On
UNSC
Procedure, A
Big Tome That
May Need
Another
Chapter, Or
Shadow
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 12,
updated --
Since 1975
there has been
an imposing
tome called
“Procedure of
the UN
Security
Council.” Its
fourth
edition
was published
in late 2014
with Loraine
Sievers,
formerly of UN
Security
Council
Affairs, as
lead writer,
along with
Oxford
professor Sam
Daws.
The book is,
literally,
encyclopedic.
While the
below as is
Inner City
Press' wont
focuses on
things either
NOT in the
book, or
covered too
scantily for
our tastes, or
voiceless
groups
rendered
further
voiceless, we
cannot think
of a better
reference book
about the
Security
Council.
That said, and
perhaps
understandably,
the book veers
on the side of
portraying
positively the
Security
Council's work
and not its
omissions.
Since this
review, such
as it is, is
being
published on
the fifth
anniversary of
the 2010
earthquake in
Haiti, we'll
note that in
the book's
index there was
no mention of
the cholera
the UN brought
to the island,
killing more
than 8700
people so far.
Update:
There is a
reference on
page 180, and
pointing to
the decision
of the UN,
under Ban
Ki-moon’s
authority, to
consider the
claims as
“non-receivable”
as the
handling as an
issue arising
in Ban’s
second term
that has
garnered
“considerable
negative press."
Duly noted.
In positive
news, the book
does recount
how the
Security
Council moved
to removed
sanctions on
Haiti in 1994
soon after
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was
returned. Page
524. These
days,
sanctions are
rarely
removed.
A recent
development in
which a member
of the Somalia
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group had to
resign after
being exposed
writing a
letter, on
SMEG
letterhead,
portraying an
Eritrean
dissident as a
possible
future leader
of the country
-- what Inner
City Press dubbed
as part of its
exclusive the
“regime
change” letter
-- is not
mentioned in
the book, or
so far in its
online
updates.
The incident
raises a
larger point:
what training
is given, and
what rules
apply, to the
UN's sanctions
experts?
The
acknowledgement
for the book
include
several people
are are in
turn written
about, such as
Libya's
Ibrahim
Dabbashi and,
of course,
Diega Arria,
he of the
Arria formulat
meetings.
The book's
section on
that includes
a “Somavia
formula,”
named for a
former
Ambassador of
Chile,
which holds
this month's
Council
presidency.
Plus ca
change.
On Arria
formula
meetings,
there is an
account of the
Darfur meeting
at which
George Clooney
participated;
in other
non-state
news, Kosovo
slipping into
the General
Assembly and
clapping for
new Security
Council
members
elected in
2009 is
described.
The index does
not list the
FDLR, and the
book does not
seem to
address a
major problem
in the UN and
its Security
Council, that
the DPKO and
DPA and even
OCHA Under
Secretaries
General who
address the
Council are
top heavy
with, and
apparently
controlled and
position owed
by, the
Western P3.
(Forget
any mention of
current DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous' history
-- while on
the Council in
1994 -- in
helping genocidaires
escape from
Rwanda into
Eastern Congo,
and now being
in charge of
the delayed
“neutralization”
of their
progeny, the
FDLR).
Sri Lanka and
the 2009
bloodbath on
the beach does
make an
appearance
late in the
book, in a
single
paragraph on
page 626, but
without the to
us obvious
conclusion
being drawn:
how could the
Council never
have a real
meeting as
tens of
thousands of
civilians were
killed? The
book says,
"although the
matter was
never placed
officially on
the agenda of
the Security
Council, from
26 March to 5
June [2009]
the Council
held four
informal
interactive
discussions."
Did the
Western P3
even even try
to get such a
formal
meeting?
There is an
interesting
story how
South
Sudanese,
before
statehood,
were able to
participate in
a meeting in
the Security
Council's
temporary
location in
the UN
basement due
to the lay
out. But,
seemingly, the
question on
the Polisario
Front not
being allowed
to speak at
the Security
Council
stakeout
is not
addressed.
This is a
larger issue:
the role of
the media,
including
social media,
in today's
Security
Council is not
address.
Perhaps in a
fifth edition
- or in a
different
book. Watch
this site.
Footnotes:
we note
because we
want to the
involvement,
per the
acknowledgments,
of Vinay
Kumar, Monica
Bolanos, David
Quarrey
(previously UK
political
coordinator),
Colin Keating,
and Ionnis
Vrailas.
Generally, the
book veers to
the West. It's
easier that
way. Compare
for example to
this
recent
(December
2014) example.
But perhaps
there is
another book,
or chapter, to
be written.
, 
