tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/united-nations-general-assembly-7295/articlesUnited Nations General Assembly – The Conversation2024-01-28T17:19:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212122024-01-28T17:19:37Z2024-01-28T17:19:37ZMore than religion: why some of Israel’s staunchest support comes from the Pacific Islands<p>One of the most perplexing yet poorly understood aspects of the international diplomatic response to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-war-on-gaza/">ongoing Gaza conflict</a> has been the overwhelmingly pro-Israel orientation of Pacific Island states. </p>
<p>During the voting on two United Nations resolutions (<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/%20wp-content/uploads/2023/11/N2332702.pdf">October 27th</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/protection-of-civilians-and-upholding-legal-and-humanitarian-obligations-ga-10th-emergency-special-session-draft-resolution/">December 12th</a>) calling on Israel to reduce the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians, many Pacific countries voted either <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/12/pacific-island-states-continue-disproportionate-support-of-israel-at-the-un/">against the resolution or abstained</a>. </p>
<p>Why would these small island countries, on the other side of the world and with no direct links to Israel, choose to either oppose or not support this essential humanitarian gesture?</p>
<p>Explanations of this anomaly have rightly placed emphasis upon the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/how-asia-pacific-states-voted-on-the-uns-israel-palestine-resolution/">intensely Christian character of Pacific societies</a>. </p>
<p>Adherence rates in most Pacific countries sit above 90%. Across the region, Israel and Judaism are exalted as the sacred foundations of their faith. Governments drawn from these societies duplicate these views, which are then borne out in international forums such as the UN. </p>
<p>Such an analysis is not wrong, but it might be obscuring other factors that contribute to staunch support for Israel. If the breadth and strength of Christian faith was the basis for supporting Israel, why then did other fervently Christian nations such as <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Brazil-President.pdf">Brazil</a> or <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/640795-gaza-nigerias-senate-calls-for-ceasefire-in-israel-palestine-war.html">Nigeria</a> support the resolutions? </p>
<h2>The role of kinship in the Pacific Islands</h2>
<p>There is one hugely important characteristic of the region’s culture that has been overlooked: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/kinship">kinship</a>. </p>
<p>Kinship is fundamentally about a sense of togetherness. It may be created either biologically, through processes like parenthood, inheritance and so forth, or culturally, through marriage or adoption. Ultimately what it refers to is how and why people are related to each other.</p>
<p>The centrality of family, relatedness, blood and descent for Pacific society cannot be overstated. Kinship is the machinery of the region’s societies, the gears, levers and pulleys by which all communities function.</p>
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<p>Of crucial importance in this respect is that kinship and family dictate and regulate access to all manner of material benefits, from marriage through to the benefits of <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jso/7117?lang=en">economic development projects</a>. If you can convincingly argue that your ancestors dwelt in or were even physically a part of a given territory, then you establish access to the relevant benefits. </p>
<p>Kinship is not simply a matter of who is related to who and who came from where. It is something thoroughly pragmatic and instrumental, a social charter for who gets what. As such, it follows that these structures warp and bend to fit novel scenarios.</p>
<h2>Linking kinship and geopolitics</h2>
<p>How can this Pacific cultural strategy help us understand the region’s geopolitical leanings? </p>
<p>First, we need to return to the basics of the Christian faith. It is not an overstatement to say that the ultimate goal of all Christians is to enter heaven.</p>
<p>A second crucial point is that the Bible explicitly mentions in several places that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and that they enjoy this privileged status by virtue of their genealogical descent from the ancient Israelites. </p>
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<p>Such an arrangement makes perfect sense for Pacific peoples, whose entire ways of life are built on gaining benefits through family and kinship. </p>
<p>It should come as little surprise, then, that a common strategy adopted across the region in order to close the distance between themselves and the chosen people of God has been to accommodate them within local kinship networks. It is an ancient technique now applied on a fully global scale. </p>
<p>Just as various Pacific communities produce ancestral narratives that describe claims to different types of wealth, so too have they created family stories that position them squarely within the sphere of Christian sacredness. </p>
<h2>Belief and diplomacy</h2>
<p>In a variety of ways, people have woven Jewish people, their sacred geography, and the state of Israel, into their own kinship networks. </p>
<p>This may occur directly, as communities assert membership of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Various passages in the Bible describe the expulsion and resettlement of ancient groups by the then dominant Assyrian kingdom. </p>
<p>Jewish and Christian theologians later deduced that these exiled groups were still out in the world somewhere and had given rise to a range of populations. This theory became popular across the Euro-American Christian world in the 20th century. </p>
<p>It appears that this idea eventually found its way into the Pacific, especially Melanesia, where local people now advance the claim they have descended from these dispersed tribes, a strategy designed to ensure their salvation.</p>
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<p>The kinship connection may also occur indirectly, through <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ocea.5102">expressions of spiritual affinities with Jewish people</a>. In any case, it is in a truly Pacific manner that kinship networks have opened and then closed around those things they wish to extract value from.</p>
<p>Since the politicians of the Pacific are drawn from populations that created familial intimacy with Israel and the Jewish people, it is inevitable these biases unfold in their diplomatic decision making. </p>
<p>It is worth noting, too, that recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/25/biden-pacific-islands-aid-china#:%7E:text=During%20the%202022%20summit%20the,climate%20crisis%20and%20maritime%20security.">promises of substantial aid money</a> from the United States – Israel’s strongest ally – have likely strengthened this attitude. </p>
<p>But it is not clear whether this stance is permanent. We will have to wait and see whether religion continues to trump ethical considerations, as wider <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/02/politics/biden-administration-warning-israel-gaza-civilians/index.html">international support for Israel slowly erodes</a> in the face of the disaster taking place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fraser Macdonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pacific Island support for Israel in the United Nations goes beyond a shared Judeo-Christian belief system. It involves a fundamental emphasis on community based on connection and relationships.Fraser Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197722023-12-14T13:26:39Z2023-12-14T13:26:39ZGaza war: deadlock in the security council shows that the UN is no longer fit for purpose<p>As Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27 – having conducted airstrikes in the weeks following the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7 – the UN general assembly convened an emergency session. With reports of upwards of 7,000 civilian deaths in Gaza, the general assembly passed a <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N23/319/20/PDF/N2331920.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the UN security council, which has primary responsibility for international peace and security, remained silent.</p>
<p>By October 27, the security council had voted on four resolutions, all of which had failed. For a resolution to pass, it must receive at least nine affirmative votes and not be vetoed by a permanent member. All five permanent security council members (the P5) – France, China, Russia, the UK and the US – wielded their veto, revealing deep fractures in addressing the crisis. </p>
<p>The first of the four resolutions, proposed by Russia, which came to a vote on October 17, was vetoed by France, the UK and the US. The resolution called for a humanitarian ceasefire but failed to condemn Hamas. The US also objected to the lack of recognition of Israel’s right of self-defence. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/311/26/PDF/N2331126.pdf?OpenElement">second resolution</a>, proposed by Brazil and voted on October 18 fared better. But it still attracted a US veto due the failure to mention Israel’s right of self-defence. </p>
<p>Billed as a consensus resolution – opting for the more palatable language of “humanitarian pauses” – the disappointment at the US veto was palpable. <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N23/310/62/PDF/N2331062.pdf?OpenElement">Brazil</a> remarked: “Council paralysis in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe is not in the interest of the international community.” </p>
<p>A week later, on October 25, the security council met to vote on <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/PRO/N23/320/23/PDF/N2332023.pdf?OpenElement">draft resolutions</a> from the US and Russia. The US resolution, unsurprisingly, focused on the right of self-defence and prompted a double veto by Russia and China. </p>
<p>China, in particular, objected to the inclusion of the “deeply divisive” issue of self-defence and observed that the resolution did not reflect the consensus of the Brazil resolution on addressing the humanitarian situation. </p>
<p>The US vetoed the Russian resolution which, like its predecessor, did not garner sufficient affirmative votes to be adopted. The security council was deadlocked with the US firmly opposed to a humanitarian ceasefire.</p>
<p>Close on the heels of a warning from the UN secretary general, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-chief-says-gaza-becoming-graveyard-children-2023-11-06/">António Guterres</a>, that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children”, came the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-no-ceasefire-gaza-just-brief-local-pauses-2023-11-09/">announcement</a> of “tactical, local pauses” for humanitarian aid. And on November 15, Malta successfully tabled a <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/359/02/PDF/N2335902.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> in the security council calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors”, which was <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-rejects-un-call-for-extended-humanitarian-pauses-for-gaza-/7357247.html">roundly rejected</a> by Israel. </p>
<p>Moreover, a proposed amendment calling for, in the words of the general assembly resolution, “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”, was vetoed by the US. Like with Ukraine, the security council had reached the end of the road, stymied by the use of the veto. It would not meet again until prompted to do so by Guterres.</p>
<h2>Invoking Article 99</h2>
<p>Under Article 99 the secretary general may “bring to the attention” of the security council “any matter which, in in his opinion, may threaten international peace and security”. On <a href="https://www.un.org/en/situation-in-occupied-palestine-and-israel/sg-sc-article99-06-dec-2023">December 6</a>, Guterres brought the human suffering wrought by the “hostilities in Gaza and Israel” to the attention of the security council as a matter that “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.</p>
<p>The invocation of Article 99 is significant. As the most powerful tool available to the secretary general, it has only been used six times since 1950. But it does not necessarily prompt security council action. Indeed, under the UN charter, the security council retains discretion as to how, and if at all, to act. </p>
<p>So while the security council met in 1950 to discuss Korea as a result of the then secretary general <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/formersg/trygve.shtml">Trygve Lie</a> bringing the matter to its attention, the subsequent inaction of the security council prompted the general assembly to step in with the “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717#:%7E:text=The%20emergency%20special%20session%20is,maintenance%20of%20international%20peace%20and">Uniting for Peace</a>” resolution. Invocation of this resolution allows the general assembly to hold emergency sessions when the security council fails “to exercise its primary responsibility” for international peace and security. </p>
<p>When the security council met on December 8, members spoke of a humanitarian imperative for security council action, with a draft <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/397/75/PDF/N2339775.pdf?OpenElement">UAE resolution</a> demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” securing 13 affirmative votes. Yet, the US vetoed the resolution. It cited the absence of Israel’s right to self-defence and the lack of condemnation of Hamas and asked why the resolution “fails to encourage a resumption of humanitarian pauses to allow for the release of hostages and an increase in aid”. </p>
<h2>Dead end</h2>
<p>In response, the general assembly reconvened its October emergency session, held under the 1950 “Uniting for Peace” resolution. The <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N23/397/09/PDF/N2339709.pdf?OpenElement">proposed resolution</a> mirrored the <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/397/75/PDF/N2339775.pdf?OpenElement">UAE resolution</a> that had been vetoed by the US days before in the security council. By a clear majority, the general assembly demanded an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. </p>
<p>This time 153 states voted in favour, compared to 120 for the previous resolution. With the number of abstentions dropping by approximately half and a mere ten states voting against the resolution, the global consensus for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” was clear. </p>
<p>But Israel was equally clear in holding its position that a ceasefire would not only prolong “death and destruction” but would only benefit Hamas. It was obviously a position shared by the US given its use of the veto. And therein lies the problem.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a global consensus for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire – this is evident in the voting records of both the general assembly and the security council. And yes, the US will be held to account by the general assembly for its use of the veto in the coming days under the “<a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3972149?ln=en">standing mandate</a>” established following the security council impasse over Ukraine. </p>
<p>But there is little more that the UN can do in the face an avowed aversion to ceasefires by Israel – it has now exhausted every avenue available to it to stop the fighting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma McClean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Geopolitical concerns have once again brought the UN security council to a standstill.Emma McClean, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2066772023-09-18T11:30:06Z2023-09-18T11:30:06ZWell behind at halftime: here’s how to get the UN Sustainable Development Goals back on track<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548712/original/file-20230918-17-6icb2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C3%2C1176%2C794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dam.media.un.org/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2AM94SCXBEN&FR_=1&W=1333&H=1245#/DamView&VBID=2AM94S66DGUNP&PN=1&WS=SearchResults">United Nations</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conferences/SDGSummit2023">world leaders are gathering</a> at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York to review progress against the Sustainable Development Goals. We’re halfway between when the goals were set in 2015 and when they need to be met in 2030.</p>
<p>As authors of a <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/gsdr/gsdr2023">global UN report</a> on the goals, we have a message to share. Currently, the world is not on track to achieve any of the 17 goals. </p>
<p>There is much at stake. Failing to achieve the goals would mean <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/">by the end of the decade</a>, 600 million people will be living in extreme poverty. More than 80 million children and young people will not be in school. Humanity will overshoot the Paris climate agreement’s 1.5°C “safe” guardrail on average global temperature rise. And, at the current rate, <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2022/09/progress-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-the-gender-snapshot-2022">it will take 300 years</a> to attain gender equality.</p>
<p>But there is hope. With decisive action, we can shift the dial towards a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous world by 2030. </p>
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<h2>What does the research say?</h2>
<p>The set of <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">17 universal goals</a> agreed in 2015 to aim to end poverty, improve health and education, and reduce inequality – while tackling climate change and preserving our oceans and forests. Each of the goals are broken down into targets. </p>
<p>Every four years, the UN Secretary-General appoints an independent group of 15 international scientists to assess progress against these goals and recommend how to move forwards. We were among the authors of the latest <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/gsdr/gsdr2023">Global Sustainable Development Report</a> published late last week.</p>
<p>To provide a snapshot of progress, we reviewed 36 targets. We found only two were on track (on access to mobile networks and internet usage) and 14 showed fair progress. Twelve showed limited or no progress – including around poverty, safe drinking water and ecosystem conservation. </p>
<p>Worryingly, eight targets were assessed as still going backwards. These included reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and fossil fuel subsidies, preventing species extinction and ensuring sustainable fish stocks.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Hear from some of the scientists behind the Global Sustainable Development Report 2023.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What is holding us back?</h2>
<p>Recent studies have identified feasible and cost-effective <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01098-3">global</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0409-9">national</a> pathways to accelerate progress on the goals. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, in many developing countries, insufficient financial resources and weak governance hinder progress. In other cases, existing investments in fossil fuels have generated strong resistance from powerful vested interests. Achieving some goals, such as responsible consumption and production, will also require big, unpopular changes in habits and lifestyles, which are very ingrained.</p>
