On Trans Pacific Partnership, Inner City Press Asks UN's Tauli-Corpuz & De Zayas of Lawsuits, John Ashe Scandal

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 26 -- When UN Special Rapporteurs Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Alfred De Zayas held a press conference at the UN on October 26, Inner City Press asked them about the Trans Pacific Partnership, specifically the ability of corporations to sue countries for undermining their profits with regulations. Tweeted photo here.

   Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said litigation has begun, and will be made easier by what she called the US' online summary of provisions of the TPP. Inner City Press asked Alfred De Zayas if the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that he seeks requires a referral from the General Assembly or can otherwise be triggered. He said the ILO could request the opinion, or WHO (which he also said should seek an opinion on Philip Morris' litigation against Uruguay and Australia.)

  Inner City Press also asked Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about the indictment of previous President of the General Assembly John Ashe, as it had discussed Ashe's performance with her on indigenous issues while he was in office. She said his indictment calls into question the outcome document and show a need for more oversight. We'll have more on this.

Back on September 27 when Peru's President Ollanta Humala Tasso held a UN stakeout to present his country's climate change Intended Nationally Determined Contribution document to UNFCCC chief Figueres, Inner City Press asked Humala about the impact on the INDC of the pending Trans Pacific Partnership, particularly corporate suing of government provision. Video here.

  Humala said TPP is 90% finished, and that Peru is committed to the environment. But what about corporations suing regulations that “hinder” them? This wasn't answered. 

 And the next day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when on a podium with Humala and French President Hollande told the Press that Humala regretted not being there. But he WAS there. Respect.

  Back on June 29 alongside the UN's “high level meeting on climate change," Inner City Press asked Janos Pasztor and Amina Mohammed of the UN about the critique by Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) that the developed world is not moving toward $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020. Also, Inner City Press asked the Cardinal on the panel, what does the Pope think of it?

  Pasztor said the key is credible measuring of financing, and that Ban Ki-moon has spoken to the G-7. The Cardinal said the Pope's two principles are solidarity and subsidiarity. The SDG connection will become clear when the UN uploads the briefing video. 

  But -- this press conference at least was substantive. Two hours later, the UN presented Robert Redford, solo, taking questions ranging from his movies to Obama and called it climate change. The UN Correspondents Assocation, which didn't even have a question for Ban on climate change earlier in the day, was given the first question to Redford; it was sloppily asked and is almost sure not to be written up. No one asked, or was permitted to ask, about fracking or the Trans Pacific Partnership. And so it goes at the UN.

  Back on June 18 when the UN gave a climate change briefing by UNDP's Cassie Flynn, and Jo Scheuer, on June 18 Inner City Press asked about the under-funding of the Least Development Countries Fund, and if South Korea is backsliding in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. Video here.

  The answers, on film, were to promote other funding vehicles, and to say that South Korea has still yet to file its INDC.

Back on June 4 the UN's Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor held a press conference and Inner City Press asked him about unspent funds at the Clean Development Mechanism in Bonn, and about reported backsliding by South Korea on its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on greenhouse gas reduction.

  Pasztor said that the CDM is still needed; he said country have committed not to backslide. Video here. 

Back on May 5, Inner City Press asked him about criticism of the Green Climate Fund, including at the recent Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Video here and embedded below.

  Specifically, why will the "Green" Climate Fund provide financial for coal-powered plants? Pasztor replied that some felt that an exclusion for coal would have been divisive. On statements at the PFII that the UN is helping to "monetize" nature, Pasztor replied that most states feel differently. But what about the indigenous?
  
  Pasztor in his opening statement had praised the UN Pension Fund for now investing in "green equities" and "green bonds." Since the UN has responded to Press questions about irregularities alleged at the Pension Fund by emphasizing how separate and independent it is, Inner City Press asked Pazstor if the UN Secretariat had brought about this Pension Fund decision.

 Pazstor replied that the Pension Fund answers to the Secretary General and that "she" - Carolyn Boykin, presumably - had made this decision. We'll have more on this, after noting Pasztor by no means the least responsive UN official...

 When last September 21 the People's Climate March assembled at Manhattan's Columbus Circle, there were anti-corporate puppets in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, speeches by coal miners and from the Marshall Islands.

