Commonwealth still valuable in an interdependent world says Vince Cable
Posted by AlexT - 02/11/09 at 10:11 amAs part of the Commonwealth Conversation, the RCS has interviewed Vince Cable. Dr Cable is a popular British MP and former Special Advisor on Economic Affairs to Sir Sonny Ramphal at the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Category : Economic Development, The Commonwealth's Relevance, homepage items
Tags: Cable, CHOGM
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November 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Many oppressive regimes are happy with a large number of ineffective organisations because they can satisfy their clientele by providing ‘employment’ in these organisations. The oppressed are dying to see increase in effectiveness of organisations so that their grievances can be addressed and they can start to thrive instead of surviving in sub-human conditions.
UN has been a platform for oppressive regimes like Sri Lanka:
http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=505
”Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to the UN in Geneva, who used to regularly deluge diplomats and activists with multi-megabyte emails and photos detailing his latest activities, is claiming credit for blocking an attempted UN Human Rights Council inquiry into his country’s war with the Tamils.”
26 years ago, anti-Tamil pogrom widely known as Black July 1983 was unleashed by one of the-then government ministers(with the full support of the then-President) and yet Sri lanka was clever enough to block sanctions:
Leo Kuper in Prevention of Genocide( 1985 ) commented on the failure of the United Nations Sub Commission on Human Rights to condemn the genocidal attack(July 1983) on the Tamil People –
“….there were also political currents observable in the alignment of members, though I could not altogether fathom the geo political considerations involved. In the end a very mild resolution was passed calling for information from the Sri Lanka government and recommending that the commission examine the situation at the next meeting in the light of the information available. There was, however, only a bare majority for the resolution (10 for, 8 against and 4 abstaining). It is unfortunate that the United Nations did not take a firm stand at this stage…”
This is exactly what happened at the Eleventh Special session of UNHRC on 26-27 May 2009 when a motion by some members asking the UN to have international investigation into what has been happening in the ‘war without witness’ in the last few weeks of the war that ended in mid-May.
There is no representation of the oppressed at the UN:
Ethnic Violence, Development and Human Rights Netherlands Institute of Human Rights
Consultation – Utrecht, 1-3 February 1985:
”This failure of intergovernmental organizations, based on the reticence of its membership, to look into the question of ethnic conflict early in the process, and to play a protective role, is very much at the heart of the problem. …. It has to be investigated how the United Nations could play a more preventive role, e.g. by giving ethnic minorities more recognized formal standing in United Nations organs and proceedings, by creating better opportunities for minorities to call on the United Nations, or by giving the United Nations an arbitration role in emerging conflicts. …..’’
While many Commonwealth countries haven’t let out a squeak about the atrocities going on there and while the whole of Northeast has been an open prison and filled with IDP camps,
i.journalists continue to receive death threats for criticising the government,
ii.ICRC was forced to close down many of its offices in Northeast,
iii.most IDPs who are said to be ”released” are being transferred from camps to camps and some are left to fend for themselves after being ravaged for years and decades
iv.most IDPs are sent to Jaffna where getting exit permit for residents to leave jaffna for a brief period is an extremely difficult endeavour
v.we haven’t seen what has been happening to the wounded in the war – media are not allowed into the hospitals and the Northeast
vi…..
…………..