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TWN Info Service on Health and Sustainable Development
19 September 2023
Third World Network
www.twn.my
UNGA: 11 countries object to the adoption of 4 high level political declarations
New York, 19 September (TWN) – Eleven courtiers have objected to the adoption of the political declarations during the upcoming four High Level Meetings (HLM) at the annual United Nations General Assembly.
The objection was conveyed in a letter dated 17 September 2023 to the President of the UN General Assembly H.E. Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago.
The letter sets out deep concerns with the “the legitimate concerns of a large number of developing countries have been ignored” and the lack of willingness from a small group of developed countries to engage in meaningful negotiations.
Thus, the signatory delegations “oppose any attempt to pretend to formally adopt any of the draft outcome documents in question, during the meetings scheduled for 18, 20, 21 and 22 September 2023, respectively”.
The letter is signed by the permeant representatives of the following countries: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nicaragua, the Russian Federation, the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
The main issue uniting these countries are unilateral coercive measures (UCM) that impede access to various goods and service required to meet sustainable development goals (SDG) and health needs for the impacted countries.
The letter points out that “the issue of the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) is an existential one for our peoples. A third of the world’s population is affected by these illegal measures. There is ample evidence, including from UN sources, of the heavy toll caused by UCMs on targeted countries’ capacities to achieve sustainable development and to make further progress in protecting the right to health of their respective populations.”
The letter raised objections on the following HLMs scheduled during the 78th Session of UNGA:
1. High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, 18 and 19 September
2. High-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, 20 September
3. High-level meeting on universal health coverage, 21 September
4. High-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis, 22 September.
The letter points out the four important flaws in the process of negotiation of the political declarations of above mentioned HLMs. The extracts read as follows:
“First, there has been no real willingness from a small group of developed countries to engage in meaningful negotiations to find compromises, forcing unfair practices which pretend to impose a kind of “veto” on certain issues, and pretending to even prevent their discussion within the framework of intergovernmental negotiations.
“Second, in some cases, negotiations were not conducted in a truly inclusive, fair and balanced way. Our delegations had to witness how, in some cases, even single delegations were accommodated a great deal in their concerns, while others’ priorities, including ours, were bluntly neglected. For example, the draft outcome of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the auspices of the General Assembly – SDGs Summit, was reopened with the purpose of exclusively accommodating the priorities of a few delegations from developed countries, while, in this very same process, and in the three (03) health-related negotiations, nothing was done to reflect and accommodate the legitimate concerns of delegations from developing countries that, in addition had broken silence repeatedly, including the Group of 77 and China.
“Third, the attempt to ignore formal communications of delegations from developing countries, including from the Group of 77 and China, on behalf of its 134 Member States, indicating strong reservations and objections.
“Fourth, the attempt to force consensus by your predecessor’s team, and now by your Office, when it is evident that no consensus has been reached on any of these processes; as well as the lack of transparency, inclusiveness and efficient use of the limited time available then to find compromises.”
The letter states that the processes of the finalising the four political declarations contradict the UNGA resolutions that set the scope and modalities so of these HLMS. According to the letter, in the General Assembly resolution 67/290, operative paragraph 9 states that, “all meetings convened under the auspices of the General Assembly shall operate under the rules of procedure of the main committees of the Assembly, as applicable, unless otherwise provided in the present resolution”. Also, operative paragraph 4 of that very same resolution clearly states that the Forum “shall result in a concise negotiated political declaration to be submitted for the consideration of the Assembly”.
These countries propose that the adoption of these four political declarations should take place later after the conclusion of this week’s high-level segment, i.e. “after the conclusion of the High-Level Segment of the78th Session of the General Assembly, when they must all be considered by the General Assembly in accordance with its rules of procedures.”
The latest report of the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights clearly says: “Unilateral sanctions and over-compliance have a detrimental impact on implementation of all aspects of the right to health of all people in the countries under sanctions, including access to adequate medicine, healthcare facilities, medical equipment, access to qualified medical assistance, prevention and control of deceases, scarcity of health professionals, access to health facilities, training and access to up-to-date scientific knowledge, technologies, research, exchange of good practices.”
The report found that “In Venezuela more than 85 per cent of world available medicine does not reach the country, including blood products, antibiotics, insulin, dialysis supplies, antiretrovirals, vaccines and medicine against malaria, cancer and other deceases congenital heart disease, tuberculosis, chronic and communicable diseases, including within the programs authorized by PAHO, and sometimes even water. In Zimbabwe, even in the absence of sectoral sanctions the Government is able to guarantee the availability in hospitals of only 50 basic medicines, mainly due to over-compliance by private sector”.
[PAHO is the WHO regional office in Latin America.]
Two important recommendations of the Special Rapporteur are:
“Sanctioning states and regional organisations shall review measures taken without or beyond authorization of the UN Security Council, and to lift those, which do not fit criteria of retortions or counter-measures in full conformity with standards and limitations of the law of international responsibility, as constituting unilateral coercive measures. Humanitarian concerns shall always be taken into account by States when deciding on the imposition of any unilateral measures, including countermeasures (humanitarian precaution), as well as in the course of their application.
Unilateral sanctions shall never affect functioning of critical infrastructure relevant to healthcare, food, agriculture, electricity, water supply, irrigation, sanitation, seeds and fertilizers, all of which are necessary for the survival and well-being of populations”.
Apart from the above 4 HLMs, there following is also taking place during this UNGA session:
1. High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development of the General Assembly, 20 September
2. Preparatory ministerial meeting for the Summit of the Future, 21 September
3. High-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 26 September.
There is also a Climate Ambition Summit on 20 September convened by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, not a Member State-mandated event.+
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