<p>To accelerate progress on the goals, targets must be fully integrated by government and business at all levels into core decision making, budgeting and planning processes. We need to identify and prioritise those areas that lag furthest behind. To be effective, we also need to uncover and address the root causes of inadequate outcomes, which lie in our institutions and governance systems.</p>
<p>Accountability also remains weak. The goals are not legally binding and even though countries have expressed their support, this has often failed to translate into policy and investments. In practice, the targets are often “painted on” to existing strategies without redesigning norms and structures to deliver improved outcomes.</p>
<p>If the world is to accelerate progress on the goals, governments need to play a more active part, by setting targets, stimulating innovation, shaping markets, and regulating business. </p>
<p>We call on policymakers to develop tailored action plans to accelerate progress on the goals in the remaining years to 2030, including measures to improve accountability. </p>
<p>Scientists have a major role to play too. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02808-x#:%7E:text=It's%20crucial%20that%20scientists%20support,transformation%20pathways%3B%20and%20improving%20governance.">As we argued in Nature</a>, scientists can help us redesign institutions, systems and practices. By studying ways to strengthen governance and build momentum for tough but transformative reforms, research can overcome resistance to change, and manage negative side-effects. </p>
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<h2>What does it mean for Australia?</h2>
<p>Australia tends to perform poorly on the goals when compared to our peers in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), <a href="https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings">ranking 40th in the world in 2023</a>. Our best-performing goals include health and education, while <a href="https://www.sdgtransformingaustralia.com/">progress lags</a> on environmental goals, economic inequality and cost-of-living pressures. </p>
<p>While some <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/publications/national-food-waste-strategy">environment agencies</a>, <a href="https://acsi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/1ACSI-ESG-Reporting-Trends-in-the-ASX200-JUN22-.pdf">businesses</a> and <a href="https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/un-sustainable-goals-voluntary-local-review.pdf">local groups</a> have embraced the goals, Australia’s poor performance is symptomatic of limited traction and commitment at the centre of government. </p>
<p>Here, the goals are often seen as an international development issue rather than central to domestic <a href="https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/australia/policy-efforts">policy efforts</a>. We lack a high-level statement or any strategy or action plan for the goals. There is no lead unit or coordination mechanism in place and no reference to the goals in the federal budget. One promising development, <a href="https://www.sdgdata.gov.au/">a national Sustainable Development Goal monitoring portal</a>, hasn’t been updated in five years. </p>
<p>The best performing countries have taken concrete steps to mainstream the targets and ensure accountability:</p>
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<li><p><a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2022/734766/IPOL_IDA(2022)734766_EN.pdf">Denmark</a> requires new government bills to be screened and assessed for their impacts on the goals </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://stm.fi/en/-/action-plan-to-integrate-the-economy-of-wellbeing-into-decision-making-and-sustainability-assessment">Finland</a> has taken steps to place sustainable development and people’s wellbeing at the heart of policy and decision making. A sustainable development commission, annual citizens’ panel on sustainable development and national audits provide <a href="https://www.environmental-auditing.org/media/auzf4emi/wgea-wp5_sustainabledevelopementgoals_2022.pdf">increased accountability</a> </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.futuregenerations.wales/about-us/future-generations-act/">Wales</a> requires public bodies to use sustainable development as a guiding principle reflecting the values and aspirations of the Welsh people.</p></li>
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<p>Australia’s first <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-07/measuring-what-matters-statement020230721_0.pdf">wellbeing framework</a> is an important step forward. The framework of 50 indicators has considerable overlap with the goals, despite notable exceptions such as the lack of a poverty indicator or any specific targets or benchmarks. </p>
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<h2>Start lifting our game</h2>
<p>As we’ve learned through our own research, little will change if such promising initiatives remain box-ticking exercises that fail to reorient our societies and economies towards sustainable development. </p>
<p>To achieve real change, indicator frameworks need to be translated into timebound targets that clearly set the agreed direction and level of ambition. These targets must be embedded in the core decision-making processes of government and business.</p>
<p>Remember the goals are not a set of technical targets and indicators. They are the outcomes each of us want for our society and the world we live in. </p>
<p>While we are behind at halftime, the game is not over. It is up to us to lift our performance and turn the score around. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cameron Allen receives funding from the Australian Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirin Malekpour receives funding from the Australian Government.</span></em></p>Our research shows the world is not on track to achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals. But with decisive action, we can still achieve a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous future.Cameron Allen, Research Fellow, Monash UniversityShirin Malekpour, Associate Professor in Sustainable Development Governance, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2116302023-08-16T15:14:31Z2023-08-16T15:14:31ZWorld Bank freezes loans to Uganda because of anti-gay laws. But it doesn’t mean it’s becoming a human rights watchdog<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542973/original/file-20230816-29-oadrz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A gay pride rally in Entebbe, Uganda in 2014 before a tough anti-homosexuality law was passed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/world-bank-freezes-loans-to-uganda-because-of-anti-gay-laws-but-it-doesnt-mean-its-becoming-a-human-rights-watchdog-211630&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p>Many people may be tempted to view the World Bank’s <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2023/05/31/world-bank-group-on-uganda">recent announcement</a> that it will freeze new loans to Uganda because of the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-new-anti-lgbtq-law-could-lead-to-death-penalty-for-same-sex-offences-202376">vicious anti-LGBTIQ+ law</a> as a harbinger of the Bank taking a more progressive approach to human rights issues. </p>
<p>While the announcement is welcome, based on my many years studying the Bank and on my research for <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-law-of-international-financial-institutions-9780192862822?cc=us&lang=en&">my forthcoming book</a>, The Law of the International Financial Institutions, I think there are good reasons to be cautious about its significance. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/what-we-do">World Bank</a>, which has been operating for over 75 years, has 189 member states as shareholders. It funds development projects and programmes in member states that have <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mic/overview#:%7E:text=The%20world's%20Middle%20Income%20Countries,%244%2C046%20and%20%2412%2C535%20(2021).">annual per capita incomes below about US$12,535</a>. The member states elect a Board of Executive Directors that oversees the Bank’s operations and approves all its loans. </p>
<p>The Bank’s <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement">Articles of Agreement</a> stipulate that it cannot base its decisions on political grounds. The articles state that the Bank <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement/article-IV">“shall not interfere in the political affairs”</a> of its member states. Nor should its decisions be influenced by the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement/article-IV">“political character”</a> of these states.</p>
<p>Moreover, the Bank is instructed that it should only pay attention <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement/article-III">“to considerations of economy and efficiency”.</a> And that it should not be affected by <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement/article-III">“political or other non-economic influences or considerations.” </a></p>
<p>The articles don’t define these key terms. They also don’t identify the criteria the Bank should consider when deciding if a particular issue should be excluded from consideration because it is “political” rather than “economic”. </p>
<p>This means that this decision is within the exclusive discretion of the Bank’s decision makers. </p>
<h2>Division of labour</h2>
<p>The Articles were drafted and agreed in 1944. At the time, the division of responsibilities between those who made the “political” decisions and those who made the “economic” ones seemed relatively clear. It was assumed that each Bank member state, as an exercise of its sovereignty, would decide for itself how to deal with the social, environmental, and cultural impacts and consequences of the particular transaction for which it was seeking the Bank’s support.</p>
<p>The Bank, on the other hand, would take the state’s decisions on these issues as given. It would merely consider if the particular loan request was technically sound and economically and financially feasible. </p>
<p>This division of responsibility, of course, was unrealistic. The Bank’s Board of Executive Directors must approve each loan. They represent its member states. It is inevitable that officials elected or appointed by – and ultimately accountable to states – will pay close attention to the political implications of their decisions. And that these considerations may trump the technical merits of the transaction. </p>
<p>Thus, inevitably, political considerations, including human rights, have always been, at least implicitly, a factor in Bank operations. </p>
<p>The futility of the Bank’s attempt to exclude political, including human rights, considerations from its operations can be seen at two levels. Firstly, at the level of the Bank’s relations with its member states. Secondly, at the level of individual transactions. </p>
<p>A good example of the Bank’s failed efforts to exclude political factors at the country level was its decision in the 1960s to lend to Portugal and South Africa to fund the construction of the Cahora Basa dam in Mozambique. The Bank decided to make this <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706106">loan despite a UN General Assembly effort</a> to impose sanctions on these countries because of their colonial and apartheid policies. </p>
<p>Many African states, supported by a majority of UN member countries, argued that the loan should have been denied. Their case was that the policies of the borrowers violated the human rights of their subjects. They were also a threat to regional peace and security. </p>
<p>The Bank’s General Counsel defended the decision on the basis of the political prohibition in the Bank’s articles and on the technical merits of the project.</p>
<p>Despite its ostensible non-political position, the Bank did not make any further loans to South Africa until it became a democratic state.</p>
<p>At the individual transaction level, the Bank funds projects and programmes that have profound social and environmental impacts. Consequently, it is forced to pay attention to some of the political, including human rights, implications of these projects and programmes. </p>
<p>For example, if it finances a road or a renewable energy project, the project will require land. The current occupants of the land may need to be moved to make way for the project. </p>
<p>Alternatively, the project may have social and environmental effects that hurt people. It could, for example, affect the surrounding community’s ability to grow food, or place the community at higher risk of accidents or exposes more young girls and women to the risk of <a href="https://www.inspectionpanel.org/panel-cases/transport-sector-development-project-additional-financing">gender-based violence</a>.</p>
<p>If the affected community belong to minority groups in the country, with their own language, culture, and geographic attachments, they may qualify as indigenous people under international law and the Bank’s policies. In this case, the project may require their <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">free, prior informed consent</a>. </p>
<p>However, there are disagreements among states and between the Bank and some of its member states about which communities qualify as indigenous and what is required to ensure that their rights are respected. </p>
<p>For example, some states and Bank stakeholders contend that it is enough to seek the consent of the community’s leadership. But others maintain that the consent can only be established if particular vulnerable groups within the communities, such as women, youth, LGBTIQ+, or disabled people, are given specific opportunities to express their consent.</p>
<p>Some states may argue that giving such attention to these vulnerable groups is inconsistent with local practices and customs and that the Bank, pursuant to its own Articles, should not be interfering with these internal “political” matters. </p>
<p>In all these cases, the Bank has to exercise judgement. This means, for example, that in the Uganda case the Bank could decide that it should not extend any new credit to Uganda because of its new anti-LGBTQI+ legislation. </p>
<p>However, it is also easy to see that in another context the Bank – or its Board of Executive Directors – may conclude that on balance it is better to continue lending to the particular country despite serious human rights issues. Or to a particular project because the perceived benefits outweigh the costs. </p>
<p>The challenge, of course, is ensuring that the Bank is making these decisions on a principled and predictable basis. And not according to its own whims and political preferences. And that it can be held accountable for the way in which it makes the decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Bradlow receives funding from the Open Society Foundation for a project unconnected to this article. He is also a Compliance Officer in the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU) at the UN Development Programme.</span></em></p>The challenge is to ensure that the bank is making decisions on a principled and predictable basis.Danny Bradlow, Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103252023-08-01T14:51:12Z2023-08-01T14:51:12ZUnited Nations wants to resurrect a global disarmament mechanism last used in the 1980s<p>In the wake of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ukraine-invasion-2022-117045">Russian invasion and war in Ukraine</a>, the United Nations (UN) appears to be preparing to resurrect a global disarmament process which was discontinued more than 30 years ago.</p>
<p>On July 18, the UN secretariat released its long-awaited “<a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/our-common-agenda-policy-brief-new-agenda-for-peace-en.pdf">New Agenda for Peace</a>”. This policy brief included recommendations by secretary general, António Guterres, on strategies to respond to current and future challenges facing humanity, such as poverty, climate change, pandemics, armed conflicts and threats against international peace and security.</p>
<p>To a <a href="https://jpit.uk/conflict-prevention-and-a-new-agenda-for-peace">warm response</a> from the community of peacebuilders worldwide, the agenda contains practical advice on advancing a process of disarmament, by suggesting the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-agenda-peace-key-arms-control-disarmament-simon-cleobury/">reactivation of special sessions</a> devoted to disarmament at the UN general assembly (SSOD).</p>
<p>UN special sessions on disarmament were held in 1978, 1982, and 1988, but a fourth never occurred. Since 2021, the activation of a fourth Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD-IV) at the UN general assembly has been the focus of the <a href="https://scrapweapons.com/">Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation (Scrap Weapons)</a>, a disarmament project housed at SOAS University of London. </p>
<p>Scrap Weapons has also been supporting Brazil’s <a href="https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1p/k1pijf0d6u">call</a> for the same, made at the 2022 UN general assembly’s First Committee, which focuses on disarmament matters.</p>
<h2>Disarmament machinery</h2>
<p>For the disarmament agenda to progress, its machinery needs to be revisited. Current efforts at the <a href="https://disarmament.unoda.org/conference-on-disarmament">Conference on Disarmament (CD)</a> – the UN body tasked with negotiating treaties on weapons control – have stalled for almost 30 years because of a lack of consensus. This has been further conflated by an absence of political will and marred by geopolitical tensions and rivalries among member states.</p>
<p>In addition, unlike the Conference on Disarmament, a special session would be able to use the authority of the general assembly to create new mandates on a <a href="https://scrapweapons.com/zero-missiles-building-on-the-precedent-that-helps-ukraine-today/">global zero option on missiles</a>. It could also organise negotiations towards a general and complete disarmament (GCD) agenda, as per Scrap Weapons’ <a href="https://scrapweapons.com/gwts-2/">work on transparency mechanisms</a> and a <a href="https://scrapweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Framework-for-a-GCD-Treaty.pdf">draft framework</a> for a treaty on general and complete disarmament.</p>
<h2>Defence spending on the rise</h2>
<p>In the days that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many states increased their defence spending. In all, 29 European states pledged a total of more than <a href="https://politicstoday.org/europe-military-defense-spending-russia-nato/#:%7E:text=Since%20the%20Russia-Ukraine%20war%20escalated%2C%2029%20European%20states,trend%20that%20is%20expected%20to%20climb%20in%202023">US$209 billion (£163.5 billion) in new defence funding</a>. Countries such as Germany, which had previously ruled out providing offensive weapons, <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9477/">reversed their defence policy</a>. </p>
<p>While these pledges were made in response to the war as military aid, in reality, recent increases have been in line with preexisting trends, predicting an upward trajectory in global military spending. For the past eight years there has been a rise in global military expenditure, which reached a post cold-war peak of <a href="https://sharing.org/information-centre/news/world-military-expenditure-passes-2-trillion-first-time#:%7E:text=World%20military%20spending%20continued%20to%20grow%20in%202021%2C,reports%20the%20Stockholm%20International%20Peace%20Research%20Institute%20%28SIPRI%29.">US$2.1 trillion in 2021</a>, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>These increases are generally portrayed as a necessary commitment to global security. But – particularly in the current climate – pursuing this path of rearmament is creating a potentially explosive security environment. </p>
