By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 6 -- What's at stake if Palestine in the UN General Assembly seeks enhanced Observer State status? One thing is Palestine's possible membership in the International Criminal Court and the ability to refer to the ICC alleged crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.
The legal adviser of a large European state highlighted this to Inner City Press, predicting that once the Palestinians won Observer State status with 130 or so votes, they would file a request to become party to the ICC's Rome Statute with UN Security General's top lawyer, Patricia O'Brien.
It was said that while O'Brien might want otherwise, ICC membership for "States" is straightforward even if they are not members of the UN, as Switzerland until recently was not.
Inner City Press on September 6 asked Switzerland's Permanent Representative to the UN Paul Seger if Palestine would be able to join the ICC if granted Observer State status.
Seger replied with a series of questions: "Does that automatically then allow Palestine to become a member of an international treaty? Each treaty has its own conditions and prerogatives for joining such an instrument. It is up to the member states of each international instrument to decide whether or not the conidtions are met to become a party of that treaty."
Seger turned and asked a Swiss mission staffer, "In case of ICC, who is the depository?"
The Swiss staffer replied, "The Secretary General."
Seger concluded, "So it will be the S-G who will determine whether or not Palestine is qualified to join that."
Ban Ki-moon has not held a sit-down question and answer session with the press at UN headquarters for some time -- despite a commitment to do them at least monthly, the last one appears to be a full three months ago, on June 6.
When Ban held a stakeout upon gaining a second term, his spokesman went out of his way to call on the UN's own radio station for a softball question. In stakeout's since, he and his team have excluded obvious tough questions.
Ban's top lawyer Patricia O'Brien has denied several requests to come and give a briefing. It is not in substance a hypothetical question: what will Ban's UN do? Watch this site.
