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GPF List-Serv
June 25 - 29, 2001
Greetings from Global Policy Forum!
The Council, Iraq, and Sniffer Dogs
Once again the Iraq crisis took center stage in the UN Security Council. Contrary to the wishes of the US and the UK, the Council held an open debate on Iraq, and delegates who are not members of the Council were allowed to make statements before the Council. Unfortunately, the two-day debate failed to produce any kind of consensus among P-5 members. Russia introduced a new draft resolution delineating how sanctions could be lifted. The UK and US summarily dismissed the draft. What followed was a lengthy exchange between countries that sympathized with the plight of the Iraqi people and those that worried about Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal. While many delegates focused on the need to find the right balance between alleviating the suffering of Iraqi civilians and preventing Saddam from rearming, the US callously reminded the Council why sanctions had been imposed in the first place. The Jordanian ambassador pleaded with the Council to consider his nation's economy, which will suffer if it is deprived of cheap Iraqi oil. The Kuwaiti ambassador expressed his nation's sympathy for the "brotherly people of Iraq" but insisted that Iraq still posed a threat to Persian Gulf countries.
The meeting culminated with a powerful speech by the Iraqi delegate on Thursday evening. In a two-hour address to the Council, Riyadh Al Qaysi, an undersecretary in Baghdad's foreign ministry, demanded an audit of UN officials, alleging corruption in the oil-for-food humanitarian program. He also said the program had spent more money for each sniffer dog sent to uncover mines in the north than Baghdad was able to spend on food per person. The 28 dogs, he said, needed trainers, two guides, a vet and "bitches so they can allay their sexual desire" after "suffering from inertia."
Although Mr. Al Qaysi's speech struck a chord with the Council and even elicited smiles from some of its members, it is doubtful that it will help build the necessary consensus between P-5 members. But the Council will struggle along until (and probably past) its self-imposed July 3 deadline. All Council members want to reach a new agreement because nobody is satisfied with the existing sanctions regime. As Tunisian Ambassador Noureddine Mejdoub so eloquently reminded his fellow delegates, the Council urgently needs to resolve this dispute; otherwise, the plight of the Iraqi people "will continue to be a blot on our conscience."
International Justice
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was whisked away by helicopter to international tribunal authorities early Friday morning. Leaders all over the world declared the move a victory for international justice. They also hailed the move as an important development in Yugoslavia's democracy and reintegration in the international diplomatic community. Donors, including the World Bank, the European Union, and the United States, responded generously to the surprise extradition. US Secretary of State Colin Powell had twice in the last week warned that the US would boycott the donor conference if Yugoslavia refused to cooperate with the tribunal.
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic gave the order for Milosevic's extradition despite the Constitutional Court's earlier request to delay extradition until it had time to review the constitutionality of a decree Djindjic had issued making it legal to extradite Yugoslav subjects to The Hague. Milosevic appointed many of the judges on the court. Ironically, the decree was possible thanks to a provision in the Serbian Constitution added by Milosevic himself that gives Djindjic broad discretion to act independently of other government organs if it is "in Serbian interest." Yugoslav President Kostunica and Montenegrin lawmakers criticized the extradition. The extradition may result in the dissolution of the Yugoslav federal government as Montenegro threatens to break away. The coalition between Djindjic's reformist party and Kostunica's Serbian nationalist party is also in jeopardy, and new elections may be imminent.
There is no question that outside pressure from donors for Yugoslavia to cooperate with the tribunal brought about this lightning-quick extradition. Will it result in further destabilization of the country as political infighting hampers development of social policy, or is it a positive step towards the growth of a democratic Yugoslavia that recognizes the need for atonement for its terrible past?
A Culture of Prevention
This week, the Secretary General released a comprehensive UN report on conflict prevention - reviewing UN capacity for prevention and recommendations for increasing member state involvement in preventing armed conflict. The report follows two open Council debates held in November 1999 and July 2000, in which the Secretary General told the Council that conflict prevention must be made the cornerstone of collective security in the twenty-first century. Annan also announced that this cornerstone could only be achieved by changing "deeply ingrained attitudes" - most likely referring to the attitudes of the veto wielding powers. The Secretary General has come under fire for his thoughts supporting humanitarian intervention, and his notion that member states can play a constructive role in internal situations has stirred certain permanent members of the Council, namely China and Russia, who recoil at the mere suggestion that outside states can interfere in domestic disputes of sovereign nations.
