The Amateur

Computerist

December 2008 Journalism Award Special Issue

Silver Medal Awarded for

‘Interesting and Provocative

Coverage’ of U.N.

Amateur Computerist founding editor and

OhmyNews International United Nations correspon-

dent Ronda Hauben is the recipient of a 2008 Eliza-

beth Neuffer Memorial Prize for Excellence in

Journalism.

The prize is to be presented at the United Nations

Correspondents Association (UNCA) dinner on

Thursday night Dec. 4, 2008. This prize is one of

several given by UNCA annually. Elizabeth Neuffer

Memorial Prizes are for Print Journalism including

Online Media.

There is a gold and a silver prize in this category.

In awarding Hauben the silver prize, the judges wrote

she was chosen for her “interesting and provocative

coverage of issues at the U.N., notably about the

consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on

the Security Council.”

Hauben has reported from the U.N. for

OhmyNews International (OMNI) since October

2006. A collection of her OMNI articles have ap-

peared in the Amateur Computerist Vol. 16 no. 1.

(

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn16-1.pdf)

The awards this year were for articles written

between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2008.

Four such articles by Hauben are on pages 3 to 11 in

this Special Issue.

The UNCA Awards are for this year’s best print,

electronic, and broadcast media coverage of the

United Nations, its agencies and field operations as

well as the best political cartoons reflecting the U.N.

spirit.

The awards will be presented by United Nations

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the dinner to honor

the journalists. As part of the event, Columbia Uni-

versity Professor Jeffrey Sachs will receive an award

for his work promoting the U.N. Millennium Devel-

opment Goals. Also at the award ceremony several

cartoonists will receive the United Nations Ranan

Lurie Political Cartoon Award.

In addition to the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial

Prize, the UNCA Awards include the Ricardo Ortega

Memorial Prize for broadcast journalism, and the

United Nations Foundation prize for any entry in any

medium that best covers the humanitarian and devel-

opment aspects of the U.N. and its agencies.

Elizabeth Neuffer, The Boston Globe bureau

chief at the United Nations, died while on assignment

in Baghdad in 2003. Ricardo Ortega, formerly the

New York correspondent for Antena 3 TV of Spain

was shot on mission in Haiti in 2004 and died shortly

after.

There are over 200 journalists active at the U.N.

Covering the U.N. is a particular challenge because of

the complexity of U.N. diplomacy and diversity of the

issues considered. The awards, however, are not

limited to U.N. correspondents but are open to jour-

nalists anywhere in the world. The awards are for

covering the U.N. and its agencies in whatever

capacity.

The Amateur Computerist is happy to announce

this important accomplishment by our co-editor and

friend Ronda Hauben.

Announcing the Thirteenth

Annual UNCA Award

Winners!

http://cms.unca.com/content/view/42/10/

UNCA is proud to announce the 2008 UNCA

Awards Winners! On Thursday, December 4, 2008,

Webpage: http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

Page 1

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will formally recog-

nize the following winners at the UNCA Awards

Dinner at U.N. Delegates Dining Room in NYC.

This years UNCA Awards include the Elizabeth

Neuffer Memorial Prize for written media (including

online media); the United Nations Foundation prize

for any entry in any medium that best covers the

humanitarian and development aspects of the U.N.

and its agencies; and the Ricardo Ortega Memorial

Prize for broadcast (electronic) journalism.

Winners for 2008

Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Award for

Best Overall Print Journalism, including

online media:

John Heilprin (Joint Gold Recipient) – Associated

Press, USA – “for his coverage of Myanmar, and

adroit use of his trip with the U.N. Secretary General

to get in.”

Bill Varner (Joint Gold Recipient) – Bloomberg

News, USA – “for his serious analysis, investigation

and coverage of issues in Afghanistan.”

Ronda Hauben (Silver) – OhMyNews International,

South Korea – “for her interesting and provocative

coverage of issues at the U.N., notably about the

consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on

the Security Council.”

U.N. Foundation Prize for Reporting on

Humanitarian and Development Affairs:

Imelda Abano (Joint Gold Recipient) – Business

Mirror, Philippines – “for her well-written, well-

researched and comprehensive report and by someone

from a country where misery is fairly ubiquitous but

nowhere near as desperate.”

Juan Carlos Machorro (Joint Gold Recipient) – Mi

Ambiente, Mexico – “for a very well written, coura-

geous report on Mexico’s environmental problems.”

Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for Broad-

cast Journalism:

Jugoslav Cosic (Joint Gold Recipient) – B92 Radio,

Serbia – “A special award for courage in broadcasting

in a region where accurate coverage of U.N. issues

can be dangerous for a reporter’s health.”

Marie Lora (Joint Gold Recipient) – Agence France

Press TV, Kenya – “for her coverage of Darfur’s

ongoing crisis.”

Shoichiro Beppu (Silver) – NHK, Japan – “for a

comprehensive and insightful report on the world

food shortage.”

Judges

Rob Skinner – U.N. Foundation

Jeffrey Laurenti – Century Foundation

Francis Gomez – ex-Foreign Service Officer and a

founder of the National Association of Hispanic

Journalists

Karl Meyer – World Policy Institute

Jose Luis Ortega

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Presents Award to Ronda Hauben

Introduction and Remarks at

Award Ceremony

Ian Williams, the moderator and head of

the UNCA Awards Committee

introduced Ronda Hauben:

“Ronda’s work the judges singled out because it

took a view. She’s been reporting from the U.N. for

several years now. You might almost say it is idiosyn-

cratic because it gives a rounded view.

They were impressed with the work she did on

how a lot of countries aren’t exactly happy with the

permanent five running things.

And you can say this is idiosyncratic but when

you look at the mess the Permanent Five have made

of things for the last 50 years, I think there’s a lot to

be said for it. So congratulations Ronda.”

