At
UN, Palestine
Says Cast into
Small Arms
Limbo by Ban's
Lawyer
O'Brien
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
Palestine's
fight at the
UN moves
conference
by conference,
seat by seat.
As Inner City
Press exclusively
reported,
Palestine was
a full party
earlier this
year in
conferences
on the Law of
the Sea Treaty
(LOST) and
then Geographic
Names.
But at
the Arms
Trade Treaty
talks, after a
delay first
noted
by Inner City
Press, Palestine
was put in the
front row, but
not as a full
party.
Now
that has
happened on
Small Arms and
Light Weapons.
Why?
Inner
City Press has
learned that
the exclusion
is based on a
ruling by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's top
lawyer,
Patricia
O'Brien.
In
Geographic
Names, despite
opposition by
Canada, the US
and Israel,
Palestine had
full status
under the
so-called
Vienna
formula: all
member states
and members of
UN system
specialized
agencies.
Small
Arms, like the
ATT, is under
the "all
states"
formula,
which
Palestine
argues
includes them,
since they
joined UNESCO
as a
state. This
formula, they
say, used to
cover non UN
members (at
the
time) like
Guinea Bissau
and a VietNam.
But
Ban's Office
of Legal
Affairs under
Patricia
O'Brien says
no, "all
states" does
not include
Palestine, but
rather follows
General
Assembly
rules. The
Holy See,
which in ATT
sat in the
front row with
Palestine, in
Small Arms is
a full party.
But Palestine
is not, under
the O'Brien
(and Ban)
rules.
Inner City
Press has
repeatedly
asked that
Patricia
O'Brien, the
UN's top
lawyer who
also killed
off reform of
the Security
Council's
working
methods with a
ruling many
found shoddy,
come and
answer
questions. But
she has
declined.
Now
Mahmoud Abbas
says that
observer STATE
status will be
sought through
the General
Assembly.
But with the
past legal
maneuvers of
Ban and
O'Brien, what
new exclusions
will they
dream up?
Watch this
site.
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