By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 27 --
In a result
not unlike a
college
basketball
game, the
African Group
beat the
European Union
and US 78 to
76 on
Thanksgiving
Eve in the
UN's Third
Committee,
with 18
abstaining.
Inner
City Press was
the first to
report the
result,
linking it to
the UN
Security
Council's
rebuff of the
African
Union's
request for a
one
year deferral
of the
International
Criminal
Court's Kenya
proceedings
on November
15.
But
based on
feedback,
including at
China's End of
Security
Council
Presidency
reception and
then at an
Indian Fifth
Committee
reception,
a bit more
explanation is
necessary. The
African Group
in essence
protested an
end run around
the 193
members of the
General
Assembly.
And on that
basis, they
won.
The
issue was
whether the
Human Rights
Council,
created by and
a
subsidiary of
the General
Assembly,
could create a
new Focal
Point
without review
by the General
Assembly. The
answer was no.
This
was discussed,
animatedly and
over
dumplings, at
the Chinese
mission
on 35th Street
minutes later.
Many Permanent
Representatives
still
hadn't heard
of the vote. Sri
Lanka's, for
example, after
conferring
with a former
landlord /
scribe
pitched Inner
City Press on
the sins
of the
British, for
example the
Chagos Islands
and further
back, the
Mau Mau.
Then
at the Indian
mission, the
Fifth
Committee
which has yet
to hit its
Superbowl /
late night
moment noshed
and drank. But
back in the
UN,
the Third
Committee
continued. On
women human
rights
defenders,
Norway agreed
to strip out a
paragraph, PP
13, which led
a slew of
countries to
put out as
co-sponsored.
The
Bulgarian
chair, earlier
in the evening
somewhat rude
to the Sudan,
announced that
translation
would no
longer be
provided.
France
protested,
then later
Russia did --
while keeping
it short, to
not
delay the
"African party,"
which was
scheduled for
the
Nigerian
mission, also
known as
Gambari House.
In
the
traditional
end
of session of
poem, the UK
said that "UK
fully
endorses, as
long
as it's within
existing
resources."
Egypt
responded with
a rhyme
about R2P. And
that was that!
Until the full
General
Assembly takes
up all these
items. Watch
this site.
, 
