Cuba proposes action by NAM on Gaza
A UN peacekeeping force in Gaza is required by the UN Charter
The Nineteenth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Kampala, Uganda on January 19-20, 2024. See “The 19th Summit of the NAM in Uganda: Deepening cooperation for shared global affluence,” January 20, 2024.
The Cuban delegation to the Summit was headed by Cuban Vice-President Salvador Valdés Mesa. In his discourse to the Summit, he pointed out that finding consensus in the midst of diverse points of view has always been the strength of the Non-Aligned Movement, which has enabled the Movement to put forth the Declaration for a New International Economic Order, to condemn aggression and the imposition of unjust sanctions and unilateral coercive measures, and to coordinate positions in defense of the aspirations and just demands of our peoples.
In addition, Valdés Mesa expressed the following:
Cuba proposes that the NAM, consistent with its historic support for the Palestinian people, undertake without delay the following four practical actions, as a contribution to the efforts to stop the current barbarity:
· Demand in all possible spaces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
· Support the urgent dispatching to the Gaza Strip of an international protection mission, authorized by the UN General Assembly, with a mandate to ensure the safety and security of the civilian population and facilitate the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid, including water and food.
· Convene a renewed session of the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, at which the Movement will propose a resolution urgently convening a Peace Conference under the auspices of the United Nations, which will preserve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to an independent and sovereign state with the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
· Support the rapid admission of the State of Palestine as a full Member State of the United Nations.
The Cuban proposal is consistent with the Non-Aligned Movement principle of united action, the belief that the Third World nations can attain more clout if they work together. In addition, the Cuban proposal is consistent with the long-standing principal of the Movement that it should work through the United Nations and its agencies, in spite of the undemocratic structures of the United Nations, particularly the undemocratic character of membership of the Security Council as well as the concentration of power in the Security Council, at the expense of the General Assembly. The Movement has persistently called for the democratization of the Security Council and for greater power for the General Assembly.
The proposal put forth by Valdés Mesa goes a step further. It seeks to enhance the power of the General Assembly through direct action by the Assembly, acting on the foundation of the appeals of their peoples.
Let us call the progressive character of the United Nations Charter, signed by the representatives of the governments of the United Nations on June 26, 1945, in San Francisco. It affirms, in the first place, “the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small,” the development of relations among nations “based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” and the “principles of the sovereign equality of all nations.” And it commits, in the second place, “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.” And in the third place, the Charter declares that the purposes of the United Nations include the taking of “effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace,” and accordingly, “all Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means … [and]… shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Accordingly, the equal sovereignty of nations, world peace, and the socioeconomic development of the poorer nations, formulated as World War II was coming to a close and as the process of decolonization was in march, are the pillars of the United Nations.
It is for this reason that in the 1950s the great leaders of the Third World anti-colonial struggles embraced the principles of the United Nations as they initiated a struggle to give voice to the colonized and neocolonized peoples in world affairs. It could be said with fairness that the project of the Non-Aligned Movement has been in essence an ongoing demand for the implementation of the principles of the United Nations, principles that were formulated in a process led by the United States when it was at the height of its imperialist hegemony.
I interpret the Cuban proposal to mean that NAM should propose to the UN General Assembly that it authorize an international peacekeeping force to be sent to Gaza for the protection and support of the people in Gaza, in the tradition of the sixty-one peacekeeping missions that the UN has completed in various regions of the world, along with eleven current missions. The intention of the Vice-President’s proposal is not clear, inasmuch as the UN General Assembly does not have such authority. The General Assembly has the authority, on the basis of a favorable vote of two-thirds of its member States, to recommend the authorization of a peacekeeping mission to the Security Council, which alone has such authority. But such action can be vetoed by any one of its permanent members, and to date, the United States has vetoed resolutions calling for a cease fire in Gaza. Cuban news highlighted a video of the Vice-President’s proposal, but it has made no further commentary, nor has any further commentary yet been made on the Website of the Non-Aligned Movement.
It seems to me that the proposal has merit, taking into account the enormous outrage throughout the world with respect to what is happening in Gaza. It would be possible to obtain two-thirds support in the General Assembly for the sending of a peacekeeping force, requiring the Security Council to take up the matter. In that setting, it could be argued that the United States does not have the right to veto the resolution, because Article 27 of the UN Charter requires that Security Council decisions have the concurrence of the permanent members, provided that “a party to the dispute shall abstain from voting.” A case could be presented that the United States, by virtue of its longstanding backing of Israel, is a party in the dispute.
If this strategy were to fail, there would be recourse to the International Court of Justice, which was established by the UN Charter as “the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.” A demand could be emitted that would maintain that the veto of a resolution for a peacekeeping force in Gaza violates the UN Charter, and the granting of such veto power over the collective judgment of humanity is a violation of the principles of the UN Charter. Such a demand would complement a demand already before the Court accusing Israel of genocide, made by South Africa.
I suggest that such legal action, emerging from the proposal put before NAM by the Cuban Vice-President, could be the basis for taking an outraged world beyond repeated protests without practical effect, and toward a practical approach to stopping the barbarity and/or to necessary structural reforms in the political processes of the world-system. This would further advance the long-standing demand of the Non-Aligned Movement for a democratic restructuring of the United Nations, in accordance with its own principles.
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