<p>Russian president Vladimir Putin, his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his ally and former president Dmitry Medvedev have all made statements widely seen as threatening the use of nuclear weapons. Combined with an accelerating arms race in East Asia and continued conflict and civilian harm in Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and beyond, it is clear that the world is becoming ever more dangerous.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, global military spending continues to rise and has passed an estimated <a href="https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2023/world-military-expenditure-reaches-new-record-high-european-spending-surges">US$2.2 trillion</a>.</p>
<h2>New Agenda for Peace</h2>
<p>In light of this, there has never been a more pressing time for SSOD-IV to be adopted as part of the UN’s <a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/a-new-agenda-for-peace">New Agenda for Peace</a>. In a world plagued not only by threats to national security, but also global humanitarian crises ranging from a recent pandemic, increasing poverty and climate change, calls for a progressive disarmament process cannot be overstated.</p>
<p>The activation of an SSOD-IV would see to the development of a weapons control equivalent of the <a href="https://unfccc.int/">UN framework on climate change</a> addressing climate chaos and serving as a platform for nations to reaffirm their dedication to a safer world. It would also be a critical forum to consider reforms of the wider disarmament machinery. </p>
<p>This thinking on disarmament desperately needs a general upgrade to incorporate contemporary concerns about cyberwarfare, AI, outer space and the renewed threats of the actual use of nuclear weapons. But attention also needs to be directed at the proliferation of conventional weapons – particularly small arms and light weapons. </p>
<p>With the recent release of the New Agenda for Peace policy brief, as a forward-thinking document paving the way for a revitalised UN, the implementation of disarmament processes more suited to our current era seems possible. The activation of a special session on disarmament could allow for the development of an effective programme of peace and prevention. </p>
<p>This must take into account the complex existing relationship between global development and disarmament. Humanitarian needs must be prioritised over investment into the military industrial complex. </p>
<p>But for the first time in 30 years, mentions of a special session on disarmament in the UN’s New Agenda for Peace make a renaissance in disarmament look possible. This opens up the space to include the global south at the decision table, so that a plan for the future security of the world involves the whole world, not just wealthy and powerful nations.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Robert Oppenheimer: ‘Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>When the threat of the use of nuclear weapons in conflict is again raised, as it <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-medvedev-wed-have-use-nuclear-weapon-if-ukrainian-offensive-was-success-2023-07-30/">has been in Ukraine</a>, it’s all the more urgent that the nations of the world cooperate to avoid this terrible prospect. </p>
<p>As Robert Oppenheimer, the “man behind the bomb”, noted in his 1948 <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/robert-oppenheimer-international-control-atomic-energy-nuclear-bomb?utm_medium=newsletters&utm_source=summer_reads&utm_campaign=summer_reads_2023&utm_content=20230723&utm_term=fa_summer">Foreign Affairs essay</a> in which he lamented that nuclear technology, which had such possibilities for good, was being turned into a tool for mass destruction: “We must ask ourselves why in a matter so overwhelmingly important to our interest we have not been successful.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eloisa Romani works for the "Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arts and Proliferation" (Scrap Weapons) Project housed at SOAS University of London, as Project Coordinator. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zahraa Kapasi consults for SCRAP Weapons, a project housed at SOAS University of London which advocates for general and complete disarmament.</span></em></p>A lack of political will has impeded any progress on disarmament for nearly four decades.Eloisa Romani, PhD Candidate, SOAS, University of LondonZahraa Kapasi, Researcher at SCRAP Weapons, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2029432023-04-03T20:06:43Z2023-04-03T20:06:43ZThe UN is asking the International Court of Justice for its opinion on states’ climate obligations. What does this mean?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518990/original/file-20230403-28-5i7wr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C2%2C989%2C615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/port-vila-vanuatu-april-3-2019-1447978775">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Nations has just backed a landmark resolution on climate justice.</p>
<p>Last week, the UN General Assembly supported a <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/ga12497.doc.htm">Pacific-led resolution</a> asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to provide an advisory opinion on a country’s climate obligations. </p>
<p>This has been hailed as a <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/un-resolution-billed-turning-point-climate-justice">“turning point in climate justice”</a> and a victory for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/un-vote-on-climate-justice-pacific-island-change-crisis-united-nations-vanuatu">Pacific youth</a> who spearheaded the campaign.</p>
<p>But what does this UN decision actually mean? Does an advisory opinion from the ICJ have any teeth? And what might be the legal consequences for rich countries, like Australia, that have contributed the most to the climate problem?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The theme song asking the ICJ to deliver an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of states to prevent significant harm to human rights and the environment. www.VanuatuICJ.com.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/once-again-wealthy-nations-are-letting-down-poor-nations-at-the-egypt-climate-talks-194719">Once again, wealthy nations are letting down poor nations at the Egypt climate talks</a>
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<h2>What is an ICJ Advisory Opinion?</h2>
<p>The ICJ is the world court and the leading global authority on international law. It generally hears disputes between countries known as “contentious cases” such as the 2010 <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/148">case brought by Australia against Japan</a> over whaling in the Southern Ocean. In that case, the court ruled in Australia’s favour.</p>
<p>However, the ICJ can also issue <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/how-the-court-works#:%7E:text=When%20it%20receives%20a%20request,never%20dispensed%20with%20them%20entirely.">advisory opinions</a>. This is a kind of general advice on the status of international law on a particular topic. Opinions must be requested by one of the organs or specialised agencies of the UN, such as the General Assembly. </p>
<p>On March 29 2023, the UN General Assembly <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1135142">resolved</a> to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on the obligations of states with respect to climate change. That was based on draft text put forward by the tiny Pacific nation of Vanuatu. </p>
<p>Significantly, this resolution was <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/ga12497.doc.htm">co-sponsored by 105 states</a>, including Australia. It’s the first time the General Assembly has requested an advisory opinion from the ICJ with unanimous state support. </p>
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<p>The <a href="http://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/request-for-an-advisory-opinion-on-the-obligations-of-states-with-respect-to-climate-change/#:%7E:text=On%20March%2029%2C%202023%2C%20the,the%20vote%20of%20XX%20countries.">question put to the ICJ</a> asks whether countries have an obligation to protect the global climate system. It also seeks advice on the “legal consequences” when countries’ actions or omissions cause significant climate harm to small island states and future generations in particular.</p>
<p>The UN will communicate the resolution to the ICJ in coming weeks and the court will then organise hearings over the next few months. It’s expected an advisory opinion will be issued six to 12 months later.</p>
<h2>A win for the Pacific</h2>
<p>The adoption of the advisory opinion resolution represents an important milestone in a long-running fight by Pacific small island nations and youth activists to secure climate justice. </p>
<p>For these communities, climate change is already <a href="https://www.sprep.org/news/our-pacific-islands-lost-and-damaged-reality">causing or exacerbating harm</a> to natural and human systems. Indeed, only a few weeks before the UN General Assembly decision, a <a href="https://www.acaps.org/special-report/vanuatu-impact-cyclones-judy-and-kevin">rare double cyclone</a> event ripped through Vanuatu.</p>
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<p>Faced with these threats, Pacific nations like Tuvalu and Palau have previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/see-you-in-court-the-rising-tide-of-international-climate-litigation-3542">publicly discussed options</a> for seeking a ruling from the ICJ. These efforts met with stiff resistance from major emitting countries, which eventually saw the proposals shelved.</p>
<p>Renewed efforts began in 2019 with 27 law students from The University of the South Pacific forming <a href="https://www.pisfcc.org/">Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change</a>. </p>
<p>The students worked with the Vanuatu government to launch a new campaign for a General Assembly resolution on climate change and human rights. Introducing the resolution, <a href="https://www.forumsec.org/2023/03/30/remarks-vanuatu-delivers-core-group-remarks-at/">Vanuatu’s prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau stated</a>: </p>
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<p>This is not a silver bullet, but it can make an important contribution to climate action, including by catalysing much higher ambition under the Paris Agreement.</p>
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<p>For student campaigners like Cynthia Houniuhi, it <a href="https://climatechangenews.com/2023/03/29/international-court-of-justice-to-advise-states-on-climate-duties-a-turning-point-for-climate-justice/">means</a> </p>
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<p>an opportunity to do something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our fears.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Power of the People is an explainer from the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What might the ICJ advisory opinion deliver?</h2>
<p>Advisory opinions issued by the ICJ are – as the name suggests – advisory. They are not legally binding on any country or on the General Assembly. So this climate advisory opinion will not establish the accountability of particular countries for climate harms, nor deliver compensation to vulnerable nations like Vanuatu.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the authority of the world court means its advisory opinions do matter in shaping how countries understand their international obligations. </p>
<p>There is an opportunity with this opinion to cement emerging links between <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/climate-change/reports-human-rights-and-climate-change">climate harms and human rights</a>, which could open up new avenues for litigation either domestically or internationally. Already there are several new climate rights cases underway, with the <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2023/03/29/european-court-hears-landmark-lawsuits-that-could-shape-climate-policy/">European Court of Human Rights</a> hearing its first two climate cases (against Switzerland and France) on the same day the advisory opinion resolution was adopted.</p>
<p>The ICJ opinion could also provide an extra incentive for countries to reexamine and strengthen their national emissions reduction targets, to make sure they are compliant with the Paris Agreement. As the new fund for climate-related loss and damage takes shape at this year’s international climate meeting (COP28 in Dubai), negotiators may be thinking about how the <a href="https://climatechangenews.com/2023/03/29/international-court-of-justice-to-advise-states-on-climate-duties-a-turning-point-for-climate-justice/">rules they are crafting</a> could complement the ICJ opinion.</p>
<p>Australia’s support signals our government understands the need to <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/loss-and-damage-in-the-pacific-stepping-up-australias-support-under-the-third-pillar-of-international-climate-change-negotiations/">strengthen cooperation and solidarity</a> in the region. Such efforts – including increasing the ambition of Australia’s emissions reduction target and contributing funds to the emerging loss and damage fund – would be tangible indications Australia is striving to meet its international obligations. It’s about being a good neighbour while also avoiding future lawsuits.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-violated-the-rights-of-torres-strait-islanders-by-failing-to-act-on-climate-change-the-un-says-heres-what-that-means-191329">Australia violated the rights of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to act on climate change, the UN says. Here's what that means</a>
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<h2>A turning point for climate justice?</h2>
<p>For many advocates the success of the ICJ advisory opinion campaign heralds the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/un-vote-on-climate-justice-pacific-island-change-crisis-united-nations-vanuatu">beginning of a new era</a> in the quest for climate justice. By asking the world court to bring its authoritative voice to this issue, campaigners like the Pacific students’ group seek to make a difference. They hope to ease the path to holding polluting countries accountable for climate harms and help ensure vulnerable communities receive the resources they need to realise a better climate future.</p>
<p>Other voices urge a <a href="https://twitter.com/bntmayer/status/1518605104186019841">more cautious approach</a>. The ICJ, for example, does not have much expertise in human rights – with the notable exception of recently appointed Australian judge <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/nomination-judge-hilary-charlesworth-re-election-international-court-justice">Hilary Charlesworth</a>. With judges drawn from several major emitting states, the court may be reluctant to intervene decisively on such a highly charged political question. Courts are generally followers, not leaders, of social movements. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the confluence of dire warnings from climate scientists in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-can-be-done-it-must-be-done-ipcc-delivers-definitive-report-on-climate-change-and-where-to-now-201763">latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>, proliferating climate protests and <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/global-trends-in-climate-change-litigation-2022/">litigation around the world</a>, and the accelerating occurrence of climate harms like last year’s <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150279/devastating-floods-in-pakistan">massive floods in Pakistan</a> may just yield a moment in history - one where the world court steps forward to put its thumb on the scales in favour of the cause of climate justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Peel received funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on climate change litigation in Australia between 2013-2017.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Nay is affiliated with World's Youth for Climate Justice.</span></em></p>The United Nations’ decision to ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on countries’ climate obligations has been hailed as a ‘turning point in climate justice’.Jacqueline Peel, Director, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of MelbourneZoe Nay, PhD candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1911652022-09-21T22:28:32Z2022-09-21T22:28:32ZPutin plays the annexation card, pushing the war in Ukraine into a dangerous new phase<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486014/original/file-20220921-15425-za26dl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C21%2C4686%2C3042&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A lot has changed since world leaders last met in person at the United Nations General Assembly: a global pandemic, a looming food crisis, economic stress, climate disasters – and, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>This week’s <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/77/meetings/">77th session of the General Assembly</a> coincides with Ukraine making impressive military gains against Russian forces. But right on cue, Russian president Vladimir Putin has unveiled a new strategy: annexation.</p>
<p>Russia-backed officials in the self-styled people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, both of which Putin <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/21/russia-to-recognise-ukraine-breakaway-region-kremlin-confirms">recognised as independent</a> just before his tanks crossed the border, have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62965998">called for referendums</a> on joining Russia.</p>
<p>A “yes” vote will likely see Moscow annex about 15% of Ukraine’s total area. This is precisely what happened with Crimea, annexed and made part of Russia by law in March 2014. Along with Putin’s order for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62984985">partial mobilisation</a> of military reservists, it ushers in a new and perilous stage of the war.</p>
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<h2>Modern imperialism</h2>
<p>Legal window dressing aside, annexation – where the territory of a country is taken, usually by force – is an aggressive, wrongful and dangerous act. It is not the same as cession, which involves the peaceful exchange of territory, or granting of independence by mutual consent.</p>
<p>Annexation was a feature of 19th-century imperialism. For much of the 20th century, from the League of Nations to the United Nations, the international community tried to prevent such actions and create platforms for peaceful coexistence.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/putins-mobilisation-speech-what-he-said-and-what-he-meant-191103">Putin's mobilisation speech: what he said and what he meant</a>
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<p>That’s because annexation runs directly against the ideals of state sovereignty and territorial integrity. It provokes wars between countries and insurgencies within them. Since 1945, annexation by force has been rare, and never done by a permanent member of the Security Council against another UN member. Putin is turning this all upside down.</p>
<p>Scholars, diplomats and media will now be deployed to justify Putin’s actions. The UN General Assembly will ring with rhetoric about the right to self-determination of populations in eastern Ukraine, and the failure of the 2014 <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/17/minsk-agreement-ukraine-russia-peace/">Minsk agreement</a> to keep the peace there.</p>
