Argentine President levies strong condemnations against UN on Falklands dispute, AI regulation, and COVID-19 overreach News
Vox España, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Argentine President levies strong condemnations against UN on Falklands dispute, AI regulation, and COVID-19 overreach

Argentine President Javier Milei on Wednesday expressed harsh criticism towards the UN, accusing the organization of breaking the “sacred covenant” on which it was founded. 

Speaking at the General Debate of the Assembly’s 81st session, Milei touched on several issues which he framed as UN failures and overreach. A focus of the speech was Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina refers to as the Islas Malvinas.

The islands have been in dispute between Argentina and the UK since the 1800s. Milei argued that the UN has ignored recurring, unilateral actions taken by the UK despite Resolution 31/49, a 1976 declaration urging Argentina and the UK to avoid unilateral modifications while negotiations remain pending. He pointed to the Sea Lion offshore oil project, which operates under British licenses on what Argentina considers its continental shelf, and said Argentina regards those licenses as illegal.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal states retain sovereign rights over continental shelf resources, which means that the legality of the licenses hinges on which nation holds sovereignty over the islands. Last week, Argentina’s government introduced a bill that would replace a 2011 law and toughen penalties on companies utilizing resources around the islands without Argentine authorization. 

UK officials responded within hours of Milei’s speech with a written statement it requested to be entered into the General Assembly’s official record. It said the UK “has no doubt about its sovereignty” over the islands and argued that Resolution 31/49 does not limit the islanders’ right to determine their political status and pursue their own economic development.

It described coastal development as legitimate ventures conducted “in strict accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” and said that “Argentine domestic law does not apply to the Falkland Islands.” The statement frames Argentina’s efforts to advance its sovereignty claim as “wholly incompatible with the principles established in the United Nations Charter and not the behaviour we expect of a democracy.”

Milei’s speech on Wednesday touched on additional matters including potential UN Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulations, which he warned against, and oppressive regulations he described as a “bureaucratic leviathan” highlighted by the UN response to COVID-19. Without mincing words, Milei called the UN a “useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats.” 

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On September 25, 1789, the United States Congress sent twelve proposed constitutional amendments to the state legislatures for ratification. Ten of these were adopted in 1791 and became known as the Bill of Rights.

A proposed amendment on Congressional representation was never ratified, and another on Congressional pay was not ratified until 1992 when it became the 27th Amendment.