Page 2

Ronda Hauben remarks:

“I’m delighted not only with the honor the prize

is, but also with what the judges wrote. What they

wrote was ‘for her interesting and provocative cover-

age of issues at the U.N.’ And then ‘notably about the

consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on

the Security Council.’

What I’m delighted about is that, [though] its not

the same as being out in the field certainly, but it does

take a certain amount of courage to keep asking

certain questions and particularly when those ques-

tions are not welcome somehow.

And that there’s times you stop and you say

should you keep doing that and my sense is the

judges, by giving this award, have said to all of us,

yes you have to ask the questions that aren’t the

popular questions, and that aren’t the questions that

you are going to be welcomed for having asked.

I think its rare to have [such] an award. I submit-

ted four articles for this. One of the articles is about a

[terrorist] list that’s made up by the Security Council

that has no due process involved when people have

their names put on the list.

And there’s legal cases that people have won

[about their innocence] and yet still [their names stay

on] this list…. It’s an important issue and yet it gets

very little attention. And there’s similarly other

situations like that that have to do with some of the

particulars of the things that happen as you watch the

Security Council and you watch what’s happening at

the U.N.

The spirit of the U.N. is that people want it to be

something that can help with all the problems in the

world.

And I think for that to happen this prize is very

important and I appreciate it very much, because I

think it says what it takes [is for] the journalist being

willing to be out there, even when it is hard. And so

this is going to give me courage and I think it’s an

inspiration for everybody.

Thank you.”

The url for the webcast is :

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/specialevents/2008/se

081204pm.rm

(Ronda Hauben is introduced at around 34:19 minutes and her

talk ends around 37:22 minutes.)

[Editor’s note: In the following interview, Ronda

Hauben gives some background to her award.]

OMNI Interview

When did you first consider yourself a jour-

nalist?

I have been doing various forms of journalism

and writing for a long time. So this question is hard to

answer. Most recently I have been writing for

Telepolis since 1999. My first article in Telepolis was

subsequently translated into German and published in

a book that Telepolis put out called “Cyberhypes.”

I have appreciated the experience Telepolis

provides for a journalist, as this online magazine has

been in existence since 1996 and is well regarded

among journalists and the online community in

Germany. Also there have been very interesting

discussions by readers of Telepolis, sometimes as

interesting as the articles themselves. So it has been

an important challenge to write for the participants

and readers of Telepolis.

How did you first hear about OhmyNews

(OMN)? Why did you choose to submit arti-

cles to OMN? When was that?

I first heard about OhmyNews in early 2003 when

I read an article in the Financial Times that described

how the new President of South Korea, Roh

Moo-hyun had been elected by netizens. I learned that

OhmyNews played an important role in the election

and was well regarded in South Korea as a pioneering

newspaper.

My first article was submitted to OhmyNews in

Korean and English in March 2004. It was about the

Howard Dean campaign for the 2004 U.S. Presiden-

tial election and I thought there were lessons to be

learned from what had happened in the Roh

Moo-hyun campaign of 2002. I subsequently submit-

ted a number of the articles I had had published in

Telepolis which were then reprinted in OhmyNews.

This was even before there was an OhmyNews Inter-

national (OMNI). I was eager to learn more about

OMN and was happy that it expanded to start OMNI.

I hoped that there would be a version of OMN begun

in the U.S. and that I would be able to work as part of

it.

Page 3

How do you choose the topics you write

about?

I try to cover what I feel are important stories that

are either not adequately covered or covered in a way

that is not accurate in other media. For example, it

seemed that during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq

by the U.S. government, there were inaccurate reports

in the media that helped to prepare the ground for this

invasion.

One journalist has called such inaccurate reports,

the creation of a fictitious narrative. I wondered if it

would be possible in the future to counter such

fictitious narratives by accurate narratives. This has

been some of the goal recently of the journalism I

have been working to develop.

One example of such articles are the articles I did

about the U.S. government's use of the Patriot Act to

freeze the assets of the Banco Delta Asia in Macao.

Through investigation, I learned that the U.S. govern-

ment was acting as the accuser and judge with regard

to its claims of the basis for its actions against the

bank. I feel my articles on this issue were an example

of striving to create an accurate narrative to counter

the fictitious narrative that appeared in some other

media accounts of the situation.

How did you become a U.N. correspondent?

I was able to attend the World Summit of Infor-

mation Society (WSIS) in Tunis in Nov 2005 as a

U.N. correspondent for Telepolis. This was an excit-

ing experience to see so many heads of state and other

national representatives gathered together to discuss

the need for all to have access to the Internet.

After returning home in NYC, and resuming

writing for OhmyNews International as a featured

writer, I followed more of what was happening at the

U.N. Also I pay attention to what is happening in

South Korea, as I do research and writing about the

role of netizens in South Korea to play a greater role

in their society.

When Ban Ki-moon won the nomination to be the

new Secretary General, I asked OhmyNews Interna-

tional if they would sponsor me to become a corre-

spondent at the U.N. They agreed and I was able to

report on Ban's first day as Secretary General and

other events related to South Korea at the U.N.

Why did you choose to submit articles to the

UNCA contest? When was that?

I submitted a series of articles to the UNCA

awards competition in August 2007 as I had done

several articles that I felt were helping to counter the

fictitious narratives on U.N.-related developments.

I was told that I had made the short list but hadn’t

won an award. I then submitted a new set of articles

for the 2008 competition.

What is special about the U.N. as your jour-

nalistic beat?

The U.N. is a very amazing venue, but it also is

a difficult one to be able to write about in a significant

way.

What is amazing is that there are many people

who work at the U.N. in different roles and capacities

who have a vision that people cooperating and work-

ing together will be able to solve the problems that

exist in our world. I have had very interesting conver-

sations with people who feel that just working with

other people from so many different countries around

the world teaches them a lot about these different

places and helps them to have a more cooperative

perspective on the world.