<p>Russia will likely have the support of countries such as Syria, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba and Iran. Western liberal democracies will argue the process is illegitimate. Other countries will try to sit on the fence, and how China will react remains unknown.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486015/original/file-20220921-26-ggh1gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The aftermath of recent shelling in Donetsk, one of the territories Russia may soon annex.</span>
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<h2>Global consensus erodes</h2>
<p>In an ideal world, these arguments would be settled by a unanimous agreement of the Security Council or the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which could resolve the dispute using established rules and precedents, as it has <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/141">in the past</a>. But this is not an ideal world.</p>
<p>Russia <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1112802">will veto</a> any resolution against its interests at the Security Council, and has shown no inclination to allow the ICJ or another independent body to adjudicate. Putin did not suspend his invasion of Ukraine when the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/182/182-20220316-SUM-01-00-EN.pdf">ICJ found</a> his justifications for war were baseless.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-says-peace-in-ukraine-will-be-on-our-terms-but-what-can-the-west-accept-and-at-what-cost-187349">Russia says peace in Ukraine will be ‘on our terms’ – but what can the West accept and at what cost?</a>
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<p>If the territories are annexed, the option of installing UN peacekeepers becomes remote. And Putin will bristle at the idea of securing a peace deal by giving up what he will now claim is Russian territory.</p>
<p>In turn, this will prolong and deepen the sanctions, restrictions and bans in place against Russia and the occupied territories. </p>
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<h2>Defending the motherland</h2>
<p>Further economic pressure coupled with increased arms transfers to Ukraine can be expected. Putin will respond in kind. Any hope of Russian gas supplies to Europe being resumed before Christmas will evaporate.</p>
<p>Most worryingly, if the annexed territories become part of Russia, Putin will be obliged to defend them with even greater force. The rationale shifts from supposedly defending others to fighting for the motherland.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-un-powerless-the-greatest-danger-now-may-be-russia-beginning-to-lose-in-ukraine-182512">With the UN powerless, the greatest danger now may be Russia beginning to lose in Ukraine</a>
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<p>This may also provide the justification for a large-scale military call-up, with mass conscription only one step away. But Putin is also taking a gamble. Mobilising hundreds of thousands more Russians into the military effort will deepen resentment against the war at home and risk undermining his own goals.</p>
<p>Alternately, despite US President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-urges-putin-not-use-tactical-nuclear-arms-ukraine-cbs-interview-2022-09-17/">recent warnings</a> about the use of tactical nuclear weapons, Putin may feel he has a freer hand. Russian nuclear doctrine <a href="http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/45562">prioritises</a> the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state.</p>
<p>While this escalating sabre rattling is unlikely to deter Ukrainian attempts to regain what Moscow has taken, it may give many in the West pause. Supporting Ukraine could be interpreted as a direct attack on Russia, pushing the war into uncharted and very dangerous territory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Gillespie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the rhetoric and condemnation from UN leaders gathered in New York, Russian plans to annex eastern parts of Ukraine cannot be stopped. What could happen next?Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1773812022-02-21T17:52:22Z2022-02-21T17:52:22ZChagos Islands: Mauritius’s latest challenge to UK shows row over sovereignty will not go away<p>A superyacht hired by Mauritius recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/mauritian-ship-takes-scientific-team-to-contested-chagos-islands">set out</a> to conduct a scientific survey of the Blenheim reef, 230km off the coast of Diego Garcia in the <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/debate/chagos-question">Chagos archipelago</a>. A group of Chagossians accompanied the scientists in what <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/mauritius-sets-sail-chagos">has been hailed</a> as an “historic” event by Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth. </p>
<p>This trip was controversial not only <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2022-02-14/chagos-islanders-living-in-sussex-criticise-problematic-flag-raising">among Chagossians</a> but also because the international legal status of the islands has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-mauritius-and-the-uk-are-still-sparring-over-decolonisation-40911">in contention</a> for the past 60 years. The visit took in the outer atolls of Peros Banhos and the Salomon, the last to be inhabited by Chagossians before the British government removed them in the 1960s to establish an American military base in the archipelago. </p>
<p>This was the first time Chagossians were visiting their homeland without UK support. The Mauritian flag was raised by Mauritian officials on both atolls and on Blenheim reef. At stake is the issue of Mauritian sovereignty.</p>
<h2>British involvement</h2>
<p>The Chagos archipelago is a collection of seven coral atolls made up of over 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, about 500km south of the Maldives, midway between Tanzania and Indonesia. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/oceanindien.2003">In the late 18th century</a> French planters established coconut plantations and brought in enslaved people, initially from Senegal, and later labourers from Madagascar, Mozambique and India to work on these plantations. </p>
<p>Today many of those identifying as Chagossians are the descendants of these enslaved and indentured labourers. Some research refers to them as the islands’ <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20179938?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">indigenous people</a>. </p>
<p>These issues are significant because of the historical and contemporary relationship of the UK, US and Mauritius with the islands. The Chagos islands, which were dependencies of Mauritius, came under British sovereignty in 1814, having formerly been part of the French empire. </p>
<p>Internationally, the islands were largely neglected until the cold war. In the 1960s the US and the UK jointly identified Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, as an ideal location for a military base in the Indian Ocean. Consequently, in 1965, the UK government <a href="https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/sand-gcybilj2-copy.pdf">detached</a> the Chagos islands from Mauritius and from Seychelles. </p>
<p>While some islands were already uninhabited, between 1967 and 1973 the remaining population, around 1,500 inhabitants, was <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/debate/chagos-question">removed and relocated</a>. Some were resettled in Mauritius, some in Seychelles and some in the UK. Laws were subsequently passed by the UK government to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10854681.2021.1888514">prevent people resettling</a> to the islands. </p>
<p>Britain created a new colony from islands formerly part of Seychelles and Mauritius (the former were returned to Seychelles on its independence in 1976)- the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). In 1966 the UK and US concluded the agreement to establish a joint military facility on the BIOT island of Diego Garcia. The agreement was to last for 50 years with an option of a 20-year rollover which was triggered in 2016. The agreement now lasts to 2036.</p>
<h2>Contemporary litigation</h2>
<p>Considerable litigation has been brought before the UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights by Chagossian Oliver Bancoult and as a group action by the Chagos Islanders regarding <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004204416/Bej.9789004202603.i-293_013.xml">the right to return</a> to the islands. In recent years there have been three important decisions.</p>
<p>In 2010, the UK established a no-fishing protected area around the Chagos archipelago. Mauritius claimed this infringed Mauritian fishing rights and instituted proceedings against the UK under <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf">international law</a>. </p>
<p>In March 2015, the tribunal established under international law, to which the matter had been referred for <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/annex8.htm">arbitration</a>, ruled in favour of Mauritius. It held that the UK had breached its obligations under international law and, in particular, the fishing rights of <a href="https://www.pcacases.com/pcadocs/MU-UK%2020150318%20Award.pdf">Mauritius</a>.</p>
<p>Since Mauritian independence in 1968, consecutive governments have challenged the detachment of the Chagos islands, claiming they are part of Mauritius. In 2019, the International Court of Justice published an <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/169">Advisory Opinion</a> in response to a request from the United National General Assembly on behalf of Mauritius, stating that decolonisation had <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/mauritius-v-uk-chagos-marine-protected-area-unlawful">not been lawfully carried out</a>. </p>
<p>In particular, it said that detaching the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius was not based on the free and genuine will of the people. Consequently, the UK’s continuing administration of the Chagos archipelago was unlawful.</p>
<p>The United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12146.doc.htm">accepted this Advisory Opinion</a> in a resolution that ordered the UK to withdraw from the archipelago within a period of six months. Almost four years on, the UK <a href="https://theconversation.com/chagos-islands-uk-refusal-to-return-archipelago-to-mauritius-show-the-limits-of-international-law-127650">has still not done so</a>. Instead the British government continues to hold that neither the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion nor the UN resolution have any legally binding effect. </p>
<p>The UK has consistently indicated that it will cede the islands to Mauritius once they are no longer required for defence purposes. The UK has made a number of financial payments to Chagossians and is currently delivering about £40 million in support to <a href="https://www.chagossupport.org.uk/post/2017/03/02/british-government-comment-on-40m-support-package-for-chagossians">improve the livelihoods</a> of those in Seychelles, Mauritius and UK</p>
<p>Mauritius has said that the recent visit was not intended as a hostile act towards the UK. Nor was it an overture to resettlement. Nevertheless, it is a clear indication that Mauritius is not going to let the dispute of sovereignty disappear any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Farran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By raising the Mauritian flag on the Chagos Islands, the east African nation has reasserted – if only symbolically – its claim to sovereignty.Sue Farran, Reader of Law, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1602832021-05-05T14:56:14Z2021-05-05T14:56:14ZIn Rwanda, genocide commemorations are infused with political and diplomatic agendas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398888/original/file-20210505-17-eehaii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rwanda's presidential couple at the 2021 genocide commemoration. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Created in 2003, the <a href="https://cnlg.gov.rw/index.php?id=2&L=20">National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide</a> is responsible for Rwanda’s genocide remembrance policy. It is a programme that has, over time, influenced all aspects of politics across all sectors.</p>
<p>Each year, on 7 April, themed memorial events are organised by the commission, in close collaboration with the president. </p>
<p>This article addresses the period following the 20th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rwandan-Civil-War">Rwandan Civil War</a> and its <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20140402113037-u315s/">1994 genocide</a>. </p>
<p>What follows is a review of the commemorations from 2014 to the present – and a view on the challenges ahead.</p>
<h2>2014 - 2019: internationalising the remembrance</h2>
<p>In 2014 Rwanda entered the final phase of its genocide remembrance public policy, the “second internationalisation” phase. The aim was to urge recognition and commemoration of the Rwandan genocide as an ethical obligation across the world.</p>
<p>This gave rise to commemorations in Kigali in 2014 that were considered particularly offensive, <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20140406-france-boycott-rwanda-genocide-commemoration">especially by the French government</a>. On the morning of the event, the French ambassador’s accreditation was withdrawn. The day culminated in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9otQUZtd3Y">accusatory speech</a> by Rwandan president Paul Kagame at a ceremony attended by the <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2014-04-07/remarks-commemoration-20th-anniversary-rwandan-genocide-english-and">UN Secretary General</a> and foreign heads of state.</p>
<p>With widespread international genocide commemorations in 2017, Rwanda submitted a draft <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N17/439/57/PDF/N1743957.pdf">resolution</a> to the United Nations General Assembly to rename the day. On 26 January 2018, the assembly adopted a decision – without vote – for the “International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda” to become the <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/ga12000.doc.htm">“International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda”</a>. This decision was highly criticised, given the new name excludes victims from other ethnic groups.</p>
<p>In 2019, the 25th anniversary commemorations consecrated the international community’s recognition of its responsibility towards the genocide and unwillingness to try to stop it. Official ceremonies were characterised by remorse from many countries.</p>
<p>Even France, usually in the crosshairs, was spared. A few months prior, a French court had <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/32489/rwanda-genocide-paris-drops-investigation-into-attack-of-plane-carrying-habyarimana/">dismissed</a> a case against prominent Rwandans for the 6 April 1994 attack on Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane. This sparked the genocide. </p>
<p>A long-running dispute between France and the new Rwandan regime was resolved. But even as the investigation was being closed in 2017, Rwanda enlisted a prestigious US law firm to explore bringing France before international courts for complicity in genocide.</p>
<p>In a 2019 declaration, French president Emmanuel Macron highlighted his desire to “break with the way in which France had understood and taught the Tutsi genocide”. He made 7 April a French national <a href="https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/questions/detail/15/QE/28557">day of commemoration</a> and a commission was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/macron-orders-probe-into-frances-role-in-rwanda-genocide/a-48227839">set up</a> “to examine all French archives relating to Rwanda between 1990 and 1994”. A French court also dismissed a case against French officers involved in <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/05/14/assessment_of_opration_turquoise_113440.html">Operation Turquoise</a> in Rwanda. </p>
<p>This indicated an educational approach towards French sovereign institutions, who were invited to recognise the “errors” of the past. </p>
<h2>2020: the return of controversial commemorations</h2>
<p>The 2020 anniversary was particularly complicated for Rwanda. On top of COVID-19 restrictions and on the eve of commemorations, the UN secretary general António Guterres and UN General Assembly president Volkan Bozkir unexpectedly questioned the new title. </p>
<p>Guterres <a href="https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/commemorations-2020-sg-message.shtml">specified</a> that among the one million people murdered in the genocide, “the victims were overwhelmingly Tutsi, but also included Hutu and others who opposed the genocide”.</p>
<p>The following day, 7 April, Kagame’s <a href="https://youtu.be/-8WZlmZ_pUY">short public declaration</a> took note of the statements. It was addressed to “all Rwandans”, speaking of “what happened to our country and what we learned”. It didn’t specifically mention the “genocide against the Tutsi”.</p>
<p>Such a transgression of the official wording drew such criticism from survivor organisations that Kagame eventually backtracked.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">President Kagame’s 7 April address in 2020.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Rwanda’s draft resolution required a formal vote to be passed in the UN General Assembly. During debates, the <a href="https://d2v9ipibika81v.cloudfront.net/uploads/sites/296/4.20.2020-Letter-to-GA-President.pdf">US</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/pga/74/wp-content/uploads/sites/99/2020/04/UK-EOP-on-Rwandan-genocide-resolution-20-April.pdf">UK</a> <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-position-on-the-un-general-assembly-resolution-on-the-rwandan-genocide/">denounced</a> the rewriting of history implied by this wording. Following Rwandan pressure, the <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N20/101/35/PDF/N2010135.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> was nevertheless passed.</p>
<p>Rwanda <a href="https://www.undocs.org/en/A/74/830">lamented</a> the US and UK positions, saying they “bring ambiguity that feeds the resurgent genocide denial movement” in the <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/conflict-trends/conflict-great-lakes-region/">Great Lakes Region</a>.</p>
<p>All objectives of the active commemoration policy promoted by the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide have therefore been formally achieved. The “genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda” is now recognised and commemorated internationally as an ethical obligation. So is the genocide remembrance policy, now divorced from its historical context.</p>
<p>By dissociating the genocide from actions undertaken by the two politico-military blocs during the 1990–94 war, Rwanda’s official version has ended the debates that characterise the historical work relating to this region since independence. </p>
<p>It’s no longer a matter of rebuilding, using factual <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2019.1709611">research</a> to provide depth. It is about criminalising those who dare to disagree, citing various genocide denial laws.</p>
<h2>2021: Rwanda’s other fights</h2>
<p>In 2021, two major events provided the backdrop to commemorations. On 26 March, a <a href="https://www.vie-publique.fr/sites/default/files/rapport/pdf/279186_0.pdf">report</a> on French archives relating to the genocide was <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210326-france-braces-for-historians-report-over-rwanda-genocide-failings">published</a>. It was followed by the announcement that Macron would likely travel to Rwanda. In Kigali, everything pointed towards the commemorations capitalising on these advances.</p>
