UN just a depository of Sino-British treaty
- Claims by opposition in city that the agreement is an international treaty because it is lodged and registered at the world body are simply absurd
Arguing with people who disagree with you, especially over politics, is almost always a waste of time. It doesn’t matter whether you are right or wrong, whether your facts support you or not.
Whatever you say is unlikely to change the other person’s mind, but rather reinforce more deeply their beliefs and biases. This is especially so when they know they are wrong!
It’s not just my own observation; virtually all recent research in cognitive psychology and a field called “heuristics and bias” has confirmed this tendency as almost universal. If you want to know why the world is so divided, this is one reason.
Many of my hate fans search high and low for my presence in social media, presumably to find other venues to attack me. Sorry to disappoint: I have no social media accounts. It’s by design. Perhaps you people can try sending me threatening snail mail, though I don’t imagine many of you know what that is.
But I digress. Though futile, I am paid to argue, so duty calls.
US-based Hongkongers ask UN to help resolve crisis
One key service the UN offers for its member states is to collect their treaties for deposit when they enter into agreements with each other. It’s a bit like a central library, in that it also provides basic treaty information such as full title, place and date of adoption; the number of signatories and parties; classification and references; the listing of participant parties; their declarations, reservations, ratification status and objections; and sometimes historical information.
There are more than 560 treaties collected at the UN. Some treaties may involve the UN or all the permanent member states of its Security Council. Most don’t.
The mere fact of a treaty being deposited at the UN does not make it more or less international. The Joint Declaration is so titled because it is an agreement made between two sovereign states, and no other. It does not concern the UN or the United States.
So far as I know, no British foreign or prime minister has ever claimed China has breached the Joint Declaration.
