STOCKHOLM, 24 May 2023 (IDN) — The United States has refused a visa to Jan Lönn, Secretary General of International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations (ISMUN; President of the NGO Committee on Development (Geneva).
Lonn, who is also Chair of the Board Standing Committee on Agenda 2030 Implementation of the Conference of NGOs, in Consultative Relations with the UN (CoNGO); the Main Representative of Global Action on Aging (GAA) at Geneva; and Secretary of the World Against Racism Network (WARN), has written a letter to US authorities* critical of the visa refusal.
The refusal, he points out, is a violation of the US-UN Headquarters agreement of 1947 (article 4, section 11) not to impose any impediment to the transit to the UN headquarters of representatives of NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC (article 71 of the UN Charter) and other persons invited to the UN headquarters by the UN
In his letter, he writes:
I am writing to you urgently regarding the 3 years and 7 months-long unexplained refusal by the United States government to allow me to enter the United States for attending UN meetings, despite the fact that I had earlier visited the United States more than 30 times for attending meetings and activities at the United Nations in New York.
Four weeks ago, I submitted an updated request for a visa to go to New York on 29 May 2023 to attend the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (30 May to 2 June, 2023) upon the invitation of the Office of the High Commisisoner for Human Rights, as well as meetings at the Office of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relations with the UN (CoNGO) at the Church Center for the UN in New York (5 June) and a consultation session with Global Action Aging in New York (6 June).
The Director of the New York Office of the OHCHR has written a letter to the US authorities requesting the issuance of the visa for the 30 May to 2 June Forum and the OHCHR is also providing a ticket for my participation.
On 15 May, 2023, the US representative to the UN ECOSOC Committee on NGOs, stated that ”United States remains deeply committed to promoting the meaningful participation of non-governmental organisations in the United Nations system without regard for their political beliefs.
Civil society space continues to shrink. Human rigths defenders remain under threat and are increasingly attacked. We should not shut the door to criticism and dissent. When we lead with humility we become stronger and allow dissenting viewpoints we allow for improvement and growth.”
The United States is bound by the US-UN Headquarters agreement of 1947 (article 4, section 11) not to impose any impediment to the transit to the UN headquarters of representatives of NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC (article 71 of the UN Charter) and other persons invited to the UN headquarters by the UN.
The Headquarters agreement also stipulates (article 4, section 13a) that when visas are needed they shall be granted ”as promptly as possible”.
On 23 October 2019 the airline at Stockholm airport tried to check me in for a flight from Stockholm to New York for which I had a ticket. The check-in was halted by their system as my valid ESTA visa exempt status had been revoked by the US Department of Homeland Security, very shortly before my sheduled departure and without informing me.
I immediately submitted my visa application to the US embassy in Stockholm and was informed that I was to receive a questionaire and after filling it out would be called to an interview. The questionaire included i.a. that I should provide information on my foreign travel for the past fifteen years. It took met three days to do that.
After I submitted the requested information to the US embassy visa section, I have received no further information except that the visa application is still under ”administrative processing”.
By claiming that the visa application is under ”administrative processing” without any time limit instead of rejecting the visa application, the US government is depriving me of an explanation of the reason for a rejection and also my possibility to appeal against a rejection.
My record of contributing to the United Nations purposes and programmes at UN HQ is not insignificant.
I first travelled to New York to attend the General Assembly First Special Session on Disarmament in June 1978 as one of 12 invited NGO speakers. In October-November 1979 I attended the General Assembly as an NGO adviser in the Swedish delegation to the session.
I was also a selected speaker at the Second Special Session of the General Assembly on Disarmament. Such activities in New York I continued to attend.
I have participated in several of the review conferences of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. But when I submitted my confirmed registration to the US embassy for the 10th review conference in August 2022 I received only the standard answer – administrative processing.
I have a long record on matters of sustainable development, especially since UNCED at Rio in 1992. I have served in the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relations with the UN as Chair of its Board Standing Committee on Agenda 2030 Implementation since that UN programme was adopted and as Chair of the CoNGO Board Committee on the Millennium Goals Implementation before that.
And when I have submitted my confirmation of my registrations for attending development related activites of ECOSOC since 2020 there has been no response forthcoming from the US on granting of a visa.
