UN Reform – Institutionalize a Tribune of the Oppressed Peoples

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2007-11-22 ]

In a series of eight previous articles, we advocated the extension of the UN Veto right to Japan, India, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and South Africa. We argued that this would help the international body reflect today's realities in the best possible way, and express an advanced level of global representativity, enabling at the same time the international community to exercise pressure over China and Russia, and gradually eliminate the numerous Middle Eastern, Asiatic, and African tyrannies, various backward nationalistic oligarchies, and the spectrum of Islamic terrorism.

In the present article, we intend to examine several basic issues of international relations that until now functioned negatively, affecting the diffusion of Democratic rule, Freedom and Human Rights in various parts of the World.

In other words, we don't believe that the world's socio-political problems can be solved through just a fair representation of the world's great ethno-linguistic and religious groups in the Security Council even if the selection would be based on considerations of the economic power, the technological development, the size, and the implementation of democratic ideals in a specific country.

Politics pertain to a possible combination of pragmatism and morality. In this regard, political realism within the context of the UN Security Council (even if enlarged up to 13 members) has its limits when it comes to defending the rights of the Turkic (45 – 50 m people) and Tibetan (5 m people) nations that have been incorporated in China (either still residing in Eastern Turkistan and Tibet or dispersed in other provinces).

It would be essential for the international body to clarify that the privilege of Veto right, if extended to India and Turkey, as we suggest, should not function to the detriment of the Kashmiri Muslims (in the former), and the Kurds and the Aramaeans (in the latter).

More specifically, we believe that the UN will never become an efficient and effective tool of diffusion of Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom throughout the World without adequately expressing an urgent, deep, and fully committed concern for the various peoples of the globe that have not yet reached Independence, Freedom, Political Auto-determination, Democratic Parliamentary Life, Institutionalized Education, and self-organized Cultural Preservation, Promotion and Diffusion.

UN: A Society of Peoples

Inheriting a burdened past from the League of Nations, the UN was shaped on the ashes of Fascism and Nazism. Quite paradoxically, the name of the international body remained – essentially – the same! Instead of the name 'League of Nations,' the incumbent international body's selected name, United Nations, evolves around the concept of 'Nation'. The addition of the past participle 'United' does not change in anything the essence, namely the fact that the organization is a Congress, a Conference of Nations. To some extent, we have good reason to believe that an unclear name leads to vague situations and choices.

Nation is 'the people who live in a nation or country,' according to a modern dictionary (http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/nation). However, the term is politically very ambiguous, since a nation means 'a people,' and at the same time a nation means 'a country,' so the administration, the establishment, the government or eventually the ruling regime!

It can therefore be deduced that the political usage of the term would imply that we live in an ideal world whereby all the peoples form democratic societies in which the elected majority forms the government, and the minority shapes the constructive opposition! Quite unfortunately, we do not live in such a world, and the progress of Democracy has been somewhat ambivalent over the past sixty years.

The Communist camp collapsed and many democracies replaced the totalitarian dictatorships of proletariat, with Ukraine being the most recent victory in this regard. The Latin American countries moved away from the tradition of the military involvement in politics, several Asiatic countries made spectacular progress, and South Africa became an exemplary African nation. However, large parts of the world are still the realm of the oppression, the circumference of the tyrannical exploitation, the enforced illiteracy, the obscurantism, and the reactive fanaticism.

United Governments, instead of United Peoples

As a matter of fact, the UN functioned rather as United Countries or United Governments, not as United Peoples. Quite contrarily to the most seminal of the concepts encapsulated in the famous Charter of the United Nations….

The famous document does however start with the words "We the people". In dramatic contrast with these words, nothing of the sort is reflected in the political realities of dozens of oppressed peoples today.

As numerous peoples allover the world have not yet managed to obtain National independence and Freedom, it would be disastrous to attempt to formulate any UN reform without taking this critical reality into consideration, and without searching for the correct remedy and solution.

In this case, the task is to lead oppressed (in very diverse ways and to different extent – that's true!) peoples, like the Oromos and the Sidamas of 'Ethiopia,' the Berbers of Algeria and Morocco, the Nubians of Sudan and Egypt, the Fur, the Beja, the Nuer, the Haussa, and the Dinka of Sudan, the Baluchis of Iran and Pakistan, the Turkmens of Eastern Turkistan (China), the Tibetans of China, the Yakutians of Eastern 'Russian' Siberia, the Chechens, the Daghestanis, the Osssetes, and the Abkhazians of the Caucasus, the Basks of Spain and France, the Aramaeans and the Kurds of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, and the Corsicans and Bretons of France, to the surface of the international political arena, and to the epicenter of the Search for Complete Implementation of the Democratic System allover the world.

