Africa

The shooting dead of the performer and his friend at a restaurant last year shocked South Africans.

A mobile money stand in Accra, Ghana. Credit: IMF/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

By Danny Bradlow
PRETORIA, South Africa, Feb 28 2024 (IPS)

It hasn’t been easy for African states to finance their developmental and environmental policy objectives over the past few years.
Recent events suggest that the situation may be improving. For the first time in two years, three African states have been able to access international financial markets, albeit at high interest rates. Kenya, for example, is now paying over 10% compared to about 7% in 2014.

Many African countries continue to face challenging sovereign debt situations. Total external debts as a share of Africa’s export earnings increased from 74.5% in 2010 to 140% in 2022.

In 2022, African governments had to allocate about 12% of their revenues to servicing their debt. Between 2019 and 2022, 25 African governments allocated more resources to servicing their total debts than to the health of their citizens.

And in late 2023 the International Monetary Fund estimated that over half the low income African countries were either potentially or actually experiencing difficulties paying their debts.

This suggests that it will be very difficult for Africa to raise the US$1.6 trillion that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates it needs to reach the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.

One of the lessons of the COVID pandemic and the climate negotiations is that Africa can’t count on the global community to provide it with sufficient new funds or with debt relief to deal with either its development needs or the consequences of crises such as pandemics or extreme weather events.

Its official bilateral creditors appear more focused on their own needs and on other parts of the world than on Africa. Commercial creditors are happy to provide financing when conditions are favourable and African debt can help them satisfy their investment mandates.

But they are less forthcoming when the going gets tough and the risks associated with the transaction – and for which they have been compensated – actually materialise.

This suggests that Africa needs to advocate more aggressively for its own interests. This year offers some good opportunities to promote a more effective approach to African debt.

Careful planning needed

There are two international conferences where global economic governance will be on the agenda. This is also the first year that the African Union participates as a full member in the G20. In addition, South Africa, the G20 chair in 2025, currently serves on the troika that manages the G20 process. (G20 Finance Ministers are scheduled to meet in Brazil 28-29 February).

Debt and development finance will be an important topic in all these forums. African representatives can use their participation to advocate for a new approach to sovereign debt that is more responsive to African needs and concerns. They can also lobby other participating states and non-state actors for their support.

But African states will need to plan carefully. Their starting point should be the well recognised fact that the current sovereign debt restructuring process is not working for anyone. The G20 agreed a Common Framework that was supposed to help resolve the sovereign debt crises in low income countries.

Four African countries applied to have their debts restructured through the framework. Despite years of negotiations, it has failed to fully resolve the debt crisis in three of them.

Countries outside the Common Framework, such as Sri Lanka, have not managed to fully resolve their debt crises either. This is costly for both debtors and creditors. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to look for a new approach.

This requires all parties to be willing to entertain new ideas and to experiment with new approaches to old problems. African states should offer their own innovative proposals. They should also state that they are willing to take on new responsibilities if their creditors are willing to do the same.

They can remind their creditors that these experiments would not be taking place in a vacuum. They can be guided by the many existing, but under-utilised, international norms and standards applicable to responsible sovereign debt transactions, for example the Unctad principles on responsible sovereign debt transactions. Some of these relate to the conduct of sovereign borrowers.

Others focus on responsible lending behaviour and are often cited by creditors in their own policies dealing with environmental and social issues, social responsibility or human rights.

By basing any new approach on these international norms and standards, both debtors and creditors will merely be agreeing to implement principles that they have already accepted.

Working from this starting point, African states should make three specific proposals.

Concrete proposals

First, they should commit to making both the process for incurring debts and the terms of all their public debt transactions transparent.

This will ensure that their own citizens understand what obligations their governments are assuming on their behalf. It will encourage governments to adopt responsible borrowing and debt management practices.

They should also agree that they can be held accountable for their failure to comply with these transparent and responsible sovereign debt practices and procedures.

Second, African states should point out that there is a fundamental problem with a sovereign debt restructuring process that only focuses on the contractual obligations that the debtor state owes its creditors.

This focus means, in effect, that servicing its debt obligations will trump the debtor state’s efforts to deal with the country’s vulnerability to climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and with its poverty, inequality and unemployment challenges.

This follows from the fact that their creditors can use the restructuring process to force sovereign borrowers in difficulty, unlike corporations in bankruptcy, to pay those who lend them money without regard, for example, to the impact on their obligations to pensioners, public sector employees or the welfare of their citizens.

This exclusive focus on debt contracts is inconsistent with the international community’s interest in addressing global challenges like climate and inequality.

This problem can be resolved if both creditors and debtors agree that they will adopt an approach to debt negotiations that incorporates the financial, economic, social, environmental, human rights and governance dimensions of sovereign debt crises.

Third, African states should propose that their creditors publicly commit to base the new approach to sovereign debt on an agreed list of international norms and standards relevant to responsible international financial practices.

These will include those dealing with transparency, climate and environmental issues, and social matters, including human rights.

Source: The Conversation

Danny Bradlow is Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.

University of Pretoria provides funding as a partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

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Yvonne Pinto, the incoming Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, at the 5th All Africa Horticulture Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, February 26 to March 1, 2024. Credit: Supplied by Yvonne Pinto

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Feb 28 2024 (IPS)

Growing up on a small farming station in Holetta (Ethiopia), Yvonne Pinto would accompany her agriculturist father to the farm, where she would spend her time cross-fertilizing plants. Her tiny fingers making the task easier, as she would marvel at the end product of a prospective new and higher yielding variety. These formative years laid the foundation for her career in agricultural science.

Ethiopia in the late 1970s and 1980s was ravaged by a terrible famine, drought, civil war, and international conflict. It became clear to Pinto from the outset that such exigencies could rapidly deteriorate everyday life and the absence of food could decimate a population. These events instilled in her a deep appreciation for the role agriculture and food systems play in human survival.

“I haven’t forgotten where I came from,” says Pinto, the incoming Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A second-generation Kenyan by birth, she feels privileged to have been brought up in Ethiopia, a country that was never colonized and where she felt fortunate to grow up as an equal, a rare experience then.

The small farming station in Holetta, about an hour’s drive from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is now the National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Centre. She says, “My father was its first director. From the mid-1960s, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and the creation of the Ethiopian Seed Corporation in 1978. I’m undoubtedly a product of those institutions and influences. My father has been my champion.”

She has continued to work with people from those institutions, and while it’s important for her to add value and make a contribution where she can, Pinto affirms, “It is also very important to enhance the contribution of others because having bright and capable people contribute to ideas, approaches, and solutions is often the difference between success and failure.”

On April 22, 2024, she will take over as the Director General of IRRI, where she started her working life as a visiting research scholar in 1985, when eminent agricultural scientist and geneticist Dr M S Swaminathan was the institute’s director general.

“My time at IRRI, which is referred to as the jewel in the crown of the CGIAR system, and encouragement from my supervisors clearly influenced my decision later in life to do a PhD in rice,” adds Pinto, who will be the first woman to lead the institute, which is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agri-food systems.

She says, “There are opportunities now for girls and women that weren’t present in the past. There’s an interesting societal transition happening in the world, gaining momentum through the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to the growing focus on equity, inclusion, and diversity. I’m actually a product of that change and thinking.”

Out of the hundreds of congratulatory messages she received on her appointment, “One-third of them were girls and women. All I can say to them is that if I can do it, you can do it,” says Pinto, who also drew inspiration from her mother, a medical surgeon.

In Africa, where rice cultivation is the principal source of income for more than 35 million smallholder rice farmers, women provide the bulk of the labour, from sowing to weeding, harvesting, processing, and marketing, according to the Africa Rice Centre.