Also, though, reporting for a newspaper that is

not well known means that one is at a disadvantage.

The journalists from more well known publications

have better access to information, to asking questions

of the Secretary General and a myriad of other advan-

tages.

Often the issues in contention are hidden from

public view to those who don’t have inside connec-

tions at the U.N., so it is hard to know what is really

going on behind the scenes. It is necessary to be able

to get beneath the surface on important issues, but it

is also very difficult.

What do you think is the significance of the

award?

What I said when I had the chance to offer my

thanks and thoughts on the award at the December 4th

awards dinner, is that the award is something impor-

tant.

It is an encouragement and an inspiration to have

more courage when trying to deal with the difficult

issues and questions that emerge when working on

stories about the U.N. For example, Israel has block-

aded Gaza and it has been important to report how the

Security Council is blocked from condemning this

blockade by political maneuvers. Several of the

nonpermanent members of the Security Council spoke

up to share their frustration with this activity of some

Page 4

of the P-5 members. One of my four articles that won

this prize described this situation in the Security

Council.

Some of the journalists ask at press conferences

about the situation and what U.N. officials or Security

Council members are doing to solve this problem. It

gets frustrating to keep asking, as it seems that there

is no answer given. The award, however, is an en-

couragement to continue to ask and to write about the

situation, and not to give in to allowing it to continue

in silence.

There are other similar stories that I have been

working on and the award is the encouragement to

work harder on them. Other journalists who feel they

are at a disadvantage when reporting about the U.N.

because they write for small or less well known

publications have indicated to me that they are en-

couraged by my getting the award, that they, too, will

be taken more seriously in their efforts.

Anything else you want to add?

Yes, there is. One journalist I know told me that

she thought that my winning the award was the first

time that she felt the UNCA journalism competition

was important to pay attention to. She explained that

this was redeeming the U.N. for her, as it was some of

what should happen, but so rarely does.

OMNI: Thank you.

[This Interview first appeared in OMNI at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?arti

cle_class=10&no=384361&rel_no=1]

[Following are four articles submitted for the 2008

competition.]

U.N. No Longer Seen as

Impartial, Independent

What Are the Implications of a

New Book on U.N. Diplomat

Sergio Vieira De Mello?

by Ronda Hauben

What happens when idealism meets this awful

messy world we live in? asked the moderator as he

introduced the program on Samantha Power’s new

book about Sergio Vieira de Mello at the New York

Public Library

. The form of the program was a

conversation between Power and Iranian human rights

advocate Azar Nafisi.

The book, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de

Mello and the Fight to Save the World, has recently

been published by the Penguin Press.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/pepdesc.cfm?id=3920

Working on the biography of Vieira de Mello

gave Power the chance to spend the past four years

following in the footsteps of the remarkable United

Nations diplomat who was killed in the bombing of

the U.N.’s Iraq mission in August 2003

Power presented a short description of Vieira de

Mello’s experience from 1968 up to when he was

killed in Iraq.

“He was a guy who moved with the headlines,”

she noted, as she described some of the many hot

spots Vieira de Mello had found himself in during the

34 years that he worked for the U.N.

In 1968, as a student from Brazil at the Sorbonne,

he had been part of the student rebellions in Paris.

Like other students of the 1960s, he hated imperial-

ism. He also hated the state, Power explained. The

alternative to the state and to the polity that he found

was the U.N.

He went to work for the U.N. at the age of 21 and

continued to do so for the rest of his life. Some of the

hot spots he was in included Bangladesh, Sudan and

Cyprus, during the earliest phases of his U.N. career.

By the early 1980s he was in Lebanon, and then

Cambodia. By the 1990s he was in Bosnia, Congo and

Kosovo – and then East Timor and, in 2003, Iraq.

Power described how Vieira de Mello believed

deeply, perhaps even to a flaw, in the power of

reason. He earned two PhDs, one in Hegel and the

other in Kant. Deeply steeped in political theory he

felt it was possible to order the world according to

reason, in line with the lessons one could gain from

the study of the great philosophers. His dream was

that the U.N. would make possible the rule of law.

Power described how Vieira de Mello did not

want to go to Iraq, but had agreed in response to Kofi

Annan’s urging.

The reluctance was in part because he did not feel

that Paul Bremer, the United States official in charge

of the U.S. occupation, could respect an independent

role for the U.N. The U.N. Security Council had not

supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq; however, it did

subsequently pass a resolution approving a dominant

Page 5

role for the U.S. in the ensuing occupation of Iraq.

Security Council resolution 1483 authorizing the

occupation put the U.S. in charge with no appropriate

role provided for the U.N.

The bombing of the U.N. compound in Iraq was

a vivid reminder that those fighting against the

occupation in Iraq did not consider the U.N. to be an

impartial, independent entity

Just before Vieira de Mello was killed, he had

come to believe that there was a need to publicly

criticize the U.S. occupation. He had concluded there

was nothing he could do to influence Bremer. “I have

to start speaking out,” he is quoted telling Marwan

Ali, a political aide

If the U.N. was to have a legitimate function in

Iraq, its obligation was to function as an impartial

entity supporting the sovereignty of Iraq, not as a

support for the continuing occupation. This was the

conclusion he had drawn just before he was killed.

The program at the NYPL failed to grapple with

this central dilemma that Vieira’s de Mello’s tragic

death raises. A more focused set of questions and

discussion could have been helpful to tease out the

serious problems facing the U.N. when it is perceived

of as taking sides instead of upholding with impartial-

ity and independence the tenets of its charter and

international law.

This issue is once again especially timely as the

U.N. is now planning to expand the scaled back U.N.

presence in Iraq that followed the bombing.

