Post No. 3,115 - A proposal for a human rights-respecting democracies bloc at the United Nations

I am intending to send this to the Ambassadors from the nations that I selected (see below) over the next few weeks. 

Your Excellency,

I am no-one of any particular significance, although I have been a human rights community activist in my spare time for many decades (beginning with writing letters for Amnesty International in the 1980s and arguing with teachers at high school about racism and corporal punishment in the 1970s) - perhaps slightly more so since I retired some time ago.

I have also been a great admirer of the United Nations and the unrecognised work it does in areas such as international air travel, weather forecasting, etc (I wrote a brief outline of the UN at one of my blogs - URL https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-united-nations.html). 

I am also aware that the UN has problems, particularly, in my opinion, the veto powers of the "Big Five" (although I note that can be overcome by a General Assembly vote - https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/377(V), and I wrote a blog post on a now inactive political blog of mine suggesting using technology to facilitate that - https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/12/fixing-un-with-technology.html). 

However, the problems now facing the UN are far more severe, with the current government in the USA cutting funds severely - which has been written about, for instance, by the Director, UN and Multilateral Diplomacy, Richard Gowan, in: 

“Doing “Less with Less” at the UN”   https://www.crisisgroup.org/global-united-states/doing-less-with-less-un   “Sweeping cuts in U.S. contributions have put UN finances under great strain. Many at the UN have long felt it should slim down, but less thought has been given to what a smaller organisation will mean in practice. It is time to contemplate that question.” 

I have also read suggestions to create an entirely new organisation, but I consider that a task of unrealistic scale - and one that risks throwing out the good. 

However, I do consider relying on other funding sources, rather than the USA to the extent which existed until recently, and locating more activities of the UN outside the USA, to be a good, health change that will be of great benefit in the long term. 

There is one other change I wish to see, which is what I am writing to you about, and that is the possible formation of a human rights-respecting democracies bloc at the United Nations. 

I am aware that there have been various blocs and factions in the history of the UN, some good, some not, but, I consider that, in the current context of what is happening in the USA and what the USA is doing to the rest of the world, a bloc such as I proposing might be able to set an example of what the world, the nations in it, and the UN could potentially be. 

I posted a rough half-formed idea about this some time ago (see “An informal demonstration project: what the UN could be”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/11/an-informal-demonstration-project-what.html   ), but have developed that further, based on the following: 

• The classification of democracies by the Economist - accessed via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index#Components 
   - I have adopted classification as a "full democracy" (8 out of a possible 10) as the minimum criteria for inclusion in this bloc.
   - To avoid this being subject to fluctuations and possibly being based on an aberrant reading, I have adapted the guide that social change takes around three generations to become settled, I have averaged the assigned values over three political "generations" (election cycles). 

• A principal that human rights are essential for democracy to be truly democratic - both in terms of access to information, ability to debate, and freedom from restraint on access in the form of discrimination against groups ("minorities").
  My measure of that has been based on the nine international treaties that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights consider "core", at https://www.ohchr.org/en/core-international-human-rights-instruments-and-their-monitoring-bodies.
  With optional protocols there are 18 items, each of which needs to be both signed and ratified, which is 36 specific acts - although one protocol seems to be only about communication. Adjusting for that I adopted a required minimum human rights score of 7.56 out of 10 ( (34 items x 0.8) = 27.2 / 36 = 0.756, or 7.56 out of 10).

Based on those two criteria, I came up with the following list of nations, listed from highest score first (Finland) to lowest last (my nation - Australia), that I consider initially suitable for this bloc (summary calculations attached as a jPEG; along with a PDF of the spreadsheet I used): 

• Finland, Uruguay, Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Costa Rica, Sweden, Ireland, Iceland, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Malta, and Australia
  

I am NOT surprised that the UK and USA are NOT included. Both have had considerable problems for quite some time - well before the current government in the USA. 

I am a little surprised that France just missed out, and am pleased that Chile came close to being included. Perhaps there will need to be a group of "observer" nations at meetings of this bloc - but I consider the USA and UK should be excluded, as they represent the last of the Old World, in many ways, and have powerful forces of conservatism that resist objectivity, let alone change. 

What should be done from here?

Well, in principle, I would like to see these nations meet before UN General Assembly sessions - ideally not anywhere near the UN - to discuss the forthcoming agenda, and how to maximise the cause of inclusive (human rights respecting) democracy in the coming UNGA session and beyond.

I would anticipate such meetings largely would not need heads of state, but perhaps foreign ministers for finalisation.  

As to where ... well, my old world conservatism would like the former League of Nations buildings, although I know they are used for other purposes and may lack the meeting infrastructure and other services necessary for such meetings, and to promote a genuinely globally inclusive bloc I would hope suitable venues could be found in a series of locations around the globe. 

In terms of immediate next steps, your Excellency, I wish to prevail upon you for your advice as to what to to do next in order to promote this proposal. 

Should you or your staff have some time to advise me further, I would be most grateful.

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options. 

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here. 

(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)  

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

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