Acknowledging the challenges faced by small and middle-income rice farmers, she emphasizes the need to ensure that farmers receive fair returns on their investment.

“Smallholder farmers are reliant upon the private sector or non-governmental organizations to receive the material, such as seeds and other agriculture inputs. In rice and rice seed systems, for example, there are a number of private sector players who are involved. We have to have very intelligent Intellectual Property (IP) arrangements with the private sector to ensure that our farmers have affordable access to these materials and they are not disadvantaged in the process,”  says Pinto, who will also serve as the CGIAR Regional Director for South-East Asia and the Pacific and Country Representative for the Philippines.

Unlike in most Asian countries, where economic growth and increasing urbanization have led to a decline in rice consumption, in African countries, consumption has significantly increased. Demand for rice is growing at more than 6 percent per year, which is faster than for any other food staple in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Africa Rice Centre.

Looking ahead, Pinto envisions IRRI playing a pivotal role in promoting circular agricultural practices in rice production and underpinning the importance of rice in human health and nutrition.

She says, “We have tremendous opportunities to create more nutritious and resilient rice varieties capable of withstanding climate change, benefiting both farmers and consumers alike. There is an opportunity to enable IRRI’s germplasm, not only to influence and impact the Asia-Pacific region but to support other rice producing and consuming countries, notably in Africa”.

Rice is now the second-most important source of calories after corn in many sub-Saharan African countries. The region’s total rice consumption is projected to grow to around 36 million tons by the end of 2026, and the region is expected to import over 32 percent of globally traded rice by 2026, mainly from India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report.

Reflecting on her extensive experience chairing boards and committees worldwide, she says effective leadership hinges on “fostering connections, building trust, and nurturing partnerships and collaboration, as leadership is a collective responsibility within an interconnected ecosystem.”

Pinto is poised to drive impactful change in agricultural research, advancing food security and sustainability.

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Indigenous Bali dogs hold the potential to unlock hidden secrets about ancestral dog diversity. Credit: Sonny Inbaraj/IPS

By Sonny Inbaraj
BALI, Indonesia, Feb 28 2024 (IPS)

Bali’s Island’s ancient canine guardians, the proud descendants of lineages tracing back tens of thousands of years, stand on the brink of extinction. Culling triggered by rabies outbreaks and interbreeding is pushing these living cultural treasures towards a tragic end.

For generations, traditional Bali Heritage Dogs have woven themselves into the fabric of the predominantly Hindu Balinese society. A tapestry woven with ancient folktales binds Bali dogs and the Balinese in a unique bond.

“Guided by the Tri Hita Karana’s principles of harmony and respect, Balinese Hindus forge a unique bond with dogs,” Ida Bawati Sari Budangga, a priest in Dusun Puchang in East Bali’s Desa Ban at the foot of the Gunung Agung volcano, told IPS.

Tri Hita Karana weaves harmony between humans and their environment, evident in offerings to deities and respect for nature’s bounty. Tri Hita Karana also serves as a powerful model for sustainable development, inspiring initiatives that balance human needs with environmental respect.

Balinese treat dogs with care, valuing their presence in their lives and communities. Credit: Dewa Made Suarjana/BAWA

“This isn’t merely pet ownership, but an embodiment of their deep connection to all living beings. From sharing meals to participating in temple rituals together, dogs are woven into the fabric of Balinese life, reflecting their reverence for the natural world and its creator,” added the priest.

In Balinese culture, the Mahabharata story of King Yudhistira and his loyal dog plays a significant role in understanding their deep respect for dogs. When Dharma, disguised as the king’s ill-kept dog, is denied entry to heaven by Indra, Yudhistira refuses to enter without him. This act of unwavering loyalty reveals Dharma’s true form as the God of righteousness, highlighting the importance of compassion and connection with all beings. This story continues to inspire the Balinese to treat dogs with respect and care, valuing their presence in their lives and communities.

Driven by interest in the Bali dog’s distinct genetic ancestry, studies such as the University of California, Davis 2005 study “Genetic Variation Analysis of the Bali Street Dog Using Microsatellites” reveal the wide diversity contained in their DNA. Microsatellites is a lab technique that uses genetic markers for studying genealogy, population organization, genome diversity, the process of evolution, and fingerprinting from extracted DNA samples.

The study found that dog populations on Bali had been separated for an estimated 12,000 years and this protracted isolation has shaped Bali’s dog genetics, resulting in distinct genetic variants absent elsewhere in other dogs.

UC Davis’ groundbreaking study unveiled an intriguing genetic link between Bali dogs and ancient Asian breeds such as the Dingo and Chow Chow. This fascinating lineage can be traced back to the Austronesian migration and colonization of South Indochina, which occurred before the last glaciation period when Bali was connected to the mainland through a land bridge that eventually submerged.

“As a result of their genetic isolation, indigenous Bali dogs hold the potential to unlock hidden secrets about ancestral dog diversity, and even shed light on ancient human migration patterns and trade routes,” commented UC Davis’ Dr Benjamin Sacks, adjunct professor, at the university’s school of veterinary medicine.

However, Sacks warned in response to the 2005 study and a study done in 2011: “We don’t have all the questions yet to ask, but they’re emerging every day, and if we lose these populations, we lose the ability to answer those questions.”

In 2008,

The indigenous Bali dog population has plunged from a staggering 800,000 to a mere 20,000. Credit: Sonny Inbaraj/IPS

Bali’s unique indigenous dog breed suffered a brutal blow with the knee-jerk reaction of mass culling, which continues to this day following rabies outbreaks. In a widespread plan to eliminate free-roaming dogs, the indigenous Bali dogs were not spared. Just like in other countries in Asia and Africa, rabies in Indonesia is being sustained within the domestic dog population. It’s not surprising that the public commonly associates rabies with dogs and dog bites.

According to the World Health Organization rabies is endemic in 26 provinces in Indonesia, including Bali, with 74 cases of human rabies out of 66,170 bite cases from suspected rabid animals reported in the country from January to July 2023.

Bali Island had never experienced rabies before, until 2008. Lax surveillance allowed a rabid dog to slip through from Flores, an island ravaged by endemic canine rabies since 1997, setting the stage for Bali’s own struggle with the animal-borne disease.

“Before the outbreak of rabies in 2008, the island had one of the highest dog-to-human ratios in the world,” said Janice Girardi, founder of the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA).

“Mass culling was the first action that the local government authorities took in response to the rabies epidemic. They utilized teams that were armed with blow darts and baits that contained strychnine,” she added.

Culling on its own has never had an effect on rabies in dogs or humans or dog population growth, said Dr Darryn Knobel, professor at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts.

“If you’re culling, you’re going to be diverting resources away from vaccination. The only thing that works is vaccination and you need to vaccinate at least 70 percent of all dogs to get what we term herd immunity,” he explained.

An indigenous Bali dog in East Bali. Credit: Sonny Inbaraj/IPS

From 2005 to 2008, the Bali dog population was estimated to be between 600,000 and 800,000, according to a 2018 study. However, due to culling following the 2008 rabies epidemic in Bali, the population of free-ranging dogs has decreased by at least 25 percent, according to the study.

BAWA’s Girardi issued a stark warning about the indigenous Bali dog population, which has now plunged further from a staggering 800,000 to a mere 20,000, according to the NGO’s mapping.

“With such dwindling numbers,” she emphasized, “the chances of purebred dogs finding mates and perpetuating their lineage are vanishingly small, akin to winning the lottery.”

