Morning Multilateralism
Monday, July 6 2020
The Pope lauds the Security Council’s global ceasefire resolution, which was adopted unanimously last week. Boko Haram did not get the memo. Its forces reportedly fired on a United Nations aid helicopter in northern Nigeria.
Activists seek an International Criminal Court investigation of China’s Uighur policies. China is not a member of the ICC, and the court would not normally have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Chinese territory. Using an argument that underpinned the Myanmar investigation, however, the lawyers insist that the court can have jurisdiction based on the impact of alleged crimes in other countries:
Rodney Dixon, a British lawyer leading the case, said it circumvented the issue of jurisdiction over Beijing by focusing on claims of unlawful acts by China in Cambodia and Tajikistan, two countries that are members of the court.
More than two hundred scientists urge the World Health Organization to take airborne transmission of coronavirus more seriously. Some critics argue that the WHO has been too cautious in updating its guidance on the issue:
[T]he infection prevention and control committee in particular, experts said, is bound by a rigid and overly medicalized view of scientific evidence, is slow and risk-averse in updating its guidance and allows a few conservative voices to shout down dissent.
The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over a dam project on the Nile moves to the African Union. Egypt previously brought the issue to the UN Security Council, but the body took no action.
The European Union pledges decisive action if the United States does not resolve long-running trade dispute on aircraft subsidies. Meanwhile, the EU is deep into budget negotiations, with familiar tensions between northern European budget hawks and others.
The World Bank backs away from a plan to issue pandemic bonds. The program was launched in 2017. At the time, Bank president Jim Yong Kim described it as “a momentous step that has the potential to save millions of lives and entire economies from one of the greatest systemic threats we face.”