Revamp of the UN

One fact we need to recall is although the UN is the creation of five victorious nations of the Second World War (the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China) to bring peace and order in international affairs, the UN was established in the name of and on behalf of the people of united nations.

The preamble of the UN Charter states specifically that "We, the people of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life time has brought untold sorrow to mankind …

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have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims."

Therefore, it is the people of the world that counts. The founders of the UN have wisely viewed an important role of the ordinary people of the world within the framework of the UN. They are as much stakeholders as the member-states are. It underlines another fact, that governments of member-states must listen to the views of their people in what they do and fail to do in the UN. One can say that UN is for the people and by the people.

Failure of the UN
Under the Charter, the UN has three core functions: (i) maintenance of peace and prevention of war, (ii) protection of human rights, and (iii) promotion of socio-economic development

Did the UN prevent wars? No, simply because the five veto-carrying members of the Security Council ( US, Britain, France, Russia and China) have looked at conflict issues in the Council from their perspective of political gains and failed to take action to prevent or restore peace and order.

During the Cold War era, one country's friend was another's enemy. As a result, there have been more than 100 armed conflicts in the Third World, mainly in Africa since the creation of the UN, and millions of people have died. The illegal Iraqi war killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians.

Therefore the original aim of preventing war "the sorrow to mankind" was breached by the same powers which took the initiative in establishing the UN.

The question is Why? There are many reasons and only a few that deserve mention:

After the Cold War, people expected a new world order. Power brings responsibilities. But the US, being the lone super power, failed to discharge its responsibilities. Power is like beauty. If you have it, you don't need to go around saying it. Shakespeare wrote about power in these words in Measure For Measure: "O! It's excellent, to have a giant's strength; but tyrannous to use it like a giant."

The idealism of US President Roosevelt behind the creation of the UN evaporated and the big powers have been seen not as countries that usher in freedom but as instruments of exploitation and injustice, otherwise the Middle East would not have witnessed Israelis and Palestinians fighting a ruthless war since 1948 until today.

Many political analysts say that the war on terrorism is misconceived because if it is war, it may go on forever. It may not be easily won because it is essentially a war on ideas, however distorted they may be. Some experts say terrorism, like poverty, is probably always with us. Awful as it may sound, we have to live with terror, even as we fight it. To be dominated by a fear of terrorists, to credit them with greater power than they really have, and to tear up your freedoms in the face of their threats is to hand them a needless victory.

Poverty is the mother of human rights but great powers are only interested in political rights and not economic or development rights. The international community represented in the UN failed to eradicate poverty in poor countries. Out of six billion people in the world, one billion people own 80 per cent of the wealth and another billion live in dire poverty on less than $1 per day. And in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of the desperately poor has doubled since 1980.

With respect to development, each year our world spends $50 billion on aid and $1,000 billion on armed forces. The figures show sharply the lack of commitment of nations to alleviate poverty. In 2000, all nations committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of these goals is to halve global hunger and severe poverty by 2015.

The target of devoting 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income to aid has never been fulfilled. For example, the US spends 0.14 per cent and Australia 0.26 per cent of their Gross National Income. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have achieved or surpassed the target. Britain, France, Spain, Ireland, and Belgium are all increasing aid spending and have pledged to reach the target in between five and ten years.

UN reform proposals
Contemplating reform of the UN has been the pastime of the UN diplomats for decades. The UN will be 60 years old and reforms are due for a long time as the UN does not reflect the power and geographical realities of the post-Second War World. In 1960, one diplomat conducted a review of the UN development machine and concluded that the UN "had more than its fair share of experts in the art of describing how things cannot be done."

Before the UN's 50th anniversary in 1995, the General Assembly established no fewer that five reform working groups and there is now a website devoted to the UN's reform processes. Does the continuous push for reform suggest that reform is bound to fail this time as well?

The Secretary General submitted the following proposals to make the UN effective as an organization to the leaders of the world to be discussed in September this year:

*Codifying the rights of countries in clear terms to take pre-emptive military action;

*Legitimising intervention in states where genocide or crimes against humanity are occurring;

*Expanding the Security Council from 15 to 24 nations, although not touching the power of the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China to veto decisions;

*Striking deals with countries to provide instant-response troops and other resources for emergencies and natural disasters;

*Vastly increasing development aid to the developing countries to 0.7 per cent of rich countries' Gross National Income.

Wrangle for Council seats
Germany, Japan, Brazil, and India who have formed a joint lobbying group for permanent seats would like to initiate a resolution that would call for the General Assembly to make them permanent members, according to Plan A. Plan B would allow new members to become semi-permanent, serving four years in the Council. Many regional countries will oppose Plan A and the Non-Aligned Movement reportedly supports Plan B.

The initiative of the big four has annoyed many other developing countries and regional powers. For example, China, and South and North Korea have reservations about Japan, Italy opposes Germany, Pakistan opposes India, and Argentina and Mexico oppose Brazil. Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are all contenders. The Bush administration is very cool about Germany which opposed the Iraqi war and support only Japan. So even if the members could hold the first meeting, a number of states are calling for changes. This implies that the discussions on reforms will not be easy sailing.

Negative image of the UN Secretariat
At the headquarters in New York, about 15,000 permanent employees work out of a total 51,000 a few years ago. There are about 20 Under and Assistant Secretaries General who assist the Secretary General. All of the senior appointments are made by the Secretary General who is "the chief administrative officer of the organisation" (Article 97 of the Charter). Generally such appointments are made from countries that are major financial contributors to the UN budget.

Under Secretary General Kofi Annan, the image of the UN Secretariat has suffered badly. It came under severe criticism for allegations of fraud and misuse of power of senior UN officials in the handling of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq ($60 billion programme).

The inquiry is being conducted by the former US Reserve Bank chief Paul Volckar. It has been reported that some senior officials of the organisation may even face criminal prosecution. Furthermore Kofi Annan's son is reportedly involved in the scandal. One US Senator called for the resignation of Annan.

UN Secretariat needs to be more transparent and requires accountability to its own agencies and public. The Chief of Staff of the Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown (former administrator of UNDP) admitted that the UN "must win back the trust of the world public opinion." The structural changes of the Secretariat will be geared toward helping the organization respond faster and more openly to crises.

Bangladesh's role
It needs to be appreciated what Bangladesh can achieve or cannot achieve in the UN. On the face of it, it seems Bangladesh's capacity to exercise real influence in the UN is limited.

However, Bangladesh won the trust of the international community in getting elected twice to the Security Council (1979-80 and 2000-01). The influence of Bangladesh can be effectively pursued if Bangladesh and like-minded countries can form a bloc to make their views known to other members and achieve success. Bangladesh is a Least Developed Country and naturally its emphasis will rest on increased development aid and democratization of the Security Council.

Bangladesh's strength partly lies in the fact that the country is also a member of three important inter-governmental organizations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth, and the Organization of Islamic Conference, to which many countries do not belong. The unique position makes Bangladesh privy to views of these organizations and helps us to interact effectively with other countries.

Conclusion
The UN is a political organization and like other political bodies, it has its strength and weakness. The UN consists of 191 member-states with a variety of conflicting interests and is too large an organization to keep focus on a common approach to regional and global issues. The diversity of the members is good but contributes at the same time to the weakness of the organization.

Despite its shortcomings, the UN has achieved its success in areas that falls under Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, and a host of other UN agencies have done excellent work in developing countries. One journalist has described the UN, as having a heart of gold but limbs of clay. This statement sums up the widening gap between the noble objectives of the UN Charter and its deeds. Finally, the UN is what its powerful members make of it.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.