The interbreeding of native Bali dogs with dogs of other breeds that have been introduced to the island is another cause for concern. This occurred when the government of Bali, in 2004, abolished an ancient piece of legislation from 1926 that had been issued by Dutch colonialists to prevent the introduction of rabies into Bali from other islands within the archipelago.

For Balinese seeking outward signs of affluence, Western breeds and crossbreeds trump the indigenous Bali dog, deemed unworthy of attention and left wanting.

“I have one Bali dog now, but I’m planning to either get a Golden Retriever or a small long-haired crossbreed. They’re unique and good for our image,” 14-year-old I Kenang Sunia in Desa Jatituhun, Ban, in east Bali, told IPS.

Battling extinction, BAWA deploys its sterilization program to remote Balinese villages, targeting non-purebred dogs in a critical effort to conserve the dwindling population of the purebred Bali dog.

“We sterilise as many non-pure Bali dogs as possible in each area (to prevent interbreeding) in order to save the remaining indigenous dogs in Bali before they are lost forever,” said Girardi.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 28 2024 (IPS)

As dire economic predictions for 2023 did not materialise, pundits began 2024 far more optimistically. But policy ghosts from the last half-century will likely undermine such wishful thinking.

Optimistic forecasts
As New Year celebrations of different cultures decline with the coming of spring in the northern hemisphere, it is useful to review and reconsider various end-of-2023 and early-2024 economic prognoses against what happened in the previous year.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Macro-financial economist Nouriel Roubini agrees that worst-case scenarios – including a “severe recession, leading to a credit and debt crisis”, stagflation, and other financial crises – are unlikely for now.

But he acknowledges this can easily be “derailed by any number of factors, not least geopolitics”. Such developments – especially the US-China conflict – are likely to undermine growth.

Former Goldman Sachs Asset Management chair Lord Jim O’Neill warns against overconfidence in such forecasts. He warns of the many “known unknowns”, particularly geopolitical ones, besides “unknown unknowns lurking on the horizon”.

For former Wall Street pundit Mohamed El-Erian, “the chances of robust global growth in 2024 appear tenuous”. He dismisses “optimistic sentiment” based on “central banks aggressively cutting interest rates amid the softest of all soft landings for the US economy”.

After all, the European Central Bank has emphasised it will not follow the US Fed in ending interest rate hikes. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become an inflation hawk, accelerating world economic contraction.

El-Erian agrees central banks alone “may not be enough to generate the necessary growth momentum to withstand the headwinds facing the global economy”. Meanwhile, fiscal austerity policy pressures limit the means for counter-cyclical policies.

World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President Indermit Gill and Ayhan Kose agree on the risks of tepid world growth for developing economies. However, their main recommendation is to pursue the same policies that have led to the current predicament.

The duo urge developing countries to pursue policies “generating a broadly beneficial investment boom”, including contractionary fiscal austerity! Governments are told to “avoid the kinds of fiscal policies that often derail economic progress”, such as counter-cyclical efforts.

Western central banks resorted to unconventional monetary policies – mainly ‘quantitative easing’ (QE) – to keep their economies afloat after the 2008 global financial crisis. But QE enabled more financialisation and indebtedness rather than real investments or recovery.

Dismal recovery prospects
The World Bank’s 2024 Global Economic Prospects is pessimistic, fearing “the weakest global growth performance of any half-decade since the 1990s”. After all, growth has slowed in most of the world since the pandemic, falling from 6.2% in 2021 to 2.6% in 2023.

Growth in 2023 in most developed economies was below the 2010-19 average of the Great Recession after the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Consumer prices began to rise, driven by supply-side disruptions and increased demand, thanks to more government expenditure after the 2020 pandemic-induced recession.

Fuel and food price speculation followed the February 2022 Ukraine war outbreak, further raising prices. Soon, however, as C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh have shown, speculation receded as adequate supplies became evident, bringing price levels down from their mid-2022 peaks.

But decelerating inflation was attributed to US Fed-led sustained interest rate hikes long after inflation had peaked, over a year before central bank rates peaked. Falling global growth has thus been misrepresented as the unfortunate but inevitable and necessary cost of taming inflation.
It is widely believed that growth can now be revived as interest rates come down. However, over a decade of low-interest rates from late 2008 to early 2022 did not end the slow growth after the GFC.

Most governments backtracked as soon as the ‘green shoots’ of recovery appeared in 2009. Similarly, budget deficits were quickly cut in 2021 and 2022, with the post-pandemic recovery rapidly losing momentum.

With the policy mantras of balanced budgets and fiscal austerity – dictated by financial interests – dominant in recent decades, more government spending to stimulate recovery and growth remains unlikely. Instead, all hopes are on interest rate cuts still eschewed by many central banks.

South under greatest threat
Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff expects 2024 to be a “rocky year for everyone”. He forecasts the likelihood of a US recession at “probably around 30%”, twice the “15% in normal years”, and notes China’s recovery efforts “face several daunting challenges”.

Almost alone among Western economic oracles, he recognises developing economies “are in the most danger”. Now much more vulnerable after decades of earlier Western-promoted globalisation, most struggle to avoid stagnation if growth fails to recover as expected.

After over a decade of tepid growth and deteriorating conditions in much of the Global South, especially the poorer nations, prospects will depend on policymakers thinking realistically and acting pragmatically to expedite sustained recovery rather than pursuing the failed prescriptions of recent decades.

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Those escaping Sudan’s conflict have been turning to people smugglers, with deadly consequences.

Those escaping Sudan’s conflict have been turning to people smugglers, with deadly consequences.

Malians and citizens from elsewhere in West Africa are said to be among the victims.

A Jehovah's Witness couple and their son are released following their abduction in May 2022.

Nearly 500 were killed in 2023 with hunters moving away from previous poaching hotspots.

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to nationwide protests.

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to nationwide protests.

The authorities say it happened on the same day that churchgoers were killed during morning mass.

Paleki Ayang, Gender Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa, Equality Now

By Paleki Ayang
JUBA, Feb 27 2024 (IPS)

Female genital mutilation (FGM) stands as one of the most egregious violations of human rights, particularly affecting women and girls worldwide. However, when conflict and forced displacement enter the equation, the horrors of FGM are exacerbated, creating a dire situation that demands urgent attention and action. Where instability and insecurity prevail, the prevalence of FGM often intensifies, exacerbated by factors such as displacement, poverty, and the breakdown of social systems.

On April 15, 2023, war erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), plunging the country into an intense political and humanitarian crisis with unprecedented emerging needs. As of December 2023, over 7.4 million people were uprooted from their homes by the 9-month conflict, of which about half a million fled to neighboring Egypt, a country that also has similarly high records of FGM cases.

Equality Now and the Tadwein Center for Gender Studies are currently commissioning a study in Egypt among select Sudanese families in Cairo and Giza to understand the particularities of cross-border FGM, to analyze the attitude of Sudanese families in Egypt towards FGM and to assess possible changes in the practice, such as the type of cutting, and the age of girls when they are cut.

Nexus between conflict, displacement, and FGM

Although Sudan legally banned the practice of FGM in 2020, women and girls continue to face heightened risks of violence, exploitation, and abuse, including FGM. Ongoing conflict has led to the breakdown of the rule of law and governance structures in Khartoum and a few other states.

Declaring a state of emergency permits the government to prioritize security and stability over individual rights and the rule of law. In some locations with relative stability, there is selective enforcement of laws driven by social polarization, exacerbating discriminatory practices and inequalities.

Additionally, in the chaos of displacement, traditional practices may persist, perpetuating the cycle of FGM and denying women and girls agency over their bodies and futures.