<p>They were indeed capitalised on, but Kagame’s long <a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/kwibuka27-address-president-paul-kagame">speech</a> consisted mainly of justifying the authorities’ resolutions. He denounced countries that have not tried genocidal perpetrators living on their soil and refused to extradite them to Rwanda. “It’s the same people who question the use of ‘Genocide against Tutsi’,” he said. “But the problem of definitions started way back in 1994, of just simply naming what it was.”</p>
<p>The accusations are surprising, given that Kigali is preparing to host a <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/chogm">meeting of the Commonwealth</a> in June. Rwanda’s membership goes beyond the fact that part of the population speaks English. It’s mainly based on adhering to the Commonwealth Charter values, including human rights.</p>
<p>Rwanda’s human rights violations have been denounced by major Anglo-Saxon human rights organisations <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021">Human Rights Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/3202/2021/en/">Amnesty International</a>. In rebuttal, Kagame has quoted the French archive report, that then French president François Mitterrand “knew that a genocide against Tutsi was being planned by their allies in Rwanda”. The French report in fact provides strong critique of France’s role supporting the Habyarimana regime between 1990 and 1994, but stops short of stating France was complicit in the genocide.</p>
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<span class="caption">AKigali vigil during the 25th commemoration of the genocide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>But the most important part was yet to come. On 19 April, Rwandan authorities finally revealed their own “investigative <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/19/france-enabled-1994-rwanda-genocide-report-says">report</a>” on France’s role in the genocide. This was updated in light of the French report’s conclusions, but was much harsher. According to Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister, French political leaders “enabled a foreseeable genocide”. </p>
<p>The report states France did not participate in the genocide and “the French government is not complicit. But it’s a question of law and the Rwandan government will not bring this question before a court.” In this way, the foundations for a “healthy relationship” have been laid, contingent on an official apology, which “would be a step in the right direction to rebuild trust”.</p>
<h2>2022: challenges ahead</h2>
<p>It seems next year’s commemorations will involve a wealth of events. It’s worth mentioning two other international commemorations concerning Rwanda in 2022. The first will be held on 1 July, the anniversary shared by “warring brothers” Rwanda and Burundi, celebrating 60 years of independence.</p>
<p>In Rwanda, 1 July is just a bank holiday and the regime will probably continue to mainly celebrate 4 July, the date that they took Kigali in 1994. In Burundi, it’s the opposite. Authorities intend to give strong meaning to 1 July, remembering both independence and the 50th anniversary of the genocide against the Hutu in 1972. Giving recognition to this <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/burundi-killings-1972.html">“hidden” genocide</a> will be at the heart of commemorations.</p>
<p>The various massacres and genocides in 1959–61, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988, 1973, 1993–94 and 2015 remain profoundly fixed in the memories of both <a href="https://theconversation.com/burundi-and-rwanda-a-rivalry-that-lies-at-the-heart-of-great-lakes-crises-63795">Burundians and Rwandans</a>. The “Tutsi” domination of Burundi and “Hutu” domination of Rwanda (now reversed after two civil wars) have established the political authoritarianism of the military regimes. The debate sparked about commemorating one group of victims over the other will endure in various forms.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of Burundians, 50 years after the 1972 genocide and a return to peace, it is high time to honour the memory of all victims of national divisions. Debates established by Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission alongside the <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2021/03/20/burundi-s-truth-and-reconcilliation-commission-presents-new-findings//">current work</a> of exhuming and registering genocide victims, have allowed for liberating moments of expression for Hutu and Tutsi populations. </p>
<p>This could finally pave the way for the writing of a plural, shared, national history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne., André Guichaoua is affiliated with UMR "Développement et Sociétés". FMSH, Member of International Scientific Committee of ANR Program "Exit from Violence"</span></em></p>A survey of the commemorations since 2014 reveals the politicking behind the writing of history and Rwanda’s place in the world.André Guichaoua, Professeur des universités, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242692019-09-26T01:38:25Z2019-09-26T01:38:25ZDefiant Scott Morrison tells the world Australia is ‘doing our bit’ on climate change<p>Scott Morrison has used his address to the United Nations to strongly defend the government’s performance on climate change, declaring defiantly Australia was “doing our bit” and “we reject any suggestion to the contrary”.</p>
<p>In a speech concentrating on Australia’s response to “the great global environmental challenges” Morrison emphasised dealing with plastic waste.</p>
<p>“To protect our oceans, Australia is committed to leading urgent action to combat plastic pollution choking our oceans, tackle over-exploitation of our fisheries, prevent ocean habitat destruction and take action on climate change,” he said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srocc/">new report</a> from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on Wednesday, calls for urgent climate change action “to address unprecedented and enduring changes in the ocean and cryosphere”.</p>
<p>The IPCC says that with the increase in temperature that has already occurred “the ocean is warmer, more acidic and less productive. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are causing sea level rise, and coastal extreme events are becoming more severe”.</p>
<p>With much international attention on the Great Barrier Reef, Morrison declared the reef was “vibrant and resilient and protected under the world’s most comprehensive reef management plan”.</p>
<p>He said that on climate change Australia was “taking real action … and getting results”, and attacked critics.</p>
<p>“We are successfully balancing our global responsibilities with sensible and practical policies to secure our environmental and economic future. </p>
<p>"Australia’s internal and global critics on climate change willingly overlook or ignore our achievements, as the facts simply don’t fit the narrative they wish to project about our contribution.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-what-might-lily-and-abbey-say-to-scott-morrison-about-greta-thunberg-124179">View from The Hill: What might Lily and Abbey say to Scott Morrison about Greta Thunberg?</a>
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<p>Morrison’s speech came in the wake of considerable criticism of his failing to attend the UN leaders summit on climate at the start of the week.</p>
<p>Reeling off facts and figures on Australia’s performance, the Prime Minister told the General Assembly, “this is a credible, fair, responsible and achievable contribution to global climate change action. It represents a halving of emissions per person in Australia, or a two thirds reduction in emissions per unit of GDP”.</p>
<p>Australia had the world’s highest per capita investment in clean energy technologies, he said, and one in five households had rooftop solar systems.</p>
<p>Referring to the Australian government’s decision not to put more money into the Global Green Climate Fund, Morrison said it preferred to invest directly, targeting Pacific island countries.</p>
<p>In sum, Australia was taking “significant and comprehensive action … in response to the world’s greatest environmental challenges”.</p>
<p>On the push by young people on climate issues - highlighted last week by the school strikes and this week by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s much publicised address to the summit - Morrison said that like other leaders he received many letters from children about their future.</p>
<p>“I deeply respect their concerns and indeed I welcome their passion, especially when it comes to the environment.</p>
<p>"My impulse is always to seek to respond positively and to encourage them. To provide context, perspective and particularly to generate hope.</p>
<p>"To focus their minds and direct their energies to practical solutions and positive behaviour that will deliver enduring results for them.</p>
<p>"To encourage them to learn more about science, technology, engineering and maths – because it’s through research, innovation and enterprise that the practical work of successfully managing our very real environmental challenges is achieved.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/here-is-a-global-solution-to-the-plastic-waste-crisis-and-a-443-million-to-get-it-started-123762">Here is a global solution to the plastic waste crisis - and A$443 million to get it started</a>
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<p>The passion and aspiration of the young must be respected and harnessed, he said. At the same time “we must guard against others who would seek to compound or, worse, facelessly exploit their anxiety for their own agendas. We must similarly not allow their concerns to be dismissed or diminished as this can also increase their anxiety.</p>
<p>"Our children have a right not just to their future but to their optimism.</p>
<p>"Above all, we should let our children be children, let our kids be kids, let our teenagers be teenagers - while we work positively together to deliver the practical solutions for them and their future.”</p>
<p>Before delivering his speech Morrison visited an Australian company’s recycling facility in New York.</p>
<p>At a press conference there, he told reporters his talks had reinforced the fact “that we’ve just got to keep working hard to get our energy costs down” so they could compete globally.</p>
<p>“I keep coming back to this issue of gas and looking at all the alternatives on the table.” he said.</p>
<p>There was more work to be done on dealing with electricity prices.</p>
<p>“It’s a constant challenge”, he said, while shifting a lot of the weight to the state governments.</p>
<p>The federal government wasn’t the primary government with the impact on electricity prices, he said.</p>
<p>“We all know that it’s the state governments who basically are in charge of the assets and resources access that principally determines these costs and the cost of the system and the utilities.</p>
<p>"They also determine whether you can get gas out from under people’s feet. Now the reason electricity prices are as low as they are in the United States, and particularly down south, is because of access to gas. We’ve got heaps of gas and it’s being kept under people’s feet. So that’s something we’ve got to change,” he said. The states needed to change the rules.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While a new report from the IPCC highlights the need for urgent climate change action, Morrison used his address to the UN to strongly defend the government’s performance on climate change.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1239582019-09-25T00:12:59Z2019-09-25T00:12:59ZTrump scorns United Nations as tensions with Iran flare over Saudi oil attacks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293821/original/file-20190924-51410-63m9xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 24, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/UN-General-Assembly-Trump/ea00a88b8dc74811bed293e273e0718f/2/0">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump made his disdain for the United Nations quite clear in his Sept. 24 address to the General Assembly, saying the future “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/sep/24/trump-bolsonaro-and-johnson-to-open-un-general-assembly-live-news">belongs to patriots not globalists</a>.” </p>
<p>Nor did he ask the United Nations to get involved in the aftermath of recent attacks on <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/16/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-attacks-on-saudi-oil-facilities-yemen-houthis-iran-who-attacked/">two oil refineries</a> in Saudi Arabia. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility, but the U.S., Saudi Arabia and several European countries <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/france-germany-britain-leaders-iran-saudi-oil-attack-190923201421030.html">blame Iran</a> for the attacks, which knocked out the facilities responsible for <a href="https://theconversation.com/attacks-on-saudi-oil-why-didnt-prices-go-crazy-123823">half of all Saudi oil production</a>. Iran, which may have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/09/16/why-iran-is-getting-blame-an-attack-saudi-arabia-claimed-by-yemens-houthis/">supplied weapons to the Houthis in the past</a>, denies any involvement. </p>
<p>This is precisely the kind of international conflict the United Nations was <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/history/history-united-nations/">created in 1945</a> to address. </p>
<p>But what does the United Nations actually do when there are allegations of misconduct by one country toward another?</p>
<h2>More than a talk shop</h2>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://udayton.edu/news/articles/2018/05/shelley_inglis_human_rights_center_executive_director.php">international law professor</a> who worked as a policy adviser for 15 years at the U.N. All U.S. presidents since the end of the Cold War, both Republican and Democrat, have sought action through the U.N. to tackle international conflict and crisis. </p>
<p>Established to usher in a new era of global peace, social and economic progress, and to protect international law and human rights after World War II, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-iii/index.html">the U.N. has six principal organs</a>, or units. Two would be particularly relevant to the current situation between the U.S., Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/about/background.shtml">United Nations General Assembly</a>, now underway in New York, decides on the U.N.’s budget, oversees its subsidiary bodies and creates the international norms and standards which guide countries’ behavior and commitments. </p>
<p>When heads of state and premier diplomats from <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/overview/index.html">193 countries</a> meet in New York each September to discuss the international issues of the day, the General Assembly serves as the court of public opinion. It is the place to generate policy positions on global challenges, from nuclear disarmament and terrorism to human rights and poverty eradication.</p>
<p>When there is a threat to international peace, the U.N. <a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/">Security Council</a> – the most powerful U.N. body – is likely to get involved. Its role is to determine threats to peace and decide measures to maintain or restore international peace and security.</p>
<p>To do that, the Security Council can <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-vii/">make legally binding resolutions</a>, like requiring sanctions or weapons inspections, authorizing a peacekeeping mission or calling for negotiations. In some instances, it may even create ad hoc war crimes courts or authorize a coalition of U.N. countries to intervene directly in a conflict.</p>
<p>Fifteen countries sit on the Security Council, but only five – the U.S., U.K., France, China and Russia – are permanent members. Permanent members have veto power, meaning each can stop or obstruct any proposed Security Council action.</p>
<h2>US engagement with the UN</h2>
<p>The U.S. has frequently engaged the Security Council during times of tension with Middle East countries.</p>
<p>The United Nations first major test after the end of the Cold War came under President George H.W. Bush in 1990, when Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait. Bush, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., worked with the U.N. extensively to try to avoid and, eventually, to <a href="https://www.undispatch.com/history-lesson-when-funding-the-un-was-a-bi-partisan-cause/">obtain authorization for the first Iraq War</a>. </p>
<p>The Security Council responded immediately to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait with a <a href="http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/660">resolution condemning</a> the incursion and demanding Iraq withdraw. When Iraq refused to comply, the U.N. passed 12 more resolutions, ultimately authorizing member states to use “<a href="http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/678">all necessary means</a>” to compel Iraq to leave Kuwait.</p>
<p>This is the authorization the United States ultimately <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/fogofwar/docdirective.htm">used as the basis for Operation Desert Storm</a>.</p>
<p>A decade later, Bush’s son, George W. Bush, <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/sept11/un_006.asp">also sent diplomats to the U.N.</a> to assert the administration’s right to <a href="http://legal.un.org/repertory/art51.shtml">invade Afghanistan</a> after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks based on self-defense – a justification the Security Council recognized. </p>
<p>Things went less well for President Bush the next time he appealed to the the U.N. for help.</p>
<p>In New York in <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html">September 2002</a>, Bush made the case that Iraq, amassing weapons, had once again become a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/09/12/bush.transcript/">threat to international peace</a>. A few months later, Secretary of State Colin Powell argued to the Security Council that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/05/iraq.usa">Iraq</a> must face military consequences for violating <a href="https://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/documents/1441.pdf">Security Council resolutions prohibiting it from amassing weapons of mass destruction</a>. The Council had repeatedly warned Iraq that it would face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations.</p>
<p>The Security Council did not <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq">explicitly endorse that U.S.-led intervention in Iraq</a>, but the Bush administration invaded anyway. Many policymakers argued that its actions were lawful based on the prior U.N. resolutions. </p>
<p>Others disagreed, saying the second Iraq War <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq">violated international law</a>.</p>
<h2>Who needs the UN?</h2>
<p>So the U.S. may not always get the outcome it wants at the U.N. But it has traditionally taken pains to demonstrate that it recognizes the United Nations as an essential institution.</p>
<p>While Trump addressed Iran in his speech to the General Assembly, his lack of a call for a response to recent events breaks with this history. But it is not surprising from this president.</p>
