December 3,
2008
Lund,
Sweden
Contact for
the press:
Jan Oberg
+46 (0)70 - 79 111 25
after
December 6: +46 (0)46 - 14 59 09
TFF@transnational.org
BREAKING NEWS...
TFF has obtained a copy, reproduced below, of a UN-NATO document held
secret to the general public.
It is a Cooperation Declaration signed by the top leaders of the United
Nations and NATO.
Here follows the statement of the TFF Board, formulated as 9 questions,
for everyone - including the media - to discuss and take action upon:
"The United Nations considers it secret and, thus, hasn¹t published it on
its homepage; NATO is pleased to give you a copy upon request; NATO governments
know about it; Western mainstream media have hardly mentioned it - - - The
Joint Declaration on UN/NATO Secretariat Cooperation that was signed by the
Secretary-Generals of the UN and NATO in September this year.
To say the least, this Declaration should have raised a few eyebrows. As a
matter of fact, it ought to be impossible for SG Ban Ki-Moon to sign such
document with any military alliance, let alone to do so without the consent of
the member states of the United Nations.
We
judge it to be high time to stimulate a public debate on UN-NATO co-operation.
Frankly, it should have begun when, in January 2007, Ban Ki-Moon visited NATO
and stated that: ³I am very much assured and encouraged by what NATO has
been contributing to peace and security around the world [].We have the same
goals, we are committed to work very closely together in the future².
(Source:
http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2007/01-january/e0124a.html)
The UN Charter's preamble states that war shall be abolished. More
specifically, Article 1 states that peace shall be brought about by peaceful
means. It is to be feared that a UN Secretary-General who believes that the UN
and NATO "have the same goals" will be unable to perform his role as
defender of that Charter.
Here
is the text of the Declaration for you to see what the UN does not want you to
see. After it we - the Board of the Transnational Foundation - raise nine
questions of substance that reflect our deep concerns about the ways of the UN
at this moment in history when, more than ever, the goal of general and
complete disarmament and nuclear abolition, should have the highest priority.
[ BEGIN DECLARATION ]
Annex to DSG (2008)0714 (INV)
Joint Declaration on UN/NATO Secretariat Cooperation
The Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Secretary General of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, welcoming over a decade of cooperation
between the United Nations and NATO in support of the work of the United
Nations in maintaining international peace and security, and desiring, in the
spirit of the 2005 World Summit Outcome, to provide a framework for expanded
consultation and cooperation between their respective Secretariats, have agreed
to the following:
1. We, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Secretary-General of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, reaffirm our commitment to the
maintenance of international peace and security.
2. Our shared experiences have demonstrated the value of effective and
efficient coordination between our Organizations. We have developed operational
cooperation, for example, in peacekeeping in the Balkans and Afghanistan, where
UN-authorized NATO-led operations work alongside UN peace operations. We have
also worked together and collectively with other partners in support of
regional and sub-regional organizations. In addition, NATO provided assets and
personnel to Pakistan in support of UN disaster relief operations in 2005. Our
cooperation is guided by the UN Charter, internationally recognized
humanitarian principles and guidelines, and consultation with national
authorities.
3. Further cooperation will significantly contribute to addressing the threats
and challenges to which the international community is called upon to respond.
We therefore underscore the importance of establishing a framework for
consultation and dialogue and cooperation, including, as appropriate, through
regular exchanges and dialogue at senior and working levels on political and
operational issues. We also reaffirm our willingness to provide, within our
respective mandates and capabilities, assistance to regional and sub-regional
organizations, as requested and as appropriate.
4. Understanding that this framework should be flexible and evolving over time,
we agree to further develop the cooperation between our organizations on issues
of common interest, in, but not limited to, communication and
information-sharing, including on issues pertaining to the protection of
civilian populations; capacity-building, training and exercises; lessons
learned, planning and support for contingencies; and operational coordination
and support.
5. Our cooperation will continue to develop in a practical fashion, taking into
account each Organizations specific mandate, expertise, procedures and
capabilities, so as to contribute to improving international coordination in
response to global challenges.
