By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unnine6budget122309.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 23 -- A supposed outcast from the UN budget process, India, shot back at its critics on Wednesday afternoon. An Indian diplomat, pacing around the first floor of the General Assembly, questioned when the test for supporting human rights became supporting a particular post upgrade. He asked Inner City Press, is this human rights or human resources?
The reference is the proposal to upgrade to Assistant Secretary General the liaison to New York of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Proponents say that, with the upgrade, human rights would be represented at the Secretary General's meetings.
But India wonders why the Secretary General can't simply issue a letter that the existing liaison, at the D-2 level, can attend his meetings. If you want to give someone a higher job, he said, just tell us, that we can understand.
One of the proponents had predicted to Inner City Press earlier on Wednesday that India "will back down." Told of this, the Indian diplomat replied that if one more person says it, they will not back down.
India supports multilateralism, he said. Inner City Press asked about the country's, particularly its former UN Ambassador's, position on or against the Responsibility to Protect. The diplomat answered that India's concern is that this not veer into interference. The previously Ambassador focused on exclusion, the current on inclusion. But the position remains consistent.
If we're the biggest democracy in the world, he asked, why should we be afraid of a vote? Watch this site.
Footnote: there are ongoing negotiations about the scales of assessment, not only the request by Bahrain and Bahamas to pay less, but how soon to review the overall scales of assessment. The EU wants one year, the G-77 wants three years. The UK was heard to say, they will not budge from the German proposal. Or, as was said of India, will they back down?
One UN staffer pointed out that in the Budget committee, time and money is being wasted on a process that will end right where it began. The Indian diplomat scoffed that because delegates in Copenhagen worked overnight three nights, the UN Budget committee feels it has to do the same. The more local analogy is to the U.S. Congress meeting on health care until 8 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Look for the UN to ape that.
