Archives for May 2019

UN Correspondent Chat: Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcast Corporation

What is the latest from the United Nations?

In this edition of the Global Dispatches Podcast series “UN Correspondent Chat,” Sherwin Bryce-Pease of the South African Broadcast Corporation and I have a wide ranging discussion about happenings at the United Nations. This includes debates and discussions at the Security Council about the deteriorating situation in Libya, why the dispute in Western Sahara is at a key inflection point, how the ongoing ebola outbreak in the Congo is being discussed at the UN, and why the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan will likely shape debates at the UN in the coming months.

This episode is the third installment of my series of chats with in-house UN correspondents about what’s buzzing in Turtle Bay. The idea is to touch base with a UN reporter every six weeks or so to take the temperature around the UN and learn what issues are driving the agenda. As we discuss toward the end of the episode, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, who is UN Bureau Chief, brings a decidedly non-western perspective to certain key issues, like UN reform.

We kick off discussing the recent appearance of Ghassan Salame, the Secretary General’a special envoy for Libya, before the Security Council. Salame had intended to brief the council in progress toward a peace plan, but that plan fell apart in recent weeks as fighting has intensified around Tripoli.  Sherwin Bryce-Pease was in the room during that briefing and he describes the scene.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what is driving debates at the UN, have a listen.

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Shownotes

Host, Mark Leon Goldberg, and Sherwin Bryce-Pease kick off by discussing the recent appearance of Ghassan Salame, the Secretary-General’s special envoy for Libya, before the Security Council. Salame had intended to brief the council in progress toward a peace plan, but that plan fell apart in recent weeks as fighting has intensified around Tripoli.  Sherwin Bryce-Pease was in the room during that briefing and he describes the scene. His impression of Salame’s demeanor and tone, was that he was very disappointed in the weeks leading up to the briefing by these new developments, which were very unexpected. Salame stated that Libya is on the verge of descending into a fully-fledged civil war. Salame also discussed the security vacuum, especially in the south of the country, and the emergence of black ISIS flags.

Can you discuss the emerging Security Council dynamics? Who is the US supporting? The US used to, or does, support the UN backed government in Libya, but also simultaneously, gave a wink and a nod to Haftar’s offensive against Tripoli.

The general sense is that people are a bit confused. The Secretary-General would have expected the P5 to back his work, but conversely, there are statements that Trump had a call with Haftar and supports his fight against terrorism. Further, there is a narrative that France was not as allied to the British position. The British were trying to push a resolution to call for an immediate ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid and the French ambassador, Francois Delattre, was quite vague in his response. In addition to this, you have the A3, three African countries, who are saying everyone needs to back off and let the African Union lead on this issue. This may be a hangover from 2011 when the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing international intervention in Libya. South Africa was on the council at the time and backed this resolution. They may now feel particularly invested in how this crisis is resolved.

Could you give listeners a background on the conflict in Western Sahara?

Certainly. The conflict emerged after the Spanish withdrew. They annexed those provinces of Western Sahara and have invested billions of dollars trying to get to the minerals and fisheries that surround that area. In 1991 the Security Council passed a resolution to create a UN peacekeeping mission there. This would provide an independence referendum that would determine the future of this territory. Decades later, this conflict is still not resolved and we are at a point of frustration. However, in December last year, UN envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Koehler, brought  Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the region’s separatist group Polisario together in Geneva. This was seen as a breakthrough moment, though Horst Koehler has now resigned due to health reasons.

How has the introduction of John Bolton as National Security Advisor has affected the dynamics of the Security Council on this issue?

We have seen a shift in the US position to now say that Morocco’s proposal of giving greater autonomy to Frente Polasario over that territory, excluding independence, has some credibility. Not everyone around the table agrees that a member state should be putting their finger on the scale in such a way. South Africa was very critical that certain member states were pronouncing on what they thought was a good idea, and that was undermining the negotiations that need to take place directly between the two parties.

The mandate has only been renewed for six months, to add some urgency to negotiations. Theoretically, with the threat that the peacekeeping mission could be pulled, is that a possibility?

Moroccan ambassador, Omar Hilale, called the offer of the Moroccans, pragmatic and realistic. He warned the Polasario in a statement that offering people the myth of independence would not alleviate their pain. The Moroccans believe that the only offer on the table in these negotiations is the greater autonomy of the southern provinces under the Frente Polisario, but complete sovereignty is not an option.

How has the most recent Ebola outbreak playing in the halls of the UN in New York? How are diplomats talking about it in comparison to the last one in West Africa, which was more international?