The nexus between conflict, displacement, and FGM underscores the urgent need for holistic, multi-sectoral approaches that address the root causes of the practice and provide comprehensive support to affected populations.

However, it is critical to redefine how the multi-sectoral approach could roll out within the context of conflict, specifically where legal protections for women and girls are minimal or non-existent.

The usual activities undertaken by activists and civil society organizations—such as advocacy campaigns, community outreach programs, and legal reforms—may be hampered by the chaotic and unpredictable nature of conflict environments, making it challenging to mobilize support and raise awareness about the harms of FGM.

Strengthening responses to FGM during conflict and displacement

Conversations about new and innovative ways where legal frameworks and policy measures need to be strengthened to prohibit FGM must happen, and perpetrators must be held accountable for their actions, even amid conflict and displacement.

A report on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Humanitarian Settings in the Arab Region, published by UNFPA in 2021, discusses the challenges and barriers to addressing FGM in such contexts and offers recommendations for stakeholders involved in humanitarian response and protection efforts.

This is critical, as the prevention and response to FGM are not prioritized in humanitarian settings due to lack of funding and political will. The report underscores the importance of culturally sensitive approaches, community engagement, capacity building, and partnerships to combat FGM and support survivors in humanitarian settings effectively.

Medicalization of FGM requires urgent attention. Prior to the start of the current conflict, Sudan had the highest rate of medicalized FGM globally, accounting for 67% of cases in the country.

The collapse of healthcare systems and infrastructure brought about a different reality that necessitated changing health priorities. It could be argued that the medicalization of FGM diverts already strained resources, attention, and expertise in-country away from essential healthcare services, especially sexual and reproductive health services, including responding to conflict-related sexual violence and maternal and child health.

Women’s rights groups in Khartoum and other towns have established Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) and other community-driven mutual aid efforts that could be used to mainstream FGM-related interventions as they respond to emerging humanitarian needs. Additionally, efforts to integrate FGM prevention and response into broader humanitarian assistance programs are essential in reaching displaced populations with life-saving interventions and support.

Engaging communities, religious leaders, and key stakeholders in the ‘new social structures’ shaped by conflict and displacement can foster much-needed dialogue, dispel myths, and promote alternative rites of passage that celebrate womanhood without resorting to harmful practices.

Despite having different priorities as displaced women and girls—such as humanitarian, livelihood, and other urgent needs— empowering them with knowledge and agency is essential in enabling them to assert their rights and resist pressures to undergo FGM.

Addressing FGM amongst Sudan’s displaced communities

Community-led initiatives to end FGM among Sudanese communities displaced from Khartoum into neighboring states or neighboring countries must take into consideration the diverse ethnic groups in Sudan—each with their distinct cultural traditions and practices relating to FGM, with some communities practicing different types of FGM. This requires an in-depth understanding of the sociocultural factors that drive it.

Although wealthier households in Sudan and people in urban areas were previously less likely to support FGM’s continuation, conflict highlights the intersectional impacts on different groups of women and girls, and forced displacement could result in the practice being carried to host countries that may lack effective legal frameworks or enforcement mechanisms to address cross-border FGM.

Considering anti-FGM interventions transcend geographical boundaries and ethnicities, they must be carefully tailored to community needs. Cross-border FGM could also be driven by a sense of struggling to maintain a cultural identity and uphold perceived social status in a new society.

Reaffirming commitments to end FGM

At the international level, concerted action is needed to address the intersecting challenges of FGM, conflict, and forced displacement. The United Nations and other multilateral organizations must prioritize the issue on the global agenda, mobilizing resources and political will to further research, support affected populations, and strengthen efforts to eradicate FGM in conflict-affected areas.

Moreover, partnerships between governments, civil society organizations, and grassroots activists remain essential in driving a collective response that transcends borders and builds solidarity among diverse stakeholders.

As Sudanese women bear the brunt of violence and displacement, women-led organizations are instrumental in fostering resilience and actively rebuilding their communities. Supporting and financing these organizations should be prioritized, as it is not only a matter of promoting rights but also a pathway to peace and stability.

As we confront the grim reality of FGM amidst conflict and forced displacement, we must reaffirm our commitment to the fundamental rights and dignity of every woman and girl. We cannot stand idly by as generations continue to suffer the devastating consequences of this harmful practice.

Now is the time for bold and decisive action guided by principles of justice, equality, and compassion. Together, we can break the chains of FGM, offering hope and healing to those who have endured untold suffering and paving the way for a future free from violence and discrimination for all.

Note: Paleki Ayang is Equality Now’s Gender Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa

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UN Security Council in session. Credit: United Nations

By Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Feb 27 2024 (IPS)

With its current cash crisis, UN’s leadership is finding itself in a helpless situation both politically and financially. The UN’s credibility has reached rock bottom.

Abusive use of veto power against global public opinion over the years, more so in recent times, have thrown spanners at all potentially meaningful efforts at the UN. Such irrational and national-interest generated actions have been ominous for the UN to undertake its Charter-mandated roles.

The General Assembly with its universal membership is so toothless that its decisions are forgotten before the those get formally printed as UN documents.

I am often asked, during ‘questions and answers’ segment following my public speaking, if I want to recommend one thing that would make the UN perform better, what would it be. My clear and emphatic answer always has been “Abolish the Veto!”

Veto is undemocratic, irrational and against the true spirit of the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

In an opinion piece on the IPS wire service back in March 2022, I wrote: “Believe me, the veto power influences not only the decisions of the Security Council but also all work of the UN, including importantly the choice of the Secretary-General.”

In the same opinion piece, I asserted that “I believe the abolition of veto requires a greater priority attention in the reforms process than the enlargement of the Security Council membership with additional permanent ones.

Such permanency is simply undemocratic. I also believe that the veto power is not ‘the cornerstone of the United Nations’ but in reality, its tombstone.”

With interlinkages and interconnectedness of all the matters being handled by the world body, challenges of maintaining international – my preferred expression is “global” -peace and security have become absolutely and threateningly overwhelming.

I believe increasing frequency of unilateral exercise of veto by erstwhile superpowers is a clear manifestation of that complexity. So, the global good has been set aside in the narrow political interest of the leadership in those countries.

The situation demands realistic and credible actions by the UN leadership to tackle the biggest existential crisis being faced by the UN in its nearly eight decades of existence.

We need to revisit the operational credibility of our much-cherished world body. What was needed in 1945 to be enshrined in the UN Charter is to be judged in the light of current realities.

If the Charter needs to be amended to live up to the challenges of global complexities and paralyzing intergovernmental politicization, let us do that. It is high time to focus on that direction.

Blindly treating the words of the Charter as sacrosanct may be self-defeating and irresponsible. The UN could be buried under its own rubble unless we set our house in order now.

With the 2030 deadline for SDGs knocking at the door, the call in the Bali G-20 Summit declaration for “inclusive multilateralism” is a timely alert to realise that current form of multilateralism dominated by rich and powerful countries and well-organized vested interests, on most occasions working with co-aligned objectives, cannot deliver the world we want for all.

That elitist multilateralism has failed.

Minimalistic, divisive, dismissive, and arrogant multilateralism that we are experiencing now gives honest multilateralism a bad name. Multilateralism has become a sneaky slogan under which each country is hiding their narrow self-interest to the detriment of humanity’s best interest. It is a sad reality that these days negotiators play “politicking and wordsmithing” at the cost of substance and action.

Multilateralism – as we are experiencing now – clearly shows it has lost its soul and objectivity. There is no genuine engagement, no honest desire to mutually accommodate and no willingness to rise above narrow self-interest-triggered agenda. It has become a one-way street, a mono-directional pathway for the rich and powerful. Today’s multilateralism needs redefining!

