Russia on Friday opposed the broadcast on official United Nations (UN) channels of a Security Council meeting on the kidnapping and deportation of children in armed conflicts, fulfilling a promise it made at the beginning of the month.
On February 5, the Russian mission to the UN convened a meeting in the ‘Arria Formula’ format (informal meetings with representatives of civil society) to give their version of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian minors, with the participation of the commissioner Russian for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, the meeting was not broadcast on official UN channels at the request of the United Kingdom, which opposed giving Maria Lvova-Belova a voice, considering her one of those responsible for the “war crime of illegal deportation” of Ukrainians. minors
Faced with the UK’s objection to allowing the meeting to be broadcast on official UN channels, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, announced that “Russia will henceforth block all UN broadcasts of similar meetings”, a promise that was fulfilled. this Friday.
In accordance with established practice in the Organization, the ‘online’ transmission of meetings in the ‘Arria Formula’ format through official UN channels requires the consent of all Council members, and can thus be blocked if a single member is opposed.
In addition to the UK and Russia, China also blocked the online broadcast of a meeting on the human rights situation in North Korea on March 17, bringing the total number of times a member state has blocked the broadcast of online sessions to three. the last two months.
Although today’s meeting was not broadcast on official UN channels, the co-organizers (Albania, France and the United States of America) broadcast the session on the US mission’s YouTube channel.
Source: TSF