There is no buzz. In comparison to 2014-2016, when 11,000 died, there is far less of a response here. There may have been a miscalculation on the international community’s part because the DRC was historically good at dealing with Ebola outbreaks. This points to the fact that this outbreak is in East DRC, along the borders of Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, are known for its hostility and insecurity. There have been attacks by armed groups against peacekeepers that are trying to help deal with the Ebola outbreak. Additionally, there is a lack of education and understanding on what Ebola is and the types of death sentences it hands out. This is a rural and complicated area of the DRC. The UN and WHO need to strengthen their leadership teams. This being said, it is important to note that the UN Security Council is dealing with many crises simultaneously, so it is difficult to claim that they are not giving necessary focus to Ebola.  

The role out of this Middle East Peace Plan may take up a lot of oxygen in the UN. How will this affect diplomacy?

There is a great deal of expectation. Most people know very little about what this plan holds. They seem to want to kick it off with an economic conference in Bahrain. However, the Palestinians have said they are not attending and may have convinced China and Russia not to attend either. There is not enough goodwill between the US and Palestine, for a number of reasons. Therefore, it is likely the plan will align with what the Israeli government supports. Trump has wavered between a one state and two state solution. With that being said, the Palestinians want independence and their own government.

Two years into his term, what is your assessment of António Guterres?

He is a seasoned, international diplomat. The concern is that he is not able to translate his granular knowledge into soundbites that demonstrate real leadership. When there is a crisis, like discussions on climate change, there is a lack of will and ability to criticize bad actors. That may be a result of the need to protect jobs and funding. There is a disconnect between the behind the scenes when he has private conversations and him with a microphone.

In regard to South Africa, a rotating member of the Security Council, what is most relevant to you and your stories that you want to deliver to your audiences?

We were so dependent on western media previously and their stories would focus on the P3 and P5. We needed a bureau to better reflect the African perspectives, and 75% of what the Security Council discusses is Africa. There is a recognition that the Security Council, and the UN more broadly, is in desperate need of reform. The veto is terribly destructive and has prevented the international community from dealing and solving conflicts across the world. This has been frustrating, especially to South Africa, the most developed economy in Africa. Often the national interest of P5 members determines what gets done and what not. This does not get enough attention in western media.

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Shownotes by Lydia DeFelice

What You Need to Know About Air Pollution Around the World

Air pollution results in the premature death of 7 million people around the world each year. It is a major global killer harming people in nearly every corner of the globe.

My guest today, Beth Gardiner is a journalist who traveled the world examining the impact of air pollution. Her new book is called Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution. 

In our conversation she shares stories from her reporting, which includes not only detailing the harmful impact of air pollution but also an examination of policies that are working toward cleaner air for all.

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What’s up first?

The nastiest air Gardiner has ever breathed is not in her book. Gardiner took a trip to the capital of Mongolia, where their pollution is horrendous, though very seasonal, as a result of people burning coals in winter to cope with the freezing weather. You could smell the coal smoke from indoors or out. She interviewed the UNICEF representative in Mongolia, and mentioned the term public health crisis. The representative asserted that air pollution is more than that – it is an existential crisis. The pollution that has already occurred is impacting people’s future health, which affects the future of the country and the overall human experience in Mongolia.

Air pollution may not be visible every day, but has serious long term impacts. 

In Mongolia, it is extreme, so you can see it because hospitals are overflowing with kids getting pneumonia. If you go further into other parts of Asia or Western countries it is not as bad or visible, however it is still severe. You will often hear about this notion of invisibility. That could mean the pollution itself is invisible or it could be the connection between cause and effect is invisible. There is strong evidence supporting the connection between air pollution to heart attacks, strokes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and the biggest being premature death ultimately. Nonetheless, it is difficult to link air pollution to individual cases.

You have written about the mother of Ella Kissi-Debrah. Can you tell this story?

Ella Kissi-Debrah, based in London, died in 2013 at nine years old. She was healthy until she was six, when she developed a severe case of asthma. Europe has a real issue with air quality because they use more diesel rather than gas, which is more common in the US. Debrah was hospitalized about thirty times during her last three years. Now her mother, Ms. Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, wants to put air pollution on Ella’s death certificate, which is really important. One human face can be more powerful than a million statistics. With that being said, global air pollution cuts short seven million lives annually.

Your book takes readers to Poland whose causes of air pollution are different.

