Morning Multilateralism
Friday, June 26 2020
The UN Security Council unanimously renewed an arms embargo on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vote is a reminder of how much of the Council’s work is still done through consensus, even as tensions escalate between the Council’s permanent members. By my count, sixty percent of Council votes this year have been unanimous and, half-way through the year, there still has not been a formal use of the veto.
According to several news reports, Israeli officials expect the International Criminal Court’s judges to decide shortly whether the prosecutor may launch a full investigation of the situation in Palestine. Several ICC judges are considering a range of complex issues, including whether Palestine is a state. It’s worth noting that the recent sanctions that the U.S. government imposed against the ICC can be applied as well to any ICC personnel involved in an investigation of Israel.
France and Germany boost their financial support for the World Health Organization but signal that they want reform. At least to this observer, the calls for WHO reform remain somewhat nebulous. I have no doubt some are needed, but what specific changes do key member states want? (Meanwhile, in a reminder of the organization’s important non-coronavirus work, the WHO declares that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ended.)
Controversy intensifies over Brazil’s former education minister Abraham Weintraub and his future at the World Bank. Note that Brazil has nominated Weintraub as a Bank “executive director,” a position in which he would draw a Bank salary but functionally would be Brazil’s voice at the Bank. The Bank and the IMF are unusual in that member countries do not have ambassadors to the organizations. Instead, executive directors represent their interests. Like most countries, Brazil shares an executive directorship with several other countries. I have not yet seen press reports about what those other countries—including Colombia, Panama, and the Dominican Republic—think about the Weintraub nomination.
At a virtual ASEAN meeting, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte decries “alarming incidents” in the South China Sea and calls for compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Philippines secured its stunning legal victory against China’s South China Sea claims in July 2016, just as Duterte assumed office. Duterte has generally played down that ruling in an attempt to smooth relations with Beijing. But other players in the region, including Indonesia, have recently more vocally endorsed the international ruling.
Gambia’s justice minister resigns. He played a key role in the country’s International Court of Justice genocide case against Myanmar and other human rights initiatives and will reportedly now take up a job at the United Nations.
Sign of the times? The World Meteorological Organization reports record-breaking lightning flashes.