Let me conclude by asserting that, all said, I continue to hold on to my deep faith in multilateralism and, at the same time, my belief and trust in the United Nations as the most universal organization for the people and the planet is renewed and reaffirmed!

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is the Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN (1996-2001) and Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations (2002-2007).

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Israeli missile strikes have caused widespread destruction in Gaza. Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 2024 (IPS)

The two devastating military conflicts—Russia vs Ukraine and Israel vs Hamas—have exposed once again the stark reality that the United Nations, created 79 years ago to maintain international peace and security, has failed in its political mission – while its credibility is at stake.

Russia is accused of violating the UN charter by invading a sovereign nation state and causing hundreds and thousands of deaths over two years — with no signs of a peaceful settlement.

The accusations against Israel include war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the disproportionate killings of over 30,000 civilians, mostly women and children in Gaza—in retaliation for 1,200 killings by Hamas last October.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has taken a rightful stand on the two conflicts, has been criticized by both countries, with Israel calling for his resignation while ignoring his request for a meeting or a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli government also continues to remain defiant—and rejects the demands of the world body—while it is shielded by its longstanding political, economic and military ally: the United States, one of the permanent members of the UNSC.

According to a report in the New York Times last week, the US has used its veto more than 40 times— to be precise, 48 times by some estimates– to shield Israel since the creation of the UN in 1945.

Meanwhile, China and Russia have also used their vetoes to protect their allies, including the Assad regime in Syria and the military regime in Myanmar, bringing the UNSC to a paralytic standstill.

With Russia and Israel continue to be defiant, one lingering question remains: has the UN and UNSC outlived their usefulness?

Norman Solomon, executive director, Institute for Public Accuracy and national director, RootsAction.org, told IPS the repeated U.S. vetoes of Security Council resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza reflect a renewed moral collapse in Washington, which supplies Israel with 80 percent of its weapons imports.

“The vetoes are unconscionable moves to sustain the mass murder of Palestinian people by an Israeli government committing large-scale war crimes on a daily basis,” he said.

The leadership of the United Nations and key UN agencies have released a steady stream of data and condemnations, correctly spotlighting the murderous ongoing actions of the Israeli military in Gaza, he pointed out.

“But the U.S. government, continuing to aid and abet those actions, has purposefully immobilized the Security Council while the massive humanitarian disaster continues with U.S. arms and U.S. “diplomatic” backing,” said Solomon, author of “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.”

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively on the politics of the UNSC, told IPS over half of all U.S. vetoes have been used to shield Israel from criticism. This, in spite of the fact that each of these were under Chapter VI, not Chapter VII, so the Security Council would not have been able to enforce them anyway

“Though Russia and China have not used their veto as often, they have similarly abused this power in protecting such allies as Syria and Myanmar which–like Israel–have engaged in serious war crimes and other violations of international law.”

“Having the United Nations repeatedly blocked from being able to enforce its Charter is incredibly frustrating for those of us who believe in a rules-based international order,” he argued.

At the same time, he said, forcing leaders like Biden and Putin to block otherwise-unanimous resolutions underscores their isolation in the international community, making it clear to the world that they are effectively accomplices in illegal conduct.

“This harms their credibility internationally and therefore weakens their diplomatic influence. As a result, even unsuccessful resolutions have the potential of creating greater pressure, both internationally and domestically, for them to change their policies and eventually allow the United Nations to do its job,” declared Zunes.

Solomon said the UN’s long-standing structural inequities and emerging cold-war hostilities have pushed it into an unproductive corner of geopolitical stalemates.

“The outsized power of the Security Council and its vulnerability to vetoes from its permanent members have exerted dual leverage to marginalize most of the world on matters of war, peace and human rights”.

While the General Assembly, he argued, certainly includes representatives of many governments with hypocritical if not dirty or even bloody hands, those nearly 200 nations at least indirectly reflect the world as a whole.

Time after time, he said, the General Assembly has taken votes that justly and overwhelmingly condemned actions of the powerful. Yet to the extent that a locus of power exists at the UN, it is the Security Council that largely wields it. And the Security Council’s capacity to push for peace and human rights is undermined by the power of a single government to block such a push.

“The United States accounts for just 4 percent of the world’s population, and for Russia the figure is less than 2 percent. Even for China, the number is no more than 17 percent. Yet the governments of those countries routinely cast looming shadows over the bright promises of the United Nations,” declared Solomon.

In this power context, he noted, the new cold war can only be ominous for the UN as a world body that could help to heal the world’s wounds instead of enabling them to fester.

During the last several decades, the United States led the world in magnitude and frequency of flagrant aggression against other countries.

In this century, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other nations were subjected to U.S.-led attacks with horrific results of carnage. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago was a like-minded assertion of “might makes right,” initiating and sustaining slaughter.

While of course blocking any condemnations of their own actions, the U.S. and Russia also covered for their allies, using vetoes in the Security Council to protect them from condemnation, declared Solomon.

Meanwhile, in a statement released last week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said
Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine, a war which has entered its third year with no end in sight, continues to cause serious and widespread human rights violations, destroying lives and livelihoods.

In its latest report, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) has verified 30,457 civilian casualties since 24 February 2022 – comprising 10,582 killed and 19,875 injured, with the actual numbers likely to be significantly higher.

Millions have been displaced, thousands have lost their homes, and hundreds of medical and educational institutions have been damaged or destroyed, significantly impacting people’s rights to health and education.

“The long-term impact of this war in Ukraine will be felt for generations,” said Türk.

And, in early February, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said she remains horrified at the situation in the Middle East and at the unbearable loss of life in the region, with allegations of violations of international law.

She has called for a humanitarian ceasefire, full compliance with international law and prioritization of protection of civilians and for the intensification of diplomatic efforts to put an end to this crisis.

She has emphasized that “civilians should never pay the price of a conflict for which they bear no responsibility. Their most basic rights must be protected and preserved, and their humanitarian needs must be met”.

Echoing the words of the UN Secretary-General, the Special Adviser has reiterated that violations of international humanitarian law can never justify the collective punishment of the people in Gaza.

“Civilians must be protected at all times on both sides,” she said. The Special Adviser also called on all relevant actors to strengthen their resolve to find solutions to end this conflict.

“This requires first and foremost ensuring the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructures in accordance with international law. And includes the safe return of all hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza as well investigating acts of sexual violence reportedly committed in the context of the attacks of 7 October 2023 and their aftermath.,” she added.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Anis Chowdhury
SYDNEY, Feb 27 2024 (IPS)

Israel continues to reject calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and now readies itself for an assault on Rafah with a Ramadan deadline for the release of all hostages. It emphatically says, it will oppose any international attempt at creating a Palestinian State, regarded as an “unilateral recognition”. Its unrestrained bombings and ground assaults so far have resulted in close to 30,000 Palestinian deaths more than half of whom are women and children. they have brazenly ignored the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to take all measures to prevent a plausible genocide. Many thousands are facing starvation and death even when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanded unhindered aid flows to besieged Gaza. All these were possible due to Israel’s ‘unbounded’ impunity which emboldens it.

Anis Chowdhury

‘Unbounded’ impunity
This begins with accepting uncritically whatever Israel claims or does. Take for example, President Biden claimed that Hamas beheaded babies. Echoing a statement made that same day by a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he even said that he had seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”

President Biden did not fully retract his assertion even after the Israeli government said it could not confirm the report made by Netanyahu’s office; it was left to a White House spokesperson to walk it back. Then President Biden repeated that Hamas “were cutting babies’ heads off”, without offering any evidence. Yet he had no sympathy or condemnation that babies were dying and their bodies rotting inside Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, as Israel bombed it, shell it and cut off its essential supplies.

