UNITED
NATIONS, June
12 -- Can
studies of
violence be
produced that
do not
make value
judgments
about which
side is to
blame? At the
UN on
Wednesday,
just that
claim was made
regarding the
Global Peace
Index
of the
Institute for
Economics and
Peace.
Inner
City Press
asked the
panelists,
including one
from The
Economist
Intelligence
Unit, which
casualty
figures they
used for
Syria, and to
explain their
report's
statement that
"Bahrain
continues to
be
affected by
increasingly
violent
protests,
largely from
the country's
Shia
majority."
Are
the protests
violent? Or do
the
authorities
react
violently to
them?
Inner City
Press asked
the same
question about
recent events
in
Turkey, in
Taksim Square.
Panelist
Daniel
Hyslop,
Research
Director of
Institute for
Economics and
Peace,
responded that
the study is
not pointing
fingers or
making
value
judgment. But
isn't it? If
one refers to
violent
protests, it
justifies
government
crackdowns.
On
Syria, Hyslop
cited IISS and
said the
figure of
72,900 killed
in 2012
was used. What
about Benetech,
the San
Francisco-based,
US National
Endowment for
Democracy
funded,
contractor
given a sole
source
contract by
the UN's
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights?
Inner
City Press
asked asked
about Sri
Lanka --
40,000 killed
or how many?
-- but that
question
wasn't
answered.
Inner City
Press asked
about
the relatively
peaceful score
assigned to
Haiti, while
the UN
maintains the
MINUSTAH
mission there.
(How deaths
CAUSED by a
"peacekeeping"
mission, in
Haiti by
introduction
of cholera
are treated in
this Index is
another
question.)
Another
panelist
said Haiti had
improved on
such
categories as
terrorism --
really? -- and
nuclear
weapons. Well
that's a plus.
The study is
thought
provoking, but
the implicit
value
judgments it
makes, for
example about
Bahrain and
prospectively
about Turkey,
need to be
re-thought.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
this
Global Peace
Index press
conference was
competing with
a
Security
Council
meeting about
Tribunals, and
a session on
Culture
addressed by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
Inner
City Press
thanked
the panelists
on behalf of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access --
the old UNCA
was nowhere to
be seen.
Likewise when
Ban Ki-moon
passed
the Security
Council
stakeout and
graciously
stopped for a
word, the
word
was "table,"
as is, the
need for a
media
worktable at
the Security
Council
stakeout
as existed
before and
during the
Capital
Master Plan
relocation
-- before Ban
Ki-moon's
tenure in
fact.
The
world, the
Institute for
Economics and
Peace said
Wednesday, is
less
peaceful now.
And for now,
the media have
less access
and less
workspace at
the Security
Council. Watch
this site.
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