OMNI
UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION
Glimpses 2021 to 2024
April 23, 2024
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a World of Peace,
Justice, and Ecology
A Once-in-a-Generation Moment
2024
United
Nations Foundation <mailings@unfoundation.org>
This
month marked a series of grim milestones for cascading crises — some persistent
and others more recent.
One year of brutal war in Sudan. Six months of
horrific conflict in Gaza. The second
straight month of escalating gang violence in Haiti. And 10 years
since 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria – many of
whom remain in captivity today. Amid
such devastating conflicts, the world is in desperate need of urgent solutions
today — and a better plan for collectively managing future crises.
Enter: The once-in-a-generation Summit of the Future.
UN Deputy
Secretary-General Amina Mohammed briefs reporters on the Financing for
Sustainable Development Report 2024. Photo: UN Photo / Loey Felipe
The Summit is set to deliver a transformational Pact for the Future, action-focused
commitments to safeguard the future, help the world better manage and respond
to crises, and reaffirm the 2030 Agenda.
The Summit of the Future is a timely convening when global challenges are
steep. As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said while calling
for greater investment in the SDGs: "We must choose now either to succeed
together or we will fail together."
Sparking
Citizen Engagement
With
just five months until the Summit of the Future, UN Foundation experts and
partners share recommendations on how to strengthen citizen participation and
inclusion in the multilateral system.
FROM OUR EXPERTS...
A Big Year for the SDGs in the USA
2024 could be a huge year for the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) in the U.S., writes Caroline Kleinfox, Director of U.S. SDG Policy
Planning at UN Foundation. Across the country, a growing movement of students,
local governments, and community leaders is harnessing the power of the Goals
to improve their communities. Read the blog >>
The Pandemic Accord, Explained
Ahead of the World Health Assembly (held May 27-June 1), UN
Foundation’s Global Health team breaks down the often-misunderstood Pandemic
Accord and how its adoption could help prevent future health crises, like
COVID-19. Learn more and get involved
>>
Centering the Global Goal on Adaptation
A new declaration adopted at COP 28 in Dubai positions adaptation — the process of
building resilience to global warming’s impacts— as a
key component in responding to the climate crisis. UN Foundation’s Climate
and Environment team translates the terminology and previews what’s next in
a new resource section on unfoundation.org. Explore the page >>
CSW in the Spotlight
As the 68th Commission on the Status of Women came to a close, Mark Goldberg
spoke with Michelle Milford Morse, Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy
at UN Foundation for his Global Dispatches podcast. Listen to the discussion >>
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March 2024 Issue of UNA Today
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TREATIES
The Premises of the Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable: The
Fifteenth Newsletter (2024)
Vijay
Prashad <vijay@thetricontinental.org>
The
Premises of the Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable: The Fifteenth
Newsletter (2024)
Afshin Pirhashemi (Iran), Untitled, 2017.
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for
Social Research.
We live in dishonest times, where certainties have crumbled, and
malevolence stalks the landscape. There is Gaza, of course. Gaza above all else
is on our minds. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel
since 7 October, with more than 7,000 people missing (5,000 of them children).
The Israeli government has brutally disregarded the global public opinion
mounted against them. Billions of people are outraged by the stark fact of
their violence and yet we are unable to force a ceasefire from an army that has
decided to raze an entire people. Global North governments speak from two sides
of their mouths: clichéd phrases of concern to ameliorate their own
disheartened populations, and then vetoes at the United Nations and arms
transfers to the Israeli army. It is this two-faced behaviour that bolsters the
confidence of people like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and enables
their impunity.
That same impunity allowed Israel to violate the UN Charter
(1945) and Vienna Convention on Diplomatic
Relations (1961) on 1 April 2024 when it bombed the Iranian
embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing sixteen people – including senior Iranian
military officers. This impunity is infectious, spreading amongst leaders who
feel emboldened by Washington’s arrogance. Among them is Ecuador’s President
Daniel Noboa, who sent his paramilitary forces into the Mexican embassy in
Quito on 5 April to seize the country’s former Vice President Jorge Glas, who
had been granted political asylum by the Mexican authorities. Noboa’s
government, like Netanyahu’s, set aside the long history of international
respect for diplomatic relations with scant regard for the dangerous
implications of this kind of action. There is a feeling amongst leaders such as
Netanyahu and Noboa that they can get away with anything because they are
protected by the Global North, which anyway gets away with everything.
