German Ambassador to the UN Harald Braun on Complexities of Libya and Yemen, Pressure on Burundi, Chinese Surprise at North Korean Test

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 21 -- Germany is running again for UN Security Council for 2019-20. By the election in 2018, the 2015 Person of the Year award to Chancellor Angela Merkel from TIME Magazine may have faded in memory. Still, its economy is larger than the two other European countries with Permanent seats on the Council; it is about to send 650 peacekeepers to MINUSMA in Mali, on top its current UN peacekeeping contribution of 150 military, 35 police and 60 civilians.

   On January 21 Germany's Permanent Representative to the UN Harald Braun held a background briefing on his Mission's 22nd floor. Inner City Press asked three questions and afterward got permission to publish the following responses from Ambassador Braun, on Germany's positions:

  On Libya, on which Inner City Press asked whether the recent slew of good-news press statements by the UN Secretary General, the Security Council and many states really mean that the corner has been turned, Ambassador Braun called the situation an“uphill struggle” but said that UN envoy Martin Kobler (who separately told Inner City Press he has a return ticket to the German foreign ministry,video here) has “offered the right instruments.”

  On Yemen, on which Inner City Press has previously quoted sources in Sana'a on Germany's Bettina Muscheidt as a possible replacement UN envoy, Braun called the situation “complicated,” adding that “we regret the exclusion of the human rights envoy.”

On Burundi, Germany's Ambassador Braun said, “It is important to dialogue, especially with countries that have human rights issues. We believe that in the current situation it is right for the Security Council to put pressure on the government in Burundi.”


Harald Braun in UNSC, eye on 2019-20, UN Photo/Loey Felipe

  And on North Korea and its nuclear test, Braun said, “I believe that China was just as surprised as other Council members... It is my expectation that China will agree to a targeted set of sanctions.”

  On this last, no draft has yet been circulated even to all Permanent Five members of the Security Council, they say. Germany, along with a number of other countries, would like to have such a seat. The above are its positions at the UN, on which we'll have more. Watch this site.

Killing of Cecil the Leon Raised at UN, Inner City Press Asks if Dentist Should Be Arrested

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- When after the passage of an Illicit Wildlife Trafficking resolution in the UN General Assembly its proponents Gabon's Foreign Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet and German Ambassador Harald Braun took questions, they were all about Cecil the Lion, killed in Zimbabwe.

  Inner City Press asked if Cecil's killed, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, should be arrested.  Video here. Gabon's  Issoze-Ngondet, formerly his country's ambassador to the UN, said it is troubling but one must wait for the investigation being conducted by Zimbabwe. Palmer may not be waiting - he has, BuzzFeed reports, not responded to attacked at contact by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

   Inner City Press' question about whether the issue of wildlife trafficking will ever make it to the Security Council for a binding resolution, given that Germany's Harald Braun said it is the fourth largest funder of terrorism, was not answered.

Back at the Security Council stakeout, there were those who marveled at the attention devoted to a faraway lion compared to, for example, human victims of police abuse. Of course, it's not either - or. Watch this site.
   

German Spying Loophole and Internet Privacy Drafting at UN, Linked?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 30 -- Days after a watered down German draft resolution on spying was adopted without objection in the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, it's reported that a loophole in German law allows it to spy on their own citizens.

  The loophole involves German nationals working abroad for foreign corporations - in that capacity, they lose protection, as the communications are viewed as non-German. The Guardian:

"a former BND lawyer told parliament this week that citizens working abroad for foreign companies were not protected. The German government confirmed on Saturday that work-related calls or emails were attributed to the employer. As a result, if the employer is foreign, the BND could legally intercept them."

  In this loophole, it appears, would for example be German journalists working for other than Germany media.

  While the positions of the US, Canada and others were blamed for watering down the UNGA resolution, this too may be relevant.

  When this "Right to Privacy in the Internet Age" resolution came to the floor in the UN's Third (Human Rights) Committee on November 25, German Ambassador Harald Braun summarized its new elements: the inclusion of metadata, obligations by the private sector, effective remedies for violations and an invitation to the UN Human Rights Council to establish a special procedure on the right to privacy.

  He did not mention the loophole, which would be reported days later.

  While Braun cited US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the resolution was adopted by consensus - that is, no country, including the United States, objected.

  International law, if it exists, is incremental. And is subject to undisclosed conflicts.

 Back on July 9, First Look's "The Intercept" revealed that the US NSA and FBI spied on at least five Americans, all Muslims, and used place-holder code names like "Raghead," click here for that. 

   Those spied on included a Republican candidate for the Virginia legislature, Faisal Gill; Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor; lawyer Asim Ghafoor; Nihad Awad of CAIR; and "Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights."

  The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has already said he thinks Snowden "misused" information, as Inner City Press reported here.

  Back on March 14 when the US delegation to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva took the floor, it was a full court press. Of the elephant in the room, NSA spying, the speaker from the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice used a single line: DOJ is "monitoring" a number of private actions. You don't say.

  The head of the US delegation, Mary McLeod, said but did not explain why the US Administration has "no current expectation to become a party to the optional protocol" to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- which the US says does not apply to its actions outside of its borders. 

The session closed with a slew of questions: Walter Kalin asked why the US deports people to Haiti even amid the cholera epidemic -- for which, Inner City Press notes, the US has said the UN should be immune. Watch this site. 

   

As US Supports "Right to Privacy in the Internet Age" Resolution in UN's Third Committee, Spying Sanitized?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 25 -- When the "Right to Privacy in the Internet Age" resolution came to the floor in the UN's Third (Human Rights) Committee on November 25, German Ambassador Harald Braun summarized its new elements: the inclusion of metadata, obligations by the private sector, effective remedies for violations and an invitation to the UN Human Rights Council to establish a special procedure on the right to privacy.

 Ambassador Antonio Patriota of co-sponsor Brazil expressed regret on what wasn't in the resolution, for example extra-territorial coverage of communications infrastructure that a country controls, wherever located. 

  While Braun cited US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the resolution was adopted by consensus - that is, no country, including the United States, objected.

  International law, if it exists, is incremental.

 Back on July 9, First Look's "The Intercept" revealed that the US NSA and FBI spied on at least five Americans, all Muslims, and used place-holder code names like "Raghead," click here for that. 

   Those spied on included a Republican candidate for the Virginia legislature, Faisal Gill; Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor; lawyer Asim Ghafoor; Nihad Awad of CAIR; and "Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights."

  The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has already said he thinks Snowden "misused" information, as Inner City Press reported here.

  Back on March 14 when the US delegation to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva took the floor, it was a full court press. Of the elephant in the room, NSA spying, the speaker from the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice used a single line: DOJ is "monitoring" a number of private actions. You don't say.

  The head of the US delegation, Mary McLeod, said but did not explain why the US Administration has "no current expectation to become a party to the optional protocol" to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- which the US says does not apply to its actions outside of its borders. 

The session closed with a slew of questions: Walter Kalin asked why the US deports people to Haiti even amid the cholera epidemic -- for which, Inner City Press notes, the US has said the UN should be immune. Watch this site.