I submitted the information on my attendance at the June 2022 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development to the visa section of the embassy, with the same result as usual. I got no answer on when the processing of my visa application would be completed.
There have been quite a number of such situations since early 2020, when my submission of information on sheduled attendance at UN events in New York has met with no real response.
In May 2000, I was the Vice Chair of the NGO Millennium Forum held at UN headquarters on invitation of Kofi Annan. That was the most representative NGO assembly ever held at the UN which adopted a strong final document.
In the context of this visa matter and the real reasons for the current US actions taken against me, we find with considerable certainty my participation in the UN programmes against racism, and in particular in defending the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as central to the global combat against racism.
I was active in campaigns against apartheid and racism since my early school days. Starting in the late 1970s. I developed on behalf of my NGOs a close cooperation with the UN Centre Against Aparthed and was repeatedly invited to address the UN General Assembly Special Committee Against Apartheid.
When the Apartheid system in South Africa ended, I engaged with other NGOs in a campaign for the UN to decide on the holding of the Third World Conference Against Racism. I was Co-Chair of the NGO Planning Committee for the Durban World Conference up until its first Preparatory Committee meeting.
I was coordinator and Co-Chair of the Civil Society Forum for the April 2009 Durban Review Conference held at Geneva. I was also Co-Convenor of the 2011 Civil Society Conference in Support of the Durban 10th Anniversary held in New York.
I continued to be active in the negotiations for the Programme of Activities for the International Decade for People of African Descent and in its implemenation. For the 20th Anniversary of the DDPA in 2021, the NGOs I represented worked together with the African Group in Geneva in organising commemorative events.
I understand that the continued refusal by the State Department to my visa application is a measure against the particular role I have played and continue to play in defending the centrality of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) in the global combat against racism.
My activities and partners in New York are very public. If you consider the several NGO meetings that I was involved in and co-organizing in New York in 2017 and 2018 prior to having my ESTA cancelled and stopped from boarding the plane in 2019 these are hardly such that lead to consequences like blocked entry to the US.
The four NGO events that I was part of organising in 2017 and 2018 at the Church Center for the UN were on the UN financial crisis and support for multilateralism as well as on the global combat against racism and negotiations at the GA, with a variety of well-known NGO co-organisers.
There was nothing that happened with regard to myself or the NGOs I am involved with that was substantiallly different in that one’year period of 2018-2019 before I was blocked from entry in to the US.
However there started an intensified advocacy which claimed that the DDPA is ”divisive” and should be left behind by new mechanisms on racism and within the Decade for People of African Descent and those issues were expected to be considered at the 2019 General Assembly.
Considering my recognized role and influence on UN procedures and in defending the DDPA, it appears that the Department on Homeland Security was persuaded to revoke my ESTA status. I have, of course, no information on accusations that may have been made against me.
After the revoking of my ESTA, this absurd situation has continued indefinitely, under the pretense that an ”administrative processing” is taking place. Nothing can be held against me except ordinary NGO work, which the US does not normally target in this way.
I have never been convicted of any crime whatsoever in Sweden, in the US or any other country.
Clearly I have a different position from the United States, shared with most member states of the UN, on the centrality and urgency of the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and for this to be reflected in all UN mechanisms on fighting racism.
But my position should not stop the United States from observing the 1947 Headquarters Agreement or the ECOSOC resolution on NGO participation in the UN. As stated by the US representative to the Committee on NGOs on 15 May, 2023: ”We should not shut the door to criticism and dissent. When we lead with humility we become stronger and allow dissenting viewpoints we allow for improvement and growth.”
I kindly ask you, Excellencies, to intervene expeditiously in order to grant me the visa for departing to New York on 29th May, 2023, to attend the three events that I am legitimately invited to, including by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Jan Lönn
jan.lonn@abc.se
*The letter was addressed to: Antony J. Blinken, United States Secretary of State (secretary@state.gov); Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York (usun.newyork@state.gov)(OFMNewYork@state.gov); Ambassador Michèle Taylor, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva (GenevaUSmission@state.gov) [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: In violation of the US-UN Headquarters agreement, US has rejected visa application of an eminent NGO representative. Collage credit IDN-INPS
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