Following in the footsteps of someone whose life

was so steeped in the difficulties and trouble spots of

our times, as Power in her book has done, can provide

a painful but important education. This is the continu-

ing legacy of Vieira de Mello’s life.

Notes

1. “Samantha Power in Conversation with Azar Nafisi: Chasing

the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the

World,” New York Public Library, Feb. 21, 2008.

2. Sergio Vieira de Mello was the U.N.’s special representative

in Iraq at the time of the bombing and in charge of the U.N.’s

Mission in Iraq.

See for example: “U.N.’s Iraq Bombing Survivors Hold

Memorial Service: Concern expressed about its expanded role in

Iraq.”

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?me

nu=c10400&no=378463&rel_no=1

3. “Our flag that used to be a protection is becoming a target. I’m

not sure we have absorbed that reality and acted on it,” observed

Lakhdar Brahimi at a press briefing held at the U.N. on Feb. 28,

2008. Brahimi has been appointed as the head of the panel to

investigate why the U.N. has been subjected to attacks like the

one in Iraq in August 2003 and another in Algeria in December

2007. In response to a question from a journalist, Brahimi

responded, “I think the U.N. is not seen as an organization that

is independent and impartial any more. People question the

independence of the U.N. It’s taking sides. A lot of people are

rightly or wrongly angry with the United Nations.”

The webcast of the press conference is online.

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/pressconference/2008

/pc080228am1.rm

4. Samantha Power, “The Envoy,” The New Yorker, Jan. 7, 2008.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/07/080107fa_fa

ct_power?currentPage=1

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?me

nu=c10400&no=381932&rel_no=1

Security Council Fails

to Act on Gaza Crisis

‘The Silence Is Deafening,’ Says

Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador

by Ronda Hauben

“(M)y delegation believes that silence on the

situation in the Middle East is more dangerous than

even meetings where there might be a raising of

temperatures and heat,” explained Dumisani Kumalo,

the South African ambassador to the United Nations.

Speaking in the U.N. Security Council discussion

held on Jan. 30

, Kumalo was responding to a state-

ment by the British Ambassador Sir John Sawers. The

British ambassador was questioning the usefulness of

the Security Council discussion on the Israeli-Pales-

tinian question.

This exchange followed the events of the previ-

ous week. The Security Council had spent a week

struggling to agree on a non-binding Presidential

statement in response to the Israeli closure of all the

border-crossings into the Gaza Strip. Israel’s action

left the Palestinians in Gaza without fresh supplies of

fuel, food or other necessities vital to life upon which

they relied.

By Jan. 29, however, the Council failed to agree

on what such a statement should say and decided to

end their efforts. No statement by the Security Coun-

cil would be issued.

Page 6

The original issue brought before the Council

was Israel’s closing of the border crossings into Gaza.

From the beginning of the discussion, however, the

U.S. framing, focused the statement on the rocket

attacks into Israel and the right of Israel to defend

itself.

Several members of the Security Council ex-

plained that such an interpretation runs counter to the

obligations of Israel, as an occupying power and that

punishing the whole population of Gaza for what

were the acts of a few is contrary to the tenets of the

prohibition in international law against collective

punishment and disproportionate actions.

In his presentation to the Security Council in its

public discussion on Jan. 22, Le Luong Minh, the

ambassador from Vietnam said, “(W)e consider the

acts undertaken by the Israeli authorities against

Palestinian civilians, like any act that literally targets

the innocent civilians of a country, to be unjustifiable,

even in the name of security or under any other pre-

text.”

Speaking in his capacity as the ambassador from

Libya, Giadalla Ettalhi, who held the rotating chair-

manship of the Council in January, said, “We do not

believe these practices against civilians can be justi-

fied on any pretext; nor can they be equated with any

other acts.”

Stating a similar view, Ambassador Michel

Kufando of Burkina Faso said, “It is not for us today

to engage in a rhetorical exercise but to concretely

consider through a careful review of the situation

what the Council and the international community can

do to put an end to the blockade of Gaza. This block-

ade is unacceptable because it holds hostage a whole

population subject to all types of privation.”

Several other ambassadors who spoke at the Jan.

22 Security Council discussion said that the right of

a nation to self defense is not intended as a license to

harm or blockade a civilian population as Israel is

doing in Gaza.

The U.S. framing of the situation, however, is

that Israel has disengaged from Gaza and therefore is

no longer an occupying force in Gaza. Israel is being

attacked by terrorists in Gaza. Israel has the right to

self defense against Gaza. Though the U.S. framing

says that Israel should, when feasible, minimize the

harm to civilians, the U.S. does not propose any

means of imposing such an obligation on Israel.

Others on the Security Council disagree with how

the U.S. frames the situation in Gaza. The South

African ambassador said that though Israel had

withdrawn from Gaza, “the territory of Gaza remains

under de facto Israeli occupation. Israel controls

Gaza’s air space and Gaza’s territorial waters. By

virtue of its illegal occupation Israel continues to be

bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of

1949, states, “No protected person may be punished

for an offense he or she has not personally committed.

Collective penalties and likewise all measures of

intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is

prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and

their property are prohibited.”

Panama’s Ambassador Ricardo Arias said that

“the State of Israel has the right to defend itself,

however, measures for self-defense should be carried

out in a restrained manner that is proportionate to the

threat.” He further explained that “the Actions of the

Government of Israel violate all humanitarian stan-

dards including the most basic rules of international

law.”

Participating in the discussion but not a member

of the Security Council, the Syrian Ambassador

Bashar Ja’afari challenged the notion that Israel is not

the occupying power in Gaza. He said that Israel’s

claim, “it has withdrawn from Gaza is a blatant

distortion of the facts. Israel controls international

borders and all crossing points…. It controls the flow

of food, medicines, water and electricity. In short,

Israel, the occupying power as defined under interna-

tional law has transformed Gaza into a sealed ghetto

and the West Bank into besieged Bantustans.”

