Behind the loudest issues, the UN is a world stage for disputes that are often out of the spotlight

[September 30, 2024]  By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

The world’s greatest stage is the sprawling Midtown Manhattan complex where leaders meet each year to discuss humanity’s future.

The United Nations' most powerful body — the Security Council — is paralyzed by disputes, so this year's most varied speeches were delivered before the 193-member General Assembly.

Like the 15-nation Security Council with its five vetoes, the UNGA devoted much time to the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine and Sudan. But the more democratic institution also turned global attention to topics little-known outside individual countries and regions.

A look at some of the issues that countries brought to the world stage — or ignored — during their time on the global stage:

Guatemala-Belize

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo spoke Tuesday and asserted that his country is moving beyond its dark past of U.S.-backed dictatorship, civil war and human-rights violations, saying that “corruption drowns its roots in a past of authoritarianism, repression and political violence … but we’re freeing ourselves.” He turned to Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, U.N. reform and migration before focusing on a definitively local issue, the longstanding border dispute between Guatemala and Belize.

Guatemala was a Spanish colony and Belize belonged to Great Britain until Guatemala won independence in 1821. Guatemala argues that it inherited Spain’s claim to some 4,200 square miles (11,000 square kilometers) administered by Belize. Essentially the country’s southern half, the area has nature reserves, farming villages, fishing towns and some Caribbean beaches. Belize rejects Guatemala’s claim on the land. Diplomatic relations and even air travel have suffered and five Guatemalans have died in shootings blamed on Belize.

But before the General Assembly, Arévalo cited the relative lack of bloodshed as an example for the world. “We’ve shown that the way of peace and respect for multilateral institutions is the most effective way to resolve international disputes,” he said.

North Macedonia

What's in a name? The archetypal local dispute. It centers on an ancient region divided by the modern national borders of Greece, Bulgaria and the country of North Macedonia.

That last name was adopted when the nation, population about 2.1 million, declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Greece and what the U.N. cumbersomely used to call the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” went on to spar for nearly three decades. Greece said using “Macedonia” implied territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name and its ancient Greek heritage, not least as the birthplace of ancient warrior king Alexander the Great.

The name fight became “infamous as a difficult and irresolvable problem,” in the words of Zoran Zaev, the former prime minister of North Macedonia. Repeated rounds of U.N.-mediated negotiations proved fruitless until June 2018, when the government agreed to change the country’s name to North Macedonia. The switch took effect but the dispute slowed North Macedonia's integration into the EU.

Bulgaria now has the main objection, a more important stumbling block than the name disagreement. President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova told the General Assembly Thursday that “in conditions of conflict on European soil, the stagnation of European integration not only demotivates Macedonian citizens and slows down reforms, but also destabilizes the region of Southeast Europe, leaving room for the penetration of malignant imperial and great power influences.”

Cuba

For decades, one of Cuba’s primary foreign-policy priorities has been ending the U.S. trade embargo on the island, and the country successfully dedicates much of its diplomacy to winning global critiques of the embargo.

According to Cuba’s U.N. mission, more than 25 countries addressed the embargo at this year’s UNGA and at least 11 leaders critiqued the U.S. inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, another sanction limiting international trade. Many of the countries that spoke have benefitted from another of Cuba’s trademark programs, sending its well-trained and highly educated doctors to developing countries across the world.

Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, President of North Macedonia, addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Right after mentioning Ukraine and Gaza, Prime Minister Allah Maye Halina of Chad told the world that “we can’t ignore the embargo on Cuba, which hurts its people and hinders its development.” Mexico, Russia and China joined the chorus Saturday, with the Chinese foreign minister saying that “we once again urge the United States to completely lift its blockade, sanctions and terrorism-related designation against Cuba.”

Gambia

Some local issues are uncomfortable to discuss in front of the world, and nearly every leader addresses those issues delicately or ignores them.

Gambian President Adama Barrow was silent for months this year on a bill to repeal a ban on female genital cutting, the removal of external genitalia by traditional community practitioners or health workers. The practice, which still occurs in Gambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Somalia and other nations, can cause serious bleeding, death and childbirth complications.

Barrow said in June that he supported maintaining the ban — a declaration seen as key to Gambia’s parliament keeping it. Barrow told the General Assembly this year that, “my government places great emphasis on women’s rights, and we are dedicated to protecting and empowering women.”

“As President, I will continue to ensure that women and girls are protected and given the necessary space to contribute meaningfully to our national development agenda,” he said.

But the numbers tell a more difficult story for Gambian girls and women. The United Nations estimates that about 75% of women in Gambia have been subjected as young girls to cutting. In the past eight years some 30 million women globally have been cut, most of them in Africa but also in Asia and the Middle East, UNICEF said in March.

Libya

Some countries came to the UNGA against a backdrop of profound domestic disorder and focused some blame on external interference.

Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the chaos that followed, the country split, with rival administrations in the east and west backed by rogue militias and foreign governments. Following years of strife, one of the country’s dueling authorities unilaterally fired the country’s powerful governor of the bank in August as militias mobilized in several key regions.

The presidential council in the capital of Tripoli, which is allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah that controls western Libya, removed Gov. Sadiq al-Kabir, who had for years distributed the country’s oil revenues between the opposing sides. The spat led to a closure of one of the country’s main oil fields.

The political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections on Dec. 24, 2021, and the refusal of Dbeibah — who led a transitional government in the capital of Tripoli in the west — to step down. In response, Libya’s east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister who was replaced, while the powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter continues to hold sway in the east.

The top U.N. official in Libya, Stephanie Khoury, said in August that the situation in Libya had deteriorated “quite rapidly.” A series of U.N. envoys to the country have resigned after failing to make headway in moving closer to elections and unification. In April, the previous U.N. envoy for Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, resigned, blaming the country’s feuding parties and their foreign backers for the conflict’s continuation.

“Challenges are huge and complex before us,” Younis Menfi, president of Libya's presidential council, told the General Assembly on Wednesday. “However, we're still trying to reach consensual solutions to unite our words and ranks and gather all parties around on table to find a national solution.”
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Associated Press journalists Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

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