Israel justified its targeting of Al-Shifa claiming that it was Hamas’s command and control centre. Even when it failed to provide any credible evidence, the US claimed “confidence” in the Israeli intelligence authorities. An investigation by The Washington Post found among other things that “the rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by the IDF showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas; none of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network, and no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards”.

President Biden doubted Palestinian claims of the death tolls due to Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” by his own admission. Then the White House downplays Biden’s remarks while the US continues to provide military assistance and diplomatic support, including repeated vetoes against cease-fire resolutions at the UNSC, the latest being on 21 February. The Guardian’s cartoonist, Fiona Katauskas, explained the US veto as “It’s not that we’re anti-ceasefire so much as pro-not standing up to Netanyahu”.

As of 19 February, Israel’s assault in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, making it one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. Additionally, more than 69,000 Palestinians have been wounded, overwhelming the territory’s hospitals, less than half of which are even partially functioning.

All these are not sufficient to waver the US support for Israel. Thus, the US and its Western allies accept Israel’s claim that there is no “uninvolved Palestinians”. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Israel’s Isaac Herzog said as Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate their homes.

Israel’s US-led Western allies were quick to sacrifice the most fundamental basis of justice, that is, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty when they suspended funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) responding to the Israeli accusation that some 10 UNRWA employees were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack. This puts the burden of proof on the accused, not on the accuser as the presumption of innocence requires to guard against “type I error” or “false positive” that an innocent is punished wrongly.

The action ignores the good work of thousands of UNRWA employees and the fact that hundreds of them sacrificed their lives in serving humanity in an extreme situation. The US and its Western allies have not restored funding even when “the allegations against staff remain murky”, and the UNRWA sacked the accused denying their fundamental right to justice, and promptly instituted an investigation.

Suspension of UNWRA funding reinforces Israel’s narrative that Palestinians deserve collective punishment as no Palestinian is innocent. It also serves Israel’s attempt to by-pass or scuttle ICJ’s order as well as the UNSC resolution to ensure uninterrupted flows of aid and essential supplies – food, fuel, water and medicine, in particular.

Expansionist Israel
The uncritical acceptance of Zionist narratives helped Israel expand its border beyond the 1947 (November) UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II), recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and a Special International Regime for the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings. The Arab state was to have a territory of 11,100 square kilometres (42%), the Jewish state a territory of 14,100 square kilometres (56%), while the remaining 2% – comprising the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would become an international zone.

In the 1948 war Israel expanded its territory to 77% of Palestine, including a large part of Jerusalem. Over half of the Palestinian population fled or were expelled which the Palestinians call “Nakba” or “catastrophe”. The official Zionist narrative asserted that the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine before 1984) faced annihilation on the eve of the1948 war. It also portrayed the Arab side as Nazis.

However, Simha Flapan’s 1987 book, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities, relying on declassified Israeli documents, debunked this narrative and showed that there was no such danger. The Jewish community easily won the diplomatic battle in the UN, backed by the US, the first country to recognise Israel, and was favoured by the balance of military power on the ground. Yet, the myth of annihilation became central in driving unconditional Western support for Israel.

The 1967 Six-Day War culminated in Israel’s absorption of the whole of historical Palestine, including the West Bank (from Jordan) as well as additional territory from, Egypt (Gaza Strip and all of the Sinai Peninsula up to the east bank of the Suez Canal) and Syria (Golan Heights). By the end of the war, Israel expelled another 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, including 130,000 who were displaced in 1948, and gained territory that was three and a half times its size.

Inconsistent, but mostly supportive, policies of the US and its Western allies towards Israel’s annexations of occupied Palestinian territories and settlements violating the international law allowed Israel to absorb all of Palestine – “from the River to the Sea”. At the recent ICJ hearing on Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the US argued that Israel should not be ordered to immediately and unconditionally end occupation, while the UK sought to block the hearing. Thus, the Western powers acquiesce with Israel’s claims of Jewish people’s “historical right to Judea and Samaria” hypocritically promoting a so-called “two-state solution”.

Emboldened Israel
Unsurprisingly, the US and its Western allies did not raise concerns when on 22 September Netanyahu brandished map of Israel that included West Bank and Gaza at his UN speech. Sadly, but understandably, the lone protesters were dispossessed Palestinians. Laith Arafeh, Palestinian Ambassador to Germany, tweeted, “No greater insult to every foundational principle of the United Nations than seeing Netanyahu display before the UNGA a ‘map of Israel’ that straddles the entire land from the river to the sea, negating Palestine and its people”.

Netanyahu’s new Middle-East map was spun as ushering a “new era of peace”; but ironically in less than a month the region exploded. Knowing fully that the US and its Western allies are firmly with Israel, Netanyahu defiantly declared, “We won’t capitulate to any pressure”.

Netanyahu rejects demands for a Palestinian state, winning overwhelming backing of Israel’s parliament. The emboldened Israel’s blue-print for “day after” is a smack on the face of the US and its Western allies, exposing their deceit and hypocrisies.

Anis Chowdhury is Adjunct Professor, School of Business, Western Sydney University. He held senior United Nations positions in the area of Economic and Social Affairs in New York and Bangkok.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The humanitarian crisis continues in Gaza as negotiators continue talks in Qatar. Credit: UNRWA/Twitter

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 2024 (IPS)

As negotiations within the UN Security Council and internationally continue, the humanitarian response to Gaza continues to be under threat.

Palestine’s representative to the UN has declared that a new resolution may be in the works, which will also include “practical measures” to ensure a humanitarian ceasefire and to withhold any support for Israel in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Riyad H. Mansour, the Permanent Observer to the State of Palestine, spoke to reporters last Thursday (February 22, 2024). In addition to calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the measures would include urging countries to stop sending weapons and ammunition to Israel and implementing sanctions on them.

“The occupying authority that is defying everyone, defying international law, defying the ICJ (International Court of Justice) by refusing to implement the provisional measures that the ICJ asked… that country that behaves in that manner should face consequences in the international community, including in the General Assembly,” he said.

Mansour also stated that they would be pushing for Palestine to be admitted as a member of the United Nations, beginning with gaining support from member states before the General Assembly before bringing it to the Security Council.

“The rights of the people of Palestine must be determined by the people,” he said. “It’s only us—the Palestinian people—who will determine our right to self-determination, including our independence. We will not negotiate that principle, and we will not ask for permission from anyone to do so.”

The decision to advocate for these measures was the result of an ambassadorial-level meeting between Mansour and the members of the Arab League, which was convened in the wake of the United States’ decision to veto the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on February 20.

Algeria, a non-permanent member of the Council at the moment, presented the resolution for discussion on February 20. The resolution received 13 votes in favor, with only the United States’ veto and the United Kingdom abstaining. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thompson-Green, told reporters that the United States has presented its own draft resolution, an alternative that would be “forward-leaning.” This resolution, she claimed, would include a call for a temporary ceasefire “as soon as practicable,” that would allow for the safe release of all hostages held by Hamas, and for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

Despite the international community’s outcry of support for a humanitarian ceasefire, this has been repeatedly undermined. Declining support for UNRWA created challenges. The allegations leveled at the organization have resulted in two separate investigations into the matter. Yet, over 17 countries, many of whom are classified as high-income countries, have suspended their funding for the organization, leaving it more vulnerable at a time when its operations are overextended. As the first major donor to pull its support, the United States set the example.

