MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2019) If Washington continues to violate its obligations under both a gentlemen's agreement as well as formal deal with the United Nations by hindering US visa procedures for other countries' delegates coming to the UN headquarters' (UNHQ) anchorage in New York, it should come as no surprise that some states might want the UNHQ relocated, an expert told Sputnik on Friday.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country might resort to advocating for the relocation of the headquarters amid the United States' refusal to grant visas to 10 members of the Russian delegation for the UN General Assembly's high-level week.
US VIOLATING GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT
Before having its headquarters established in New York in 1952, the United Nations held a number of sessions in other locations, from the very first one in London in January 1946 to the last one in Paris in February 1952.
"Eventually, when agreed that future sessions would be held in New York, there was a 'Gentlemen's Agreement' which stipulates, among other things, that the US shall NOT interfere with the routine issuing of the necessary visas to all delegations of UN members, so that they could attend UN sessions. And, the US fully accepted this Gentlemen's Agreement," James C. Hsiung, Professor of politics at New York University, told Sputnik.
In international relations and law, a gentlemen's agreement is a type of informal contract between two or more parties which is non-binding and rests on the principle of virtuous adherence to one's international commitments.
"If the US violates this Gentlemen's Agreement by refusing to issue visas, especially repeatedly, it should not be surprising if some UN member states should have initiated the idea of relocating the UN organization to another member state," Hsiung said.
According to Deputy Spokesman for UN Secretary General Farhan Haq, the United Nations is aware of the visa rejection situation and believes this matter should best be addressed to the United States. The UN Office in Geneva told Sputnik that "the delivery of entry visas is the prerogative of the host country," and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Geneva "respects all its obligations under the Headquarters Agreement with the United Nations, including in matters pertaining to visas."
NOT FIRST PROPOSAL TO RELOCATE UNHQ
Located in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan, the premises of the UN Headquarters are a so called extraterritorial zone that is governed by the 1947 Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations and the United States. According to Article IX, Section 23 of this document, the headquarters can be relocated should the United Nations "so decide." Given the legitimate possibility, proposals to move the headquarters of the world's parliament to a different part of the globe have been voiced by many times in the past.
There exists a procedure within the UN Charter under which the Security Council, one of the United Nations' principal organs, "may hold meetings at such places other than the seat of the Organization [i.e. headquarters] as in its judgment will best facilitate its work." But relocating the entire headquarters, which accommodates all six UN principal organs and their numerous subsidiaries, would be another matter altogether.
In March, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada had submitted a formal bid to move the UNHQ from New York to Toronto. The relocation would reportedly cost the Canadian government an estimated $6.2 billion, including annual maintenance costs. The plans see the headquarters located on the waterfront of Lake Ontario and be comprised of an ultra-modern complex of buildings named the "Global Village."
Iran and Libya have also considered the UNHQ relocation matter, citing both the decrepitude of the current building and difficulties with obtaining US visas for their delegates.
In 2018, Spanish diplomat Jose A. Zorrilla published an article in which he, too, suggested Canada as an alternative location for the UN headquarters, claiming that the foreign policy of the United States was becoming progressively incompatible with the creation principles of the United Nations. Another article issued that same year by US military historian Victor Davis Hanson suggested moving the UN seat to an underdeveloped country, away from the chic and noise of ultra-developed Manhattan.
"Most of the world is non-Western. Many Western elites are apologetic over past sins of imperialism and colonialism. So why not move the United Nations to Haiti, Libya or Uganda? The transference would do wonders for any underdeveloped country, financially, culturally or psychologically," Hanson wrote in The Mercury news.
In 2013, Bolivian President Evo Morales called upon world leaders to "think seriously" about moving the headquarters to another country. His call came after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed that that the United States had denied entry visas to several members of his delegation to the UN General Debate.
As for Russia, this is not for the first time that Moscow has called for the relocation. In 2015, such requests were voiced by lawmakers Vyacheslav Nikonov, who urged the headquarters to be removed from the country that had "imposed illegal sanctions against more than the half of all humanity" and Igor Zotov, who in a letter to the UN secretary-general claimed that the United States was abusing is role as UNHQ host by being "selective" in granting access to certain states' delegations and thus manipulating the work of the organization. In 2001, Dmitriy Rogozin, then the chairman of the Russian lower house's International Relations Committee, said that Moscow might propose moving the UN headquarters from New York to St. Petersburg, citing Washington's failure to pay its fees in full.