Done in New York on 23 September 2008
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer BAN
Ki-Moon
Secretary General of
the
Secretary-General
North Atlantic Treaty
Oranization
of the United Nations
[END
DECLARATION]
1. According to the UN
Charter, Article 100, the UN Secretary-General is the custodian of the UN's
integrity. S/he shall receive no instructions from any state or authority but
serve only the UN.
Q: Does this agreement increase the SG¹s opportunities to do so and does
it strengthen the credibility of that provision in the future?
2. NATO is a nuclear-based military alliance upholding the right to use
nuclear weapons as the first response even against a conventional attack.
Q: Is the choice of NATO compatible with Article 1 of the Charter which
states that peace shall be brought about by peaceful means? Why have other
regional organisations that do work with civilian means - like the OSCE or the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - not been offered a similar
cooperative status?
3. NATO's Washington Agreement of 1999 aligns itself closely with the UN
Charter. However, it no longer refers to the overarching authority of the UN
Security Council; rather it brings into the purview of NATO the right to
intervene when faced with what NATO calls new risks such as
'environment', 'insufficient reforms', 'uncontrollable movements of large
numbers of people' and, most significantly, 'interruption of vital resources'.
Thus, it can be doubted whether NATO still adheres to its own Article 1 which
recognizes the supremacy of Article 51 of the UN Charter on member states'
right to self-defence.
This UN-NATO Declaration's list and formulations of areas in which UN-NATO co-operation
can take place are quite sweeping and general. It should be seen in the light
of the seemingly ever-expanding roles NATO deems legitimate for itself.
Q:
Given the special status NATO now acquires through this Agreement, how likely
is it that the UN SG and Security Council - where 3 of the 5 permanent seats
are held by NATO members - will:
a) Be able to uphold the necessary distinctions between NATO actions and UN
actions?
b) Bring up possible future breaches of international law by NATO? and
c) Be able, as UN members, to work credibly for general and complete
disarmament and nuclear abolition?
4: The two UN & NATO SGs seem to sign as partners of equal standing.
The wording of the agreement is such that NATO would be free to take actions as
it wishes, even to adopt measures of aggressive warfare. Statements at recent
Munich NATO conferences seem to confirm this.
Q: NATO must be held accountable to the UN Charter and other
international law norms. Does this Declaration make that clear? To whom will
NATO be accountable?
5. NATO bombed Serbia/Kosovo in 1999 without a UN Security Council
mandate.
Q: Independent of the views one may have of that action and given
leading NATO members' deficient respect for international law and the UN
Charter, is NATO an appropriate organization to be rewarded by the UN with such
special status?
6. It is mentioned that the NATO-UN Agreement is rooted in the actions
taken during the wars in Bosnia-Hercegovina. If anything, however, that crisis
showed that peace-keeping and peace-enforcement cannot be mixed
and that UN member states had given the UN far too few resources to succeed
with their mandate.
Q: Is this Agreement signaling that the members of the UN and NATO
consider the handling of Bosnia a model and will continue with the same mix of
roles and unbalanced resource allocations?
7. NATO countries are, these very months, engaged in various very
sensitive issues - sensitive also among the Security Council members - such as
the Georgia Crisis, the Ballistic Missile Defence bases in Poland and the Czech
Republic, further NATO expansion (Georgia & Ukraine) and intensifying
problems in Afghanistan, where both organisations are involved.
Q: Is the UN SG's signature an example of good timing and will he, in
the light of the above, now submit the Declaration to the Security Council for
discussion and approval?
8. The UN has 192 members. NATO has 26 member states but stands for over
70% of the world's military expenditures.
Q: Does the SG expect that the majority of the UN member states will
support this agreement between the secretariats of the United Nations and a
military alliance?
9. The spirit of the UN is supposed to be dialogue, worldwide
consultation and the common good of humankind. Yet this Agreement has been kept
secret and not posted on the UN homepage.
Q:
Is the Agreement itself and the way it has been concluded between two
individuals not likely to give the world the impression that this UN HQ is now
a place for deals kept in the dark and, thus, further undermine the hopes
shared by citizens around the world for democracy and transparency?"
The Board of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
TFF:
Ina Curic
Jan Oberg
Vicky Samantha Rossi
Hans von Sponeck
Annette Schiffmann
Gunnar Westberg
December 3, 2008
TFF
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