Uganda, NAM states rally for Palestine recognition

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has initiated consultations on a proposal backed by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and Arab League countries for full admission of Palestine as a member state of the United Nations (UN).

Palestine is one of the two UN non-member observer states alongside the Holy See (both state as Vatican City and sovereign entity).

The war-torn country is recognised as an independent country by 140 countries, including Uganda, out of the 193 UN member states.  Four European countries; Spain, Malta, Ireland, and Slovenia hinted last month at recognising the war-torn country as one of the avenues of ending the long-simmering tensions in the Middle East.

The UNSC, the world’s most powerful exclusive organ charged with ensuring global security, is one of the six principal organs of the UN. Others are the General Assembly, the world’s parliament where all the 193-UN member states have equal voice, the Secretariat, the Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the International Court of Justice sitting in The Hague, Netherlands.

The UNSC comprises five permanent members; China, UK, Russia, US, and France, each with veto powers that enables them to block key resolutions irrespective of their global acclaim—and 10 non-permanent members elected on rotational basis by UNGA.

By press time last evening, a closed session of the UNSC was ongoing to determine whether the world’s global south majority-backed proposal—in this case, application of a new member to the UN—should be sent to a Standing Committee.

What rules say
Rule 59 of the Council procedures provides: “Unless the Security Council decides otherwise, the application shall be referred by the President to a committee of the Security Council upon which each member of the Security Council shall be represented.”

If the UNSC agrees to refer Palestine’s admission to the Committee, the Committee was also expected to convene later yesterday (evening time in New York).  If there is antagonism to the referral, the President of the UNSC could suggest that the referral Committee be put on the agenda of the Council and call for a vote.

Admission to UN membership needs nine votes of the 15 UNSC members and the veto applies.

The Council sitting yesterday, six months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that has killed at least 33,173 Palestinians and injured more than 75,815, follows the NAM, OIC, and Arab League countries rallying the UNGA to consider Palestine’s September-2011 admission request.

The 2011 Standing Committee, according to the UNSC website, “was unable to reach a unanimous recommendation on Palestine’s application.”

Fourteen years later, the coordinating ambassadors of the three alliances—NAM, Arab League and OIC countries—to the UN in New York wrote to the UNGA president, Mr Dennis Frances, on April 2, reiterating outcomes of several summits, including the NAM summit in Kampala, on the Palestine question.

NAM recognises Palestine as an independent country and treats the Palestine question and quest for global recognition as a standing issue.

The NAM summit held in Kampala in mid-January adopted the Outcome Document, Kampala Declaration, and Political Declaration on Palestine, in which member states reiterated for cessation of hostilities and implementation of the two-state solution.

The admission of Palestine to the UN comes on the backdrop of renewed choruses for a two-state solution, mutual co-existence of Palestine and Israel, which was first conceptualised in 1947 but has largely remained on paper.

The US, which backed Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, says it supports the two-state solution which the administration in Tel Aviv opposes.

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