IPRIS

Portugal and the Palestinian bid to join UNESCO and the United Nations

Paulo Gorjão

NOVEMBER 2011 -- Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Portas explained the abstention as a "European vote", adding that the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, urged European Union (EU) member states to abstain. Yet, since 28 October, Portas knew that a consensus among EU countries on an abstention was impossible to obtain. Foreign Minister Portas added, one day later, that Portugal could not "vote in favor because there is still no concrete sign of peace negotiations". At the same time, as if trying to square the circle, he emphasized that Portugal would never vote against the Palestinian bid. Probably, there is an additional factor that can help explain the Portuguese vote: simply put, Portas did not wish to vote 'against' the United States. Thus, the abstention was a compromise political solution.

Download Full Text: Here.

Do you wish to subscribe our publications, free of charge?

Table of Contents:
Kai Thaler, "Black gold or black hole? Oil and development in Timor Leste"
Pedro Seabra, "Is Portugal rediscovering Latin America?"
Timeline of Events

Download Full Text: Here.

Do you wish to subscribe our publications, free of charge?

Vasco Martins, "The Côte d'Ivoire crisis in retrospect" (Portuguese Journal of International Affairs, No. 5, Spring/Summer 2011): 72-84.

Download Full Text: Here.

Do you wish to subscribe our publications, free of charge?

Emil Souleimanov, "The North Caucasus Islamist insurgency and the (in)security of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi (2014)" (Portuguese Journal of International Affairs, No. 5, Spring/Summer 2011): 66-71.

Download Full Text: Here.

Do you wish to subscribe our publications, free of charge?

Paulo Rigueira, "Sovereignty and human rights: external, internal and structural reconfigurations" (Portuguese Journal of International Affairs, No. 5, Spring/Summer 2011): 37-65.

Download Full Text: Here.

Do you wish to subscribe our publications, free of charge?