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In
UN's NGO
Comt'e,
Freedom Now
Voted Down
11-4, Move to
ECOSOC
Predicted
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May
30 -- In the
UN's Committee
on
Non-Governmental
Organizations
on May 29, the
application of
Freedom Now
was pushed to
a vote by the
United States;
it was badly
defeated, with
eleven votes
against and
only four
votes for,
with one
abstention
(India) and
three NGO
Committee
members
absent:
Guinea,
Mauritania
and,
tellingly,
Turkey.
The
“No” voters
included
Sudan, on
which outgoing
UN aid
coordinator Valerie
Amos refused
to comment on
May 28, here,
and Burundi
amid its
crackdown and
simultaneous
submission of
abusive police
officers for
service in Herve
Ladsous'
mission in
Mali, MINUSMA,
here.
Freedom
Now speaks
up for (some)
political
prisoners, and
usually
effectively
(that the Zone
9 Bloggers are
still in jail
is telling.)
Freedom NOw
can and will
continue their
work without
the dubious
“legitimacy”
this Committee
can confer.
But the
question
arose, why did
the US push it
to a vote that
it knew it
would lose,
and
badly?
Why didn't the
US work to
“turn” some of
the votes, at
least from
“No” to
abstention or
absent?
But the “No”
camp had their
points on May
29. The chair
of the
Committee
repeatedly
refused to
explain why
for example
the vote on
Freedom Now
could be
pushed for,
while another
item in the
morning,
similarly
pushed, was
deferred.
South Africa
raised this,
and later the
Chair made a
point of
admonishing
them, “for the
record,” he
said. He
did not appear
impartial,
whatever that
means in the
UN. Inner City
Press live-tweeted
it, here
and here.
The pattern
now is for
defeated
applications
like this to
be referred to
the full
ECOSOC
Committee,
where the
political mix
is different.
Does this mean
there is less
focus in the
run-up to
selection for
the NGO
Committee?
Some expect to
hear more on
this from the
US, from
Ambassador
Samantha Power
as
before, here,
and soon.
Watch this
site.
* * *
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