Countries decry visa ban for UN meetings 

The 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit closed at the weekend with Heads of State and Government gathered at Speke Resort Convention Centre, Munyonyo, adopting the 416-page Outcome Document prescribing antidotes to some of the world’s pressing problems from hunger to geo-political tensions.

NAM is an alliance of 120 developing countries dubbed the global south. The alliance was midwifed 69 years ago at the Bandung Conference as a foreign policy instrument of allying with neither the United States (US) nor Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)—at the height of the Cold War—but has since emerged as a collective voice of poor and developing countries.

The six-day summit under the theme; “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence” kicked off last Monday with back-to-back senior officials and ministers of Foreign Affairs meetings discussing and negotiating three documents, the Outcome Document, Kampala Declaration, and Political Declaration on Palestine, which were adopted at the Heads of State and Government summit on Saturday.

The Outcome Document offers a snapshot of a world reeling in turmoil, from the simmering geo-political tensions in the powder keg Middle East, South America, West Africa and Southeast Asia, to extreme poverty that afflicts more than 800 million people living on less than Shs4,000 per day, hunger, terrorism, climate change, slow post-Covid-19 economic recovery, and the gradual breakdown of international order—multilateralism—as big powers continue to ride roughshod imposing their dogma on weak states.

The Heads of State, according to the Outcome Document, a copy seen by Monitor, also decried the continued denial and delay in issuance of entry visas to representatives of NAM states by US embassies around the world to access the UN headquarters in New York where the alliance’s main activities are coordinated.

The leaders underscored that “political considerations shall not interfere with the provision of facilities required under the Headquarters Agreement for the Member States to participate in the United Nations activities.”
After hosting the summits, Uganda will chair NAM out of its Diplomatic Mission in New York.  At the technical level, the NAM is overseen by a Coordinating Bureau of all member-state Ambassadors to the UN in New York with a chairperson, in this case Uganda, and 15 vice-chairpersons who were elected during Thursday’s ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting.

The NAM leaders “directed the Coordinating Bureau to initiate consultations amongst the member states, to be followed by consultations with the wider membership of the UN, with a view to present before the  General Assembly a short and action-oriented draft resolution  demanding Secretary-General to take steps under section 21 of the Headquarters Agreement and requesting the Host Country of the UN to fulfil its responsibilities, by virtue of relevant Headquarter  Agreements and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,  including the timely issuance of entry visas and the removal of arbitrary  movement restrictions, with a view to ensure that delegations of  member state have the capacity to fully exercise their right of  participation in multilateral meetings, as well as their diplomatic duties  and official responsibilities in a proper manner.”
The UN General Assembly (UNGA), is the world’s parliament, where all the 193-UN member states have equal say.

The United States, with its multi-layered sanction regime, routinely slaps blanket sanctions including travel bans for various reasons ranging from egregious human rights violations, governance deficits, and economic crimes on rogue governments around the world.

Diplomatic fete 
In attendance were 16 presidents; South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir, Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Sri Lanka’s Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ghana’s  Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, Libya’s Mohamed Menfi, Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa, Kenya’s William Ruto, Botswana’s Mokgweetsi Masisi, Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe, Central African Republic’s Faustin Touadera, Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema, Somalia’s Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Burundi’s Evariste Ndayishimye, and Mr Dennis Francis, president of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

Eight vice presidents; Iran’s Mohammad Mokhber, Namibia’s Nangolo Mbumba, Vietnam’s Vo Thi Anh Xuan, Nigeria’s Kashim Shettima, Maldives’ Hussain Mohamed Latheef, Benin’s Mariam Chabi Talata Zime Yerima, Cuba’s Salvador Valdés, and Turkey’s Cevdet Yılmaz.

The prime ministers included Ethiopia’s Ahmed Abiy, Rwanda’s Eduard Ngirente, Algeria’s Nadir Larbaoui, Niger’s Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Guyana’s Mark Anthony Phillips, Eswatini’s Russell Mmiso Dlamini, Tanzania’s Kassim Majaliwa, Saint Vincent and the Grenadine’s Ralph E. Gonsalves, Nepal’s  Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda, Commonwealth of the Bahamas’s Philip Edwards Davis K.C.