<p>Trump has taken steps to withdraw the United States from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/717547741/trump-moves-to-withdraw-u-s-from-u-n-arms-trade-treaty?t=1569313953456">certain U.N. programs</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/02/trump-stealthily-seeks-to-choke-off-funding-to-un-programs/">decrease funding for its operations</a>. He also withdrew the United States from the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-joint-comprehensive-plan-action/">Iran nuclear deal</a>, which was <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc11974.doc.htm">unanimously approved by the U.N.</a> in 2015.</p>
<p>The U.N. secretary-general has called for “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1046952">maximum restraint</a>” after the attacks on Saudi oil facilities. There seems to be little interest in an escalation of regional tensions. </p>
<p>Still, the U.N. remains the place to go when a head of state wants to build support among the world’s leaders to tackle a major issue of peace and security. Despite President Trump’s posture at the General Assembly, there really is nowhere else to turn. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelley Inglis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US has historically asked for international support when brewing conflicts in the Middle East boiled over.Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1066822018-11-11T21:00:36Z2018-11-11T21:00:36ZHumanity under threat from antibiotic-resistant infections<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244670/original/file-20181108-74763-13rvc85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There already exist some promising new antibiotic therapies, and more are in the pipeline. However, our economic model prevents researchers from moving them out onto the market.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I grew up believing in the forward trajectory of progress in science and medicine – that human health would continue to improve as it had for hundreds of years. As I progressed through my own career in health sciences, I continued to be optimistic.</p>
<p>Now I have serious doubts.</p>
<p>Science is still working well, but deadly obstacles are blocking the way between research and progress in the field where I work: Antibiotics.</p>
<p><a href="https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/160518_Final%20paper_with%20cover.pdf">The threat to humankind is grave and growing worse by the day</a>, but for reasons that escape my colleagues and me, there appears to be shockingly little collective will to do much about it.</p>
<p>This week (Nov. 12-18) is <a href="http://www.who.int/who-campaigns/world-antibiotic-awareness-week">World Antibiotic Awareness Week</a>. We need to talk about this threat. We need to develop models of public-private co-operation — to incentivize, fund and invest in antibiotic drug discovery and development.</p>
<h2>Penicillin led to complacency</h2>
<p>Here’s the problem: about 75 years ago, <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/5/16-1556_article">science brought penicillin into public use</a>, opening a new era in infectious disease control, much as sanitation had done before that. Infectious diseases such as pneumonia and strep, which had commonly been fatal even in my grandparents’ day, were tamed — at least for a time.</p>
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<span class="caption">Wendy Gould holds the cremated remains of her late husband George Gould at her home, in Aldergrove, B.C., in May 2018. George contracted a drug-resistant infection in a Vancouver hospital and died in an isolation unit at age 58.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</span></span>
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<p>In the generations that followed, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016002-eng.htm">life expectancy leapt by 25 years</a> and infectious disease tumbled from its No. 1 one spot among all causes of human death, where it had consistently ranked higher than bullets and bombs — even during the World Wars.</p>
<p>With cheap, abundant and effective antibiotics at hand, people in the developed world became complacent about controlling infection.</p>
<p>But this whole time, while we have been living our better, longer lives, infectious diseases have been working on a comeback, and today they are pounding at the door. In fact, they are already breaking down the door.</p>
<h2>Market will not meet demand</h2>
<p>In a fast-forward example of Darwinian adaptation through natural selection, bacteria and other microbes are evolving to survive antibiotics. They will continue to adapt and they will succeed unless humanity builds new layers of defence in the form of new antibiotics and other creative approaches.</p>
<p>Governments of the world recognize the crisis, as <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/842813?ln=en">they affirmed at a special high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly</a> in 2016 and <a href="http://www.who.int/tb/features_archive/G20_leaders_commitment_end_TB/en">at the G20 in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>The troubling part is that we know what we have to do to create new antibiotic therapies, and though the work is undeniably hard, there already exist some promising new alternatives to older drugs, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2016/12/tracking-the-pipeline-of-antibiotics-in-development">and more are in the pipeline</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, they are not yet available on the commercial market, and they may never get there unless something changes to make them viable — not as drugs, but as commodities.</p>
<p>The critical impediment to producing new antibiotics turns out to be our own economic model, which trusts the market to meet the demand. The invisible hand, as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adam-Smith">philosopher and economist Adam Smith</a> called it, is not working here, and what’s at risk is all of the progress that antibiotics has made possible.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-could-lead-the-fight-for-life-in-a-post-antibiotic-world-80864">Canada could lead the fight for life in a post-antibiotic world</a>
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<h2>Public model is risky</h2>
<p>This past summer in the United States, <a href="http://investors.achaogen.com/news-releases/news-release-details/update-zemdritm-plazomicin-approved-fda-treatment-adults">two pharmaceutical companies earned FDA approval</a> for <a href="https://ir.tphase.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tetraphase-pharmaceuticals-announces-fda-approval-xeravatm">new antibiotic compounds</a>. As soon as the markets learned those companies had created drugs that could literally save the world, <a href="https://endpts.com/floundering-in-the-wake-of-an-fda-approval-achaogen-makes-a-second-round-of-deep-cuts-to-stay-alive/">their stocks fell</a>.</p>
<p>Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? It turns out that spending hundreds of millions to create, test and market a new drug is a bad risk unless the drug can earn back the investment within the 20 years before its patent expires.</p>
<p>That’s hard to do when you’re trying to recover the cost one 10-day prescription at a time. And when you’re prescribing the new drug only for infections that can’t be resolved with cheap, traditional antibiotics, which still work in many cases.</p>
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<p>The only way it would make business sense to create new antibiotics would be to make them astronomically expensive, in the range of rare cancer drugs, and who would pay for that?</p>
<p>Many argue that we should look at antibiotics the same way we look at fire departments. As individuals, we may never need them, but we are all willing to share the cost, because we expect them to be there. </p>
<p>A public model seems to make sense, but who will take the political risk?</p>
<h2>Hospitals under threat</h2>
<p>Without intervention — where the public, through their governments around the world, cooperates with the private sector to help incentivize, fund and invest in antibiotic drug discovery and development — the end of effective antibiotics will be frightening. </p>
<p>It will happen gradually, but it will certainly happen. The first stages are already here in the form of multi-antibiotic-resistant infections that threaten the basic function of hospitals.</p>
<p>Next, we’ll see common procedures like dental hygiene appointments and joint replacement surgeries cancelled permanently due to the risk of infection.</p>
<p>People of all ages will begin to die again from illnesses that we have become used to treating with $10 or $20 worth of pills. Those who don’t die will be sick more often and for much longer, driving up the cost of care.</p>
<p>Life expectancy could fall back to where it was in the early 1900s, and the golden era of antibiotics would prove to have been but a brief, happy blip in history.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be this way. Lets turn our awareness into action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerry Wright receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the Ontario Research Fund, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is the founder of an antibiotics discovery company, Symbal Therapeutics.</span></em></p>The end of effective antibiotics will be frightening. Life expectancy will fall dramatically and people of all ages will die from illnesses that we are used to treating with $10 worth of pills.Gerry Wright, Professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667442016-10-10T06:31:36Z2016-10-10T06:31:36ZAntónio Guterres may not be an Eastern European woman, but he’s the right person to lead the UN<p>In recommending António Guterres as the ninth secretary general of the United Nations, the Security Council made many people unhappy. Much has been made of the fact that Guterres is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-un-ended-up-with-antonio-guterres-as-its-new-secretary-general-66625">latest in a long string</a> of male secretaries general, and is also from a wealthy Western country. </p>
<p>But the Security Council has promoted a leader who is well-connected at the executive level, deeply experienced within UN structures, and holds a wealth of experience from working with nongovernmental organisations worldwide. </p>
<p>Guterres served as the prime minister of Portugal, the EU’s southwestern-most state, from 1995 to 2002. He also led the UN’s refugee agency for a decade from <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/antonio-guterres-portugal-2005-2015.html">2005 to 2015</a>. His experience as a European prime minister spanned the years of the Yugoslav wars of succession, and the 1995 EU enlargements, when three new states were added, and 2004 when the union grew by another ten. </p>
<p>As high commissioner for refugees, Guterres dealt with humanitarian issues related to migration from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as between Asia and Africa. Serious work on refugee questions, which concern human security across all generations and all continents, demanded he work with <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/admin/hcspeeches/48873def4/people-move-challenges-displacement-21st-century-international-rescue-committee.html">rescue committees</a>, <a href="http://grist.org/briefly/say-hello-to-the-man-who-could-dig-us-out-of-this-whole-climate-change-mess/">climate scientists</a>, Doctors Without Borders, the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2015/9/55e9459f6/statement-un-high-commissioner-refugees-antonio-guterres-refugee-crisis.html">International Organisation for Migration</a> and many other civic organisations. He had to find out information from those on the ground, as little existed elsewhere. </p>
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<p>This job offered Guterres not as many conversations in the halls of the Consilium building in Brussels, or the kind of welcome to world capitals as he had in his previous role, but demanded an approach akin to that of an investigator. It is safe to suggest that Guterres must know the world we live in today more globally and more intimately than many other former ministers or executives. </p>
<p>Guterres’s duty at the UN was to demand that refugees be afforded a place in this world – a job that took him across the globe to face governments who were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/15/refugee-crisis-hungary-launches-border-crackdown-live-updates#block-55f82468e4b0dd400d532ff4">closing borders</a>. These were tasks he carried out with a level of integrity and independence that was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/19/half-syrian-population-aid-year">recognised</a> sometimes even in a popular press that seldom pays attention to the UN. </p>
<p>Even if an election of a Mediterranean man came as a surprise and a disappointment to many, given that the seat was <a href="https://theconversation.com/she4sg-how-did-we-end-up-with-another-man-as-un-secretary-general-66635">supposed to be earmarked</a> for an Eastern European woman, perhaps it should not be. </p>
<p>Refugee questions have risen to the top of the European and United States foreign policy agendas in the course of the Mediterranean refugee crises. Migration is not new, and there are many reasons behind migration flows, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jun/17/climatechange.food">climate change</a>, the war in <a href="https://theconversation.com/ceasefire-or-not-the-air-war-in-syria-is-an-untold-catastrophe-65121">Syria</a> and elsewhere, political unrest and <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/01/19/jobs-migration-key-drivers-reducing-inequality-can-offset-inherited-disadvantages-at-birth">global inequality</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps what the world needs now is an expert with ground-up knowledge of global politics with a good ear in the capitals of Europe, the continent which many wish to migrate to the most.</p>
<p>The UN has promoted someone from within its structures before, in the case of <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2001/annan-bio.html">Kofi Annan</a>, in 1997. Annan worked as a deputy and subsequently the head of the UN’s peacekeeping operation, a job to which he was appointed by a another Mediterranean man, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in 1982. </p>
<p>Guterres knows the UN’s own structures from within and does not have to get to know the quirks of the secretariat building’s corridor politics by trial and error. This will help him pursue his agenda from the beginning.</p>
<p>His previous duties have concerned the most current questions of globalism. He speaks many of the official languages of the European Union – and has experience as a head of state negotiating with Brussels. Perhaps he is therefore also uniquely qualified to translate and explain global politics to the European Union’s various institutions and to other Western leaders as well. </p>
<p>Guterres may not be the perfect secretary general for 2016, but he was the right candidate for the job in today’s unbounded world.</p>
<p><em>This article originally stated that Guterres was the Portuguese head of state. We have corrected this to “prime minister”.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rinna Kullaa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Guterres must know the world we live in today more globally and more intimately than many a former minister or executive.Rinna Kullaa, Visiting Professor, Sciences Po Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/656982016-09-22T00:40:56Z2016-09-22T00:40:56ZSuperbugs evolve in waste water, and could end up in our food<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138677/original/image-20160921-21711-1icqn08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many antibiotics simply no longer work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are heading into a post-antibiotic era, where common infections could once again be deadly. A phenomenon known as antimicrobial resistance threatens the heart of modern medicine. </p>
<p>Antimicrobial resistance occurs when an antibiotic cannot do its job: killing bacteria. Bacteria become “resistant” to the drugs and continue to reproduce even at high dosages.</p>
<p>This is already happening. We are failing to treat infections, and patients are forced to stay longer in care facilities to overcome them. <a href="https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/AMR%20Review%20Paper%20-%20Tackling%20a%20crisis%20for%20the%20health%20and%20wealth%20of%20nations_1.pdf">By 2050</a>, antimicrobial resistance will cause ten million human fatalities annually and lead to a US$100 trillion loss in GDP worldwide. </p>
<p>The misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human medicine and animal husbandry to treat bacterial infections or to promote growth are placing our well-being at risk. </p>
<p>This is why global leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly this week to discuss the problem, and accepted an <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/commitment-antimicrobial-resistance/en/">action plan to address it</a>. To date, the only other health topics discussed at this level are HIV, <a href="https://theconversation.com/non-communicable-diseases-come-to-the-united-nations-3480">non-communicable diseases</a> and <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/1">Ebola</a>. </p>
<h2>What’s the big deal?</h2>
<p>Everywhere in the world, common infections are becoming resistant to the antimicrobial drugs used to treat them. Urinary tract infections and sexually transmittable diseases such as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/clpt.2014.106/abstract;jsessionid=DE70EC415250AC4DF5DB2138CA18CBF7.f03t02">chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis</a>, once curable with antibiotics, are now highly resistant. Few or none of the antibiotics are effective any more. Put simply, this means longer illnesses and more deaths. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2015/11/25/drug-industry-antibiotics-resistance/">not showing enough interest</a> in new drug discovery because often the time necessary for a strain of bacteria to develop resistance is shorter than the time needed to test and validate new drugs.</p>
<h2>What can the UN achieve?</h2>
<p>Implementing change is not possible without concerted action from all states. The meeting in New York is perfectly timed to escalate the issue to a level that befits the magnitude of the problem.</p>
<p>Action to change how antibiotics are used requires proper monitoring. No single country will be able help without coordination from international organisations. To help, the UN should ask for support from member states on data and awareness.</p>
<p>International regulations should be adopted immediately by member states and legally binding global surveillance requested. There is no time to wait – antibiotic resistance is a real threat and is fast reaching the point of no return.</p>
<h2>Still missing from the picture</h2>
<p>While the conversation on antibiotic resistance has started, one part of the story has not been highlighted. The risks to human and ecosystem health are strongly connected to poor water quality. </p>
<p>After we take an antibiotic to treat bacterial infections, the resistant bacteria in our bodies are excreted, and eventually reach a wastewater treatment plant. Sewers and treatment plants are the principal collectors of household and hospital waste, where mixtures of different types of bacteria create the optimal conditions for the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23396083">spread of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138678/original/image-20160921-21689-y6xa6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Treatment plants bridge the gap between human and natural environments, so both resistant and non-resistant bacteria are able to reach the freshwater ecosystem.