Lucía Chiriboga (Ecuador), Untitled from the
series ‘Del fondo de la memoria, vengo’ (‘I Come from the Depths of Memory’),
1993.
Diplomatic customs go back hundreds of thousands of years and
across cultures and continents. Ancient texts written by Zhuang Zhou in China
and his contemporary in India, Kautilya, in the fourth century BCE set the
terms for honourable relationships between states through their emissaries.
These terms appear in almost every region of the world, with evidence of
conflicts resulting in agreements that include the exchange of envoys to
maintain peace. These ideas from the ancient world, including Roman law, influenced
the early European writers of customary international law: Hugo Grotius
(1583–1645), Cornelis van Bijnkershoek (1673–1743), and Emer de Vattel
(1714–1767). It was this global understanding of the necessity of diplomatic
courtesy that formed the idea of diplomatic immunity.
In 1952, the government of Yugoslavia proposed that the
International Law Commission (ILC), set up by the UN, codify diplomatic
relations. To assist the ILC, the UN appointed Emil Sandström, a Swedish lawyer
who had chaired the UN Special Committee on Palestine (1947), as special
rapporteur. The ILC, with Sandström’s assistance, drafted articles on
diplomatic relations, which were studied and amended by the 81 member states of
the UN. At a month-long meeting in Vienna in 1961, all the member states participated
in the Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Amongst the 61 states that became
signatories were Ecuador and Israel, as well as the United States. All three
countries are, therefore, among the founding states of the 1961 Vienna
Convention.
Article 22.1 of the Vienna Convention says: ‘The premises of the
mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter
them, except with the consent of the head of the mission’.
Safwan Dahoul (Syria), Dream 77, 2014.
At a briefing in the UN
Security Council about Israel’s recent strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria,
Deputy Ambassador Geng Shuang of China reminded his colleagues that 25 years
ago, the US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia resulted in an attack on the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade. At the time, US President Bill Clinton apologised for the
attack, calling it an ‘isolated, tragic event’. No such apology has come from
Israel or Ecuador for their violations of the Iranian and Mexican embassies.
Geng Shuang told the chamber, ‘The red line of international law and the basic
norms of international relations have been breached time and again. And the
moral bottom line of human conscience has also been crushed time and again’. At
that briefing, Ecuador’s Ambassador José De la Gasca condemned the attack on
the Iranian embassy in Damascus. ‘Nothing justifies these types of attacks’, he
said. A few days later, his government violated the 1961 Vienna Convention and
the 1954 Organisation of American States’ Convention on Diplomatic Asylum when
it arrested Jorge Glas in the Mexican embassy, an act that was swiftly condemned by the UN
secretary-general.
Such violations of embassy protections are not new. There are
many examples of radical groups – from the left and the right – attacking
embassies to make a political point. This includes the 1979 takeover of the US
embassy in Tehran, when students held 53 staff hostage for 444 days. But there
are also several examples of governments forcibly entering the premises of
foreign embassies, such as in 1985 when the South African apartheid regime sent
its forces to the Dutch embassy to arrest a Dutch
national who had assisted the African National Congress and in 1989 when the
invading US army searched the
residence of the Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama City. None of these
interventions went by without sanction and a demand for an apology. Neither
Israel nor Ecuador, however – both signatories of the 1961 Vienna Convention
– have made any gesture towards an apology. Neither Iran nor Syria had any
diplomatic relations with Israel, and Mexico broke diplomatic ties with Ecuador
in the wake of recent events.
Graciela Iturbide (Mexico), Mujer Ángel, Desierto de
Sonora, México (‘Angel Woman, Sonoran Desert, Mexico’), 1979.