New Caledonia was represented by the president of its congress Roch Wamytan, Oman by the chairman of the State Council, Sheikh Abdulmalik bin Abdullah bin Ali Al Khalili, while the majority of countries were represented by ministers of Foreign of Affairs and Ambassadors in different capacities, respectively.

The Heads of State summit opened last Friday with among others, the leaders paying tribute to 13 deceased presidents of NAM states including Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza, Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings, Kenya’s Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, Mauritius’s Anerood Jugnauth, Philippine’s Fidel V Ramos and Benigno S Aquino, Tanzania’s Joseph Magufuli, among others, followed by briefing by the outgoing chair, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Jeyhun Bayramov.

This was followed by President Museveni assuming the NAM chairmanship from Mr Bayramov, and several back-to-back addresses by Cuba’s Vice President, Mr Mesa whose country is the current chair of the Group of 77 (G77) + China grouping, the president of the 78th session of UNGA, and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat before the leaders sequestered for closed-door plenary last Friday and Saturday.

The NAM leaders also adopted the 12-page Kampala Declaration which takes stock of the progress of implementation of outcomes of the 18th summit held in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, in late October 2019. The declaration also red-flagged “new and emerging challenges” to the alliance, member states, and the international community, especially the corroding of multilateralism.

The declaration touches on several world problems, from the UN Agenda 2030 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—especially tackling poverty in all forms, fighting hunger, and supporting access to clean water and sanitation—first adopted in 2015 but has been impeded by the absence of a coherent comprehensive financing for development model, increased threat posed by health emergencies, including Covid-19, Ebola Virus Disease, Swine Flu A (H1N1), to mounting tensions in the powder keg Middle East; specifically condemned Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories and ignoring of the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

The world leaders further underscored fortifying South-South, North-South and triangular cooperation and to further promote, preserve and reform multilateralism, and fully respect principles of international law and internationally agreed principles, with a view to enhancing cooperation in addressing threats and challenges facing developing countries, and “strengthening of the strategic partnerships” between UN, the principal anchor of multilateralism, and the relevant regional organisations such as the African Union on pressing issues such as peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and the UN Security Council supporting AU-led peace operations.

All-encompassing agenda
The leaders also threw weight behind United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—the main international agreement on climate change reached in 1992, and later gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 but took effect in 2005, and the Paris Agreement; the binding international treaty on climate change adopted at COP21 in 2015—principles of among others developed countries taking lead on greenhouse emission reduction, and preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system.

Still on the climate issue, the world leaders applauded the “importance of the operationalisation and initial capitalisation” of the Loss and Damage Fund at the just concluded UN climate summit—COP28— in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The developed countries responsible for much of the climate crisis pledged $700m (Shs2.2trillion), short of what is needed but a historic move itself, for the fund through which developed countries will receive technical support for climate change adaptation.

The Heads of State summit also endorsed admission of next-door South Sudan to the NAM alliance. South Sudan marked its independence in 2011 after splitting from Sudan following decades of civil war.
Since the summit’s opening, the Palestine question came out strongly. In the Kampala Declaration, NAM leaders applauded South Africa’s “genocide” suit against Israel at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

They further “reiterated the need for substantial and urgent progress to be made towards achieving an end to the Israeli occupation, including achievement of the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, to achieve a two-state solution, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, and affirmed support for the State of Palestine to be admitted as a Member State of the United Nations to take its rightful place among the community of the nation.”

NAM recognises Palestine as an independent country and treats the Palestine question and quest for global recognition as a standing issue.
Israel, with the full backing of the US and its European allies, kicked off a vicious retaliatory campaign to “demolish” the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) following its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, on a music festival, south of the country, killing 1,139 people, injured scores, and took more than 200 as hostage.

Four months down the road, the Gaza-based Health ministry reported on Thursday that the death toll had risen to 24,620 while 61,830 Palestinians have been wounded. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was facing political upheaval rode on the Hamas attack to galvanise support home and away, and as defied all calls for a humanitarian pause. The UK’s Guardian reported at the weekend Mr Nentanyahu doubling down on Palestine statehood.

