A Trade Dispute, From Complaint to Panel
A trade dispute at the WTO moves from a formal complaint through consultations to a panel of three. Matthias and a former panellist explain each step, the timeline, and what a ruling can and cannot fo…
How a Security Council Resolution Is Drafted
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Show notes
How a Security Council Resolution Is Drafted
A resolution is rarely written in the chamber. Matthias sits with a former penholder from a Council member state to follow one humanitarian resolution from a corridor conversation to the vote.
- What a penholder is and how a country ends up holding the pen
- The zero draft, the comments, and the paragraphs that vanished
- Putting a text in blue, the silence procedure, and breaking silence
- What a veto blocks and what it leaves untouched
- The vote, the explanations of vote, and what happens the next morning
Next episode: a trade dispute at the WTO, from complaint to panel report.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to The Geneva Corridor. I am Matthias Keller, and I spent eleven years in rooms where the things we are about to describe happened, usually late and usually without coffee. Today we follow a Security Council resolution from beginning to end. Not the vote you see on the news, but the weeks before it: the corridor conversation where a text is first floated, the zero draft, the comments from fifteen delegations, the paragraphs that quietly disappear, the moment the text goes into blue, and the silence procedure that can be broken by a single email. My guest was a penholder for a humanitarian file and she will explain what the job involves. We will also be precise about what a veto blocks and what it does not. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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