The Hindu Business Line : Reforming UN

BARRING the bit where it has been suggested that India along with the other aspirants for a place in the Security Council should not have full veto powers, New Delhi has done well to back the proposals laid on the table by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, for the reform of the UN, the objective being that the organisation should reflect the "current global realities".

There was a time when the heart of the UN was the Security Council which was actually an ideological battleground, so much so that one of its members — China — actually represented an island to which the opponents of Communist China had fled after losing the military campaign for Beijing (then Peking). At that time, the Big Powers — led by the Soviet Union and the US — ruled the world, with the poor having little or no say in the UN's substantive deliberations.

In its very basic contours, despite the periodic upheavals signifying the pressure of change, this world lasted into the 1980s. It ended abruptly with the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the simultaneous emergence of the so-called newly industrialised countries. With time, that process has gathered strength, and it is not surprising that the inevitable has happened — a strong, concerted demand is being made for a change in the structure of the UN itself, so much so that the Secretary-General himself has authored a report on the subject.

This report, entitled "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Freedom for All," lists a number of changes that are considered essential if the UN is to reflect faithfully the changed world situation, leading to its increased effectiveness.

Among other things, the report says that the General Assembly "should take bold measures to streamline its agenda and speed up the deliberative process...concentrate on the major substantive issues of the day, and establish mechanisms to engage fully and systematically with civil society".

On the vexed issue of altering the present shape of the Security Council, the report says that the body should be "broadly representative of the realities of power in today's world," the burden of its stand being that the Council should be enlarged leaving the nitty-gritty of the new, reformed entity to the members of the UN. There is, of course, nothing new or surprising in this stand, the debate at present focussing on the specific membership of the enlarged Council and whether the new entrants should have the full veto powers currently enjoyed by the present five members. The report has introduced a note of urgency into the proceedings by suggesting that a reforms agenda for the UN be drawn up in time for the September 2005 summit called to review the progress made since the Millennium Declaration was adopted by all member states in 2000.

Clearly, this is an historic opportunity for the UN to fall in step with the march of world history, reform itself and, among other things, prevent an encore of such events as the unilateral waging of war on Iraq by the US. This will, of course, not be an easy task because, generally speaking, the giving up of privilege is always a painful process. But the sacrifice (on the part of the rich world) is unavoidable if peace and development are to be given a fresh lease of life in the 21st Century, from which both the poor and the rich cannot but benefit in the long run.

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