The Poland chapter is about coal, thought the issue of coal is not unique to there, it is one place to expand a larger story. They get almost all of their electricity from coal and further, many people burn coal for heat in their homes. If you are in a power plant, burning coal is done under a regulatory regime and there is filtering equipment. However, if you are in a home, people use low-tech stoves and cheap coal. This is absolutely choking.

Indoor air pollution is not something that may be typically associated with industrial Europe.

Scientists have stopped using the terms “indoor and outdoor pollution” because they are totally intertwined. Now it is referred to as ambient and household. In India for example, indoor pollution lends itself more to cooking than heating. People burn wood and cow dung for heat because they don’t have gas or electricity. This is now thought to account for 25% overall outdoor ambient air quality problem. Wood burning is still a major contributor to air pollution in developed countries including the US and Europe. Log burning stoves are really trendy and people buy them thinking they are more eco-friendly. This is a catastrophic mistake as the health effects are terrible. A wood fire seems cozy and safe to people, unlike coal, but it is really full of harmful toxins. 

@TedxLondon asks – what is the most surprising approach to dealing with pollution you came across while doing your research? 

The answers to air pollution are more boring as they are more technical, but they are non-boring in the sense that they are at the crux of our biggest political debates. This is referring to regulation. People discuss personal choice when it comes to air pollution, but learning from experience between China, Washington, and London – it is our governments who have the power to restrain polluting companies. It comes down to corporate power, money, and regulation.

Where are there interesting government regulations happening?

The US is a type of success story, specifically in Los Angeles, though it still has America’s worst air. It shows slow progress over several years of systematic, scientific regulation that cracks down on cars, trucks, and ships. Ships run on dirty fuel, and then trucks come in to collect the goods, which provides the backbone of our consumer economy. There are new innovations like plug in power at the dockside so ships do not need to run their engines when being loaded or un-loaded. These things make a difference, but fundamentally we need government power.

This brings us to the Clean Air Act. Can you discuss its impact?

The act is one of the most consequential laws in modern American history, though it may be under-celebrated. Trillions of dollars and millions of lives have been saved as a result of this act. The monetary benefits have been thirty or forty times the costs. The health benefits outweigh the costs by a great deal. When the EPA sets its standards, there is only one consideration – public health. It does not consider cost, but rather prioritizes public health over money and corporate profit.

How much of China’s activity affects global statistics around air pollution? 

It matters a lot. They serve as a poster example of air pollution, though there is a positive story here too. China has sent people over to LA to see how they achieved their clean up, and are now experiencing double digit declines in pollution levels which has immediate health benefits. They are rolling out the world’s largest investment in solar power, putting more money towards electric vehicles, and they are decreasing their coal consumption. China is so huge that they have these economies of scale that can move global markets. When China started manufacturing solar panels, this brought the cost down by 90%, meaning it is competitive with coal now. Very soon, we may see the cost of electric vehicles go down as well and move the technology forward faster.

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Shownotes by Lydia DeFelice

Legislation in Canada Could Change How the World Deals With Frozen Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials

Several countries have laws on the books that enables governments to freeze the assets of corrupt foreign officials. Canada is one of those countries, and now one Canadian Senator is trying to take that law one step further by redistributing the frozen assets to those harmed by the actions of the corrupt official.

Ratna Omidvar is an independent Senator from Ontario to the Senate of Canada. She is the author of legislation that is starting to make its way through the Canadian Parliament called the Frozen Assets Repurposing Act. The bill would seize the assets of corrupt and abusive foreign officials and redeploy those assets to the very people harmed by those foreign officials. This includes people displaced by the actions of corrupt and violent regimes.

We kick off discussing Senator Omidvar’s personal history of displacement before having a longer conversation about the contours of this legislation. This includes an extended discussion about how legislation in Canada can influence other parliaments of liberal democracies around the world.

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What’s up first?

When Senator Ratna Omidvar was young she went to University in West Germany and met her life partner. He was from Iran and after they finished their education in 1974, they decided to move to there. Six years later, with their lives in immediate danger, they were forced to flee. Therefore, Omidvar has always empathized with those forced to leave their homes. Luckily, Omivar was able to emigrate to Canada and make a life for herself. However, most people displaced today are bereft of hope or choice. There are generations that only know the existence of displacement. This is a global problem and one that must be addressed in different ways.

Can you introduce your Frozen Assets Repurposing Act?