At this point, we should stress the point that international disregard and absence of concern consist in the main reasons of mass radicalization of oppressed and tyrannized peoples; as a matter of fact, if we want truly to uproot the existing frustration that leads to fanaticism and terrorism, we have to offer a space for every tyrannized people's representatives to highlight their issues. An institutionalized International Tribune.

The Tribune of Oppressed Peoples (TOP)

The Security Council and the General Assembly should consider the formation of the Tribune of Oppressed Peoples as a new body within the UN, where numerous representatives, first nominated by a Liberation Front or a Government in exile, and later elected (by the non -liberated peoples - under UN auspices and monitoring) would represent all the peoples, who have not yet formed free, and independent states.

The Tribune of Oppressed Peoples would therefore form a complementary UN Assembly, and would be given an Observer seat in the Security Council. It should be highly recommended to envisage an Annual Bi-Cameral Assembly whereby existing tyrannical administrations' would have to answer to accusations formulated by the oppressed peoples' representatives.

Eligibility for the Tribune of Oppressed Peoples

The definition of an 'oppressed people' (eligible for a position of representative in the TOP) will have to meet several criteria.

1. Population

To be considered eligible for the UN Tribune of Oppressed Peoples, a people must total more than 50000 native speakers of a known independent language. Although several nations having a seat in the UN General Assembly are smaller than this figure, setting a certain limit would be just a first practical step to make of the TOP a truly functional body and a really effective tool for Democracy.

If according to some skepticists, this figure looks minimal, we have to bear in mind that there are already several countries with a total population lower than 50000 people that have been offered a seat at the UN General Assembly – a definitely more influential international body.

2. Majority of population in a given land

There is no limit as regards the surface of the land in question, be it part of a land, an enclave or an island. What matters is that there is a certain surface where at least 50000 people differ from the surrounding people(s) in terms of language, religion, and/or culture, and that at the same time they form the great majority of the local inhabitants. As we are at a starting point, it would not be practical to consider now cases of scattered peoples and ethnic groups that do not make the majority of the inhabitants anywhere.

3. Language

It must other than the officially accepted – or imposed – language in the country (or countries) in question. Tibetan is different than Chinese (imposed language Tibet), Aramaic is distinct from Arabic (imposed language in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq), and Afaan Oromo is other than Amharic (imposed language in 'Ethiopia').

4. Religion

It must be different than the officially accepted – or imposed – religion in the country (or countries) in question. Druze religion in Lebanon is different than Islam, Yazidi Kurdish religion in Iraq is other than Islam, and the Mandaeans of Iraq have nothing in common with either Christians or Muslims.

5. Culture

It must be different than the officially imposed.

6. Extent of Attested Oppression

The existing oppression exercised over a people eligible for UN TOP can be attested at several levels: educational, linguistic, cultural, religious, social, economic and political.

As far as Education and Language are concerned, oppression implies the prohibition of teaching the oppressed people's language in the Public Primary and Secondary Education of the tyrannical country.

Oppression is detected under the form of governmental negligence, involving social hindrance, contempt, and disregard expressed by an opposite ethno-linguistic group.

With regard to Religion, any prohibition, obstruction, discrimination and/or deprecation of a cult, faith, ritual, and/or religion, due to governmental policies or social pressure (from opposite elites and/or groups), (governmentally promoted or socially practiced) hatred, and in general all the undemocratic attitudes entitle automatically the followers of the oppressed cult, faith, ritual and/or religion to accredited participation in the TOP.

Ethnic, linguistic and religious groups which have been victims of any social, economic and political oppression – particularly involving land expropriation and formation of renegade elites – are also eligible to the TOP.

If in a certain country an ethno-linguistic or religious group does not participate proportionally in various sectors of the government, the economy, the military, and the academia, the group in question is automatically eligible in the TOP.

Oppression is attested in case an ethnic – linguistic and/or religious group represents 5% of a country's population, and natives of this group do not make even half of that percentage (i.e. 2.5%) among the academic staff of that country's universities, the army officers, the directors of the ministries, and the top 100 businessmen, and/or the deputies of the Parliament of the country in question.

