Morocco and its supporters face a particularly torrid time when the United Nations  General Assembly to his week turns to the 17 colonies  before the world organisation waiting to shake off occupiers and gain self-rule.

The absolute monarchy in Rabat goes into the fourth committee of  UNGA, which deals with decolonization issues, days after the  highest European court ruled that it has for years been selling stolen goods from the Western Sahara it has been illegally occupying for  49 years.

The European Court of Justice, Europe’s apex judicial body, has ruled that:

§ Morocco and Western Sahara are two separate and distinct countries;

§ Morocco has no legal claim to Western Sahara, the Spanish colony abandoned by Spain after the death of dictator Francisco Franco;

§ Polisario Front,  the Saharawi liberation movement, is the authentic representative of the Saharawi people; and 

§All agreements Morocco has entered into with other clients buying Western Sahara property and the products from its land and sea resources are null and void.

The ECJ ruling is the climax of eight years of litigation and cannot be appealed.

Morocco has taken the place of its erstwhile ally apartheid South Africa as the bad guy at the UN, by using the undercover backing it has from a permanent member of the Security Council to flagrantly disregard the rulings of the world organisation ordering it to stop exploiting the resources and end its cruel occupation of Western Sahara.

It is not expected to change tack.

However the European members that have of late shown overt support for Morocco’s attempt to legitimize its illegal occupation will not be able to ignore the ruling of the ECJ.

These are France, Spain and Denmark that are all on the record at the UN as condemning Morocco’s illegal occupation.

Morocco cannot avoid the economic implications of the ECJ ruling.

It’s attempt to sell prime beachfront properties along the 1400 kms of Western Sahara coast, phosphates and agricultural property from the Saharawi land it illegally occupies and lucrative fishing rights to Saharawi waters have now been finally and indubitably declared  illegal.

Morocco might rail against this at the UNGA decolonisation committee hearings that run this week.

An unprecedented 250 petitioners have been approved for these hearings, 150 of these to speak on Western Sahara

However the ruling of the European apex court is final.

The road to a settlement in Western Sahara once again runs along plans for a referendum of the country’s people on self determination.

Morocco agreed to such a plebiscite in 1991 when it sought to end the exhausting 11-year war with Polisario following the occupation.

Once the treaty was signed, it quickly reneged on this undertaking.  

Its  proposal to maintain overall autonomy of the country with certain rights being granted to the Saharawi people has also been buried in the desert sand by the ECJ ruling that its actions are  “breaching the right of the people of Western Sahara to self determination.”

.

The post Morocco facing a torrid time this year at the UN decolonization committee appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He says negotiations with Ethiopia,  who have built the Grand Renaiassance Dam, have been unfruitful.

There’s no better place to draw attention to a subject than the UN General Assembly with all 193 members in attendance.

The Nile is absolutely vital to Egypt’s exisitence.

Upstream, Ethiopia will start next year generating electricity from a dam that will make it Africa’s biggest power producer.

Egypt wants guarantees about the flow of water and assurance of what will happen in drought years.

President AbdelFattah El Sisi calls on the international community to press Ethiopia to show greater flexibility in this matter

The post Egypt calls on international community to intervene in dispute over dam across the River Nile appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu calls this  a new dawn in South African foreign policy and a return to its founding principles of standing against human rights violations.South Africa’s about-face follows the criticism it drew earlier in the session for abstaining on a vote condemning human rights violations in Myanmar
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation says South Africa’s support for the resolution is in line with its new way of approaching resolutions in all multilateral bodies.
All resolutions on country-specific situations will be assessed with different stakeholders involved.
Sisulu says she’ll hold a seminar with diplomats early next year to discuss the UN Security Council programme and South Africa’s obligations within the UN system.

The post South Africa changes tack and votes for UN resolution condemning human rights violations in Myanmar appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The US President’s envoy to Harare has, meanwhile, spelled out how to end sanctions Washington slapped on Zimbabwe 16 years ago.

In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Zimbabwe’s President  Emmerson Mnangagwa tells reporters he’s repeated his offer to his US counterpart Donald Trump of land at Victoria Falls to build a golf course.

He says he first made the offer at the Davos summit earlier this year.

Trump’s made no sign of taking it up.

However his ambassador to Harare Brian Nichols is adamant the new Zimbabwe administration is all talk and not action and US sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe for gross human rights violations and corruption  in 2002 will stay in place until there is a demonstrable change in in approach.  

The post Zimbabwe President offers his US counterpart land to build a golf course appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The annual report of the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund says 90% of extreme poverty on the planet exists in Africa.

The world’s second richest man has what he calls a simple plan to tackle poverty in Africa.

He says having the world invest in the health and education of the next generation of Africans will achieve this.

The Global Fund ,supported by the foundation he shares with his wife Melinda, has halved maternal deaths, halved deaths from malaria and more than halved global prpoverty.

But it still has the job of meeting the global goal endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly of wiping out extreme poverty by 2030.

The post We can end poverty by 2013: Bill Gates appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Zuma’s accompanied by an entourage of five ministers and he’ll sign the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.

ends intro

South Africa has the distinction of being the only nuclear-armed country voluntarily to have surrendered its weapons.

So it has a strong moral voice when disarmament is discussed….

…as it’s likely to be during this session of the 193-member  UN General Assembly preoccupied with the determination of North Korea to be recognized as a nuclear power.

Zuma has endorsed the culture of prevention proposed by UN Secretary General Antonio  Guterres who participating in his first general assembly as UN boss.

The post Zuma to sign treaty against nuclear arms at the United Nations appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

She’s speaking at the climate summit in Montreal that she’s attending before heading for New York to join President Jacob Zuma’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.

South Africa’s  joined the Partnership for Action on the Green Economy, says Environment Minister Edna Molewa.

She’s calling for a more muscular  role by non-state actors – like civil society and the private sector – to meet and beat commitments to reducing greenhouse gases.

Participants in the Montreal meeting are eagerly awaiting the contribtution of the US representative after hints from Washington that President Donald Trump might not make good on his threat to renege on the Paris agreement.

The post Countries must beat their Paris agreement commitments on climate change: Molewa appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The Egyptian general-turned-president is making his first visit to the White House from which he was effectively locked out by the Obama administration.

ends intro

Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah El Sisi met on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year and got on like a house on fire.

El Sisi will be disappointed if he  expects to leave Washington with everything on his wish list.

This includes more military aid, a US declaration that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation and a restoration of the strategic relationship Egypt once enjoyed with America.

Donald Trump may sound friendlier towards Egypt than Barak Obama.

But will his actions match his words?

The post US reboots relations with Egypt after presidential visit appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.