The Syrian ambassador attributed Israel’s belief

that it does not have to abide by the 1949 Fourth

Geneva Convention to the failure of the Security

Council and the international community to condemn

Israel.

At the Security Council discussion on Jan. 30, the

Indonesian ambassador said “The humanitarian crisis

in Gaza is dire and unacceptable. The people of Gaza

have been suffering not only from the border cross-

ings, but also from repeated military incursions by

Israel.”

“Today,” he explained, “we wish to emphasize

the importance of a common Council response on this

humanitarian catastrophe.”

The South African ambassador added that “The

situation in Occupied Palestine cannot be ignored any

longer. Try as it might, this Security Council cannot

remain silent and hope that the situation will change

Page 7

as time goes by when 1.5 million residents are left

without water, electricity, and basic sewage situa-

tions.”

“We have to remember,” Kumalo said, “that the

United Nations, particularly the Security Council, has

a special responsibility in supporting a peaceful

resolution in the conflict in the Middle East.”

The fact that the Council was not able to issue a

statement against the Israeli blockade of Gaza led the

Indonesian ambassador to observe, “It is indeed a

deafening silence.”

Despite the week long effort of consultations,

public meetings, various proposed draft statements,

experts meeting to draft statements and public discus-

sions, the Security Council was not been able to issue

a statement. Why?

One week earlier, on Jan. 23, 14 members of the

Security Council had agreed on a statement in which

the Council said it “expresses deep concern about the

steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the

Gaza Strip due to the closure of all the Gaza Strip’s

border crossings.” (Draft PRST on the Middle East,

Jan. 23, 2008 Rev 2)

The draft statement ended with a call that “all

parties cease all acts of violence including the firing

of rockets into Israeli territory and all activities which

are contrary to international law and endanger civil-

ians.”

A Presidential statement issued by the Security

Council, however, requires the agreement of all 15

members. Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff, U.S.

Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. would

not agree with the statement. Wolfe said that the issue

was that Israel was under siege. “We feel very

strongly“ he told reporters, “that if you are going to

address this situation you can’t look to the last page of

a book and say ‘Gee we don’t like the ending of this

story’ without knowing what preceded it. It’s out of

context. It’s not fair.”

The following day, on Thursday, the U.S. delega-

tion introduced a number of elements it wanted to be

included in the statement. At the end of the Thursday

session of the Council, Kumalo told reporters he was

depressed “because we still do not have an agreement

and the way its going its not hopeful.,”

On Friday, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador

Alejandro Wolff brought an alternative statement to

the Council.

The deliberations on this statement and the

consideration of modifications to it went on till late in

the evening on Friday. Only a few journalists were

still at the stakeout when the meeting ended and brief

explanations of what had happened were presented by

the few Security Council members willing to speak

with the press. By then the version of the U.S. state-

ment had been modified, but it included a description

of the attacks on Israel as coming from “terrorists”

and wording that Israel was suspending its closure of

the crossing points.

Sources describing the Security Council’s re-

sponse to the modified statement on Friday were

contradictory. Some sources claimed that 14 members

of the Security Council were prepared to accept the

modified U.S. statement, but that Libya would not

agree. Another source indicated that the British and

U.S. ambassadors had used a maneuver to make this

claim as other members of the Security Council only

agreed to consider the statement, not to approve it. On

Friday evening the Libyan ambassador said he would

send the draft statement to his government for its

response, which he would present to the Council on

Tuesday.

On Jan. 29, Libya offered alternative wording to

modify several aspects of the Friday draft. Libya

wanted the reference to those who launched the

rockets into Israel as “terrorist groups” removed, but

it accepted the wording condemning the launch of the

rockets and calling for their immediate cessation.

Libya objected to the wording indicating that Israel

suspended its closure, as there had not been evidence

this was true.

Journalists were told that the U.S. rejected the

changes and that the Council had ended its effort to

issue a statement.

While the Security Council did not issue a

statement about Israel’s closing the border crossings

to Gaza, the Committee on the Exercise of the In-

alienable Rights of the Palestinian People, created by

the General Assembly in 1975, explained that “The

Bureau deeply regrets that the Security Council,

having considered the situation at a recent meeting,

once again failed to act in response to the grave

situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

This Committee of 22 member states and

twenty-two observers created by the U.N.’s General

Assembly demonstrated that it was possible to issue

a statement on the situation in Gaza that is consistent

with the obligations of Article 33 of the Geneva

Convention.

The statement says: “The Bureau wishes to

Page 8

restate its position of condemning the killing of

innocent civilians by both sides, including Israeli

operations and the firing of rockets from Gaza. At the

same time, the Bureau considers it totally unaccept-

able and unjust that the entire civilian population of

the Gaza Strip is subjected to a suffocating economic

blockade for the actions of a few militant groups. The

Bureau supports the Palestinian Authority proposal to

assume responsibility for the Palestinian side of all of

the Gaza Strip’s border crossings.”

All 15 members of the Security Council had said

they were concerned for the deteriorating situation in

Gaza, it was the U.S. alone that prevented the Council

from issuing a non-binding Presidential statement on

Jan. 23 expressing the concern of the Council. The

U.S. introduced elements for changes in the statement

in the Council and then the following day presented

an alternative statement which changed how the

problem was to be framed. Then it tried to shift the

blame to Libya for the failure of the Council to issue

a statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The Security Council, as the South African

Ambassador Kumalo explained, has a special obliga-

tion with regard to peace and security in the Middle

East and particularly with regard to the Israeli-Pales-

tinian conflict. Article 24 of the U.N. Charter confers

on the Security Council the “primary responsibility

for the maintenance of international peace and secu-

rity” and obliges the Security Council to carry out its

duties on behalf of all the member nations of the U.N.

