It Is Past Time to Move the United Nations to Switzerland by Wayne Madsen!
(2019-09-29 at 08:34:23 )

It Is Past Time to Move the United Nations to Switzerland by Wayne Madsen

With a dangerous right-wing and quasi-fascist administration in power in Washington,D.C. one that rejects internationalism and consensus-building, it is past time for the United Nations to move its headquarters and member states permanent missions to a more neutral location.

One can understand why the United Nations was originally located in New York.

The Rockefeller family donated the land on Turtle Bay on the East River for the construction of the United Nations Headquarters. After World War II, the United States was in a prime position to nurture the United Nations, something it failed to do after World War I when Washington,D.C. rejected membership in the League of Nations.

The Leagues headquarters in Geneva was a painful reminder to some United Nations members who saw the worlds first international organization devoted to peacemaking fail miserably to contain Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan.

In some respects, although the United Nations was the successor organization to the League, no one wanted to be reminded that it was at the Leagues headquarters in Switzerland where Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie pleaded with delegates to stop the brutal Italian invasion and occupation of his country.

The charter members of the United Nations wanted no reminders of the United Nations toothless predecessor. The United Nations was an organization with a Security Council of five permanent members that was authorized to meet aggression with force.

Unfortunately, the United Nationss host nation, particularly under Donald Trump, but also to a lesser extend under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, has shown its willingness to disregard decisions of the United Nations and violate the United States-United Nations Treaty governing the rights of delegates to freely enter and depart New York while conducting business at the United Nations.

The United States-United Nations treaty, which may not be violated by President Trump without the approval of the United States Congress, was signed at Lake Success, New York in 1947.

The signatories were United Nations Secretary General Trygve Lie and United States Secretary of State George Marshall.

The treaty guaranteed the extraterritorial nature of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.

Furthermore, it guaranteed that the United States would not interfere with the expeditious granting of United States visas to foreign diplomats and United Nations personnel transiting through United States territory in furtherance of their responsibilities to their own governments and the United Nations, respectively.

President Trumps xenophobic and far-right policies directed against Muslims, Palestinians, and countries, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, and Venezuela, have resulted in repeated violations of the United States-United Nations Treaty by zealous United States immigration authorities.

The recent Trump administration threat to deny visas to Irans delegation to attend the 2019 General Assembly Plenary Session in New York is a case in point, but not the only one.

Similar restrictions by the Trump administration have been levied against delegates from United Nations members Libya, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

Official observers from Palestine have also been harassed and delegates from the Houthi-led government of Yemen and Abkhazia, non-United Nation members, have been denied United States visas to plead their cases before the United Nations.

The United States-United Nations Treaty stipulates that the United States government will facilitate entrance into the United States, and the use of available means of transportation, of "persons coming from abroad who wish to visit the headquarters."

This would include members of non-member nations wishing to petition or otherwise interact with the United Nations and affiliate agencies on an official basis.

In fact, the United States violated this provision in 1975 when United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger saw to it that United States visas were denied to representatives of the Kingdom of Sikkim, Western Sahara, and East Timor, who desired to plead their nations cases with regard to invasions and occupations by India, Morocco, and Indonesia, respectively.

East Timor was eventually admitted to the United Nations as a member state, but it was after a bloody war with Indonesian occupation forces and United States collusion with Indonesias military dictatorship.

United States policy toward a liberalized visa policy for United Nations members, employees, observers, and guests has been erratic since the United Nations founding.

In 1968, the Lyndon Johnson administration did grant a visa to Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of the secessionist Republic of Biafra Matthew Mbu to visit the United Nations to plead his nations case to United Nations officials.

In 1948, the Harry Truman administration denied visas for two representatives of Indian princely state leaders - the Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad and the Sikh Maharajah of Nabha - to appeal to the United Nations against aggression by the Hindu-dominated newly-independent nation of India.