There was a deadlock mid-last week during discussions on both the Kampala Declaration and Declaration on Palestine on whether to include the “genocide” accusation, a move blocked by India and Singapore but supported by the majority of countries.

The final documents carefully avoid the assertion which goes to show the intricacies involved in state relations and international relations.  The majority NAM—poor and developing countries— have voted overwhelmingly at the UN for a ceasefire but individually have conspicuously remained tight-lipped about Israel’s actions.

Only seven NAM-member countries, South Africa, Chile, Colombia, Belize, Bahrain, Jordan, and Chad either severed diplomatic relations or recalled their ambassadors as a show of protest against Israel altogether.  NAM defends that its alliance is not fortified as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the inter-government military alliance of 31 European and two North American states, which proclaims that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

For some NAM countries like Uganda, it is more complicated. The Kampala establishment, which says it supports a two-state solution through the application of the two-state solution which was conceptualised in 1993 but has largely remained on paper, maintains strong defence and military relations with Israel and are executive clients for arms supplies and military training.

At the weekend, NAM leaders adopted the Political Declaration on Palestine which condemns Israel’s use of disproportionate force, and “acts of aggression and collective punishment against the Palestinian people, in grave breach of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, including, inter alia, the killing and injury of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many children and women.

The climax
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres, joined the NAM leaders last Saturday during the closed-door adoption of the three documents.
He told NAM leaders at the closing ceremony that: “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable. The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all,” he added.

“We see clear convergence between the principles of the UN Charter and the Bandung principles of the Non-Aligned Movement. And you have an important role at the United Nations. As significant contributors to UN peacekeeping forces,” he added.

President Museveni, the newly chair, in his closing remarks urged NAM member states to work together to address challenges facing developing countries and promote collaboration. He was emphatic on the expansion and facilitation of interstate trade between NAM countries to support the growth of all countries. 

 “We should remind ourselves of our motto, Deepening cooperation for shared Global Affluence, it will be the first time, if achieved in the coming years, and the whole world is affluent. …in the last 40 years we have seen some Spread of affluence to some other countries like China, and what we are aiming at is affluence for the whole world. We may not achieve it in the short time but we must have it on our radar,”
 “I don’t think we are helpless, we just need to get together,” Mr Museveni noted.

HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of the Outcome Document:  The Heads of State and Government underlined that multilateralism does not represent, in any way, a threat to the sovereignty or to the national interests of any State, and that it is rather a means to address the complex and newly emerging threats and challenges that affect every member of the international community, in an increasingly interdependent world, and to ensure the realization of the principle of sovereign equality of States.

“The Heads of State and Government underlined the critical role of the host countries of the United Nations Headquarters and Offices in preserving multilateralism and facilitating multilateral diplomacy and inter-governmental norm making processes, and called upon all States which host the United Nations Headquarters and Offices to facilitate, in accordance with their obligation under the related Headquarters Agreements and the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.”

Highlights of the Kampala Declaration: Recognising that the Ugandan Chairmanship of NAM  coincides, with its Chairmanship of the Group of 77 plus China and, in that regard,  convinced of the privileged opportunity this provides for both enhancing and  strengthening the Joint Coordination Committee, as well as for making greater use of  that format, particularly as part of ongoing efforts to furthering the engagements and  partnerships between the G77 and China and NAM, with the ultimate purpose of  enhancing the coordination among both groupings and capitalising on their synergies  and commonalities of views, priorities and challenges when addressing matters of  common interest to the Global South.

Highlights of Political Declaration on Israel: “..expressed grave concern that the lack of accountability for violations has further emboldened Israel’s impunity, destabilised the situation on the ground, and diminished peace prospects, and deplored any support of or cooperation with Israel’s illegal actions. They called for tangible measures of accountability in accordance with international law for compelling a halt to all such illegal actions and ensuring justice for the victims, and urged Member States to undertake immediate collective and national efforts in this regard.”