Interdependence Blog

UN:

Amal Clooney, the UK special envoy on media freedom, recently called for the UN to have the power to investigate journalist killings in member countries. This was following the killing of Jamal Khasoggi by the Saudi Arabian government. The Saudi crown prince acknowledged and apologized for the death, but denied personal involvement or knowledge. Questions of national sovereignty were raised, specifically whether this qualified as a breach of press freedom on a level that should constitute consequences or at least involvement from the UN.

“Amal Clooney: give UN power to investigate journalist deaths.” The Guardian, Guardian News & Media Limited, 1 October, 2019, www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/01/amal-clooney-give-un-power-investigate-journalist-deaths-jamal-khashoggi

IGO:

The UNFPA and UNICEF are working together with the African Union to make substantial progress in the elimination of female genital mutilation. They are working to criminalize the practice in all countries, aid countries where it’s criminalized in enforcing the law, and inspire at a social level permanent attitude changes to eliminate the desire for FGM. So far they’ve gotten millions of individuals and thousands of communities to swear off the practice. This is something that couldn’t have been effectively dealt with at a state level due to in some cases lack of funding and the ability of people seeking to perform FGM to flee to other countries. However, the IGO’s have managed to create agreements between large groups of countries to prosecute for FGM, and have secured funding for it from donations from other countries.

UNFPA, UNICEF. “Accelerating Change - UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation Annual Report 2018.” Reliefweb, OSHA, 9 September, 2019, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/accelerating-change-unfpa-unicef-joint-programme-elimination-female-genital-mutilation

Collective Security:

In Latvia, NATO is studying a new threat: social media disinformation. They’ve recently conducted tests and found out through the use of fake websites or even fake Tinder profiles, it’s been worryingly easy to convince their soldiers to give up information like their military practices and even addresses, and even lure them to locations. Furthermore, they’ve found that just the spread of misinformation, like a rumor they believe was started by Russia that NATO soldiers sexually assaulted a Lithuanian girl, are very powerful. For these reasons, they’ve formed a committee, and even invited in non-NATO countries like Sweden and Finland, to brainstorm solutions to the issue. Alone, it appears states like Lithuania could be potentially torn down by Russian fake news, but NATO is doing what it can to find solutions to this new threat.

Heine, Hannes, and Der Tagesspiegel. “Fighting ‘fake news’ online: How NATO soldiers in Latvia got fooled by bots.” Euractiv, Euractiv, 2 October, 2019, https://www.euractiv.com/section/eastern-europe/news/fighting-fake-news-online-how-nato-soldiers-in-latvia-got-fooled-by-bots/

Treaty:

The Rio Treaty was signed in 1947 by 19 American countries, and like NATO, the idea of it is that an attack on any of it’s countries is an attack on all of them. Recently, 12 members voted to invoke it against President Nicolas Maduro, although they agreed to delay until meeting with the UN. Their reasoning is that Maduro’s involvement in international crime constitutes a threat to other countries, specifically Colombia, and additionally that the human rights crisis he’s caused in Venezuela could be considered an attack on his own nation. Though it’s not been clarified what level of action would be taken, from severance of alliances to armed intervention, it seems likely the Treaty of Rio will result in consequences for Maduro.

Anderson, Jesse. “The OAS Ramps Up Regional Pressure on Venezuela Through the Rio Treaty.” World Politics Review, World Politics Review, 2 October, 2019, https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28233/the-oas-ramps-up-regional-pressure-on-venezuela-through-the-rio-treaty

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