Violence traverses the world like a new pandemic not only in
Gaza, but spreading outward to this brewing conflict around Ecuador and the
ugliness of the wars in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan,
and the continuing stalemate in Ukraine. War breaks the human spirit, but it
also invokes an enormous instinct to go the streets and stop the trigger from
being pulled. Again and again, this great anti-war feeling is met with the
wrath of powers that arrest the peacemakers and treat them – and not the
merchants of death – as the criminals.
Parviz Tanavoli (Iran), Last Poet of Iran, 1968.
Iran has a glorious tradition of poetry that goes back to Abu
Abdallah Rudaki (858–941) and then shines in the Diwan of
Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz Shirazi (1320–1390), who gave us this bitter
thought: in the world of dust, no human being shines; it is necessary
to build another world, to make a new Adam.
In this tradition of Farsi poetry comes Garous
Abdolmalekian (b. 1980), whose poems are saturated with war and its impact. But, even
amidst the bullets and the tanks sits the powerful desire for peace and love,
as in his ‘Poem for Stillness’ (2020):
He stirs his tea with a gun barrel
He solves the puzzle with a gun barrel
He scratches his thoughts with a gun barrel
And sometimes
he sits facing himself
and pulls bullet-memories
out of his brain
He’s fought in many wars
but is no match for his own despair
These white pills
have left him so colourless
his shadow must stand up
to fetch him water
We ought to accept
that no soldier
has ever returned
from war
alive
Warmly, Vijay
|
UN Reform
Shouldn’t The
United Kingdom And France Relinquish Their Permanent Seats At The United
Nations?
By Vijay
Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
Popular Resistance.org (9-30-23).
At its fifteenth summit in August 2023, the BRICS
(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) group adopted the Johannesburg II
Declaration, which, amongst other issues, raised the question of reforming the
United Nations, particularly its security council. To make the UN Security
Council (UNSC) ‘more democratic, representative, effective, and efficient, and
to increase the representation of developing countries’, BRICS urged the
expansion of the council’s membership to include countries from Africa, Asia,
and Latin America. - more -
Official: Africa, Latin America need
permanent UNSC representationAnadolu
Agency (Turkey) (8/30) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-holds-panel-on-security-council-reform-in-cape-town/2673005
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United Nations
1 MARCH 2022GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
ELEVENTH EMERGENCY
SPECIAL SESSION, 3RD & 4TH MEETINGS (AM &
PM)
https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/ga12406.doc.htm
As Russian
Federation’s Invasion of Ukraine Creates New Global Era, Member States Must
Take Sides, Choose between Peace, Aggression, General Assembly Hears
Delegates Urge All Parties to
Respect Principles of United Nations Charter, Speakers Representing Small,
Developing States Decry ‘Might Makes Right’ Concept
At the dawn of a new era forced upon the world by the Russian
Federation’s war in Ukraine, Member States must now take sides and choose
between peace and aggression, delegates said today as the General Assembly
moved into the second day of its emergency special session.
[The emergency special session — the eleventh called since the
founding of the United Nations — opened on 28 February, meeting less than
24 hours after being mandated to do so by a vote in the Security Council,
following its failure to adopt a resolution condemning the Russian Federation’s
recent actions in Ukraine. See Press Releases SC/14808 and SC/14809 for details.]
With 115 of the United Nations 193 Member States scheduled to
address the emergency session, held from 28 February to 2 March,
delegates today sounded calls to end the ongoing bombings and attacks on
civilians in Ukraine and for all parties to respect the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations, especially provisions on security and peace
among countries. (See Press Release GA/12404 for details on the session’s opening day.)