This has risked further jeopardizing UNRWA’s operations, which have been funded through to the end of February, but leave their future even more uncertain.

“UNRWA remains and is the backbone of the humanitarian work that is being done in Gaza at great cost to UNRWA staff themselves,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Meanwhile, other humanitarian agencies operating in the region continue to struggle to work in unsafe conditions. The same day that the ceasefire resolution was vetoed, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that they had been forced to halt their deliveries into North Gaza, citing security reasons. They described witnessing “unprecedented levels of desperation” and warned that the risk of famine and disease in Gaza has been confirmed, wherein the scarcity of food and safe water has already compromised the nutrition and immunity of civilians.

Speaking at the Security Council, Christopher Lockyear, Secretary-General of Doctors Without Borders, urged for a ceasefire, detailing how staff have also been caught up in the attacks, including those who have lost their lives, or been forced to evacuate nine different health facilities since October 7. He warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza was “haphazard, opportunistic,” and “entirely inadequate.”

“Calls for more humanitarian assistance have echoed across this chamber,” he said. “Yet in Gaza we have less and less each day—less space, less medicine, less food, less water, less safety.”

He also condemned the Council for delaying and preventing efforts to adopt a ceasefire resolution while civilians and aid workers continue to live in such dangerous conditions. “The consequences of casting international humanitarian law to the wind will reverberate well beyond Gaza. It will be an enduring burden on our collective conscience. This is not just political inaction—it has become political complicity.”

Meanwhile, people in Gaza live in such dire conditions. Now, nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been reported dead, the majority of whom have been women and children. As of February 23, only seven hospitals in Gaza remain operational to accommodate those who remain. The city of Rafah, which is supposedly a safe zone, now hosts more than 1 million civilians, even as hostilities rage on. With the looming warning that the Israeli military will mobilize forces into Rafah by March 12, the first day of Ramadan, if the hostages are not released, the international community now has a deadline.

The negotiations to secure a pause in the war are continuing in Qatar, following last week’s Paris talks, which a delegation from Israel attended.

There had been an understanding of the “basic contours” of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Magnus Lovold
GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb 26 2024 (IPS)

There are moments when international treaties, long forgotten by the general public, suddenly spring back to life. Moments when glimpses of reality shine through the thick-laden bureaucracies of the United Nations and catch the attention of the world outside.

The debate that unfolded in “sub-working group on current and emerging implementation issues” of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on Wednesday 21 February was such a moment.

The State of Palestine and Control Arms — a civil society coalition — had, in January, requested a debate about the impact of weapons transfers to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Never before, since the ATT’s entry into force in 2014, had there been a formal discussion about non-compliance under the treaty.

The debate would, in more ways than one, become a clash of two worlds. On the one hand, the uncompromising and bloody reality on the ground in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 civilians — including more than 10,000 children — have been killed by Israeli bombs over the past four months.

On the other, the hushed and self-possessed world of multilateral diplomacy, where drama rarely elevates beyond the occasional request for points of order.

The stakes surrounding the debate had broken through the roof when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded, on 26 January, that there is a plausible risk that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating the Genocide Convention, placing the countries that are supplying Israel with weapons — most of which are parties to the ATT, with the exception of the United States — under significant pressure.

The foreign ministers of Italy and Spain had already announced that they will no longer export weapons to Israel. Citing the ATT and the EU common position on the export of military technology and equipment, a Dutch court had ordered, on 12 February, the government of the Netherlands to stop the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel.

While the Dutch government announced that they would appeal the order, the ruling had, in the following weeks, taken on a life of its own, leading parliamentarians and civil society groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Denmark to urge their governments to stop arms transfers to Israel.

The big question, when the parties to the ATT met in Geneva last week, was how these countries would respond to allegations that they, by supplying Israel with weapons, risk complicity in genocide and other international crimes.

The ATT seeks to prevent and reduce human suffering by establishing common international standards for the transfer of conventional weapons. Specifically, the treaty prohibits countries from transferring weapons if they know, at the time of transfer, that the weapons could be used to commit international crimes.

According to Hurini Alwishewa, a legal expert at the Graduate Institute, countries involved in supplying Israel with weapons can no longer claim ignorance: “With the ICJ finding that there is a plausible claim of genocide, the knowledge requirement is clearly fulfilled, and therefore exports of arms to Israel must not be authorised”, she said at Wednesday’s meeting.
In the run-up to the meeting, there had been rumours that the arms exporting countries would simply refuse to engage on the matter. There was even speculation that some countries would seek to dodge the debate altogether by filibustering the preceding agenda items.

But ultimately, the exporting countries realised that they had no other choice than to at least try to explain themselves. A few minutes before the debate was about to start, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands could be observed wheeling their ambassadors in to the brutalist conference room at the CICG in Geneva.

Speaking from the podium, Nada Tarbush, a counsellor of Palestine’s mission to the UN who rose to prominence after a widely published speech delivered in November, was determined not to let the ambassadors’ off the hook.

“We are once again reaching out to exporting states to urge and urge them to explain their respective policies on arms exports to Israel. Particularly the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Czech Republic, Norway, and other states that may be involved as transit states including Greece, Cyprus and Belgium“, Tarbush said, when laying out her case.

“We would be grateful to receive details of all extant arms export, transit, and brokering licenses of the supply of military and dual use items to Israel”.

The arms exporters were, however, not prepared to engage in specifics. Instead, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands both downplayed its role in supplying Israel with weapons.

“UK defence exports to Israel represent a small portion of UK arms exports”, Aiden Liddle, the ambassador of the United Kingdom, said. While he made it clear that the ICJ’s January ruling “is binding on Israel” and suggested that the United Kingdom’s export licences to Israel may be revoked “if circumstances change and we reach a different view”, Liddle did not explain how his country had initially concluded that weapons exports to Israel was in line with the ATT.

More evasively still, the Netherlands explained that “individual licenses can be granted, as long as there is no overriding risk that military goods may be misused by the end user” and stated that “applications requests for Israel have been granted in certain cases and denied in other cases”.

Like the United Kingdom, however, the Netherlands failed to lay out the details of its export licensing decisions. Nor did they explain how they had concluded that the export of F-35 fighter jet parts comes with “no overriding risk” of misuse by Israel.

Germany, in a significantly more aggressive move, took issue with the debate as such, criticising Palestine and Control Arms for attempting “to politicise the ATT process”. Instead of explaining how Germany’s export licences to Israel could be in line with international law, Ambassador Thomas Göbel offered what seemed like a full-fledged support of the manner in which Israel conducts its military operations in Gaza.

Echoing points made earlier in the debate by a representative of Israel — a signatory but not a party to the ATT — Göbel stated that “Hamas must stop its rocket attacks and refrain from using civilians as human shields and civilian infrastructure for military purposes […] For Germany, Israel’s security is not negotiable”.

The exporting countries’ attempts to justify their involvement in Israel’s military operations in Gaza were, ultimately, found wanting. Tarbush made no secret of her disappointment, accusing the exporting countries for putting “themselves in a situation of criminal liability, of immorality in a situation where double standards risk irreversibly eroding the credibility of international law and the international system built since the Second World War”.

But however incomplete, the mere fact that a debate about arms transfers to Israel could take place in the ATT is a positive step for the treaty. Too often, international treaties get caught up in their own institutional bureaucracies, resulting in a detachment from the realities that the treaties are set up to address. Since its entry into force ten years ago, the ATT has, sadly, been no exception.

Instead of criticising the State of Palestine and Control Arms for attempts to “politicise” the process, Germany and other countries supplying Israel with weapons, should see the debate as an opportunity to set a new, more reality-oriented, standard for ATT implementation.

