By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Follow up on
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 29 --
After pushing
the UN budget
deadline back
from December
24, on
December 29
its Fifth
Committee
further pushed
controversial
items back,
while
finalizing
over $3
billion in
funds for UN
Peacekeeping,
mis-run by
Herve Ladsous
whom 123
non-governmental
organizations
and Sudan
experts have
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon to
fire.
In the Fifth
Committee
there were two
rounds of
voting on
whether the
Responsibility
to Protect was
ever approved
by the GA.
(Inner City
Press tweeted
the vote
counts here
and here; on
Section 4 with
R2P in it,
there were 141
"Yes" votes.
Then a lull
until 7 pm to
vote it out in
the full
General
Assembly.
Of the UN's
193 member
states, fewer
than 160 voted
in the Fifth
Committee. How
many would in
the full GA? Photo
here.
The answer, at
least on the sovereign
debt
restructuring
resolution,
was 170 of
193: the
resolution passed
120 in favor,
35 abstaining
and 15
against,
including the
US, UK,
Israel,
Switzerland,
Japan and
Australia.
Then
on Section 4
with R2P in
it, there were
137 "Yes"
votes -- four
fewer than in
the Fifth
Committee.
Some, it
seems, didn't
understand the
difference
between voting
for Cuba's
amendment or
Section 4. Sri
Lanka, it must
be said, voted
against R2P in
both the Fifth
Committee and
in
the GA. Sudan's
seat was empty,
even when the
UNAMID budget
was adopted,
as for when
the ICTR
on Rwanda was
passed through.
(Rwanda spoke
in favor of
R2P in both
the Fifth
Committee and
GA
In GA
speeches, the
Law
of the Sea
Treaty, LOST,
was being
trashed by
Turkey and
others, while
a new probe
into the death
of Dag
Hammarskjold
was approved.
(The UN's
promised
self-probe
into its
peacekeepers
shooting at
unarmed
demonstrators
for democracy
in Haiti two
weeks ago is apparently
still
UNfinished.)
Finally, after
Syria spoke on
Special
Political
Missions and
Iran against
funding for
the sanctions
committee
against it,
Ambassador
Masood Khan of
Pakistan read
out a list of
item that had
been deferred
and it was
over, with a
whimper and a
small
bang of the
gavel.
In
the run up to
the December
24 budget
showdown at
the UN,
diplomats
worked until
six in the
morning, on
issues ranging
from the 2016
budget to the
first
performance
report.
At 3 pm on
December 24,
however, the
outgoing head
of the Group
of 77,
Bolivia's
Sacha
Llorenti, told
G77
representatives
that the other
side said no
more talks
today. Later
in the day it
was
rolled-over to
the next week,
and now Inner
City Press is
first to
report some of
the results.
Beyond the
money (see
below), the
contentious
issue of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's same
sex marriage
benefits, on
which the
Organization
for Islamic
Cooperation
and others
were prepared
to vote no,
has been
pushed over
into the next
session. One
African
Permanent
Representative,
not in the
OIC, told
Inner City
Press Ban
should "just
withdraw" his
policy. Ban is
on annual
leave.
On Yom Kippur,
Diwali and
other
religions'
holidays
becoming
official UN
system
holidays,
sources tell
Inner City
Press that
language has
been arrived
at that allows
these holidays
to be
celebrated
without
requiring it.
The
Partnerships
facilities,
which many
delegates
linked to
former UN
official
Robert Orr,
ran into
opposition
from those who
say its
modalities and
"programmatic"
elements must
be further
negotiated.
The return of
some $150
million by the
Capital Master
Plan is still
being pushed
for; G77 says
it "held the
line on
re-costing."
In the hallway
outside
Conference
Rooms 5, 1 and
3, Inner City
Press
interviewed a
range of
diplomats and
UN Secretariat
officials
about
the
rebellion by
some member
states at
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
policy
position -- or
"executive
order," as one
delegate
called it --
on same sex
marriage.
"Between the
OIC and
African
countries,
it's going
down," one
Permanent
Representative
had told Inner
City Press.
The other side
says that Ban
has the power
to "just do
it." But, even
the person
making this
argument
conceded,
Ban is no
Obama.
And, another
asked, where
IS Ban
Ki-moon, as
his policy is
"going down"
in the Fifth
Committee? On
December 29
the answer
was: on annual
leave.
A delegate
from Uruguay
last week
urged the rest
of the Fifth
Committee of
the UN General
Assembly to do
everything
possible to
come to a
conclusion
before midday
on December
24. That
didn't happen.
Now will it be
done on
December 29?
In
this session
the Fifth
Committee is
considering,
for example,
the proposed
program budget
outline for
the biennium
2016-17. On
this, amid
threats of
cut-backs, the
Group of 77
and China put
a resolution
into an “L
document” on
December 23,
leading to
protests from
diplomats from
Italy, Japan
and the US.
Diplomats
stayed
until 6 am on
December 24,
and returned
for a G77
meeting at 11
am, moved due
to its size
from
Conference
Room 9 to CR
1. Bolivia's
Permanent
Representative
Sacha
Llorenti, soon
to turn over
the G77 gavel
to South
Africa,
reported back
to G77
Ambassador
where things
stood.
For
now, the Fifth
Committee
“plenary” is
not set until
3 pm, with the
full General
Assembly with
no time set at
all.
Other
items include
the Capital
Master Plan,
the
Extraordinary
Chambers court
in Cambodia, revised
estimates for
the Ebola
mission UNMEER
and for the Human
Rights Council
(regarding
cut-backs at
which, see
this Inner
City Press
story) and
UNHQ long term
accommodation
needs,
otherwise
known as building
on a current
New York City
playground.
Another
item
concerns the
UN's UMOJA
system, with
cost overruns
and corruption
scandals. One
former UMOJA
official, Paul
van Essche who
was caught up
in a scandal
-- "PHP
irregularities,"
Inner City
Press exclusive
coverage here
-- now
announces
he'll
resurface as
UNICEF's chief
of information
technology in
January 2015.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