   Many called on the UN to do better. But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the march mid-way, at Radio City Musical Hall with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Senator Chuck Schumer was on hand, walking by a Bronx contingent chanting how Fresh Direct has broken its promises.

  Inner City Press' 90 second video of the march is here.

  The UN's or "BKM" (Ban Ki-moon) Climate Summit will feature Cargill and Walmart, Credit Agricole and Bank of America. The last of these is the first, in terms of funding mountain top coal removal. These are the contradiction. Inner City Press tweeted photos on@InnerCityPress. More to follow.

  The night before the People's Climate March, the UN buildings on First Avenue lit up with photos and footage of trees and fish and written messages. It is called "illUmiNations." Inner City Press video here.

   Inner City Press late on September 19, after covering the Ukraine,Iraq, Ebola and Iran nuclear meetings inside the UN, went out and found a sort of trial run for the screening taking place on First Avenue, alreadylined with NYPD cement blocks. Photo here.

   Looking back at the UN's press release for the upcoming "VIP Press Screening" -- hard to know how they could exclude non-VIPs from it, or why they would want to -- there were laudatory quotes about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and: 

Obscura Digital has staged similar large-scale architectural mapping projection events on the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. For examples of previous work, please visit the following link http://wdrv.it/1tx7Emd.

 In that video compilation, well worth watching, there are also corporate projects for Coca-Cola and YouTube owned by Google, with history at the UN. 

  A message Inner City Press photographed on September 19, here,  was "In nature's economy, the currency is not money but life." Is this true of Coca-Cola?

   There are questions about the UN's UNcritical approach to corporations and corporate "partnerships."

   In the run up to the UN's September 23 Climate Summit, the UN put out a media advisory promoting the participation of 14 corporations ranging from Saudi Aramco through Cargill, McDonald's and Walmart to Bank of America and Credit Agricole. 

  Inner City Press on September 16 asked Summit promoter Robert Orr how these 14 were selected for listing in the media advisory, and if the UN had reviewed their wider record. For example, the recent court decision involving Cargill and child slavery in Cote d'Ivoire, or Saudi Aramco not allowing employees in Saudi Arabia to protest.

   Orr mentioned a luncheon during the summit about carbon pricing and the UN Global Compact, a branch of the UN which repeatedly says it does not enforce substantive standards, only encourages reporting and dialogue.  Well, Saudi Aramco did not respond to the complaint about “employees allegedly dismissed after being detained for participation in civil rights protests in Saudi Arabia.”

   And what of the environment? Bank of America has been the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, but Ban Ki-moon made it chairman the chief of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

  On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked that those making commitments, like the 14 corporations named, hold question and answer sessions during the summit. We'll see.

   

At UN, Rapporteurs Run Wild, De Zayas on Richard Falk, Jean Ziegler, the Process in Geneva

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- Halfway through UN human rights rapporteurs week, with three press conferences a day ranging from Iran to democracy, North Korea to migration but excluding transnational corporations, it's time for a review.

Monday after Inner City Press asked Alfred de Zayas, the UN's "Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order," about France controlling UN Peacekeeping four times in a row, a more in depth questions and answer was possible.

  Inner City Press asked de Zayas about the gloss that his mandate was created by Cuba, the blockade on which was being denounced by state after state on Tuesday morning.

 De Zayas said there was a yearly General Assembly resolution on the topic, and finally Cuba proposed a mandate and expert on the topic, which Jean Ziegler in mind.

But the way selections are made, he said, is by a group of five ambassadors (he named them), and one of them said no to Zeigler. And so de Zayas got the post at the last minute, with an OK from US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Eileen Donahoe. The US is not favor the mandate. He will meet with the US Mission in New York this week (not with Samantha Power, he noted) and ask how they'd like to see the mandate used.

  After he got the mandate he was hounded, de Zayas said, for a book he wrote about German suffering and displacement in World War Two. Inner City Press on Monday asked obliquely for his views on the Nuremberg trials: not positive. Inner City Press put this in a story which de Zayas retweeted. He says he wants coverage; hence this story.

