At
US
Bash for
Rights
Committee, of
Sliders &
Comfort Women,
Tennis
with Falk
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 13 --
Twenty three
stories over
the UN the
delegates
to the Third
(Human Rights)
Committee were
hosted
Thursday
evening by
American
Ambassador
Rick Barton,
with talk
ranging from
upcoming
elections for
the Committee
on Torture to
the Occupy
Wall Street
protests
downtown.
So
far in the
Third
Committee the
news that
reached the UN
press corps
was a
dust-up
between Japan
and South
Korea on the
topic of
comfort women
in the Second
World War.
This came
under the
high-sounding
agenda
item
Advancement of
Women but
quickly
descended into
talk of crimes
against
humanity.
It
turns out that
an American
candidate for
the Committee
on Torture,
Ms. Felice D.
Gaer, lost at
least one Far
Eastern vote
for daring to
raise issues
about comfort
women and
reparations.
The Democratic
People
Republic
of Korea,
which is
usually
Japan's
interlocutor
on the issue,
this
time fought
with Canada,
about being
called North
Korea (albeit
in
Frenc, Coree
du Nord) by
Canada's First
Committee
delegate Kelly
Anderson.
On
the human
rights
issue of a
Nuba supporter
of the SPLM
being murdered
by Sudanese
police right
in front of UN
peacekeepers
from Egypt in
Southern
Kordofan in
June, Inner
City Press
approached the
UN's top New
York
based human
rights
official Ivan
Simonovic. "I
can neither
confirm nor
deny,"
Simonovic said
before
leaving.
Out
on First
Avenue, the
new head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
who has yet to
answer for
this or for
the discipline
if any of
sexually
abusive UN
peacekeepers
from Benin in
Cote d'Ivoire
and Sri
Lankans in
Haiti,
waited across
from the US
Mission for
the First
Avenue express
bus.
It's a long
way, from the
Upper East
Side to Haiti
or Kordofan.
And
from Maine as
well. Mainer
Rick Barton,
the host,
greeted all
and sundry.
Inner
City Press
asked his
views of
Occupy Wall
Street and he
said that
anyone in the
US who doesn't
support the
rights of
peaceful
protesters
doesn't
understand the
US. (Another
attendee, not
American,
joked about
protesters
with $2000
Apple
computers.)
Barton
worked hard
last session
to reverse a
vote in the
NGO committee
to exclude gay
rights
promoters from
UN
accreditation.
Thursday he
told a story
of
playing tennis
with Richard
Falk, the
now-controversial
Special
Rapporteur
about rights
in Palestine.
Barton in the
GA, Falk
tennis and
Democratic
politics not
shown
Meanwhile
at Thursday
evening's
reception US
and French
representatives
from the
Security
Council's
afternoon
session on
Palestine's
application to
join the UN
chatted,
as a
representative
of Libya's
Transitional
National
Council worked
the room.
Inner
City Press'
urging that
TNC Ambassador
Ibrahim
Dabbashi visit
Occupy Wall
Street
in Zuccotti
Park has still
not be acted
on, even as
Mayor Michael
Bloomberg
explains the
protesters
will have to
vacate the
park on
Friday
morning,
temporarily or
forever it is
not clear.
The
previous
evening's
host, Ambassador
for Management
(and
Pennsylvanian)
Joe Torsella,
was also in
attendance; he
declined to
compare his
Italian fare
with the more
generic
vegetable and
cheese cubes
Third
Committee
spread. Barton
had
sliders,
however, while
Torsella had
grilled
cheese.
The
European
Union,
it emerges,
has regained
its voice
after more
than a week of
fighting
over whether
to speak as
"the members
of the EU" or
"the
EU and its
members." Now
it's just
"EU." Earlier
on
Thursday
the
spokesperson
for the
President of
the General
Assembly
told Inner
City Press it
was not a
fight:
Inner
City
Press: last
week there
have been two
exceptions,
but basically
the European
Union hasn’t
spoken in
committees.
There was a
big
fight to get
them the right
to speak, and
now they are
not speaking.
I understand
that there’s
some dispute
about whether
they should be
called the EU,
the member
States of the
EU or the EU
and its member
States. Is
that true? How
is it going to
be resolved
and what does
the President
of the General
Assembly think
of it?
Spokesperson:
First of all,
I would not
characterize
it as a fight,
as you’ve
just put it.
So, what I can
tell you
regarding this
problem is
that
we were asked
to give — the
PGA’s Office,
the President
of the
General
Assembly’s
Office — has
been asked to
give an
opinion to
that issue,
and the PGA
sought the
legal opinion
of the Office
of
Legal Affairs,
as well he
consulted with
the other
major
stakeholders
regarding that
particular
issue,
including
representatives
of the
General
Assembly
Affairs
Office, and
also with the
Chairs of the
Main
Committees.
And we are
aware that
there are
internal EU
discussions
going on among
the EU and the
Chairs of the
other
Committees,
and
particularly
with the Chair
of the Third
Committee
(Social,
Humanitarian
and Cultural),
Mr. Hassim
Hanif. And Mr.
Hanif is
consulting
with other
Member States,
and they are
trying to
resolve
the matter in
their own
context.
That’s what I
can tell you
about
that matter.
Inner
City
Press: Sure.
Did he check
CARICOM,
viewed as a
stakeholder in
this, some
Member States
have had some
problems with
giving this
right to the
EU, that’s why
I was calling
it a fight, I
just
wonder, when
you were
listing the
stakeholders,
did he meet
with
these regional
groups like
CARICOM?
Spokesperson:
The
stakeholders,
the ones that
I have
mentioned are
the ones that
we have held
consultations
with.
We'll
have more on
this - watch
this site.
, 
