The Elders: Moral Authority Without Superpowers

http://gleektopia.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/the-elders-moral-authority-without-superpowers/

In news on 09/12/2008 at 13:58
An interesting group of folks-Yunus and Cardoso are high on my list-although I can’t see Kofi ‘we didn’t understand how bad Rwanda was’ Annan being all that influential amongst leaders in Central Africa at this point. Besides, the group itself may be all bark and no bite without the cooperation of at least one great power. Anyone who thinks it will be a government other than the U.S. and/or the Europeans are kidding themselves.



“The Elders, a group founded in 2007, is made up of a dozen former world leaders working behind the scenes and in plain sight to stem the spread of conflicts, poverty and human rights issues. The founding roster for “The Elders” includes:

• Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa

• Graca Machel, former first lady of Mozambique, activist for women’s and children’s rights, and Mandela’s wife

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa

• Jimmy Carter, former U.S. president responsible for the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt

• Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian diplomat

• Muhammad Yunus, economist and founder of the Grameen Bank

• Fernando Cardoso, former president of Brazil

• Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations

• Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy activist and the prime minister-elect of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), unrecognized winner of the 1990 Burma election

• Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a trade union with more than 1 million members in India

• Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway and former director general of the World Health Organization “

via NPR