UN GATE / FEDERAL COURT, Aug 30 – Denmark's
own government website describes its August Security
Council presidency in explicit terms: "Denmark looks
forward to presiding over the Security Council's next
phase of this important process, reflecting our strong
engagement in promoting a transparent and inclusive
selection process conducted in close cooperation with the
General Assembly."
The same page cites "Denmark's longstanding
commitment to a more transparent, inclusive and effective
Security Council" as a defining priority of Ambassador
Christina Markus Lassen's month at the gavel.
Denmark's presidency is now ending, and
that specific promise was never tested where it mattered.
On August 1, the first day of Denmark's
month, Inner City Press wrote to Ambassador Lassen asking
for access to the Council's August 3 press briefing and
asking Denmark to raise, with the UN's Media Accreditation
and Liaison Unit, an eight-year-old, unexplained press
exclusion. Denmark did not respond. Through the month, UN
Web TV repeatedly failed to carry the Council's own
readouts following straw polls in the Secretary-General
selection — the same process Denmark's own website says it
is "strongly engaged" in making transparent.
Inner City Press has since filed a formal
legal request with Denmark's Mission under the
Offentlighedsloven, Denmark's own Freedom of Information
law, asking directly what, if anything, Denmark did during
its presidency to act on either request.
That request, too, has gone unanswered so
far. But we will report the result.
Denmark is not a Council
veto-holder; as a non-permanent member, its vote counts
but does not carry a permanent member's weight. What it
did carry, for one month, was the gavel — and with it, the
specific, self-described responsibility to make this exact
selection process more transparent.
A government that put that commitment in writing, on its own website, has an opportunity, even after its presidency ends, to say what it actually did with it. Watch this site
