UN

BY DANIEL WARNER Photograph Source: in transition – CC BY 2.0 The game of musical chairs is popular with children. If the child’s game is based on successfully sitting on a chair when the music stops, recent diplomacy at the U.N. has been focused on empty chairs. Empty chair diplomacy goes back to French President Charles de Gaulle when the French boycotted European institutions in July 1965. The French leader’s boycott showed he favored European integration rather than increased power to European institutions. It reflected de Gaulle’s disdain for supranational organizations. Empty chair diplomacy re-appeared at the recent annual meeting of the United Nations. Four out of five leaders of the permanent member states of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) decided, albeit f...

By Shabnam Palesa Mohamed | Take Back Power | September 23, 2023 “Regardless, acting as the UN’s general assembly, its 78th president Dennis Francis tried to irregularly and unlawfully approve a ‘historic’ but currently non-binding political declaration on pandemics and other areas related to health, free speech and national sovereignty”. International renowned law professor Francis Boyle said “This is very dangerous. We cannot underestimate its significance. It’s like a stick of dynamite ready to be exploded.” The United Nations is facing one of the worst scandals in its controversial history, caused by its brazen tendency to defy democratic principles and disrespect national sovereignty. This time, given significant socio-political developments, the world is payin...