When the Council is unable to act in an issue so

crucial to its obligations under the U.N. charter, it is

failing in its duties not only on the particular issue,

but also in the obligations it has to all the member

nations of the U.N. This represents a serious problem

to be considered by the member nations.

Notes

1. See Security Council Documents:

S/PV.5824 Security Council 5824th meeting, Jan.22, 2008, 10

a.m.

S/PV.5824 (Resumption 1) Security Council 5824

meeting, Jan.

22, 2008 3 p.m.

S/PV.5827 Security Council 5827, Jan. 30, 2008 10 a.m.

2. Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff, U.S. Deputy Permanent

Representative, on the situation in the Middle East, at the

Security Council Stakeout, January 24, 2008

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?me

nu=c10400&no=381689&rel_no=1

At Legal Crossroads

Security Council Sanctions Imposed

Without Due Process

by Ronda Hauben

One of the most contentious issues at the United

Nations is the issue of Security Council reform.

Along with sharp disagreements over the proposals of

member states for expanding the number of seats on

the Security Council is the less apparent issue of the

need for change of the procedures by which decisions

are made by the Security Council.

A letter

dated 13 May to the Security Council

regarding SC resolution 1267 (1999) states that the

sanctions regime it established is “at a legal cross-

roads, with much attention focused on two challenges

now on appeal before the Court of Justice of the

European Communities.”

One of these challenges is the case of Yassin

Abdullah Kadi. Kadi is a Saudi Arabian resident

whose name was added to the security council list of

persons suspected of terrorism on October 19, 2001.

The individuals on this list are subject to the freezing

of their funds, a ban on their travel and other punish-

ments to be enforced by the member nations of the

United Nations. It is mandatory, according to the U.N.

charter, for member nations of the United Nations to

enforce sanctions decided under Chapter 7 of the U.N.

charter by the Security Council. The European Union

subsequently passed a regulation to enforce these

security council sanctions.

On December 18, 2001, Kadi filed a legal case

contesting the E.U. regulation. asking that the sanc-

tions be annulled. (See Opinion

, Kadi, I-3) When the

Court of First Instance ruled against Kadi, he ap-

pealed the decision to the European Court of Justice.

An opinion is expected in Fall 2008.

An opinion submitted to the Court in January

2008 by the Advocate General Poiares Maduro raised

serious issues regarding the E.U.’s legal ability to

enforce Security Council sanctions which have been

imposed on individuals without providing due process

procedures. The Advocate General recommended that

the Court annul the E.U. regulations enforcing the

sanctions. An article

in the Economist noted that it is

still up to the Court to decide whether to rule in

Page 9

accord with the Advocate General’s opinion, but that

the court “in the past has followed such opinions in

about 80% of the cases.”

The Security Council itself realizes the potential

for negative court decisions on its lack of due process.

One SC report states: “The way entities or individuals

are added to the terror list maintained by the Council

and the absence of review or appeal for those listed

raise serious accountability issues and possibly

violate fundamental rights, norms and conventions....

See Opinion, I-16”

The Advocate General sees as positive the ability to

bring the rule of law back into the process of dealing

with even the “threat of terrorism.” Quoting the words

of the former President of the Supreme Court of

Israel, Aharan Barak, the opinion says: “It is when the

cannons roar that we especially need the laws.”

Kadi contends that the sanctions against him

were imposed without any opportunity for him to be

“heard on the facts and circumstances alleged and on

the evidence adduced against him.” (See Opinion,

I-20)

Though the procedures in the listing and delisting

of individuals on these sanctions lists have undergone

some change since they were first established, the

Advocate General points out that “the de-listing

procedure does not provide even minimal access to

the information on which the decision was based to

include the petitioner in the list.”

The Advocate General reasons that absent mini-

mal due process procedures for the accused, the

sanctions could be “disproportionate” or even “misdi-

rected” on who they are imposed against and they can

“remain in place indefinitely.” (See Opinion, I-22)

Such a situation is “anathema in a society that re-

spects the rule of law,” explains the Advocate Gen-

eral.

Six European nations have been exploring how to

resolve this possible conflict between the duty of the

E.U. to enforce the security council sanctions and the

duty of E.U. members to uphold due process proce-

dures as part of their obligations under the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights of which they signato-

ries. The countries are Denmark, Liechtenstein,

Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, and The Netherlands.

They held a meeting at the U.N. on June 13, 2008

where they discussed a Paper they prepared for the

Security Council. The Discussion Paper is subtitled

“Improving the Implementation of sanction regimes

through ensuring ‘fair and clear’ procedures.”

In the annex to the paper [the six countries]

propose that the Secretary General recommend the

appointment of 3-5 experts to a panel which the

Security Council could then appoint to review the

cases before them of individuals who are on their

sanctions lists who ask to be delisted.

The paper proposes a procedure for the panel to

review cases before [it] of individuals who ask to be

delisted and to make a recommendation. It would be

left to the Security Council to decide whether or not

to accept the panel’s recommendation.

Also present at the June 13 meeting was Yvonne

Terlinger, who heads the Amnesty International

Office at the U.N. She presented an open letter to all

members of the security council which critiques the

Discussion Paper. The letter explains the importance

of four principles which would need to be part of any

effective correction to the problem of how the secu-

rity council imposes sanctions. These principles are:

1. The right of persons in question to be informed of

measures taken and to know the case against them.

2. The right to be heard within a reasonable length of

time. This would include the right to call and examine

witnesses, to be represented by an attorney and to

submit sworn written testimony.

3. The right to an effective review mechanism. This

would include the the right to impartial, qualified

persons on a review panel, and to a means to have the

sanctions lifted and even reparations if the imposition

of the sanctions was judged to be mistaken.

4. Periodic review of all sanctions on individuals

imposed by the Security Council.