However, this report does not mention humanitarian intervention, and thus, China and Russia received the report well and participated positively in the third open Council debate on prevention held June 21. In fact, China and Russia acknowledge the need for conflict prevention a development welcomed by the Secretariat. However, they will likely withdraw support for conflict prevention when applied to their domestic disputes.
Within the 29 report recommendations, the Secretary General strongly advocated enhancing interaction between the Council and other UN bodies and agencies, as well as interaction between member states and current UN preventative mechanisms and development actors. We hope this recommendation comes to action soon, rather than adding to more years of debate. The report mentioned civil society in one recommendation, asking NGOs to have a conference among themselves to consider future interaction with the UN. Perhaps a better recommendation would be to push the UN agencies to build on existing NGO dialogue with the UN. Finally, the report also encouraged support of the Global Compact. See here for our comment on this UN partnership.
Secretary General Nominated for Second Term
The Security Council has nominated Kofi Annan for a second term, and the Nation features a cynical article explaining why he has been so popular. This and next year's conference marathon has certainly helped - especially Annan's prominent role in the UN's first conference on HIV/AIDS this week. Annan has also been rather cooperative in dealing with the business community, which has led critics to fear that member states will try to escape their financial responsibilities if private actors are willing to pay for UN programs.
World Bank Protests
The World Bank conducted its conference on development economics not in Barcelona, as it had originally planned, but on the internet. The conference took place 'in Europe' timewise all the same, and some protesters gathered in Barcelona, while others expressed their opposition on the internet. In Barcelona, the police appear to have provoked violence during the protests. If true, this would be highly alarming, considering that at last week's EU summit in Gothenburg police shot one of the demonstrators, using live ammunition.
Corruption and Money Laundering
Developed countries do not have the right to accuse developing countries of corruption before they start targeting corruption at home. Transparency International's 2001 Corruption Perception Index has some surprising results. Concerning money laundering laws, the US and other developed countries also have to clean their own record first, as the Financial Action Task Force has shown in its recent survey.
UN Launches Crusade Against AIDS
The General Assembly closed its first special session on AIDS on Wednesday with a declaration of commitment to fight the AIDS catastrophe - considered the greatest health disaster since the black plague. A 16-page declaration was approved by acclamation despite what the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called "painful differences" among nations that resulted in watering down the final declaration. Led by Malaysia, some Muslim governments, the Vatican, and the US succeeded in diluting the final declaration by removing any reference of homosexuals, prostitutes, and drug users. The statement acknowledged that discrimination against AIDS sufferers and those whose "behavior" makes them particularly vulnerable to the disease, a lack of women's rights and inadequate sex education for the young all contribute to spread the pandemic.
Human rights and health advocacy groups who attended the special session expressed their disappointment to this rather implicit final declaration and criticized member states' for their apathetic response to the UN's plea for better financing mechanism and collective action.
During this three-day UN special session, intense dialogues were sparked among NGOs, and think-tanks addressing the links between HIV/AIDS and problems such as debt reduction, anti-globalization, intellectual property rights, sex workers' rights, and the environment.
The diverse body of participants at the first UN-led AIDS conference showed that the HIV crisis is not just a health issue. Since its first appearance in the world twenty years ago, the HIV epidemic has brought many unspoken factors to light. Never has the issue of sex education preoccupied the board of education meetings in both North and South countries. Never has the discrimination against homosexuals and sex workers been so challenged by human rights advocacy groups. Never has the issue of intellectual property rights stirred many hostile responses. Never has the issue of debt crisis and poverty been so harshly criticized for their role in worsening the HIV crisis. The world has just begun to realize the HIV's deadly effects on almost all sectors of social concerns.
Here are the links for this week...