October 22, 2009

Conflict at the UN

United Nations
photo: Hondudiario.com


The following is a translation of an October 18 Hondudiario article, translated by Alexandra. The emphasis is mine:


“Conflict at the UN” due to the DPA report on Honduras

Sent by the administrator on Sunday 18/10/2009 – 13:37

Nine out of the 193 UN Member States pressure the Secretary General to promote more sanctions against Honduras, within the framework of a political and not a juridical resolution which condemned this country for the destitution of ex-president Zelaya, and at the same time insist on involving the Security Council which maintains its position of “non-intervention”.

Washington, United States

“A confrontation” at the highest level of the United Nations Organization (UN) has originated the existence of the juridical report about the situation in Honduras, carried out by consultants hired by the Secretary General through the Department of Political Affairs, where the violation of the norms of international law and of non intervention in other States are established and it outlines a concept about ex-president Zelaya’s destitution.

At this moment, what is being handled at the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS), which with the positions adopted against Honduras, after Zelaya’s destitution, in the UN General Assembly presided by Nicaraguan Miguel d’Escoto and the OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza “is that, in the future, any member State may question the actions groups of States have taken in violation of international law”.

After the existence of that special report about the situation in Honduras, in which the juridical and not political positions are established, became known, sources linked to hondudiario.com confirmed that the Secretary General himself was obligated to make a “clarification” to maintain the position of the General Assembly, which condemned Honduras in less than 48 hours with political and interventionist positions.

The same day that hondudiario.com published the information, he [the Secretary General] was obligated to minimize the report, which he cannot deny exists since he authorized it and has opted to keep it in a drawer” said Robert J. Wood adviser and consultant in international law for the UN.

This confrontation is at the highest UN levels, between the representatives of the member States at the General Assembly, the Secretary General and the Security Council, after the existence of a juridical report about the situation in Honduras before, during and after June 28. when the destitution of ex-president Zelaya was carried out, became known.

Wood reaffirmed that the report about the situation in Honduras was authorized by the UN Secretary General, who endorsed the hiring through the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) to be carried out within the juridical framework of the laws and not on the basis of ideological or political positions.

About the constitutional removal of ex-president Zelaya, in accordance with Honduran laws, according to the juridical report, he assured that “the worst part of the situation is that the UN Secretary General himself, pressured by the same group of countries, ran to deny an article in a little newspaper in Honduras in less than 24 hours.

“The confrontation came about because the representative of the Secretary General cannot deny that an official report exists about the situation in Honduras, in which it is confirmed that the General Assembly was manipulated and violated the same UN charter of non intervention and they want to hide their error.” The interviewee added.

The Secretary General, when he recognized that said report exists, admitted that “a recent report in the Honduran press appears to refer to an analysis made by a consultant, alleging it represents an opinion of the Department of Political Affairs. This is extremely biased”.

Biased is the attitude of the Secretary General for not making a public rectification based on the results of the report by the Department for Political Affairs, which they themselves authorized to be made”, he added.

What (the Secretary General) does not mention is that these expert are hired by the UN, to have technical and not political information, and its reports are used to keep informed about the world situation. That the report reveals the constant violations to the principle of non-intervention”.

“Non-intervention together with the juridical equality of the States and proscription of use of force are the framework for international law and international relations”.

“The international instruments, Article 2 paragraph 7 of the United Nations Charter, articles 15 and 16 of the Organization of American States Charter and resolutions 2131(XX) and 2625(XXV), or the United Nations General Assembly and in numerous sentences of the International Court of Justice.”

Wood revealed that in many occasions the Legal Department of the UN met with the ex-president of the UN General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, and he was informed that with its actions, the Organization was violating the non-intervention principle, specifically Article 2 which states that “no disposition of this Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in issues that are essentially of internal State jurisdiction, and it will not obligate the member States to submit said issues to arrangement procedures in conformity with the present Charter, but the principle does not oppose the application of the corrective measures prescribed in Chapter VII”.

“Actually, the report advises that many permanent UN representatives strongly criticized ex-president Zelaya’s plan when he informed in a press conference, held days after his destitution that “a commission is going directly, headed by myself , the President of Honduras, accompanied by the president of the UN General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto”.

Linked to the margin of D'Escoto’s political behavior was “that he was following the agenda of his country of origin, Nicaragua, and of the members do ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas) and he traveled to Honduras”.

Wood assured that “the important thing about Article 2 numeral 7, is the principle of domestic jurisdiction, which was introduced in San Francisco with the purpose of guaranteeing Member States the Organization’s respect to internal law and to allow that the Charter be ratified by the Legislative Power of the Member States. In international law, this article is known as a vital part of the Charter”.

According to the consultant, the new president of the 64th period of sessions of the UN General Assembly, Doctor Ali Abdessalam Treki, from Libya, who substituted Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann from Nicaragua, despite relations between Libya and Venezuela, has not involved himself personally in the Honduras issue as his predecessor did and who was strongly criticized for the way he interfered in the internal issues of Honduras, including when he accompanied ex-president Zelaya on his adventure to enter Honduras by air, violating the United Nations Charter and the norms of International Civil Aviation (ICAO).

“what is being handled now in the corridors of the UN and the OAS by serious officials of these organizations is that, in the future, a Member State will be able to question the actions taken by groups of States in violation of International law”.

“For example, recently the leaders of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St, Vincent and the Grenadines resolved unanimously to “apply economic and commercial sanctions against the coup regime” in Honduras. Without the support of the UN Security Council under Chapters VI or VII of the Charter, this is a clear violation of many international instruments including the UN Charter”, he said.

“Resolution 2131 (XX) of the UN General Assembly typifies these actions as an intervention in domestic jurisdictions, where it clearly states that “no State can apply or promote the use of economic, political or any other kind measure to coax another State for the purpose of achieving that it subordinates the exercise of its sovereign rights or to obtain advantages of any kind”.

All States shall also abstain from organizing, supporting, promoting, financing, instigating or tolerating armed, subversive or terrorist activities directed towards violently changing the regime of another State, and from intervening in another State’s civil war.

“What is true about what the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General reported, is that many of the reports and analyses of this type, are made by consultants, academics and other experts, who feel horrified by the way the ALBA countries and the silence of the other States allow grave violations of international law and keep silent”, Wood indicated.

"In this sense, I estimate that it is natural that the Hondurans reject the intervention of international organs in internal issues, considering that the Honduran issues must be solved by the Hondurans themselves, with debate and ideas and with free elections”.

“The internal issues are solved, with spaces of peace dialogues, which cannot occur with the constant intervention of others”, suggested the consultant and expert assessor in International Law for the Security Council of the UN, who also warned that since the existence of said report about Honduras became known, they have been “threatened with the suspension of funds in order not to carry out more independent and apolitical investigations”.

The UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon “is pressuring it to maintain the position of the Assembly member States that condemned Honduras in less than 48 hours without a legal judgment and many countries still insist on promoting more sanctions against the present regime on the margin of international norms and are pressuring the Security Counsel to get involved in an action which, since June 30, has been erroneous and manipulated within the framework of the concepts and of international law”, he concluded. hondudiario

Special thanks go to Alexandra for the translation.

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This information seems pretty damning to me. Have other countries' delegates seen the report? Has the US State Department seen it? Will anyone release the report?

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Related articles:

More on the UN report
UN Report: Ouster of Zelaya was constitutional

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