  All this is lower profile, he acknowledged, than Richard Falk. He described Falk at a gathering of UN rapporteurs, isolated, with the other rapporteurs not wanting to be seen as associated with him. But Falk is not concerned with that. (Inner City Press has previously reported on US diplomat Rick Barton joking about Richard Falk as his tennis partner. Small world.)

  Inner City Press asked de Zayas if the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights offers any training for rapporteurs. He said there is an "induction," two days in length, in which rapporteurs are told to "first do no harm" -- oh that the UN in Haiti had followed that advise, now in the time of cholera -- and to not needlessly antagonize governments. 

  Just do your work, de Zayas said the rapporteurs were told, and perhaps through time some good will come of it. Perhaps. We'll have more, deeper into Rapporteurs Week. Watch this site.

   

UN Bans Syria & DR Congo Questions In Favor of Piano, Nuremberg & Sri Lanka Double Speak

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- What stories does the UN want to tell, and what questions should it be required to answer?

On Monday after a weekend of armed conflict in the Congo, with one Tanzanian soldier killed, and with Syria's chemical weapons report due and turned in, the UN did not hold its normal noon briefing.

Why not? Instead Secretary General Ban Ki-moon showed up at noon to read out prepared remarks, but taking no questions, to introduce the pianist Lang Lang as a UN goodwill ambassador. The piano sounded fine -- but why cancel the noon briefing for this?

It is sometimes said that even when the UN noon briefing is canceled, for example for Ban to take two pre-selected questions on Syria, the Spokesperson's office will answer e-mailed questions and "highlights" will be put online.

Well, Inner City Press asked a question by email:

"On Friday I asked if UN Force Intervention Brigade was involved in fighting between FARDC and M23 and was told 'no.' Now I hear that a Tanzanian soldier in the FIB was killed in fighting in Kiwanja. Please confirm (or deny) this, and describe UN and Force Intervention Brigade in fighting between FARDC and M23."

More than twenty four hours later, the question had not been answered, leaving French ambassador Gerard Araud's response, here, as in essence the UN's response.

  After the piano display, and after Ban's UN Censorship Alliance (UNCA) legitimized the cancellation of the noon briefing by asking inane questions like whether Lang Lang will go to Syria, there WAS a press conference in the UN's Press Briefing Room.

  UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas spoke on a wide range of topics, including whether the Permanent Five members of the Security Council should have the veto and otherwise control the UN.

  Inner City Press asked Zayas to comment on the P5 controlling the UN's departments -- the US has twice in a row controlled Political Affairs, the UK has had OCHA twice, France has controlled UN Peacekeeping four times in a row, hitting its nadir with Herve Ladous, video here, UK coverage here -- and then something else.

  Cursory internet research found complaints about de Zayas, including for saying this about the Nuremberg trials: "Nuremberg was an exercise in hypocrisy. A continuation of hate and war by the instrumentalization of the administration of justice, a corruption of legal norms and procedures, a pollution of philosophy, a truly Pharisee tribunal."

  Inner City Press asked him about it, and he answered about victors' justice and the ICC (true in the case of Cote d'Ivoire and Libya, for sure); he said UN posts should be subject to geographic distribution. He handed out material at the end, asking for help with "media promotion."

  So what stories are told, and what questions blocks, in today's UN?

  In the morning a more focused rapporteur Pablo De Greiff spoke on "truth, justice, reparations & non-recurrence." Inner City Press asked how these apply to Sri Lanka, a report on which Ban Ki-moon is not only withholding -- its existence is even being denied after Inner City Press exclusively published a leaked copy.

  Pablo De Greiff said he couldn't speak directly about things that are being considered, but that development is not the same thing as reparation, it does not "re-establish the norm." So if the UN ever gets around to stopping withholding (and denying) its own report, maybe it will listen. If the piano is not too loud. Watch this site.

Footnote: The Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info objected to the cancellation of the noon briefing, and for that reason did not even seek to ask any questions in the piano replacement. De Zayas it thanked "for the opportunity to ask this question" about Nuremberg. With whom did and does the UN consult before deciding that "media" prefers piano over Q&A? We'll have more on this.