Also at the June 13 meeting was the Ambassador

from Yemen. He gave the example of one individual

on the list who is an eminent theologian in the Arab

world. When the individual’s name was placed on the

list, Security Council members were given 24 hours

to object. Since they said they were waiting for

instructions from their governments there was actu-

ally no time to challenge the listing. After the individ-

ual was on the list the Yemeni ambassador was told

that there was nothing they could do, but that they

should tell the individual to write a letter to the

Security Council. He did that and it had been a year

and a half since the letter was written and there had

not been any response.

Terlinger pointed out that not only was Amnesty

International concerned with the human rights viola-

Page 10

tions due to the current sanction procedure, but it also

was concerned that the U.N. charter was being con-

strued as legitimating and requiring member nations

to impose sanctions which are in opposition to the

requirements of the charter that human rights be

respected.

The International Federation for Human Rights

(FIDH) explained a similar concern in an “Open

Letter to the Members of the Security Council” dated

May 21, 2008. It wrote that security council imposed

sanctions “must respect internationally recognized

human rights, which are fundamental to the United

Nations architecture.”

It explains that though “targeted sanctions were

initially conceived as preventative measures,” they

“often turn into permanent punitive sanctions, and

even sometimes have direct criminal consequences.

Yet no effective remedy is available for individuals or

entities who were wrongly listed, or whose human

rights were violated.”

The FIDH letter says that “The United Nations

cannot promote the universal application of human

rights on the one hand and violate them within its own

procedures.”

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the

U.N. has expressed a similar concern for the problem

represented in these security council imposed sanc-

tions in an informal paper entitled “Targeted individ-

ual sanctions: fair and clear procedures for listing and

de-listing.” (June 15, 2006) He lists four basic ele-

ments “to ensure fair and clear procedures” for a

process for imposing such sanctions. The four basic

elements are similar to those proposed in the June 3

2008 letter by Amnesty International. This is the

framework in which the Security Council on Monday,

June 30 is to discuss renewing

the mandate of the

Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring team

which assists the 1267 sanctions committee.

Also the June 13 meeting, the Danish ambassador

to the U.N. summed up the situation, “I definitely

agree that we have an issue at hand that creates a lot

of frustration with a number of people who suddenly

find themselves in a situation that is Kafkaesque in a

sense that they don’t know how to react or what to

(do) to get normal procedures.... This is not an issue

that will go away unless this is dealt with properly.”

Links

http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2008/324

2. http://blogeuropa.eu/wp-content/2008/02/cnc_c_402_05_

kadi_def.pdf

3. http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory

.cfm?story_id=10608577

4. http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/site/pp.aspx?c=

glKWLeMTIsG&b=4147109&printmode=1

This article appears in Telepolis at:

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28217/1.html

International Cartoon

Exhibit Opens at U.N.

In ‘Cartoon Art for World Peace’ Horrors

of War Contrast Yearning for Peace

by Ronda Hauben

[Editor’s Note: Note the cartoons below have no

captions. From the exhibition catalog: “Artists,

especially those who have the ability to convey a

message without resorting to words, carry on their

shoulders a huge social responsibility because their

message will inspire leaders of the future to work in

pursuit of peace.”]

An exhibit of cartoons has opened at the U.N.

which presents a number of striking images contrast-

ing the frustrations of war with the difficult quest for

peace.

Referring to the power of cartoons to affect

public opinion, Kiyo Akasaka, the Undersecretary for

Communication and Public Information at the U.N.,

introduced the exhibit noting that, “Cartoons can

express both simple ideas and complex issues.”

He described how these cartoons “communicate

across languages and across cultures. Their message,

which as you will see in this exhibition is about the

cost of war and the elusiveness of peace, can be

grasped by all.”

The ambassador to the U.N. from Turkey ex-

plained that the cartoons were “this time in the service

of peace.” In his opening remarks, he explained that

the concept of peace is more than the absence of war.

It involves seeing others not as an enemy but as a

friend. He expressed his hope that the current efforts

at reform of the U.N. would strengthen its ability to

contribute to the quest for peace.

Several of those who attended the opening of the

exhibit expressed their appreciation of the cartoons in

the exhibit. One of the cartoons which attracted

Page 11

Picasso’s Guernica and

the members of the U.N.

Security Council.

Cartoon by Xiao Qiang

Hou 2007 / P.R. of China

R. Hauben)

Column of newspaper being

loaded into gun. Cartoon by

Jurij Kosobukin 1996/Ukraine

Hauben)

The business of war.

Syouhei Otsuka /

Japan 2006

(photo of cartoon

Horrors pour from the TV.

Cartoonist: Nikola Runic/

Yugoslavia 1996

(photo of cartoon

Flying subs.

Cartoonist:

Oleg Serena/

Ukraine 2004

(photo of cartoon

Children playing, poor

children with pitchforks, rich

children with soldiers.

Cartoon by Michael

Kountouris/Greece 2005

Hauben)

Following like sheep.

Cartoon by Wolfgang

Schlegeli/Germany

2006. (photo of

R. Hauben)

considerable interest is a cartoon raising the question

of what is the role of the U.N. Security Council. It is

the cartoon by Xiao Qiang Hou of China.

In this cartoon the members of the Security

Council are portrayed, each dressed in the military

uniform of their different nations. The generals are

seated around the table of the Security Council, each

with the flag of his nation. The painting by Picasso

depicting the horrors of war, Guernica, hangs on the

wall of the Security Council above the heads of the

generals.

Another cartoon that attracted comment was the

cartoon by Jurij Kosobukin of the Ukraine. The

cartoon shows someone loading a pistol with a

column cut from a newspaper. The cartoon provides

a commentary on the nature of the press.

The cartoon by Syouhei Otsuka of Japan presents

a tank leading a group of business men who are

following behind the soldier.