Despite its imperfections, international law can play a key role in exposing double-standards. By offering specifics now, western states will come in a much stronger position to demand transparency from others in the future.

More importantly, history shows that countries supplying other countries with weapons have significant power to shape the conduct — and even outcomes — of military operations; to ensure that civilians are protected or, to put it bluntly, left for slaughter. Indeed, that realisation was one of the factors driving the development of the ATT in the first place.

As Israel is preparing its ground invasion of Rafah, arms exporting countries are bound to be placed under increasing pressure. On Friday 23 February, a group of 41 UN experts, citing the ATT, called for any transfer of weapons to Israel to “cease immediately”. If arms exporting countries are serious about their commitments to international law and a rules-based order, they should heed this call.

Otherwise, the Munich Security Conference’s recent assessment of world politics as a steady trajectory towards a zero-sum game could well become reality.

Source: Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert provides breaking news and analysis about international law and treaty-making, revealing the hidden diplomatic moves that shape the world.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A selection of mostly simple food items put together in Myanmar in parcels for political prisoners, using funds raised by activists and the Burmese diaspora. Credit: Supplied to William Webb/IPS

By William Webb
CHIANGMAI, Thailand, Feb 26 2024 (IPS)

Rangoon Nights is rocking. The bar is on its feet and the cocktail shaker is shaking in abandon as the band Born In Burma starts pumping out its beat.

Except we’re not in Rangoon or Burma (officially called Myanmar), but in the northern Thai town of Chiangmai which has evolved into a hub for activists, fugitives, and those taking a break from the war tearing their country apart.

Dancing among them with a wraith-like grace is Sakura—her nom de guerre—who, like others in the bar popular with Myanmar exiles, is there both to let her hair down and to raise funds for the revolutionary movement fighting the military junta that seized power three years ago.

Sakura’s personal operation—run by a small, close-knit team—is to deliver food parcels to a few dozen political prisoners held by the regime in appalling conditions across Myanmar. More than 1,500 are documented to have died in detention by force or by neglect since the coup. Over 20,000 are known to be behind bars.

“The parcels are a message for them—that we still support you and don’t forget you,” says Sakura.

Her project evolved by accident. Sakura was in Yangon in early 2021, joining vast crowds of anti-coup protesters, when her cousin was arrested and disappeared into the prison system. Suspecting she was held in Yangon’s notorious Insein jail (built by British colonisers in the 1800s), lawyers told Sakura that if she delivered a food parcel with her cousin’s name and it was accepted at the prison, then it would signal she was indeed inside.

It worked. Sakura shared this piece of useful information on Facebook, the social media outlet favoured by the resistance, while the junta uses Telegram. Soon, she started receiving pleas for help from families of other prisoners.

Sakura’s food parcel project was born. It moved with her to Thailand in 2022 after she fled police raids on her Yangon home. “I can’t go back,” she says.

Her small but effective operation speaks volumes about the war in Myanmar—largely forgotten beyond its borders; ineffectual international institutions and humanitarian organisations; little outside aid. But juxtaposed with domestic and vibrant civil society organisations like Sakura’s that strive to make a difference, work efficiently, and give a chance for a better future.

Sakura’s parcels—assembled inside Myanmar—contain soup powder to flavour bland prison mush, instant noodles, cookies, ingredients for much-loved tea-leaf salad, anti-bacterial soap for skin diseases, soap powder for clothes, shampoo, and toothbrush and paste. Plus the all-important Premier brand of coffee mix, which acts as a form of currency among prisoners.

The team presently delivers to about 35 prisoners a month, a tiny fraction of the growing numbers that the junta is incarcerating in a prison construction boom, one of the few sectors of the economy benefiting from the civil war.

Faces of the dead. Myanmar’s non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has a museum in the Thai border town of Mae Sot documenting the identities of over 3,000 civilians killed by the military since it seized power in 2021, as well as those killed since the first post-independence coup in 1962.

Working with a total monthly budget of some 3.0 million kyat (about USD 850 at the street rate), Sakura also sends money to sustain poor families whose main breadwinners are now behind bars. One is the mother of a Yangon hotel receptionist in her 20s who was sentenced to 15 years.

“Her crime was to have donated about USD 10 to the resistance. Police seized her phone and found the payment on the app. Her mother is ill and cannot work,” explains Sakura, who learned English in a Buddhist monastery and comes from a family of farmers.

Delivering the parcels is not a typical Deliveroo operation. Funds are sent from Thailand by various means to her small team in Myanmar, who, at the risk of arrest for ‘supporting terrorism’, buy the items and pack the parcels. They are then discreetly passed to lawyers representing the prisoners, who pass them on to family members who take them on their prison visits.

Sanitary products are included for some female detainees. “Sometimes we also get special requests for clothes and underwear. My budget doesn’t always stretch,“ she says.

On the other side of Chiangmai, Sonny Swe, a well-known Myanmar entrepreneur and publisher formerly based in Yangon, reflects on the trauma of over eight years of solitary confinement in prison, from 2004 to 2013, and the importance then of family visits bringing food parcels.

“Meditation, exercise, reading” were the bedrock of his survival, he says over a hearty Burmese breakfast of mohinga fish soup in his café, Gatone’s (Baldy’s). He was held in five different prisons and the long distances from home prevented regular family visits.

“I kept telling myself, ‘I am strong, strong. I will survive. They will not break me. I will defeat them.’ But once you come out of prison, you understand the toll, the trauma. You think you are fine and strong but you are not.”

Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of the non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), was a political prisoner for seven years and knows well the succour provided by family and friends to those incarcerated.

“Family support is very important for a political prisoner,” he says. Now 59, he was jailed from 1990–93 for demonstrating and calling for release of all political prisoners, and arrested again in 1994 for four more years. He says military intelligence tried to recruit him as an informer but he refused and, in turn, demanded freedom for all political prisoners and for the regime to enter into dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi who was then under house arrest. Leader of the elected government overthrown in the coup, she is back in prison.

Bo Kyi co-founded AAPP in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in March 2000. The organisation meticulously documents identities of political prisoners and tracks their fate, as well as civilians killed by the regime. AAPP, deemed an illegal organisation by the regime, also offers training in dealing with trauma and counselling services, assisted by Johns Hopkins University, Maryland.

As of late February, AAPP has documented the names and identities of 20,147 people it defines as political prisoners, including over 4,000 women and 300 children. Sentenced to death, so far, are 15 women and 136 men. Four were executed on July 23, 2022, including well known activist Ko Jimmy.

As of January 31 this year, it had documented 1,588 people who were “killed through force or neglect” during detention by the regime and its supporters since the coup. The actual number may be much higher. “Torture is endemic,” AAPP says. A large number of those killed in detention are in Sagaing Region, “where resistance by the people is fiercest,”  says AAPP.

They are not just statistics. Speaking of the bravery of those inside Myanmar who try to alleviate the plight of prisoners, Sakura shares the latest shocking news.

Noble Aye, a prominent human rights activist, was reportedly killed in detention along with a companion, apparently after a court hearing on February 8 in Bago Region. They had been detained at a checkpoint in Waw Township on January 20, allegedly carrying weapons and ammunition, charges that the resistance say were false.

She had been jailed twice before as a political prisoner and shared a cell with Zin Mar Aung, the current foreign affairs minister in the shadow National Unity Government set up after the coup.

As it does regularly, the regime was reported to have blamed her death in detention on an escape attempt. The family says they received information that her body was secretly cremated. Noble Aye was 49 and in bad health.

William Webb is an independent travel writer

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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