November 2006
Symposium on the United Nations
The United Nations and three challenges of the 21stcentury”: peace and security, the protection and promotion of human rights, and the reduction of poverty
There is little doubt that the world scene has significantly changed with the end of the Cold War and, perhaps even more profoundly, since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2000 on the United States. Old problems, such as lack of development and extreme poverty, have taken a new dimension in a world increasingly interdependent and increasingly global. Threats to the natural environment of human activities and to the overall ecological integrity of the planet have taken a new urgency and a new visibility. Violent conflicts have multiplied, often within nations. Genocides and various atrocities and violations of basic human rights have occurred with, it would seem, a greater frequency than in the recent past. Fanaticism, the willingness to kill and die for a cause, have overshadowed the capacity for tolerance and dialogue and the ability to live together in harmony. An atmosphere of violence, uncertainty, fear and insecurity permeates the world, amidst extraordinary manifestations of the human industriousness and creativity, notably in the realm of scientific and technological achievements.
What is the role of the United Nations in this world? Here is an organization which was created more than half a century ago and which is based on the idea that international cooperation between sovereign states and the development of international law will be able to prevent conflicts, promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom and ensure for all the protection of fundamental human rights. Failures occurred but successes in these and other more technical domains were numerous, through prevention and multilateral action. Today, however, in this changed world, questions on the ability of the United Nations to act effectively and usefully are asked, including among those who continue to share the moral principles on which the Charter was built.
Conscious of such questioning, and anxious to adjust to different circumstances while remaining faithful to its mission, the organization has undertaken since the mid-1980s a process of reform. It has been subjected to great pressures and it has benefited from learned advice. Lately, in 2005, a 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change made a number of suggestions to the Secretary-General. Also, some 250 experts worked on the Millennium Project designed to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The most recent comprehensive report of the Secretary-General on making the United Nations more useful to the world was produced in March 2005 and is entitled In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all. Its section on the reform is called Strengthening the United Nations. After considering this report, the World Summit convened in September 2005 in the context of the General Assembly and with the presence of more than 130 heads of State or Government, adopted by consensus the resolution 2005 World Summit Outcome.
This report and this resolution offer the latest comprehensive and official expressions of the views of the Secretary-General and of the membership of the United Nations on the state of the world and the manner in which the organization should address the main problems that confront humankind.
The three broad issues proposed for this Symposium – peace and security, the protection of human rights, the reduction of poverty – raise common and specific questions with regard to the capacity of the United Nations to address these issues effectively. Some of these questions are given below, but participants should consider them as indicative rather than comprehensive.
Peace and security
The resolution of the G.A. on the World Summit Outcome affirms, inter-alia, a “commitment to work towards a security consensus based on the recognition that many threats are interlinked;” recognizes the “important role of the good offices of the Secretary-General;” reiterates the “obligation of all Member States to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations;” reiterates “the importance of promoting and strengthening the multilateral process(…) and the commitment to multilateralism;” recognizes that “international cooperation to fight terrorism must be conducted in conformity with international law” and stresses the “need to make every effort to reach an agreement on and conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism;” recognizes the “important contribution to peace and security by regional organizations as provided for under Chapter VII of the Charter.” The Assembly also underscored that “sanctions remain an important tool of the Charter.” And, in the section entitled “Responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity,” the same resolution has the following to say: “The international community, through the United Nations also has the responsibility (in addition to each individual state) to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VII of the Charter, to help protect populations from genocide (…same as in title of the section) In this context, we are prepared to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case by case basis and in cooperation with regional organizations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from genocide (…)”
In terms of concrete reforms, apart from the significant strengthening of the offices of the Secretariat dealing with peace and security, the United Nations Peace Building Commission has been created. It is an advisory subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and the Security Council, the first such body of its kind. Its Organizational Committee is made of 31 member countries, including seven from the Security Council. The reform of the Security Council has not progressed. And proposals for a United Nations standing force (the G.A. resolution talked about the “deployment of integrated missions in complex situations” and “enhanced rapidly deployable capacities” and “initial operating capability for a standing police capacity”) have still to be seriously worked out.
Among the questions:
- Is the principle of national sovereignty an obstacle to an effective role of the United Nations in matters of peace and security? In what forum could the various positions on this question of national sovereignty – notably the positions of powerful and small or weak states – be usefully debated?
- Under which conditions the small door opened by the General Assembly on the “responsibility to protect”(para 139 of the resolution quoted above) could be further opened?
- Similarly, what are the possibilities opened by the creation of the Peace Building Commission and the constraints that will have to be overcome for its effective use?
- To what extent is the stalemate on the reform of the Security Council an obstacle to an enhanced role of the United Nations on matters of peace and security?
