Are you aiding and abetting terrorists if you merely speak to them in the name of peace? A new lawsuit may shed light on the murky U.S. case that governs peacebuilding efforts.
Also in today’s edition: African countries are teaming up to hammer out a unified position outlining their demands ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November.
Happening tomorrow: Join us for an “ask me anything” session with USAID acquisition and assistance expert Chuck Pope to gain valuable insider insights into the ins and outs of working with USAID and what implementing partners should know ahead of the elections. Save your spot now.
Engaging the enemy
Achieving peace requires engaging all players, no matter if they are the aggressor or how abhorrent their tactics may be. At least that’s the thinking among many civil society organizations. The U.S. government, however, begs to differ.
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In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court barred a group of NGOs from providing U.N.-designed conflict resolution training to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, both listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. After a lengthy legal battle, the court ruled that “training” and “expert advice,” even to promote peace, constituted “material support” to designated terrorists in violation of U.S. law, Zach Theiler writes for Devex.
Today, that case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, continues to draw the ire of civil society activists for allegedly smothering First Amendment rights and grassroots peacebuilding.
Now a new case could broaden the counterterrorism legal framework — and, critics say, could further constrain free speech.
“We think that it’s important if you’re going to construct good policy, good journalism, good academic work, that you know your adversaries as deeply as you can,” says Nicholas Noe of the Foundation for Global Political Exchange, which, along with its partners at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, is suing the U.S. government.
“That's the best way to lead to both better understanding, but also … more peaceful outcomes,” Noe adds.
Yet Alex Zerden, an attorney and former U.S. Treasury Department official, counters that there is a rationale behind the Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project ruling: “You’re providing in-kind support that frees up other resources to allow them to engage in their violent acts,” even if that in-kind support is meant to resolve conflict.
The results of this newest case could have wide-ranging implications for freedom of speech, including the ability of the media to feature the views of individuals labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government.
Read: Do US counterterrorism laws undermine peacebuilding? (Pro)
Background reading: USAID pushes back on counterterror regulation complaints
See also: Aid contractors not liable for US foreign policy, lawyers argue in terror-financing case
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Africa’s asks
Wealthier nations have been ambiguous — and reticent — about what they’re willing to pony up to help their less-well-off counterparts deal with climate change. If the past is any guide, teasing out financial commitments ahead of the 29th U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP 29, in Azerbaijan will be a tall order.
But African nations are taking action: They’ve formed a negotiating bloc to spell out their priorities for COP 29, ranging from securing a hefty increase in climate money to ensuring adaptation and loss and damage receive equal footing with mitigation efforts.
Key priorities include:
• Fighting for a new collective climate finance goal that goes well beyond the previous $100 billion target.
• Elevating adaptation and addressing loss and damage as central issues.
• Ensuring the operationalization of international carbon markets under the Paris Agreement.
Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, identified climate finance as the main priority, writes Devex contributor Anthony Langat.
“We need to move from the previous goal of $100 billion made in 2009 in Copenhagen to a new goal,” Mohamed says. “And given the impact of climate change, any figure lower than $100 billion is no longer viable.”
He pointed out that Africa is the only continent spending 5% of its gross domestic product to respond to the effects of climate change. To get a sense of how large that 5% is, Kenya, for instance, spent 4.5% of its GDP on health in 2021 and an equivalent of 4.076% of its GDP on education.
“In Kenya, we just lost a significant amount of infrastructure in the recent floods and we lost so much livelihoods in the prolonged drought before that,” Mohamed says. “And yet we have to use our collected revenue that was supposed to be for development to address these impacts which we have no hand in.”
Read: Here’s what African negotiators want from COP 29 climate negotiations
ICYMI: What will be on the COP 29 agenda? Here are 7 issues to watch (Pro)
Moving the billion-dollar goalposts
COP 29 is being dubbed the “finance COP,” because one of its primary objectives is to thrash out a post-2025 financial target known by the roll-off-your-tongue moniker of “new collective quantified goal,” or NCQG.
The previous $100 billion annual goal, which was beset by delays and difficulties, did at least succeed in leaving behind a valuable trove of do’s and don’ts to draw on as countries set their sights on the NCQG.
At the moment though, the chasm between wealthy nations and low- and middle-income nations is so vast that recent negotiations were largely a bust.
“I’ve never seen an agenda item that was so behind so close to a COP where an agreement is expected,” Chiara Falduto, climate finance policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, tells Devex contributor Tais Gadea Lara. “Finance was always an issue discussed at the negotiations, but right now it’s all over the place.”
One condition agreed to in the Paris Agreement is that $100 billion per year is a minimum floor for the NCQG. Yet in terms of putting a concrete number forward, only the Arab Group and the African Group have proposed $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion per year, respectively — astronomical sums that are unlikely to ever materialize.
Still, advocates are hoping for at least some kind of boost from the previous $100 billion goalpost.
“We [have] four months left and we have not seen any sort of signal from parties saying ‘we are going to go way beyond 100 billion.’ We are not even hearing $200 billion,” Baysa Naran of the Climate Policy Initiative says. “The bottom line is trillions. It's not billions. And that's something to keep in mind.”
Read: Lessons from the $100B target can shape the next climate finance goal (Pro)
Related: Hurdles ahead for the new steward of ‘loss and damage fund’
Opinion corner
• Last year’s COP presidency, held by the United Arab Emirates, and this year’s presidency, held by Azerbaijan, have the dubious distinction of being authoritarian, oil-rich states. Yet Omar Al Braiki, deputy chief negotiator for COP 28, writes in a Devex opinion piece that the troika of the UAE, Azerbaijan, and Brazil “could prove one of the most important high-level global partnerships to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius climate goal within reach.”
• “Sexual and reproductive health and rights, or SRHR, are under threat around the world, with young people in particular bearing the brunt,” write Julia Hochberger, Shila Ukumbini Salim, and Elizabeth Warindi in an opinion piece for Devex, outlining ways to meaningfully engage with a youth population that is set to explode in the coming years. “Their active participation ensures that policies are not only relevant but also sustainable, as they are crafted with the direct input of those they affect the most.”
+ Want to write an opinion article for Devex? Email us your pitch at editor@devex.com.
In other news
The first batch of some 10,000 doses of mpox vaccines donated by the U.S. will soon arrive in Africa following a long approval process by the World Health Organization. [The Guardian]
Cease-fire talks between warring parties in Sudan broke down last week, but negotiators were able to secure humanitarian aid access into the country’s Darfur region. [France 24]
At least 5 million people have been left stranded after monsoon rains caused severe flooding in Bangladesh. [Reuters]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
