Daily Multilateralism
Thursday, November 12, 2020
The newly elected members of the United Nations Security Council this week are receiving briefings on the Council’s workings, including tips from outgoing Council members. India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway are joining the Council as Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa depart. These sessions for new members have been conducted regularly since 2003 and are jointly hosted by Security Council Report, Columbia University, and the United Nations’ Security Council Affairs division. The program aims to narrow the knowledge and experience gaps that have sometimes hampered newly elected Security Council members.
Reuters reports on a deadly accident involving the multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai:
A helicopter with the U.S.-led Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Egyptian Sinai crashed on Thursday near the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing eight members of the peacekeeper force, the MFO said.
Those killed were six Americans, a French national and a Czech national, all of them military service members, the MFO said in a statement. It added that one American MFO member survived and was medically evacuated.
The MFO emerged as an ad hoc mechanism to help bolster the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. (The threat of a Soviet veto prevented the creation of a new UN force.) Throughout the MFO’s history, the United States has been the leading contributor to its operations, both financially and in terms of personnel.
The Australian government has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of abuses by its forces in Afghanistan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has an active investigation of a range of possible crimes in the country, and prime minister Scott Morrison described the appointment as, in part, an effort to avoid ICC scrutiny:
There had been speculation that Australia's failure to fully investigate the reports could lead to the International Criminal Court stepping in.
Asked if the appointment of a prosecutor would mitigate that risk, Morrison said: “We believe so, yes. That is the important advice we have taken on this.”
“We need to deal with this as Australians according to our own laws, through our own justice processes.”
At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN), Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte emphasized the importance of the 2016 international ruling on the South China Sea:
The 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea is an authoritative interpretation of the application of UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]…It is now part of international law. And its significance cannot be diminished nor ignored by any country, however big and powerful.
Julia De Clerck-Sachsse argues that the European Union needs to do a better job of communicating its own story:
[T]he EU has largely communicated with a focus on rationality and economic benefits, even as these are all issues that directly touch on questions of identity and community and therefore also have a strong emotional dimension. This overly rational style of communication hampers its global appeal and stands in the way of a deeper connection with European citizens.
Briefly noted:
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed horror at the violence in northern Mozambique, allegedly committed by followers of the Islamic State.
An argument for why South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee should be the next director general of the World Trade Organization.
A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency notes that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now many times that permitted under the 2015 nuclear agreement.
The Organization of American States has weighed in on the political crisis that is roiling Peru.
Voting for judgeships on the International Court of Justice is underway at the United Nations.