These are just a few of the many thought provok-

ing images portrayed by the cartoonists.

In the guest book, one person wrote that the

exhibit was “Calling for world peace, one cartoon at

Page 12

Poster opening

exhibit at the

U.N. (photo of

R. Hauben)

a time.” Another wrote that “as John Lennon said, we

can imagine....”

Another said, “I’ve liked very much this exposi-

tion. I don’t know if it is possible, but people need a

world of peace.”

The Turkish Mission to the United Nations, along

with the Aydin Dogan Foundation is sponsoring the

exhibition titled “Cartoon Art for World Peace” in the

main lobby. The exhibition presents but a few of the

cartoons from the competition held by the Foundation

each year over the past 25 years.

The exhibit opened on March 13. It will continue

at U.N. headquarters in New York until April 15.

Notes

1. 13 March - 15 April 2008 : Exhibition “Cartoon Art for World

Peace,” Organized by the Aydin Dogan Foundation

Co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the U.N.,

U.N. Main Gallery – Visitor’s Lobby – New York

The Turkish Mission to the U.N. Tel: (1-212) 949-0150, 821

U.N. Plaza, New York, NY 10017

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?me

nu=c10400&no=382108&rel_no=1

[Editor’s note: The following article appeared in the

U.N. Observer & International Report

(http://www.unobserver.com/).]

Changing Culture of

U.N. Media

by Elisa Burchett

Capturing the important stories that major news

media tends to let slip by and countering “fictitious

narratives,” by writing accurate accounts are two of

the driving forces behind Ronda Hauben’s Journal-

ism. Although Mrs. Hauben has been a U.N. corre-

spondent for OhmyNews International (OMNI), a

South Korean publication, since 2006, her stint at the

United Nations has not been an easy one. This is what

makes her winning the U.N. Correspondents Associa-

tion (UNCA) 2008 Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial

Award for exceptional coverage of the U.N. so

pertinent.

Mrs. Hauben said of her experience, “Reporting

for a newspaper that is not well known means that one

is at a disadvantage. The journalists from more well-

known publications have better access to information,

to asking questions of the Secretary-General and a

myriad of other advantages. Often the issues in

contention are hidden from public view and to those

who don’t have inside connections at the U.N., so it is

hard to know what is really going on behind the

scenes. It is necessary to be able to get beneath the

surface on important issues, but it is also very diffi-

cult.”

Mrs. Hauben represents the historical shift

towards independent and/or smaller media in light of

big media consolidation (i.e. Rupert Murdoch) and

indirectly, the expansion of the public sphere. She

writes on a freelance basis, as a featured writer for

OMNI and for Telepolis (Germany). She also has a

blog at the German newspaper Tageszeitung. She has

co-written, with her son Michael Hauben, a book

called Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet

and the Internet. It has been published in the U.S. and

Japan (Japanese edition), and is available on

Amazon.com or can be read online at the Columbia

University website. (Please see below.)

Examples of her journalism range from articles

revealing the nature of the U.S. government’s use of

the Patriot Act to freeze the assets of the Banco Delta

Asia in Macao – where she discovered the U.S.

assumed the role of accuser and judge in its claims –

to articles focusing on the U.N. Security Council’s

failure to act on the Gaza crisis, one of the articles

which won Mrs. Hauben the award.

The U.N. Observer & International Report asked

Mrs. Hauben how she would describe herself and she

said the term “Netizen Journalist” would describe her

best. In the preface to “Netizens,” Michael Hauben

explained how he discovered the emergence of a new

community while researching the Internet – a commu-

nity of what he called ‘netizens’ (citizens of the net or

net citizens). His words evoke the formation of a new

Page 13

community without borders. He explained, “I found

that on the Net, people willingly help each other and

work together to define and address issues important

to them. These are often important issues which the

conventional media would never cover…. These

people understand the value of collective work and

the communal aspects of public communications….”

“These are people who discuss the nature and

role of this new communications medium. These are

the people who, as citizens of the Net, I realized were

Netizens. However, these are not ALL people.

Netizens are not just anyone who comes online, and

they are especially not people who come online for

individual gain or profit. They are not people who

come to the Net thinking it is a service. Rather they

are people who understand it takes effort and action

on each and everyone’s part to make the Net a regen-

erative and vibrant community and resource.” In this

context, one can understand Mrs. Hauben’s interest

and excitement about South Korea and China. In his

remarks announcing Mrs. Hauben for the award, the

head of the UNCA awards committee, Ian Williams,

commented, “The judges were impressed with the

work Ronda did on how a lot of countries aren’t

exactly happy with how the permanent five are

running things. And you can say this is idiosyncratic

but when you look at the mess the permanent five

have made of things, for the last 50 years, I think

there’s a lot to be said for it.” One could feel her

sense of recognition as Ban Ki-moon handed her the

award.

Elisa Burchett is the UNHQ Bureau Chief for the U.N. Observer

& International Report

For more information about Ronda Hauben, please see: FEA-

TURED WRITERS: Ronda Hauben

http://english.ohmynews.com/sub_form/column_list.asp?articl

e_class=9

Silver Medal Awarded for “Interesting and Provocative Cover-

age” of U.N.

http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog

Netizens: An Anthology

http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120

Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet

(Hardcover)

ht t p ://www.a ma z o n. co m/ N e t i z e n s -His t o ry-I mp a ct-

-Internet-Perspectives/dp/0818677066

Please also see:

U.N. Correspondents Association (UNCA)

http://www.unca.com

Winners for 2008 Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Award for Best

Overall Print Journalism, Including on Line Media:

http://cms.unca.com/content/view/42/10

EDITORIAL STAFF

Ronda Hauben

William Rohler

Norman O. Thompson

Michael Hauben

(1973-2001)

Jay Hauben

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