senate confirmation process comes at a time when Bush needs all the support he can muster to confirm his nomination of John Roberts to serve on the Supreme Court.   Critics say Bolton, who has been accused of mistreating subordinates and has been openly sceptical about the United Nations, would be ill-suited to the sensitive diplomatic task at the world body.   John Gershman, director of the Global Affairs Programme at the International Relations Centre and co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus, told IPS, ”Pres. Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations places a Bush administration loyalist opposed to the United Nations and international law in a position that demands a skilled diplomat. His appointment is a travesty for those that support international law and a stronger United Nations.”   A spokesperson for Human Rights First, an advocacy group, noted that, ”The recess appointment of John Bolton will add to the challenges faced by U.S. Foreign Service officers who work to promote human rights.”   ”These diplomats have faced formidable obstacles in part because of increased U.S. unilateralism and the rejection by the U.S. of international standards relating to humanitarian law and laws prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”   Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, the recess appointment will last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.   The appointment ended a stormy five-month impasse with Senate Democrats who had accused the conservative Bolton of twisting intelligence to suit a hawkish ideology and of abusing subordinates.   U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Bolton's appointment and did not address the question of whether Bolton would be weakened by the recess appointment. He said the manner of Bolton's appointment was Bush's prerogative.   Bush had refused to withdraw the Bolton nomination even though the Senate had twice voted to sustain a filibuster against him.   State Department officials accused him of berating career officials and analysts who challenged his views, and of selectively choosing intelligence to support his assertions about the dangers posed by Cuba and other nations.   When a Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Ohio Sen. George V. Voinovich, decided to oppose Bolton, the nomination moved to the full Senate with no recommendation -- a relatively rare action for the usually bipartisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee.   The nomination has been held up by Democrats' demands to see two sets of documents related to Bolton's State Department work. One involved national security intercepts of conversations.   On Aug. 29, 35 Democratic senators and one independent, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, sent a letter to Bush urging against a recess appointment.   ”Sending someone to the United Nations who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate and now who has admitted to not being truthful on a document so important that it requires a sworn affidavit is going to set our efforts back in many ways,” the letter said.   August 1, 2005 (CNN)   US Senator Christopher Dodd urged President Bush on Sunday to reconsider appointing John Bolton as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations without Senate confirmation.   Bush may make a presidential recess appointment this week to install the controversial Bolton -- an under secretary at the State Department -- two senior administration officials have said.   Such a move would thwart Senate Democrats who have blocked Bolton's nomination in a dispute over documents and amid accusations that Bolton doesn't have the temperament for the nation's top U.N. post.   Under the Constitution, a president has the power to make appointments without Senate confirmation when Congress goes into recess. Lawmakers began their current break on Friday.   Dodd, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said a recess appointment would send a negative message to the Senate and the United Nations. "I would hope the president would think a little longer about this from his perspective," Dodd said on "Fox News Sunday." "I just think Mr. Bolton's the bad choice here. ... He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility."   "This will be the first U.N. ambassador since 1948 that we've ever sent there under a recess appointment," said Dodd, the senior senator from Connecticut. "That's not what you want to send up, a person that doesn't have the confidence of the Congress, and so many people who have urged that he not be sent up to do that job."   A recess appointment would last until the end of the current term of Congress, which would put Bolton at the United Nations until January 2007.   Democrats say Bolton does not have the diplomatic skills for the post, arguing he has dismissed the value of the United Nations and often intimidated subordinates until they agreed with his viewpoint.
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