By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 15 -- What
is the place
of law in the
UN? This is a
question
raised not
only by the
so-called Small Five's
draft
resolution
about the
Security
Council,
but also the
May 14
advisory
letter of
reclusive
chief UN
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien, which
Inner
City Press has obtained and
puts online
here, and
how it will be
dealt with on
May 16.
Costa
Rica,
Jordan,
Liechtenstein,
Singapore and
Switzerland,
as the Small
Five,
have put
forward
recommendations
for reforms of
the Security
Council's
working
methods. Inner
City Press first
wrote about
the
proposal on
May 2,
then earlier
today after
being the only
media staking
out meetings
with
the President
of the General
Assembly by
the Permanent
Five members
of the
Council, then
the Small
Five,
exclusive
article here.
A
member of the
Permanent Five
told Inner
City Press,
"This requires
a
two-thirds
vote. We hope
they [the
Small Five]
will just
withdraw
it."
Inner
City Press
asked the
PGA's office
about the
Legal
Adviser's
letter, but
they
would not
confirm it.
The PGA
himself told
Inner City
Press, "we
are still
going through
it," he said,
"in the
morning."
When
the Small
Five, and
entourage,
came out later
from the PGA's
office, one of
their
representatives
told Inner
City Press
with a smile,
"We
say simple
majority and
that it will
be adopted by
consensus!"
Patricia
O'Brien,
not
surprisingly,
sided
with the
powerful
Permanent Five.
(O'Brien has
repeatedly
refused to
take questions
from the
Press,
including on
the long
pending
complaint that
the UN
introduced
cholera to
Haiti.) One
her
grounds, the
last paragraph
in the Annex,
has now been
taken away by
its deletion.
But what will
happen on May
16? Watch this
site.
