Secular Global Morality And Civilization - Getting There, One Intervention At A Time

UPDATE 2:  "The Evolution of Binghamton, One Block at a Time" by Mark Oppenheimer, The New York Times, Books, August 31, 2011, a review of the book The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson (2011).  A micro, pluralistic approach to working for the emergence of a new global morality and civilization.  See also Can Darwinism Improve Binghamton? by Jerry A. Coyne, The New York Times, Sunday Book Review, September 11, 2011

UPDATE 1:  Reforming the United Nations:  The Future of US Policy, by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, April 7, 2011.  "The (United Nations Human Rights) Council must deal with human rights emergencies wherever they occur...."

Amb. Rice's statement affirms the new approach to UN intervention discussed below.  See the following link for more information on the council she refers to which was created in 2006:  UN Human Rights Council.
ORIGINAL POST
Encouraging news regarding efforts to achieve a global morality and civilization!

UN Intervention in Ivory Coast Marks Policy Shift

This week's intervention in the crisis in Ivory Coast was "...a moral choice and military and legal imperative..."  "Legal imperative" refers to UN Security Council Resolution 1674 of April 26, 2006.  More recently, the UN Security Council Resolution 1975 of March 30, 2011 authorized UN forces in Ivory Coast to "use all necessary means to carry out its mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, within its capabilities and its areas of deployment, including to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population…."

The recent intervention "in Ivory Coast showed the extent to which the United Nations’ legal and moral commitment to protect civilians now holds sway over key permanent Security Council members, including France, Britain and the United States. Diplomats noted that even Russia and China, which in the past have avoided interfering in the domestic affairs of sovereign nations, were persuaded to support the resolution on the Ivory Coast and also did not veto military action in Libya." (bold italics mine)

Expression of a Secular Global Morality?  Yes.  Note the societal and political characteristics of the fifteen permanent and non-permanent member countries on the UN Security Council.  None are theocracies:

Five Permanent Members:
France:  Mixed Catholic, atheist, secular government.
Britain:  Over fifty percent secular, secular government.
US:  Nearly fifty percent secular, secular government with core principle of separation of church and state.
Russia:  Predominantly atheist, secular government.
China:  Predominantly Buddhist, secular government.

Non-Permanent members of the Security Council currently inlcude:  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa.

Each of the fifteen council members has one vote.  A minimum of nine votes is required to pass a resolution.  On substantive matters votes from all five permanent members must be included among the nine.

For more on the emergence of a secular global morality, see my post Cultural Evolution, Phase II - Establishing A Unified World View.