UNITED
NATIONS,
December 18 --
Three weeks
ago, the
African Group
beat
the
European Union
and US 78 to
76 on
Thanksgiving
Eve in the
UN's Third
Committee,
with 18
abstaining.
The issue was
whether at the
UN Human
Rights Council
a new "Focal
Point" could
be established
without
General
Assembly
review. The
answer, then,
was no.
Now it and
other items
are coming up
in the full
General
Assembly. The
African Group
has met and
members have
told Inner
City Press
they've
decided to
"stand strong."
They tell
Inner City
Press
exclusively
that they're
taking the
same position
on Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon's
request to
give Achim
Steiner
another two
years atop the
UN Environment
Program in
Nairobi,
Kenya. Team
Ban is sure to
try to push
back.
Inner
City Press was the
first to
report the
November 27
result,
linking it to
the UN
Security
Council's
rebuff of the
African
Union's
request for a
one year
deferral of
the
International
Criminal
Court's Kenya
proceedings on
November 15.
But
based on
feedback,
including at
China's classy
and uncensored
End of
Security
Council
Presidency
reception and
then at an
Indian Fifth
Committee
reception, a
bit more
explanation was
necessary. The
African Group
in essence
protested an
end run around
the 193
members of the
General
Assembly. And
on that basis,
they won.
The
issue was
whether the
Human Rights
Council,
created by and
a subsidiary
of the General
Assembly,
could create a
new Focal
Point without
review by the
General
Assembly. The
answer was no.
This
was discussed,
animatedly and
over
dumplings, at
the Chinese
mission on
35th Street
minutes later.
Many Permanent
Representatives
still hadn't
heard of the
vote. Sri
Lanka's, for
example, after
conferring
with a former
landlord /
scribe
pitched Inner
City Press on
the sins of
the British,
for example
the Chagos
Islands and
further back,
the Mau Mau.
Then
at the Indian
mission, the
Fifth
Committee
which still
has yet to hit
its Superbowl
/ late night
moment noshed
and drank. But
back in the
UN, the Third
Committee
continued. On
women human
rights
defenders,
Norway agreed
to strip out a
paragraph, PP
13, which led
a slew of
countries to
pull out as
co-sponsored.
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