It is pellucidly clear that many of those making pronouncements on the processes for electing positions at the United Nations neither understand multilateralism or the processes for electing positions at major this institutions.
In the first place being elected to a non permanent seat at the UN has lost its shine. Each of the five permanent members of the Security Council can veto any views held by non permanent members. In addition, Security Council rulings are routinely ignored by major powers who prioritise national interests; for example, the US and Israel especially relating to its war in Gaza. The UN Secretary General criticized the US invasion of Venezuela to no avail.
Iran is a signatory to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)) which was birthed by TT’s own Lennox Ballah. The US has not ratified it. The entire war in the Strait of Hormuz is taking place without reference to ITLOS. The UN’s writ is routinely ignored.
The US has withdrawn from UN climate change negotiations and from UN organizations like UNESCO, the ILO and the WHO.
These multilateral developments have apparently had not been drawn to the attention of the former or present Administration or even the TT media as a gloat on the SC selection. How will this promote investments etc. for our country?
But what was most egregious was when in June 2023, the Rowley-led PNM Administration falsely taking credit for the unopposed election of TT to the position of President of the General Assembly and of our recent unopposed success with a non permanent seat in the SC.
Why were they unopposed and why were we guaranteed success?
Because elections to these posts at the UN are done by gentlemen’s agreement and precedence. Elections are really validations of binding agreements sometimes taken decades before.
To ensure wide participations posts are allocated geographically among the five recognized regions in the UN which include Africa, Latin America and Western Europe.
Each region decides how it selects candidates.
Once a decision is made on which country will represent the region, candidates are put forward unopposed and therefore guaranteed regional and consequently support of the UN membership.
In 2013 TT’s UN Ambassador Rodney Charles, observing how other regional countries were using UN processes to their advantage and how TT was always left behind, make a unilateral decision to lobby for the two of the top UN positions, i.e President of the General Assembly and subsequently a position on the SC.
Charles was the rotating Chair of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) and got the region’s nomination for the two posts unopposed.
That agreed nomination in 2013 by GRULAC ensured that when the dates arrived TT would be assured of regional support (unopposed) and by extension membership support.
So said, so done!
If TT had waited until 2015 (when the PNM assumed office) to put in its nomination by that time, the available slot for the SC position would have been somewhere in the region of 2033. Today available slots for UN positions are filled sometimes up to mid 2036.
Such is the intense decade prolonged process for successful candidacies in GRULAC and other regional bodies at the UN.
All Amery Browne and our present Administration had to do was go through the motions and wait our turn as previously agreed and reap the rewards laid by Rodney Charles.
Charles would tell you that he had quietly started the groundwork (with encouragement from some important countries) for TT and Kamla Persad-Bissessar in particular to be the region’s nominee for UN Secretary General when the time came for a candidate from this region. The arguments were that the UN never had a woman as SG, or an East Indian, or a representative from the region.
All that fell apart when the UNC lost the GE in 2015.
Had things worked as they could have, then Browne et al would be falling over themselves to take credit for that as well!
By Capil Bissoon
