Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the governments of Myanmar and Zimbabwe Wednesday and said a year of multiple crises has put human rights on trial.
At a year-end news conference, the U.N. chief said 2009 "promises to be no less difficult" than 2008 with a worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the danger of anarchy in Somalia, a continuing global financial crisis, and the need to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Ban said he has been troubled and frustrated by the failure to protect innocent people whose human rights have been violated, and the lack of resources and political will to tackle important issues. But at the same time, he said he remains more resolved to work harder to achieve results in the coming year.
"We have seen increasingly a lack of political will on many issues," he said, including in tackling conflicts, poverty and climate change.
The secretary-general said the world came together to confront the global financial crisis, but "I fear we are only at the end of the beginning." He stressed that "global solidarity" will be key to a solution.
Ban said he was pleased at the world's response to natural disasters such as the major cyclone in Myanmar and hurricanes that lashed Haiti.
"Yet I am disappointed by the unwillingness of the government of Myanmar to deliver on its promises for democratic dialogue and the release of political prisoners," he said.
In Zimbabwe, Ban said, "the humanitarian situation grows more alarming every day" and the country "stands on the brink of economic, social and political collapse."
The secretary-general said he told this to President Robert Mugabe on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in Doha, Qatar, several weeks ago and said "things need to change urgently." He told Mugabe he was prepared to help and Mugabe agreed to receive his envoy, Haile Menkarios.
"Now we are told that the timing is not right," Ban said. "If this is not the time, when is?"
He said the Southern African Development Community, SADC, has insisted on leading international diplomatic efforts but eight months of talks have produced "little result." SADC has a responsibility "to deliver" and "a fair and sustainable political solution" is needed quickly, the secretary-general said.
In Congo, Ban said, U.N. forces "have held the line" but have been unable "to protect innocent people from violence."
"Our record on human rights is on trial _ in many places, in many ways," he said. "In this 60th anniversary year, we must stand strong for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Ban said.
In conflict-wracked Darfur, he urged Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to "fully cooperate" with U.N. resolutions. He lamented that the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force still needs helicopters despite requests to all countries and will only be 60 percent deployed by the end of the year.
"Meanwhile, renewed fighting and political rivalry makes a political solution difficult and does nothing to advance the security of Darfur's people," Ban said.
In Afghanistan, he said "a political surge and a clear change of direction are required" to deal with the increasing insurgent attacks and worsening humanitarian situation.
On a positive note, the secretary-general said quiet diplomacy helped defuse "the potentially explosive situation in Kosovo." That diplomacy preserved the 2005 peace agreement which ended 21 years of civil war between Sudan's Muslim government in the north and the Christian and animist rebels in the south that left an estimated 2 million people dead.
Other highlights included "successful democratic elections in Nepal and Sierra Leone," he said. "We can be cautiously optimistic about progress in Liberia, Bangladesh and Ivory Coast."
While the U.N. responded well to the food crisis, tackling the problem on a wide front including nutrition, agricultural production, trade and social protection, he said, "it has not gone away."
Ban said he was also pleased with U.N. and international efforts to successfully keep climate change high on the global agenda.
"2009 will be the year of climate change," he said, stressing the importance of reaching a global deal in the next 12 months. The agreement would require nations to make mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases that cause global warming starting in 2013.
"Success will require extraordinary leadership," Ban said.
He said security has improved in Iraq and called on Iraqis of all ethnic and political affiliations to participate in provincial elections.
"I urge Iraqi leaders to work together in a spirit of reconciliation as they assume full responsibility for their national affairs," he said.