Studying wastewater represents a critical part of understanding the spread of antibiotic resistance, especially if treated wastewater is used as reclaimed water. With <a href="http://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:2661/proceedings-no-11_WEB.pdf">treated wastewater</a> increasingly being used in agriculture to achieve sustainable water management in arid regions, resistant bacteria may find its way into our food as well.</p>
<p>What is required is a shift from a human health perspective to a systems perspective, taking into account these important environmental aspects. </p>
<h2>Where do we go from here?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5996e.pdf">action plan</a> from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization declares that the health of all forms of life and the health of the environment are interconnected. </p>
<p>Taking it one step further, the strategy adopted for human and animal health should also include special regard to wastewater. </p>
<p>Water governs most of our activities, and only a comprehensive approach is capable of building an effective global resilience to this problem. By including wastewater to the global action plan, we might be able to slow down the process of developing and spread antibiotic resistance.</p>
<p>While we advocate for awareness, policy, and global standards, at the individual level, you can also take action. At your next doctor’s visit, be informed about antibiotics and take them only with prescription, and only if really necessary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serena Caucci does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s one important piece of the puzzle we’re missing when it comes to antimicrobial resistance.Serena Caucci, Researcher, United Nations UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/658392016-09-21T23:00:36Z2016-09-21T23:00:36ZRefugees, migration addressed in first-time UN summit: What was accomplished?<p>This week the United Nations General Assembly held the first-ever <a href="http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/summit">Summit for Refugees and Migrants</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2016-09-19/remarks-opening-session-high-level-plenary-meeting-address-large">U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon</a>, the summit represented “a watershed moment to strengthen governance of international migration and a unique opportunity for creating a more responsible, predictable system for responding to large movements of refugees and migrants.”</p>
<p>The Obama administration and U.S. State Department organized a parallel program on Sept 20. The <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/io/c71574.htm">Leaders’ Summit on Refugees</a> emphasized similar themes.</p>
<p>The shared goals of the summits focused on the increase in the number of refugees. Refugees are a subset of the more than <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html">65.3 million displaced people</a> worldwide and include approximately <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/576408cd7.pdf">21 million</a> men, women and children. </p>
<p>In response, the General Assembly and its 193 member states <a href="http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/un_press_release_-_new_york_declaration_-_19_september_2016.pdf">adopted an agreement</a> committed to developing standards of care that include providing better educational opportunities for refugee children; improving the working conditions for displaced adults and fighting to counter xenophobia, fear and what British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/theresa-may-united-nations-right-claim-asylum-migration-refugees">Theresa May</a> has described as the “liberal” rules of the Geneva Conventions. </p>
<p>Ban <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2016-09-19/remarks-opening-session-high-level-plenary-meeting-address-large">declared</a> the results of the summit were “a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility.” </p>
<p>Nevertheless, critics of the summit said it did not go far enough. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/09/19/world/ap-un-united-nations-refugee-summit.html?_r=0">Philipe Bolopion</a>, the deputy director for Human Rights Watch, said the U.N. General Assembly fell short. “We’re facing an historic crisis and the response is not historic,” Bolopion said.</p>
<p>Based on our work with migrants and refugees in Europe and the U.S., we believe the main issues that remain unaddressed are the root causes – that is, insecurities – uprooting millions around the world.</p>
<h2>The UN summit on refugees and migrants</h2>
<p>First, the summit participants spent little time addressing the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9515.2005.00458.x/full">root causes of forced displacement</a> and insecurities that drive refugees to flee and encourage migrants to set off for new destinations. Refugees and migrants do not simply appear, as we argue in our book <a href="http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/cohmig">“Cultures of Migration.”</a> Rather, they are a response to unrest and insecurity. Insecurity can take many forms and range from small-scale, interfamilial disputes to large-scale violence and clashes that threaten life. Insecurity defines both what is lacking as well as how someone is motivated or forced to leave home.</p>
<p>Programs that address unrest and tackle insecurity, such as the <a href="https://www.wfp.org/countries/uganda">World Food Program in Uganda</a>, may not always stop a civil war, counter displacement or foster economic growth, but they can help. Nevertheless, a focus on the root causes of displacement and migration can also expose the ways in which political regimes and state systems, among other players, manipulate their citizens, take advantage of marginal groups, <a href="http://time.com/4116633/paris-attacks-syrian-refugees/">including religious minorities</a>, and <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/11/euaf-j11.html">build relief programs around despots</a>.</p>
<p>Second, too often programs like the ones discussed in the summit and meant to address the status of refugees and migrants, portray refugees as victims suffering from insecurities. This approach does not acknowledge the costs of displacement for refugees and other movers nor the insecurities they may face.</p>
<p>Furthermore, it describes migrants in contrast to refugees. The implication is that migrants are motivated by the pull of well-paying jobs, do not suffer and may be a threat. This is evident in the <a href="http://www.iza.org/highlights/manage_highlights/docs/083_ManagingMigrationintheEuropeanWelfareState_Oxford2002.pdf">xenophobic characterizations</a> of North Africans in Europe and Mexicans in the U.S. These distinctions can only fuel anti-immigration sentiments.</p>
<h2>The Leaders’ Summit on Refugees</h2>
<p>Participants in the leaders’ summit convened by the U.S. State Department and Obama administration focused on building material support for <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/20/fact-sheet-white-house-announces-commitments-call-action-private-sector">refugee resettlement</a> programs globally. </p>
<p>In the meeting, 11 countries including the US doubled their financial contributions to refugee assistance programs. Also, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/20/private-sector-participants-call-action">51 U.S.-based companies</a> committed millions of dollars in support. The support ranged from direct financial contributions to contributions of goods, services and expertise to support resettlement, education and workforce participation while fighting xenophobia.</p>
<p>Money for resettlement is certainly a critical and important need. But there needs to be more emphasis on efforts to facilitate integration and recognition of the two-way nature of the adaptation process. Better programming including projects to rebuild and <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/iom-usaid-support-rehabilitation-services-conflict-affected-colombian-municipalities">resettle refugees in their former homes</a> may help avoid another crisis in the future. </p>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>The response to refugees and migrants is often <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/16/european-opinions-of-the-refugee-crisis-in-5-charts/">xenophobic nationalism</a> and fear. In the minds of many citizens, terrorists masquerade as Syrian refugees, while Mexican migrants engage in criminal activity. And in nearly every case, there is a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/refugees-crime-rumors/480171/">fear</a> that refugees and migrants will access public assistance at the cost of citizens’ welfare.</p>
<p>To be fair, the General Assembly and the Obama administration are aware that the future of refugees and migrants is far from settled, and that it is critical to respond to xenophobia if solutions are to be found. </p>
<p>Resolving the causes and challenges of the refugee crisis will not be easy. Nevertheless, the U.N. and U.S. State Department summits are an important, if imperfect, start as we engage migrants and refugees, listen to their stories and confront the insecurities that drive them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The U.N. and other leaders met to discuss coordinating an international response to unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants. Two migration experts examine issues the summits left unresolved.Jeffrey H. Cohen, Professor of Anthropology, The Ohio State UniversityIbrahim Sirkeci, Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing & Director of Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies, Regent's University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/656792016-09-19T14:30:11Z2016-09-19T14:30:11ZWorld leaders lack the political courage to agree a fair global share of migration<p>Whether fleeing wars, oppression, dictatorial regimes, extreme poverty, climate displacement – or whether simply seeking a better life – irregular migrants are among the most vulnerable people on earth. Crossing land and sea in hazardous journeys that take <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/iom-counts-3771-migrant-fatalities-mediterranean-2015">thousands of lives</a> every year, those migrants who do complete their journeys are frequently detained for lengthy periods or forced to live in <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-really-europe-refugees-in-calais-speak-of-desperate-conditions-45414">squalid conditions</a> on the margins of society. Even when they are afforded asylum or migrant status, they frequently experience racism and subjugation in the countries where they settle. </p>
<p>Blamed for everything from rising crime rates to falling economies, from terrorism to lack of housing, migrants are the whipping boys across the world.</p>
<p>Despite the dangers and suffering experienced by many, <a href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/international-migration-outlook-2016_migr_outlook-2016-en#.V9_M9rXL3m0#page11">migration is on the rise</a>. And given that it is one of the greatest challenges that we face as a global society, it is about time that innovative and holistic approaches are taken to dealing with this issue. But those who thought that such an approach would materialise at two global migration summits in New York on September 19 and 20 will be sadly mistaken. These meetings will make very little difference on the ground.</p>
<h2>Watered down</h2>
<p>On September 19 the <a href="http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/summit">UN General Assembly held a summit</a> at which top UN staff in the field on refugees, human rights, migration and human trafficking emphasised the need for a better and more coordinated response to global migration. Discussions were planned during roundtable sessions focused on issues such as the causes and consequences of large movements of refugees and migrants, as well as sharing responsibility and protection for those people. </p>
<p>These are all crucial matters, but the UN is already known for providing a forum for discussions of key issues. The real test is whether these discussions produce any concrete changes. Judging by the negotiations on the <a href="http://www.un.org/pga/70/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/HLM-on-addressing-large-movements-of-refugees-and-migrants-Draft-Declaration-5-August-2016.pdf">draft declaration on migrants and refugees</a> since it was published in early August, few real changes are likely to be implemented. </p>
<p>The draft declaration affirms humanitarian principles, but does little to go beyond existing words and phrases. There are legitimate concerns that the declaration may undermine countries’ existing human rights obligations towards migrants and refugees. By highlighting some obligations regarding water, sanitation, housing, food and health, and by stressing the need to protect vulnerable groups such as women and children, the text may be used by states as a tool for avoiding other human rights commitments to individuals within their countries. And by emphasising the role of non-state actors and the private sector, some countries may use the declaration as a method to shirk or pass on their human rights obligations. </p>
<p>These concerns are not in the abstract. Many countries are using the migration crisis to try to scale back their existing obligations. Some, like Denmark’s prime minister, have explicitly called for changes to, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/un-backlash-against-call-to-scale-back-geneva-convention-on-refugees">watering down of, existing conventions</a> to place fewer obligations on states. Others, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/theresa-may-to-warn-un-of-dangers-of-uncontrolled-mass-migration">like the British prime minister, Theresa May,</a> simply refuse to uphold their obligations while calling on others to do more to stem the tide of migration. May’s government is still refusing to allow 500 <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37249847">unaccompanied children</a> in Calais to fulfil their right to join family members in the UK. </p>
<p>The General Assembly summit will be followed by a second <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/io/c71574.htm">high-level summit</a> hosted by US President Barack Obama on September 20, at which he will ask world leaders to pledge more funds and more room for irregular migrants. Noble sentiments, indeed, but asking countries for money and spaces will not answer the fundamental question raised by the crisis: how to coordinate and implement a streamlined and global response to migration.</p>
<h2>A global approach</h2>
<p>What is needed is a system similar to the resettlement of migrants and refugees during and after the Indo-Chinese wars in the 1960s and 1970s. Then, the global community came together to determine the number of people that would be offered a place in each country. A managed global response enabled those migrants to reach their new homes in a safe and orderly fashion, and to integrate swiftly into their new societies. In contrast, today’s refugees fleeing the war in Syria have had to pay people smugglers in order to reach Europe in rubber dinghies and crossing the continent on foot. Those are the fortunate ones who have sufficient health and wealth not to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/14/life-refugee-camp-syrian-family-jordan-escape">languish for years</a> in refugees camps across the Middle East.</p>
<p>Those who work on the ground, from the <a href="http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/press-releases/general/ifrc-un-migration-summit-must-stop-world-indifference-to-deaths-and-suffering-along-migration-trails/">International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies</a> to the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16344">UN Special rapporteur on human rights and migrants</a>, have long called for a responsible, managed global approach to migration. This would uphold the fundamental rights of migrants, would ensure that migration benefited the country and the individual, and would enable a coordinated and sustained approach whereby all countries took some responsibility for the crisis.</p>
<p>But those calls have been ignored by governments that are more concerned about securing domestic votes than they are about ensuring that all individuals have their fundamental human rights protected. Irregular migrants do not have votes in national elections. Irregular migrants do not have the ability to protest about their treatment – not if they need to remain in the shadows for fear of detention or deportation. Irregular migrants do not have the cultural capital needed to lobby domestic legislators. </p>
<p>So the domestic voices to which politicians listen come from those who claim that there is no room for new citizens, or those who claim that migrants commit crimes or acts of terrorism, or those who believe in nationalism and protectionism. And when those loud voices threaten to remove their votes unless politicians heed them, governments disregard the global in favour of the national.</p>
<p>These two summits provided a great opportunity for a new, measured and responsible approach to migration across the world. But, as many predicted would happen, that opportunity has been missed. Instead we have seen countries, regional groups and political blocs act in ways that are defensive and protectionist. The result: yet another UN text that will say little and do so in watered-down, tepid language. </p>
<p>A few states will continue to shoulder the financial and physical burden for many migrants, while others continue to shirk their duties and responsibilities. And, ultimately, what we will see is no change on the ground for the millions of people who will irregularly migrate in 2017.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosa Freedman receives funding from AHRC, British Academy, ESRC, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Society of Legal scholars. </span></em></p>Discussions at two global summits on migration in New York will do little to do what is needed to change the reality on the ground.Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/481032015-09-29T20:09:17Z2015-09-29T20:09:17ZIs Kevin Rudd the very model of a modern UN secretary-general?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96401/original/image-20150928-21348-1kri3f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kevin Rudd is reportedly campaigning to take over as UN secretary-general when Ban Ki-moon's term expires in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Peter Foley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s second term expires at the end of 2016. Candidates are already lining up to compete for the position, including – <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/foreign-minister-julie-bishop-boosts-kevin-rudd-bid-for-un-job/story-fnihsrf2-1227545755880">reportedly</a> – Australia’s former prime minister, Kevin Rudd. </p>
<p>But what does it take to become secretary-general? </p>
<h2>Formal and informal rules</h2>
<p>The UN’s formal rules are quite vague. The <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/">UN Charter</a> says only that “the Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council”. A General Assembly <a href="http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/032/62/IMG/NR003262.pdf?OpenElement">resolution</a> passed in 1946 said that it “would be desirable for the Security Council to proffer one candidate only”. This means that the vote of the General Assembly – composed of all of the UN’s member nations – is only a formality. </p>
<p>The 15-member Security Council really makes the decision. Its five permanent members – China, France, the UK, the US and Russia – all have the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-be-too-quick-to-condemn-the-un-security-council-power-of-veto-29980">veto power</a>. This has meant that past secretaries-general have needed to be acceptable to all five countries and, in particular, to not have made enemies. </p>
<p>But there are also two informal rules that govern the selection. First, no secretary-general has ever come from the Security Council’s permanent members – with the exception of the first, the UK’s Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb, who acted in the role for three months.</p>
<p>Second, the position rotates through the UN’s five regional groupings of countries. This time, it is seen to be Eastern Europe’s turn, given it has never had a secretary-general. Australia is in the “Western European and Others Group”, which has already produced three secretaries-general – Norway’s Trygve Lie, Sweden’s Dag Hammarskjöld and Austria’s Kurt Waldheim.</p>
<h2>Lessons from history</h2>
<p>Because of the permanent members’ veto power, the position doesn’t tend to go to international high-flyers. None has been a former head of state or government. </p>
<p>Hammarskjöld, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/dag-hammarskjold-statesman-century/">praised by</a> US President John F. Kennedy as “the greatest statesman of our century”, had been a bureaucrat and minister in the Swedish government. Gladwyn Jebb only put him forward because two other candidates – Canadian Lester B. Pearson and Indian Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit – were vetoed. </p>
<p>The veto power also affects their reappointment. Lie, who had been the head of the Norwegian delegation to the UN, resigned from the position after the Soviet Union made it clear that it would no longer support him. Boutros Boutros-Ghali failed to receive a second term entirely due to American opposition. Waldheim sought a third term but the Chinese vetoed him 16 times.</p>
<p>This led to a change in practice. The Security Council now conducts straw polls, where members indicate their encouragement or discouragement for a candidate. Since 1991 the polls have been conducted with red ballots for the permanent veto-wielding members and white for the elected members. </p>
<p>Most secretaries-general have come from either the UN’s diplomatic corps or their country’s foreign service. Beyond Lie, Burma’s U Thant and Waldheim had been their countries’ permanent representatives to the UN before their elections. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar had been Peru’s permanent representative before becoming the special representative of the secretary-general in Cyprus. Boutros-Ghali had been Egypt’s minister of state for foreign affairs. Ban was South Korea’s foreign minister. </p>
