By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 15 --
When the
Africa Week
press
conference was
held at the UN,
Inner City
Press asked African
Union
Ambassador
Tete Antonio
about an
African veto
on the
Security
Council, and
now in its
absence Libya
has worked
out.
Antonio said
if the veto
remains,
Africa should
have one and
will work out
which country
holds it. He
said that
Libya is a
daily question
now, with the
chaos that has
followed the
AU Framework
being
rejected.
These followed
more extensive
answers the
two gave on
October 1. That
day, after
a UN session
on African
Regional
Economic
Communities
there was a
press
conference
involving Maged
Abdelaziz,
UN Special
Adviser on
Africa, the
AU's Tete
Antonio and
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which
challenged the
closing and privatization
of the UN
Press Briefing
Room.
Click
here for video
of RECs
briefing,
here
for FUNCA on
HuffPo Live.
In the
32nd
floor
conference
room of the
Special
Adviser on
Africa, Inner
City Press
asked how the
work of the
RECs related
to the African
issues on the
agenda of the
Security
Council, for
example in
South Sudan.
Tete
Antonio said,
“You know our
fight, we are
trying to
convince the
Security
Council to
have assessed
contributions
to make sure
the AU or the
RECs on behalf
of the
international
community is
very
successful.”
Maged
Abdelaziz
spoke of
Agenda 2063,
issues raised
by Egypt and
Cape Verde
including
“Silencing the
Gun” dealing
with the
economic and
the governance
components.
(On
October 15,
Maged
Abdelaziz said
an African
veto on the
Security
Council, or no
veto at all,
should be
addressed in
2015.)
Near
the end of the
October 1
session, after
responses by
several of the
RECs including
ECOWAS on its
work in Guinea
Bissau and
Mali,
Abdelaziz said
in his
personal
capacity, not
as a UN
official, that
Africa
deserves two
Permanent
seats on the
Security
Council, with
veto. This, he
said, would
have prevented
what a number
of speakers
called the
foreign
interference
in Libya. This
is an ongoing
theme.
At the October
15 press
converence,
the representative
of the old UN
Correspondents
Association
demanded the
first question
as a
set-aside,
said "I have
been at the UN
a long time"
then asked
about Zimbabwe
in connection
with the
African Peer
Review
Mechanism. Afterward,
as journalists
from African
asked
questions, the
UNCA
representative
left. This is
how it works -
or doesn't.
Footnote:
After
the UN session
on African
Regional
Economic
Communities
held on the
morning of
October 1 in
UN Conference
Room 2, there
was a press
conference
scheduled for
1 pm on the
second floor.
This
conflicted
with an event
of UNCA, now
known as the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance; the
African press
conference got
canceled.
Inner City
Press went
down to
Conference
Room 2 and
urged, on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
that the
briefing be
reinstated.
But
up on the
second floor,
the UN
Spokesperson's
office said
this would be
difficult. The
UN Press
Briefing Room,
previously
taken over by
the French
delegation,
was locked.
Finally it was
decided to
conduct the
session up on
the 32nd
floor, in what
we'll call a
FUNCA
briefing.
Video here.
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