Protection and promotion of human rights
The above mentioned report of the Secretary General states that “the notion of larger freedom also encapsulates the idea that development, security and human rights go hand in hand,” and that “we must aim(…) to perfect the triangle of development, freedom and peace.” This report also links “the rule of law, human rights and democracy,” encourages “any Government that has not done so to ratify and implement all treaties relating to the protection of civilians,” invites governments to “welcome the creation of a Democracy Fund at the United Nations to provide funding and technical assistance to countries seeking to establish or strengthen their democracies,” and also invites governments to recognize “the important role of the International Court of Justice in adjudicating disputes among countries and agree to consider means to strengthen the work of the Court.” The G.A. resolution on the Outcome of the Summit has a whole part on Human Rights and the Rule of Law, with various sections, including on Democracy, on Human Security, on Culture of peace and initiatives and on dialogue among cultures, civilizations and religions. (this Part also has the above discussed section on the “responsibility to protect.”) The Assembly reaffirmed that “all human rights are universal, indivisible, interrelated, interdependent and mutually reinforcing.” It also reaffirmed that “all States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, have the duty to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” It resolved “to strengthen the United Nations human rights machinery,” including the “Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights,” and mentioned “the doubling of its regular budget resources over the next five-years with a view to progressively setting a balance between regular budget and voluntary contributions to its resources.” The Assembly also mentioned the “right to development” as part of the “civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.” Also to be noted is a commitment “to discussing and defining the notion of human security in the General Assembly,” and, in a different domain, “to present for adoption a final draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples as soon as possible.”
A Human Rights Council has been created. It has 47 members, as compared to the 53-member Commission on Human Rights, established in 1946 and replaced by the Council. Members of the Commission were elected by the Economic and Social Council, whereas members of the Human Rights Council are elected by the General Assembly. An absolute majority is required for this election. A new universal review mechanism of the human rights practice of Member states is to be put in place. The Council already met in 2006.
Although this was not part of the “reform” of the United Nations a Convention on the rights of persons with disability has been adopted in 2006 by the General Assembly.
Among the questions:
- What are the main obstacles to an overall strengthening of the role of the United Nations for the protection and promotion of human rights?
- The “indivisibility” of human rights – economic, social and cultural rights being treated equally with civil and political rights – is present in the Universal Declaration and its two covenants and proclaimed in numerous resolutions, but is not actually respected by a number of Member states and therefore by the United Nations itself. What are the roots of this situation and its possible remedies?
- To what extent and in what respects does the Human Rights Council represents a progress from the Commission on Human Rights?
- Should the United Nations continue to develop new instruments in the field of human rights? In which domains would such instruments be particularly useful?
Reduction of poverty
The report of the Secretary-General places the question of poverty under the part Freedom from want and gave a fairly detailed account of the Millennium Development Goals, which were established by the Secretariat after the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration by the General Assembly in the year 2000. It says that “the past 25 years have seen the most dramatic reduction in extreme poverty that the world has ever experienced,” but, “at the same time, dozens of countries have become poorer, devastating economic crises have thrown millions of families into poverty, and increasing inequality in large parts of the world means that the benefits of economic growth have not been evenly shared.” It repeats the familiar estimate of “more than one billion people, one in every six human beings” living “on less than a dollar a day.” It notes that the Millennium Development Goals “have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.” And it recognized that these goals “do not in themselves represent a complete development agenda (…) and do not directly encompass some of the broader issues covered by the conferences of the 1980s, nor do they address the particular needs of middle-income developing countries or the questions of growing inequality(…)”
The General Assembly resolution on the Summit Outcome reaffirms the commitment “to eradicate poverty and promote sustained economic growth, sustainable development and global prosperity for all.” It expresses concern with “the slow and uneven progress towards poverty eradication and the realization of other development goals in some regions.” It vows to promote the “development of the productive sectors in developing countries to enable them to participate more effectively in and benefit from the process of globalization.” And, for the first time since economic and financial globalization is on the agenda of the United Nations, the need to keep a “space” for national policies is recognized in the following terms: “ The increasing interdependence of national economies in a globalizing world and the emergence of rule-based regimes for international economic relations have meant that the space for national economic policy, that is the scope for domestic policies, especially in the areas of trade, investment and industrial development, is now often framed by international disciplines, commitments and global market considerations. It is for each Government to evaluate the trade-off between the benefits of accepting international rules and commitments and the constraints posed by the loss of policy space.” Thus, the General Assembly clearly replaced the issue of poverty into the overall question of development, and also replaced the latter within the framework of the current functioning of the world economy.
The reduction of poverty is related to the reform of the United Nations to the extent that the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is one of the declared justifications of such reform. Also rather indirectly, the role of the United Nations in the reduction of poverty would be helped by the reform of the Economic and Social Council.
Proposals in this regard are not very far-reaching and achievements are accordingly not revolutionary. A better and more active participation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the deliberations of the Council should however be noted. Coordination at the level of the United Nations system, a main function of the Council, has thus improved.
Among the questions:
- What are the prospects for a reasonable achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by the target-year of 2015? What are the main causes of the recognized shortcomings in the realization of these goals?
- The reduction of poverty is one of the eight goals of the Millennium Development Goals and only one of the many objectives figuring in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Yet, is has a unique visibility and has received a far greater attention than other commitments made through the United Nations. To what extent is such focus a definite advantage, both for addressing the poverty issue and for advancing the cause of development?
- If poverty has seemingly been globally reduced during the last few years, inequalities appear to have increased in most countries of the world, at least in terms of distribution of income and wealth. How should this trend be interpreted?
- Traditionally, and also in current international documents, a link is made between development –particularly the reduction of poverty- and peace and security. What are the theoretical and experimental elements for such a link in the present international context?