“The fate of Ukraine is our fate; today, we are all Ukrainians,”
said Luxembourg’s representative, mirroring a thread of solidarity woven
throughout the day-long meeting amid numerous calls for Member States to
support the Assembly’s draft resolution calling for an end to the
conflict. Supporting the proposed resolution means voting to save lives,
he said, noting Luxembourg’s co-sponsorship of the draft that, among other
things, calls for peace talks and the full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
Many other delegates also announced their co-sponsorship of the
draft, with Spain’s representative saying that its subject centres on the
sovereignty of Ukraine, the defence of peace and the diplomatic resolution of
conflict, as well as “the very reason the United Nations exists”. Echoing
broad condemnations of the invasion of Ukraine, he said: “Every minute of
resistance makes the attackers’ self-justification vanish into thin air.”
Germany’s delegate said the Russian Federation’s war marks the
dawn of a new era, and today, there is a new reality that President Vladimir
Putin has forced upon the world, requiring all States to make firm decisions
and take a side. Germany will always be committed to diplomacy, but when
peaceful approaches come under attack, she said “we must act responsibly and
unite for peace”. As the Assembly prepares to vote on the draft
resolution, she stated that: “Now, we all have to choose between peace
and aggression, between justice and the will of the strongest, between taking
action and turning a blind eye.” While Germany is providing food, aid and
shelter for refugees, she said it has decided to support Ukraine militarily to
protect itself, in line with Article 51 of the Charter.
Speakers roundly called for an end to violence and a start to
constructive peace talks. Some drew attention to the conflict’s
origin. The representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
said the root cause of the current situation rests with the United States and
other Western countries. These States have systematically undermined the
European security environment by defying the Russian Federation’s reasonable
demand for legal security guarantees and pursuing the eastward expansion of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Recalling the violation of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya by the
United States and the West under the pretext of international peace and
security, he said that it is “absurd” for such countries to mention respect for
sovereignty and territorial integrity in the context of the Ukrainian
situation….continued: https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/ga12406.doc.htm
We have a name for our yearning: the
UNITED NATIONS
We’ve Got to Work Together — For People, For Planet 10-28-21
United Nations Foundation mailings@unfoundation.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
This October, we are reminded of what’s possible when we work
together — and all that’s at stake if we don’t.
We saw a historic breakthrough with the World Health
Organization’s recommendation of a malaria vaccine
for children. We joined millions in the global celebration of
International Day of the Girl, reflecting on progress and obstacles in the push
for girls to be equal everywhere. We are also on the eve of the G20 Summit
in Rome, and the beginning of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in
Glasgow. Will governments and leaders show the resolve and follow-through to
make good on the Paris Agreement?
Keep reading to see what our experts have to say, and find out how you can get involved.
GO DEEPER ON THE ISSUES YOU CARE ABOUT
What’s on the agenda at COP26: Our
experts Ryan Hobert and Evelin Tóth break down what you need to know about the
highly anticipated COP26, and what comes next. Get the lowdown>>
State of polio progress: This World Polio Day, our
global health team looked back on the progress we’ve made to combat polio and
what still needs to be done to protect populations against the disease. Take a look>>
Pittsburgh powers ahead through the SDGs: Every day,
Americans are using the Sustainable Development Goals to strengthen their
communities. Pittsburgh is just one example of how the Goals can improve lives
and enhance opportunity. Learn more>>
Youth speak out on uncertain future: Faced with
a slew of challenges they did not create, young people ask, “How can we
not be angry?” Read one 20-year-old’s plea to the
world>>
Reflecting on the power of girls and women: Our Vice
President for Girls and Women Strategy Michelle Milford Morse spoke with
17-year-old Girl Up leader Rocío Mejía about the issues facing girls and women
today. Check out the interview>>
AROUND THE FOUNDATION
Progress in controlling malaria: Executive
Director of Nothing But Nets Margaret McDonnell shared her perspectives on the
significance of the malaria vaccine on the Global Dispatches podcast. Take a listen>>
UN Foundation congratulates Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Journalist
and +SocialGood community Advisor and Connector Emeritus Maria Ressa was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work advancing press freedom. Read our
statement>>
UNA-USA fêtes the UN’s 76th: In a
virtual program featuring guests such as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, UNA-USA celebrated UN Day and shared how we can build a
blueprint for a better future. President Biden had a special
message to mark the day>>