Spotlight | Culture | WD
‘Safe and Sound’ in Sweden
Swedish Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality Åsa Regnér and Ambassador of Sweden Björn Lyrvall welcome guests.
The Embassy of Sweden launched its 2017 Public Diplomacy Program on March 15 at the House of Sweden celebrating this year’s theme “Safe and Sound.” “Exhibitions, concerts, seminars, conferences and social events will highlight core values which serve as a foundation for our relations with the United States,” said Swedish Ambassador Björn Lyrvall. Two new exhibitions were launched: “Stories of Migration - Sweden beyond the Headlines” and “Where the Children Sleep,” a photo series on refugee children in Europe and the Middle East by Magnus Wennman. Swedish Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality Åsa Regnér spoke about the importance of openness and equality, saying, “I was very moved by the new exhibition about migration at the Embassy of Sweden.”
Guests view the exhibits “Stories of Migration Sweden beyond the Headlines” and “Where the Children Sleep.”
Photos: Embassy of Sweden / Grant Ellis
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Slovenian Cultural Day As part of Slovenian Cultural Day, Ambassador of Slovenia Božo Cerar welcomed guests to his country’s contemporary embassy in Kalorama on Feb. 7. The event featured the exhibit “Echoes of Idealism” by artist Eva Petrič, daughter of Ernest Petrič, Slovenia’s first ambassador to Washington following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The event also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Slovenia’s international recognition with a presentation of the book “Slovenija in Pika” chronicling the country’s independence journey.
Human Rights Continued • page 9
“So how likely is it that a high commissioner for human rights who comes from a country that is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — which has hijacked the U.N. Human Rights Council to serve as its personal Israel-bashing tool — will confront his nation’s allies and refuse to become part of the problem?” Bayefsky said in an interview with the conservative Washington Free Beacon newspaper. “The answer is, as the British would say, not bloody likely,” Bayefsky concluded. But Bayefsky overlooks the rest of what Zeid told the U.N. At the end of his speech, he made a plea for peace in the Middle East and called on member states to look critically at the wrongs done to both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He also condemned those in the Arab world who deny the Holocaust, which he called an event of immense pain. Zeid warned that if both sides stubbornly refuse to budge from their positions, their intransigence could cause all the crises in the Middle East “and just beyond” to “fold into one another, creating the greatest political emergency of our time or pitching our region on a cusp of a war unlike any we have witnessed since 1945.” Today, his words sound sadly prophetic. Zeid’s warning won praise from Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. at the time, Dan Gillerman, who called Zeid a voice of reason and “a ray of light on matters in the region, one that hopefully would shine more frequently in the future.”
Photos: Gail Scott
Ambassador of Slovenia Božo Cerar.
Slovenian artist Eva Petrič, left, shows Ambassador of Malta Pierre Clive Agius and guests her work.
Vocal Human Rights Chief Zeid, who served as Jordan’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2010, has won widespread praise for a long career promoting human rights. The veteran diplomat has worked extensively in the areas of international criminal justice, U.N. peacekeeping, post-conflict peace-building, international development and counter-nuclear terrorism. He played a central role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, and as advisor to the U.N. secretary-general, he developed a comprehensive strategy for the elimination of sexual exploitation and abuse in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Today, Zeid is still the high commissioner for human rights and has continued to speak out forcefully against human rights violations. In particular, he hasn’t minced words when it comes to populism and “demagogues” on both sides of the Atlantic. In September last year, he condemned the rising tide of populism and its accompanying xenophobic undertones. “I am a Muslim, who is, confusingly to racists, also white-skinned; whose mother is European and father, Arab. And I am angry, too,” he said in a speech that garnered headlines. “You see, 20 years ago, I served in the U.N. peacekeeping force during the Balkan wars — wars so cruel, so devastating, which flowed from this same factory of deceit, bigotry and ethnic nationalism.” Zeid likened the tactics of several Western populists — including Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, France’s Marine Le Pen, pro-Brexiter Nigel Farage and thencandidate Donald Trump — to those of Islamic State terrorists. Both groups want to restore a halcyon time when “sunlit fields
are settled by peoples united by ethnicity or religion,” Zeid said. Not only is the idea of that perfect past pure fiction, but those who cling to it are frauds, he argued. “Populists use half-truths and oversimplification — the two scalpels of the arch propagandist, and here the internet and social media are a perfect rail for them, reducing thought into the smallest packages: sound-bites, tweets,” said Zeid. In October — a month before the U.S. election — Zeid said Trump would be a “dangerous” president based on “what he has said already.” In 2017, with the new administration in place, Zeid has not toned down his verbal volleys. He decried Trump’s refugee travel ban as mean-spirited; a waste of resources that could be put to “proper counter-terrorism” use; and a breach of human rights law, which, Zeid noted, forbids discrimination based on nationality alone. At the opening session of the Human Rights Council in February, Zeid likened human rights to breathing: Neither is something most people consciously think about until they are deprived of them. And when he received the 2017 Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award in February, conferred by Georgetown University to recognize excellence in diplomacy, he warned that the “pathogen of divisive populism” was threatening to dangerously destabilize the global system that, flawed as it may be, has for 70 years “had the undeniable advantage of staving off the prospect of World War III.” He again lambasted populist leaders around the world whom he accused of scapegoating entire communities and using the vilified group as license “to do whatever is necessary, lawfully or otherwise,” to fix the problems allegedly created by the
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group. Zeid warned that the world has been down this road before, losing “its bearings on the back of half-truths and lies, and the results have been disastrous.” He also praised the millions of women and men who turned out at marches around the world the day after Trump’s inauguration to call for the rights of all to be respected. In his speech at the latest session of the Human Rights Council, Zeid said he was proud that members of his own staff had taken part in the protests. Fox News called the high commissioner’s recent comments a “veiled swipe” at Trump, noting that they were made amid talk of the U.S. pulling out of the U.N. body that Zeid heads. But walking away from the Human Rights Council isn’t that easy: Countries wishing to rescind membership have to go through the U.N. General Assembly, council spokesman Rolando Gómez told reporters. He added that the U.S. has been “a very active and constructive partner in the council for many years, spearheading a number of important initiatives,” including on North Korea, Iran, Syria and LGBT rights. In a question-and-answer session at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where Zeid was given the Trainor Award, the veteran diplomat said that the hypothetical U.S. withdrawal from the Human Rights Council would leave “a gaping hole” in global efforts to uphold and restore human rights. He expressed hope that the United States “will take a careful look at this and realize that human rights are not just garnish on the plate,” but an essential ingredient in maintaining peace and security. WD Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | April 2017 | 45