On the contrary, if the language of an ethno-linguistic group is taught in the Primary and Secondary education, if the cult and the rituals of a religious group are free to be practiced without any sort of obstacle and/or burden, if the ethnic, linguistic, religious group's natives can reach proportionally (if compared with other ethno-linguistic groups) the higher spheres of the economy, the military, the academia, the administration and the parliamentary life of the country they belong to, this signifies respect for the ethno-linguistic group's Human Rights, and absolute social and political integration of the group in question, bearing witness to their country's democratic, pluralistic and multicultural nature.

The UN TOP Preparatory Committee (TOP PC)

A UN TOP Preparatory Committee should first collect specific indicators of oppression practiced per country in this regard. The TOP PC would study all the countries, and all the applications presented by various organizations of oppressed peoples, national liberation fronts, religious and cultural associations, political parties, and Minority Rights organizations.

Functions of the Tribune of Oppressed Peoples

The TOP would function as pressurizing levier against undemocratic regimes.
Above all, the UN Tribune of Oppressed Peoples (TOP) would be the basic counterweight of the UN General Assembly's and the UN Security Council's totalitarian and undemocratic regimes. It should be imperative for all the UN member states to recognize the TOP as key part of the UN.

The TOP would be instituted as a Permanent Assembly, and wouls elect a Presidium to conduct the activities of its various committees.

The TOP Assembly would also elect a Secretary General (on annual basis), who would be the TOP representative by the UN Security Council (endowed with Observer's status).

The TOP Secretary General would exceptionally offer his seat of Observer at the UN Security Council to a special personality, namely a political or religious leader of an oppressed people, if the TOP Permanent Assembly voted in majority in this regard.

The Chinese Ambassador at the UN in front of the Dalai Lama

One can thus anticipate that, if the Chinese UN ambassador were obliged to face the Dalai Lama within the context of the Security Council, a new day in the History of the UN would start.

There should not be any specific limit in the number of the eligible members in the TOP. All peoples and groups meeting the criteria should be offered a position of representative there.

The works of the TOP would focalize on the implementation of the Human Rights, Educational Rights, Cultural Rights, Religious Rights, Freedom, and Democracy in the countries concerned.

Major duty for the TOP Permanent Assembly would be to help create international awareness about all issues related to all the oppressed peoples, and pressurize the oppressing countries in order to constrain them to steps of improvement of the oppressed peoples' conditions of life.

The agenda of the TOP Assembly, Presidium, and Secretary General would encompass and highlight issues related to Endangered Languages, Persecuted Cults, Religions and Cultures, underscoring the need of raising funds to set up non governmental primary and secondary schools and to internationally monitor the schools' pertinent function. The effort should be extended up to the point of establishing basic municipal libraries in the language of the oppressed people. In case a language is not yet written, the TOP would coordinate efforts with UNESCO, according special subsidies to groups of tasked specialists for this purpose.

Recommendations for educational, cultural and religious needs

The TOP would function as a Consultative body attached to the UN Security Council, and would come up with suggestions and recommendations with regard to educational, cultural and religious developments demanded by oppressed peoples and ethnic – linguistic and/or religious groups.

These would subsequently be discussed within the UN Security Council, the decisions should be mandatory, and specific action should be taken against the oppressing countries that wouldn't comply.

The most secure way for the world to advance to Democracy is to pressurize the totalitarian regimes that oppress peoples, ethno-linguistic and religious groups.

Recommendations for social, economic and political needs

The TOP would also function as a Consultative body attached to the UN General Assembly, and would come up with suggestions and recommendations with regard to social, economic and political developments demanded by oppressed peoples and ethnic – linguistic and/or religious groups.

These would be discussed within the UN General Assembly, and the decisions would be presented to the UN Security Council for final confirmation. In case the oppressing country did not accept to implement the UN Security Council's recommendations, a wide range of reactions would involve economic sanctions, embargo, blockade, etc.

Following the introduction of a TOP protestation against an oppressing country with regard to a major political issue, the UN Security Council would convoke the country accused by the TOP Permanent Assembly to stand and defend its position. The final decision of the Security Council should be mandatory, and any disregard from the part of the accused oppressor should automatically imply international intervention.

By introducing the concept of TOP, we intend to provide the UN with the correct tool for expanding and implementing Democracy in various parts of the world, where respect for Human Rights still remains among the top desiderata.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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