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Palestinian Amb to the UN Riyad Mansour
Palestinian Amb to the UN Riyad Mansour

Palestine Assumes Leadership of the Powerful G77 Bloc at the United Nations. Here’s what that means

Mark Leon Goldberg

The Group of 77, or G77, is the single largest voting bloc at the United Nations. And in 2019, it will be chaired for the first time by Palestine.

Palestine has unique status at the United Nations. It is not a full-fledged member state. Rather, it is what is known as a “non-member observer state.” It has a permanent office at the UN that is akin to an embassy and it can participate in any meeting of the General Assembly — but it can’t vote.  The only other entity with this status is The Holy See.

Despite the fact that it is not a full-fledged member of the United Nations, a key group of UN member states has selected Palestine as its chair. This group is known formally as the “G-77.”

The G-77, or Group of 77,  is a coalition of 132 countries of the developing world, including China.

Often times during negotiations at the United Nations, the G-77 will form a bloc to advance the common interests of the developing world. And because of the sheer size of the G-77 — it represents nearly two thirds of the UN membership, and about 80% of the world’s population — it is a powerful force at the General Assembly. The G77 negotiated amongst itself to select Palestine as its chair for the year, starting this January.

The G77 is most powerful in debates over the budget and management issues at the UN.

This is because these issues are decided in the General Assembly (as opposed to peace and security issues, which are the remit of the Security Council). And it is in these debates that the G-77 often finds itself at logger heads with wealthier countries, including the United States and European powers.  No matter the US administration, there is often a degree of friction between the G-77 and the United States in budgetary debates —  but they usually find some compromise and are able to pass resolutions by consensus.

That is how it typically works. But there is a very real possibility that this move may heighten tensions between the United States and the G77.

In her 18 months as UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley has demonstrated a hostility towards Palestinians at the UN. She blocked a respected diplomat from serving as a UN mediator in Libya simply for the fact that this diplomat was Palestinian. She’s also responsible for the US decision to withhold funding from the UN humanitarian agency that supports Palestinian refugees, which she justified as retribution for a vote at the UN General Assembly condemning the Trump administration’s decision to move the US capitol to Jerusalem.

There does not seem to be much love lost between her and the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, who just once called Haley “arrogant.”

This could be problematic for the basic functioning of the United Nations General Assembly.

The US is the single most important member state at the United Nations and the G77 is the single largest voting bloc. Nikki Haley is no longer serving as US Ambassador, having been replaced by a career civil servant Jonathan Cohen who is serving as “acting ambassador” pending the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert.  

Unless the United States establish a modus vivendi the typical give-and-take that accompanies decision making at the General Assembly may fall apart. This could be extremely disruptive, as most decisions taken by the General Assembly are done by consensus.

On the other hand, as chair of the G77 Mansour would be expected to represent the common agenda of the G77, not the parochial interests of Palestine.  And for her part, the United States could find a way to work with the Palestinians, despite the increasingly hostile stance towards Palestinians adopted by the White House.

Tensions need not be heightened, and the important work of the General Assembly could continue without a hiccup. It all depends on how these diplomats approach this situation in the coming year.