This act will seize the assets of corrupt foreign officials and those assets will be redeployed back to serve the people who have been harmed most. In many cases, one can draw a direct line between those who are displaced, corrupt and violent regimes, and the corruption of those individuals who steal from their people and country. Basically, by following the money, we will hold them accountable and provide a small measure of justice.   

Your act builds on the Magnitsky Act. Can you describe this act? How does it empower governments to seize assets from corrupt officials?

Magnitsky was an accountant in Russia who was investigating corruption but ended up murdered in prison. The Magnitsky Act firstly prevents corrupt officials from entering the country. There are four versions of this act in the US, Canada, UK, and Estonia. The act in Canada applies to foreign officials anywhere in the world. However, the Magnitsky Act only freezes assets, it does not seize and reallocate them. This ties up the assets for a long time, and meanwhile, countries are trying to manage massive influxes of refugees, like Bangladesh from Myanmar. So the Frozen Assets Repurposing Act would take the next step and not just freeze but seize and redeploy assets.

How much money are we talking about?

Canada does not know how much money it holds as there is no public registry of the value of official’s assets. There are more than 72 individuals from a range of jurisdictions on the Canadian sanctions list. If the new legislation is passed then there would be a public registry of those values, meaning more transparency. If you steal money from your people and then deprive them of basic freedoms, there will be accountability.

When crafting this law, did you look to other foreign governments with similar legislation?

Yes, there was a law in Switzerland. In 2015 they enacted the Foreign Illicit Assets Act. This act allows for assets deposited in Switzerland to be confiscated and reallocated. Switzerland returned assets to Kazakhstan following a criminal bribery case. To avoid directly returning it, they set up an independent non-profit to monitor the return. Therefore, there is some proof of concept.

How does a senator’s proposal become law? What are some obstacles?

Firstly, note that senators are appointed, not elected, in Canada. The bill is initially tabled by a senator, then the legislation would need to go to the committee in the Senate and then come back to be debated again. After any amendments, it would hopefully get approved. It would then travel to the House of Commons, the elected house, and repeat the same process.  These are two very articulated, separate processes in the two chambers that a bill needs to go through. This process assures that bills are debated and consulted on, and further, that civil society and organizations can weigh in before it becomes law.

What are some of the broader political forces informing how this would proceed?

For anything worth value, people will line up to reap the benefits. The court review here will be very useful. Like minded jurisdictions will, hopefully, look at the broader political implication of addressing displacement.

We are potentially talking about a lot of money here. This could be an innovative source of funding.

There are roughly 20 to 40 billion dollars worth of stolen money that can be traced back to corrupt officials. That is a huge amount, even if just a portion could be provided to the humanitarian relief agencies of the world. The UNHCR has only ever been able to reach 60% of its budget because its financed by voluntary contribution. The displaced people of the world cannot sit around and wait for charity. In a sense, this is their money.

What should people be looking to in the future when it comes to this piece of legislation?

Hopefully, people will think about this with aspiration as this act provides justice to those who appear to act with immunity. Think about generals in Myanmar and warlords in South Sudan. They clear millions of dollars and their names are on the Canadian sanctions list but yet nothing is done with their money. On a more pragmatic level, this act gets money to the agencies and NGO’s doing the necessary work on the ground to help those people who are impacted.

There are 17 million people displaced in the world which makes 17 million reasons to do this.

Read more about this legislation here and follow its progress here.

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Shownotes by Lydia DeFelice

The War in Syria Is Taking its Next Big Turn

Syrian regime forces, backed by Russia, have scaled up their attacks in what is the last part of Syria controlled by rebel forces.

Over the last several weeks an estimated 140,000 people have been displaced by escalating fighting in Idlib, Syria. This is the last remaining rebel held territory in Syria. As regime forces re-captured parts of Syria under rebel control, rebels and their families fled to Idlib, which the key players in the conflict agreed would be a “de-escalation zone.”

There are now 3 million people in Idlib. Most are displaced and the vast majority are civilian non-combatants. But there are also al Qaeda affiliated militants and other jihadis mixed in with the population.

The situation in extremely precarious right now as it seems that a deal between Turkey and Russia to prevent an assault on Idlib is breaking down.

My guest today, Dareen Khalifa is the senior Syria analyst with the International Crisis Group. She explains this escalating crisis and what the situation in Idlib says about the broader trajectory and trends of the Syria conflict. This includes some key geo-political forces that are now very much driving events on the ground.

The escalating fighting in Idlib is a powerful reminder that the conflict in Syria continues to drag on even as international attention is fading.

