By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 7 -- As five countries joined the UN Security Council on January 1, and five left after serving two year terms, who would chair the Council's various sanctions committees had to be decided.
On January 1, new member Rwanda tweeted that it would chair the Libya Sanctions Committee, previously held by Portugal, and the Working Group on prevention of conflicts in Africa, previous held by South Africa, which has left the Council and re-assigned its ambassador Baso Sangqu to Addis Ababa. Click here for that Inner City Press story.
South Africa's other committee, on Counter-Terrorism, has been given to Morocco, which has one more year on the Council. Similarly, Liberia sanctions have been given to Pakistan, with one year left.
Then on January 6, Australia announced it would chair on sanctions on Iran (previously held by Colombia) and Al Qaeda / Taliban, previously held by Germany.
But what of the rest? Well, the Sudan sanctions committee, which some predicted would pass from US cally Colombia to South Korea, has gone instead to Argentina.
Somalia and Eritrea have been given to South Korea, a major shipping power. Iraq and Kuwait has gone to Togo, as has the sanctions committee on Lebanon / Hariri (1636).
The 1718 Committee on DPRK / North Korea has gone to Luxembourg, which also picks up Children and Armed Conflict from outgoing Council member Germany, and "Documentation and Other Procedural Questions," previously Portugal's.
That Committee concerns among other things the Security Council's openness -- in the first instance, to other member states of the UN, but ultimately, we push for, to "we the peoples," under the UN Charter. Watch this site.
