Planet UN
The United Nations Confronted to the Challenges
of the 21st Century
A documentary film, “The Wilson Syndrome” by the French filmmaker Romuald Sciora, will be released in the fall of 2008 on the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Through extensive interviews, the film analyses the role of the UN in the areas of Peace, Development and Human Rights, and the enormous challenges facing the organization. The film includes interviews and/or contributions from a wide-ranging list of individuals, including all the former Secretaries General still living and personalities recognized for their involvement on the international stage, such as Jacques Attali, Jean-Marie Colombani, Abdou Diouf, Stanley Hoffmann, Bernard Kouchner, Lewis Lapham, Jean-David Lévitte, Bill Luers, Peter Maurer, José Ramos Horta, Michel Rocard, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, Stephen Schlesinger, Manuel Tornare, James Traub, Ted Turner, Hubert Védrine, Jean Ziegler, Charles Zorgbibe (list not yet finalized).
An accompanying book co-written by Romuald Sciora and Annick Stevenson will be published simultaneously in an English and a French edition at the end of 2008*. The book will present an historical overview of the important milestones of the United Nations from it's beginning up to the present and, relying on the interviews from the film, examine the important challenges the organization faces in the 21 st century.
The entire project of the film and the accompanying book is made possible through the cooperation and support of the United Nations. The project's primary goal is to demonstrate that, in spite of its obvious shortcomings, the UN can be a unique and effective body in confronting the challenges of our time. It is also intended as an unequivocal response to those, wherever they may be, who seek to undermine the United Nations and thereby shatter the hope that it can inspire.
Editions du Tricorne (Geneva), with the support of Le Monde diplomatique
Kofi Annan
Who really was Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations for ten years, from the beginning of 1997 to the end of 2006? Acclaimed and admired during the beginning of his mandate, even to the point of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, he became the object of scorn for the extreme right in the United States when he dared oppose the unilateral decision of the United States to invade Iraq in 2003, a war he termed as “illegal.”
For the very first time, those close to him – his wife Nane, his children (his son Kojo was also blamed for his role in the “Oil for Food” scandal), his former collaborators and advisors, as well as ambassadors and other individuals who are known the world over who worked closely with him talk about the man behind the Secretary General. They present a forthright portrait, leaving out none of his strengths or weaknesses, of Kofi Annan, of the person who was at once discrete and an effective communicator to the media, hesitant and capable, careful and audacious. He was one of the most engaged Secretaries General in the history of the United Nations. These same contributors reveal, through their painstaking description of his veritable descent into hell following the launching of the war in Iraq , the enormous influence the United States wields in the United Nations.
The book was written by Fred Eckhart, Kofi Annan's spokesperson for nearly 8 years, and is based on extensive interviews with nearly one hundred different individuals carried out during 2006 and 2007. The adaptation of the text and translation into French are being done by Annick Stevenson. The book will be published by Editions du Tricorne (Geneva) at the end of 2008.