That same year, the Truman administration failed to permit representatives of the Kalat Confederacy in Baluchistan to appeal to the United Nations against Pakistani annexation.

The original founders of the United Nations even envisaged a United Nations-controlled airport near the UN Headquarters that would deny United States immigration authorities the right to deny visas to UN delegates and other guests visiting the UN. Such an airport would have enjoyed extraterritorial status with unhindered travel corridors to and from the UN.

While he was Venezuelas Foreign Minister, Venezuelas President, Nicolas Maduro, was subjected to an invasive strip search in 2006 when he was detained for 90 minutes at New Yorks JFK Airport while returning home from a UN General Assembly meeting.

The detention of Mr. Maduro was a Central Intelligence Agency-initiated fishing expedition. Mr. Maduro was questioned about his alleged role in the failed 1992 Venezuelan coup attempt led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Although the League of Nations lacked any real enforcement authority to back up its resolutions, the host nation of Switzerland did yeomans work in facilitating the entry to the Geneva headquarters by official parties and guests.

The United States record on affording equal access to the United Nations in New York has been woefully inadequate.

The United Nations could very easily move its headquarters to Geneva, where several United Nations constituent bodies and specialized agencies, including the UN Human Rights Council, World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Meteorological Organization (which is immune to Donald Trumps redrawing of weather maps with black Sharpie pens), and the International Telecommunications Union are located.

Since Switzerlands traditional foreign policy is one of neutrality, it is a much better choice to host the United Nations than New York. President Trumps recently fired National Security Adviser, John Bolton, who was also a past United States ambassador to the United Nations, once fantasized about the top ten floors of the United Nations Secretariat building being demolished.

Predident Trumps personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, routinely used the New York Police Department to harass United Nations delegates from countries he did not like.

Delegates and staff from Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Laos, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Zaire, and other countries were routinely issued parking tickets and had their vehicles towed.

Russian diplomat Alexandre Zmeevski stated that "his delegation had been given tickets even in some parking spaces reserved for diplomatic vehicles." Costa Rica delegate Emilia Castro de Barish complained that she "had received two unfair and discriminatory parking citations, including a citation while she had been parked in a parking space reserved for diplomats."

In 1995, Mr. Giuliani ordered Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, in the city to help celebrate the United Nations 50th anniversary, ejected from a New York Philharmonic special concert for the gathered world leaders. Mr. Giuliani stated that if the United Nations did not like his harassment of its employees and diplomats, they could "leave town."

It was not the first time that a right-wing Republican and extremist Israel supporter told the United Nations to leave New York.

Alternate United States delegate Charles Lichtenstein addressed a diplomatic standoff with the Soviet Union in 1983, when the states of New York and New Jersey barred Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromykos plane from landing at either JFK Airport in New York or Newark International Airport in New Jersey.

The alternative of McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey was offered.

However, the Soviet government rejected the offer as a violation of United States treaty rights afforded to the United Nations.

Mr. Lichtenstein responded by saying that if member states believed that "they are not being treated with the hostly consideration that is their due, they should consider removing themselves and this organization from the soil of the United States," adding, "we will put no impediment in your way. The members of the United States mission to the United Nations will be down at the dockside waving you a fond farewell as you sail off into the sunset."

It is time to honor the requests of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Lichtenstein and move the United Nations from New York to Geneva or another location not subject to the whims of right-wing fanatic blowhards like Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Bolton, or the late Mr. Lichtenstein.

Reprinted here from the "Strategic Culture Foundation" provides a platform for exclusive analysis, research and policy comment on Eurasian and global affairs. We are covering political, economic, social and security issues worldwide. Since 2005 our journal has published thousands of analytical briefs and commentaries with the unique perspective of independent contributors. SCF works to broaden and diversify expert discussion by focusing on hidden aspects of international politics and unconventional thinking. Benefiting from the expanding power of the Internet, we work to spread reliable information, critical thought and progressive ideas.