UNITED NATIONS, Nov 08 (IPS) – When the United Nations imposes sanctions or penalizes a member state – be it the Common Meeting or the Human Rights Council – the resolutions are “non-binding” and infrequently stay unimplemented.
However the Safety Council resolutions are “binding” – and nonetheless brazenly violated by international locations resembling North Korea—as a result of all these UN our bodies haven’t any technique of implementing these resolutions, nor a standing military to forcibly implement them. However they solely carry ethical weight.
The Council can even impose its personal sanctions, largely in financial, monetary and commerce sectors, towards violators of its selections.
And final week there was a transfer to impose arms sanctions towards Israel – and rightly so, judging by the 43,000 plus, largely Palestinian civilians, killed in Gaza largely with US-supplied weapons since October final yr.
However how efficient will this be for the reason that strongest opposition will come from the US, an unyielding supporter of Israel, which can unhesitatingly use its veto energy if the decision comes earlier than the Safety Council?
Ambassador Anwarul Okay. Chowdhury, a former UN Underneath-Secretary-Common and one-time Everlasting Consultant of Bangladesh to the United Nations, informed IPS something wanting an actual, everlasting ceasefire wouldn’t create a pathway to finish the perpetration of the continued genocidal aggression by Israel.
On this context, he mentioned, the joint letter calling on all international locations to cease the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel, signed by 52 international locations and two UN-recognized multilateral organizations, is meaningfully forward-looking, and accommodates a purposeful goal of contributing to that “pathway”.
In reality, the International Minister of Turkiye, whose nation initiated the letter, asserted that “We should repeat at each alternative that promoting arms to Israel means taking part in its genocide.”
“It could be argued rightfully that the United Nations and its apex physique, the Common Meeting haven’t any powers to implement such an arms embargo. The Safety Council, the only real UN entity which might authorize an arms embargo and obligate the arms suppliers desist from sending arms to the areas of battle, additionally turns into powerless if one of many P-5 makes use of the infamous veto”.
“Nonetheless, I strongly imagine {that a} Common Meeting decision following the decision for the arms embargo to Israel would have an ethical worth which has its personal benefit. Regardless of the politics and power-play which is destroying the UN’s credibility and marginalizing its operational capability to resolve conflicts, the arms embargo would spotlight the principled place taken by the UN,” mentioned Ambassador Chowdhury.
In a manner, he identified, that will strengthen the Secretary-Common’s efforts to advertise the much-needed ceasefire.
Within the aftermath of Israel’s declaration of the Secretary Common as persona non-grata (PNG) and its extension of the assaults on UNIFIL in Lebanon, the Common Meeting wants to point out that its ethical and normative function as envisaged within the UN Constitution has not been cowed down by the politics of the frequently-used menace of veto, he declared.
Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Worldwide Research on the College of San Francisco, who has written extensively on the politics of the Safety Council, informed IPS: “This initiative displays the view of the overwhelming majority of the world’s governments and peoples and is according to imperatives of worldwide humanitarian regulation, however on condition that the key arms provider of Israel is a veto-wielding everlasting member of the Safety Council, it’s unlikely to have a lot of an impression.”
Additionally problematic, he identified, is that among the international locations sponsoring the initiative, resembling Russia and Saudi Arabia, have been responsible not solely of equally offering weapons to these partaking in warfare crimes however partaking in warfare crimes themselves.
Turkiye’s overseas minister Hakan Fidan mentioned final week his nation had submitted a letter to the United Nations, signed by 52 international locations and two inter-governmental organizations, calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel.
“We now have written a joint letter calling on all international locations to cease the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” mentioned Fidan, in response to the Instances of Israel.
“We should repeat at each alternative that promoting arms to Israel means taking part in its genocide,” mentioned Fidan, including that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkiye.”
Among the many signatories have been Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran and Russia, plus the Arab League and the Group of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),
Elaborating additional, Ambassador Chowdhury mentioned the UN mustn’t overlook that the UN’s Worldwide Court docket of Justice which decided that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Financial institution is illegitimate underneath worldwide regulation. The judgment was adopted by a Common Meeting decision final September, demanding Israel go away the occupied territories inside a yr.
“I’m inspired by the UN’s personal 45 Human Rights Consultants and Particular Rapporteurs, who, pushed by their conscience, forcefully known as for a ‘everlasting ceasefire, … an ‘arms embargo on all fighters,’ and ‘the deployment of a global protecting presence within the occupied Palestinian territory underneath the supervision of the UN.’ All these well-thought-out measures would solely promote dialogue and diplomacy over demise and destruction”.
The UN Secretary-Common must endorse and welcome this name by his in-house specialists and suggest to the Common Meeting to do the identical with none delay, he declared.
Again in April 2024, in a decision adopted by 28 votes in favour, six towards and 13 abstentions, the 47-member Human Rights Council backed a name “to stop the sale, switch and diversion of arms, munitions and different navy gear to Israel, the occupying Energy…to stop additional violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation and violations and abuses of human rights”.
Introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Group of Islamic Cooperation, delegates heard that the decision had additionally been motivated by the necessity to cease “egregious” human rights violations within the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Co-sponsors of the textual content included Bolivia, Cuba and the State of Palestine, forward of the vote which noticed help from greater than two dozen international locations together with Brazil, China, Luxembourg, Malaysia and South Africa, in response to UN Information.
Not like the UN Safety Council, Human Rights Council resolutions aren’t legally binding on States however carry vital ethical weight, and on this occasion is meant to extend diplomatic strain on Israel in addition to probably affect nationwide coverage selections.
Israel’s two largest arms sources, america and Germany, have resisted requires an embargo on Israel, although every has been accused of withholding sure arms through the warfare.
In an October 2024 report, the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Institute (SIPRI) mentioned prior to now decade, Israel has drastically elevated its imports of arms. SIPRI estimates that within the five-year interval 2019–23, Israel was the world’s fifteenth largest importer of main arms, accounting for two.1 per cent of world arms imports within the interval. In 2009–13 it ranked solely forty seventh.
Though solely three international locations equipped main arms to Israel in 2019–23, america, Germany and Italy, many others equipped navy elements, ammunition or providers. The three different world main arms exporters among the many high 10: the UK, France and Spain.
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