<p>The real exception was Kofi Annan, who was the only secretary-general to emerge from within the UN Secretariat.</p>
<p>Others have not been lucky. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who served as the UN high commissioner for refugees for 12 years from 1965 until 1977, tried three times to be elected secretary-general, but the Soviet Union vetoed him twice, and then he could not secure a majority of votes the third time.</p>
<p>India’s Shashi Tharoor, who was serving as the UN under-secretary-general for communications and public information, lost to Ban after the US vetoed him. He then left the UN to return to Indian politics.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1230&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1230&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96543/original/image-20150929-30967-16qj7ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1230&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miroslav Lajcak could be a contender to be UN secretary-general.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Dado Ruvic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who will it be?</h2>
<p>If history is a guide, the next secretary-general will be from Eastern Europe, working in their national government, and with strong foreign service experience.</p>
<p>Foreign Policy reporter Colum Lynch has <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/11/14/the-race-for-u-n-secretary-general-is-rigged/">suggested</a> a few possible candidates. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak; </p></li>
<li><p>Jan Kubis, Slovakia’s former foreign minister and now the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan; </p></li>
<li><p>Danilo Turk, Slovenia’s former president, a former permanent representative to the UN, and the former UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs; and</p></li>
<li><p>Vuk Jeremic, a former Serbian foreign minister and former permanent representative who also served as General Assembly president in 2012-13.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But there is one last issue: no woman has ever served as secretary-general. There is clear pressure for a female to be elected. As a former UN high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/world/after-70-years-of-men-some-say-it-is-high-time-a-woman-led-the-un.html?_r=0">argued</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whatever the selection process for the next secretary-general is, historically there’s been no attention paid to the representation of half the world’s population.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96560/original/image-20150929-30976-78quau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could Dalia Grybauskaite be the UN’s first female secretary-general?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Carlo Allegri</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are strong female candidates from Eastern Europe, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who was previously a European commissioner; </p></li>
<li><p>Bulgarian Irina Bokova, the UNESCO director and her country’s former foreign minister; and</p></li>
<li><p>Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, a European commissioner who previously worked with the World Bank.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>If the Security Council does go against precedent and nominates a secretary-general from outside the region, there is a former Oceania prime minister who has a shot. But it is not Rudd – it is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/27/will-helen-clark-be-first-woman-to-run-united-nations">Helen Clark</a>, New Zealand’s former leader and now the head of the UN Development Program.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Orchard receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>If history is a guide, the next UN secretary-general will be from Eastern Europe, working in their national government, and with strong foreign service experience.Phil Orchard, Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations; Research Director at the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/333842014-10-23T19:19:43Z2014-10-23T19:19:43ZUnited Nations’ silence on gay rights is allowing their abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62660/original/rwgmfsmz-1414083078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yes, everywhere.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Act,_2014#mediaviewer/File:Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill_protest.jpg">riekhavoc via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN is mandated to protect all people without discrimination, to advance equality and to protect the human rights of all individuals. It has a strong track record of putting those things into place where it comes to gender, race, religion, ethnicity, age and nationality. </p>
<p>There are treaties, committees, monitoring bodies and other mechanisms in place for women, racial and religious minorities, indigenous populations, children and the elderly, and migrants, among others. Those mechanisms work with varying degrees of success in different states, but they send a strong message to all countries, loud and clear: the UN will not condone nor tolerate discrimination on any grounds.</p>
<p>Well, almost any grounds.</p>
<p>The UN still does not protect sexual orientation or gender identity minorities. Despite the clear vulnerability of people in those categories, there is no specific treaty for LGBT people; there is no committee to monitor the protection and promotion of their rights and there are no intergovernmental working groups, resolutions or declarations. Instead, there is silence.</p>
<p>But even worse, an ominous drum beat is disturbing that silence.</p>
<h2>Face of the world</h2>
<p>This year, the UN General Assembly elected as its president Sam Kutesa, who was the foreign affairs minister of Uganda at the time that his country implemented its widely denounced and brutal law, originally written to impose the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. </p>
<p>Dubbed the “kill the gays” law by the Western media, the law was passed without its death penalty provisions in February 2014, but then declared unlawful in August. Even with the law now off the books, Uganda still penalises people in same-sex couples with prison terms of up to 14 years. </p>
<p>Uganda is of course not alone in doing this; indeed, more than 70 states across the world have similar laws. But the election of Kutesa so soon after the global condemnation of Uganda’s oppressive and retrograde law sends a chilling message to tens of millions of individuals worldwide.</p>
<p>The General Assembly is the sole UN body where all member states have a seat and a vote, and what happens there sends a loud and clear message about the prevailing opinions of countries across the world. The president of the General Assembly holds the position for a full year and is guaranteed a seat at the table with the most powerful players in the international community. </p>
<p>In Kutesa’s case, that has set up a long year of PR embarrassments for the UN’s less conservative majority. Photographs of Kutesa’s <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/09/23/obama_to_meet_with_ugandan_defender_of_anti_gay_law_united_nations_unga">formal meeting with Barack Obama</a> were criticised around the world for legitimising and giving credibility to a man who represents the continued repression and subjugation of minorities. </p>
<p>But this was only the beginning: until the Assembly elects a new president in September 2015, when the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/69/agenda/">69th Session</a> draws to a close, Kutesa will be its representative at many such meetings and events to come.</p>
<h2>Driving a wedge</h2>
<p>Of course, Kutesa’s election did not occur in a vacuum. It is increasingly apparent that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity is not just overlooked, but actively accepted within large parts of the UN and that those factions who actively support it are working to reinforce their position. </p>
<p>Over the past five years, there has been a strong push-back against advances to protect LGBT people from discrimination, criminalisation and violations of their human rights. </p>
<p>In recent months and years, more and more resolutions on “<a href="https://theconversation.com/united-nations-under-pressure-to-protect-traditional-families-over-individual-rights-31757">traditional family values</a>” have been passed by the General Assembly and by the Human Rights Council. The countries behind those resolutions include Russia and many Islamic and African countries, where LGBT people are criminalised simply for being sexual or gender minorities. Their discriminatory practices are fast being legitimised through resolutions and panels cloaked in vague, relativistic “values” doublespeak. </p>
<p>These states are currently violating their international human rights obligations to LGBT people – and they know it. They are baldly trying to pre-emptively protect themselves before those violations start to be policed as they should. </p>
<p>Kutesa’s presidency is just another backwards step in the sorry story of the UN’s slow efforts to protect LGBT people. Sadly, it seems that the UN’s noble aim of protecting all individuals from the abuse of their rights is a long way from being realised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The UN is mandated to protect all people without discrimination, to advance equality and to protect the human rights of all individuals. It has a strong track record of putting those things into place…Rosa Freedman, Lecturer in Law, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184922013-09-24T05:40:16Z2013-09-24T05:40:16ZUN General Assembly another venue for Obama’s inaction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31802/original/6n6rn68z-1379952717.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A little less conversation, a little more action please.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefan Rousseau/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>And so the annual autumn ritual of American masochism begins again in New York. Like inviting your least likeable in-laws to detail your worst features to your nearest and dearest after an agreeable Christmas lunch, this week’s 68th UN General Assembly welcomes heads of state and government from its 193 member states. With its plenary session overshadowed by Syria, and issues from Iran’s nuclear programme and Israeli-Palestinian relations vying for competition on the agenda, the media expectancy is even greater than usual. “The stakes are very high,” according to PJ Crowley, a former assistant US secretary of state.</p>
<p>What fatuous nonsense.</p>
<p>While the invitees marvel at the size of the food portions in New York City, and media frenzies erupt at incipient photo opportunities in Turtle Bay, let’s recognise this week for what it is – a symbolic spectacle signifying minimal substance. Yes, an enticing opportunity for non-US leaders to grandstand on the biggest international stage for strictly domestic political benefit. And yes, a chance for mere politicians – democratic and authoritarian alike – to pose as statesmen and solemnly pledge their fealty to human rights, the rule of law, and international peace (how very controversial). But, ultimately, whether New York or Washington, DC is the more reliably dysfunctional venue for serious politicking is up for debate.</p>
<p>Even by the standards of US politics, watching an array of exotic guests use one of the nation’s great cities to excoriate America and hail the arrival of a new “post-American era” must represent one of the more depressing spectacles for the domestic public. Sadly for the scriptwriters, the drama is not quite as vivid as when Chavez, Ahmedinajad and Gaddafi enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame denouncing George W Bush. Through fair means and foul, these characters have moved on.</p>
<p>But already, new scripts have been written and the question is merely whether the actors play their roles accordingly. Above all, will the Iranian and American presidents finally break a taboo and meet in the Great Satan’s living room (not, like Gordon Brown, in the UN kitchen)? Will the recent conciliatory words and gestures of President Hassan Rouhani receive symbolic reward – a presidential handshake, a deliberately accidental encounter, even a “meet and greet”?</p>
<p>To which the appropriate response is: “So what if they do?”.</p>
<p>Prior US presidents viewed the annual UN debate with emotions ranging from resignation to despair. But for Barack Obama, it’s tailor made. Teleprompter to the ready, warm words to go and nothing of substance to slog through. Only if one still buys into “Obama-world” – where grand speeches substitute for hard bargaining – can one continue to regard this earnest symbolism and soaring rhetoric as remotely consequential.</p>
<p>As such, it’s tempting to view the NYC goings-on as emblematic of not just the weakening of the West but also the end of US leadership.</p>
<p>But this wisdom is far more conventional than wise. On most measures of national power, the US remains far beyond all other nation-states. Not only is it the only player capable of global power projection, but America’s energy revival promises a “power surge” of substantial and enduring economic and geo-political dividends. No other power, or combination of powers, is likely to rival the US for decades to come.</p>
<p>The strategic problems, rather, are two-fold.</p>
<p>First, the UN’s profound limitations remain. A Security Council that reflects the power distribution of 1945, not 2013. A veto system that effectively precludes collective action even when genocide, ethnic cleansing and civil war destroy tens of thousands of lives and displace millions. And a gaping legitimacy deficit in which prolific UN declarations about the “responsibility to protect” are consistently belied as hollow by its inability, unwillingness and incapacity to do so.</p>
<p>Second, it is not American weakness that is at issue, but the irresolution, confusion and dwindling credibility of this particular White House. Like a poker player who believes that decent chaps don’t bluff, Obama is neither trusted by his allies nor feared by his adversaries. On the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, one has to go back to Kennedy’s besting by Nikita Khruschev at the 1961 Vienna summit to recall a US president so powerfully outplayed by his Russian rival. But that was in Kennedy’s first year as president. Less than a year after his re-election, Obama appears adrift, ineffectual and preoccupied by domestic, not international, politics.</p>
<p>Whether or not Obama meets Iran’s president, few will mention the recent appointment of hardliner Ali Shamkhani as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a clear signal that Rouhani intends to preserve Iranian nuclear “rights”. Whatever the Russian delegation declares on Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, few will focus on the 100,000 plus dead through conventional means of warfare – and counting. Festering issues from North Korea to a reconfigured and reinvigorated al Qaeda will receive minimal attention. And why should they? This week was never intended for serious diplomacy or meaningful negotiations. As for the Middle East, even now – never mind the rest of the world - Obama’s default disposition recalls Ernest Hemmingway’s in 1935: “Of the hell broth that is brewing in Europe, we have no need to drink.”</p>
<p>Mostly, the coming days represent theatre, and not especially impressive theatre at that. In the days of mobile phones, email and the internet, the notion that such international conflabs are necessary for genuine communication is redundant. It seems difficult, in that light, to entertain anything more than a minimal hope of substantive progress on Syria, Egypt, North Korea or any of the functional issues – from nuclear proliferation to climate change – that supposedly preoccupy our leaders.</p>
<p>Let’s hope I’m wrong. But ask yourself – when was the last time you either listened to, or took seriously, an Obama speech? Now imagine the response the average Syrian, Iranian, Israeli or Russian would have to that question. Ignore the theatrics and atmospherics. Lie back and take in the warm words. And watch the inaction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Singh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And so the annual autumn ritual of American masochism begins again in New York. Like inviting your least likeable in-laws to detail your worst features to your nearest and dearest after an agreeable Christmas…Robert Singh, Professor of Politics, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184992013-09-23T15:04:17Z2013-09-23T15:04:17ZMultipolar moment brings chance of golden age for UN<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31792/original/hwbft5cz-1379945415.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dilma day.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">redebrasilatual</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly always draws distinguished speakers, but their speeches rarely have much international impact. General Assembly speeches are heavy on rhetoric and image, but they tend to have little policy substance, especially for the most powerful states that work through the Security Council, if they consult the United Nations at all. </p>
<p>Tuesday’s opening is different. Three of the headline speakers - US president Barack Obama, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani - will give revealing policy speeches with far-reaching international implications. The presidents will use their statements to signal to their critics, at home and abroad, that coherent and worthwhile strategies lie behind some of their surprising recent moves. </p>
<p>Obama will make his first authoritative statement about the US position on the Syrian civil war since the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/us-russia-reach-agreement-syria-weapons-102700028--politics.html">last-minute agreement</a> on 14 September 2013 that averted an American military strike. Obama will want to show that the United States is willing to enforce “red lines” on chemical and nuclear weapons, just as it is eager to negotiate agreements for disarmament and stability in the region. American efforts to nurture democratic governments in the Middle East during the Arab Spring have failed. The president will try to set a new agenda for US efforts to foster openness, stability, and reform in Egypt, Iraq, and of course Syria.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31793/original/c2xvpm7c-1379945979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Policy, not tacos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">mediajorgenyc</span></span>
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<p>Rousseff will address different but equally controversial issues. She will make a strong argument for giving her country more influence in the United Nations and other international bodies. It makes little sense to have France on the Security Council but not Brazil. Rousseff’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/brazil-president-snub-us-nsa">cancellation</a> of a state dinner with President Obama and her angry condemnation of American surveillance efforts in Brazil (including Rousseff’s private conversations) reflect her aim to assert a more independent Brazilian position in the world. Her speech will announce a Brazilian alternative to US domination in Latin America. </p>
<p>Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will probably give the most closely watched and important speech of the group. The new leader of Iran will be introducing himself to a worldwide audience for the first time. Like Rousseff, he will assert Iranian independence, and he will claim for his nation a legitimate role as a cultural, economic, and military leader in the Middle East. Like Obama, however, Rouhani will emphasise the importance of negotiated agreements to ensure openness, peace, and stability in the region. </p>
<p>Rouhani might even indicate a willingness to negotiate with Israel. His primary goal will be to lift international sanctions that are crippling the Iranian economy, and reduce sources of conflict that ultimately limit Tehran’s regional influence. Rouhani will pursue routes to stability in the Middle East that increase Iranian influence, often at the cost of the United States.</p>
<p>These three speeches and the many other statements at the opening of General Assembly reflect an international system in transition. Since the end of the Cold War attention to human rights, ethnic conflict, terrorism, and counter-insurgency has increased across the globe. Each of these phenomena has brought new state actors to centre stage. Each of these phenomena has also challenged American international dominance, while reinforcing the need for continued American leadership, especially during moments of conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Syria. The post-Cold War world has shown the limits of American power, but also the fundamental role the United States still plays in so many regions.</p>
<h2>Serious grappling</h2>
<p>The opening of the General Assembly will neither diminish nor increase the power of the United States. The speeches will represent a serious grappling, by major figures, with our messy multipolar moment. The United States, Brazil, and Iran are highly independent, yet deeply dependent on one another. Their futures will be determined by their respective actions, as is also true for China, Russia, Germany, Japan, Israel, and South Africa. These heavyweights are struggling to shape the actions of each other that avoid war, increase wealth, and create strategic advantages. </p>
<p>East-West and North-South polarities are less important than anytime in recent decades. A global great game is our present condition. That makes diplomacy and posturing at the United Nations more revealing than ever before. Perhaps this much-maligned international body is entering its golden age of maximum influence. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremi Suri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly always draws distinguished speakers, but their speeches rarely have much international impact. General Assembly speeches are heavy on rhetoric…Jeremi Suri, Professor of History and Public Affairs, Mack Brown Distinguished Chair, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.