If you have 20 minutes and want to understand how the conflict in Syria is evolving, have a listen.

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How to Eliminate the Global Problem of Online Child Abuse

The spread of child sexual abuse material on the internet has grown at an exponential pace in the last fifteen years, since the advent of social media.  This is truly a global problem, affecting every country on earth.

The tools of technology can be harnessed to combat the spread of images and videos depicting child abuse and one non-profit is leading the way.

Thorn is a technology driver non-profit founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore that develops tools to combat online child abuse and child sex trafficking. On the line with me to discuss some of these tools and strategies is Julie Cordua, the CEO of Thorn.

In this conversation, Julie Cordua describes the scope of the problem, which she refers She also describes how emerging technologies developed by Thorn are being used to detect when this material is being uploaded and is aiding law enforcement around the world.

We kick off discussing a recent announcement that Thorn was one of the winners of the Audacious Project, housed at TED, and will share in $280 million prize to eliminate Child Sexual Abuse Material from the Internet. We discuss how Thorn will work toward that goal and we have a broader conversation about how global efforts to combat the spread of child sexual abuse online have evolved since the early days of the internet and social media.

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This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

A Crisis in Cameroon

There is an escalating humanitarian crisis in Cameroon where more than half a million people have been displaced by conflict.

This conflict erupted in earnest in late 2017 and early 2018 in a series of attacks and reprisals between Anglophone separatists and the French dominated government. In international affairs circles, this is known as the “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon.

As my guest today Jan Egeland says, when hundreds of thousands of civilians are displaced, it usually sets off international alarm bells. But this is not the case with Cameroon. There is virtually no international mediation, very little media attention, and the humanitarian response has been woefully inadequate.

Jan Egeland is the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a large humanitarian relief organization. He has spent his career in humanitarian affairs, including serving as an under secretary general of the United Nations and as a humanitarian relief advisor for the UN in Syria.  He is one of the world’s most high profile humanitarian relief experts and he is sounding the alarm on this crisis.

Jan Egeland recently returned from a fact finding trip to the crisis-affected regions of Cameroon. A few days after we recorded this conversation, he’s briefing the Security Council on this humanitarian crisis.  You can consider this conversation a preview and extended version of the message he’ll be sending to the Security Council.

This episode does a good job explaining what is driving this crisis. However, if you want a deeper explanation of the origins of the Anglophone crisis, I will point you to a podcast episode from January 2018, recorded just as this crisis was erupting that goes more in depth into the historical roots of the anglophone crisis. Also, if you want to learn more about Jan Egeland himself, I’ll point you to episode number 52 of Global Dispatches, from back in 2015 in which Jan Egeland discusses his life and career in more detail.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about this under-the-radar crisis, have a listen

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The Personality Trait That Every Female Nobel Peace Prize Winner Has in Common

My guest today Supriya Vani interviewed every living female Nobel Peace Prize winner. She crossed the globe interviewing female nobel Laureates to learn what compelled them to action and lead such distinguished lives. Her 2018 book Battling Injustice: 16 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates is a collection of these stories.

In this conversation we discuss some common traits that she found across these women and she tells some stories from her interviews and reporting across the globe.

Supriya Vani is a journalist and activist in India, and I caught up with her from New Delhi.

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“How to Fix Democracy,” with Michael Ignatieff

Image credit: CEU / Daniel Vegel

What happens when voters in a democracy elect an illiberal politician? And what if that politician uses legal means to obliterate the political opposition, consolidate power and undermine pillars of a free and open society? Can democracy, in any recognizable form survive?

We are seeing this questions play out in real time in Hungary today, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has systematically upended years of democratic consolidation with a decidedly authoritarian approach to politics.

Michael Ignatieff has had a grounds-eye view of Hungary’s transformation under Orban. He is a former Canadian politician and author who now serves as the president and rector of the Central European University. This is a Budapest-based graduate school founded by George Soros that has been vilified by Orban and his supporters. The Hungarian government has sought to shut down this university

Today’s episode of Global Dispatches podcast is a cross over with the new show How to Fix Democracy. It features Michael Igantieff in interview with the writer Andrew Keen.  In this episode, Ignatieff discusses the challenge to democracy posed by illiberal “democrats” like Viktor Orban.

How to Fix Democracy is an interview series in which prominent thinkers, writers, politicians, technologists, and business leaders discuss some fundamental questions about the fate and trajectory of democracy today.  The series is presented by the Bertelsmann Foundation, in partnership with Humanity in Action. 

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