Oil-for-food investigator sees systemic problems at UN News
Oil-for-food investigator sees systemic problems at UN

[JURIST] Paul Volcker, chairman of an independent commission [official website] probing the now defunct UN oil-for-food program [JURIST news archive], blamed lapses at the UN on a "systemic problem" and said he found only "limited" corruption during his testimony [hearing notice and statements] Monday to the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations [official website]. Last week, Volcker's panel issued a report [JURIST video] that showed 2,200 companies made illicit payments totaling $1.8 billion [JURIST report] to Saddam Hussein's government through the program. Volcker denied that there was a "culture of corruption" at the UN and said that the UN's structure must be strengthened so that there are fewer excuses for escaping responsibility. According to Volcker, the secretary-general's job has become too broad, making him unable to focus enough attention on administering the organization. In a report released Sunday, Stuart Bowen, US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction [official website], said that corruption is rampant in Iraq [JURIST report] and must be challenged by developing new anti-corruption agencies. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.