March 19, 2005
MAJOR FREE NATIONS ONLY NEED APPLY:
Annan Has a Plan to Revitalize U.N.: The world body is facing a crisis of confidence. The secretary-general will present a blueprint to make it more effective and accountable. (Maggie Farley, March 19, 2005, LA Times)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan will propose restructuring a U.N. human rights panel, ask for a swift decision to expand the Security Council and request sweeping changes designed to prevent new scandals in a report Monday to the General Assembly on reforming the beleaguered United Nations.The blueprint for reform, according to a draft copy obtained by The Times, also proposes ways to keep the U.N. the primary setting for global security decisions and the key player in international development issues.
Annan has framed the plan as providing a historic opportunity to reinvent the U.N. to better meet the challenges of a changing world. But the plan is also seen here as a last-gasp bid to restore the organization's relevance at a time when both he and it are under heavy fire.
Yet the blueprint is not as bold as Annan may have liked. The reforms depend on the endorsement of the 191-member General Assembly and the agreement of world leaders who are coming to a U.N. summit in September.
Many of the ideas in the document have been floated in recent months by special panels on U.N. reform and global development that Annan commissioned. But fierce reactions from some governments led Annan to temper a proposed definition of terrorism, stop short of requiring criteria for membership on the human rights panel and caused him to refrain from choosing between two options to expand the Security Council, U.N. officials said.
Never mind the human rights panel, there need to be criteria for the Security Council, which should include India but not China, France, Russia or Great Britain (unless it eschews the EU). Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2005 9:19 AM
Annan doesn't have to worry his pretty little head about reforms. Bush is sending Bolton in to do the job. It'll be a lot fun watching the fur fly.
Posted by: erp at March 19, 2005 10:40 AMThe UN should be eliminated in its entirety and the land used for a new stadium for the Jets and Mets. It will encourage the long-overdue construction of the 2d Avenue Subway.
There is a need for 10 or 15 of the world's most important nations to meet on a somewhat regular basis. But there is no need to provide a platform for nations, with a smaller GDP than Donald Trump, to harangue the US.
Posted by: bart at March 19, 2005 10:43 AMBut what about the Zimbabwe vote? And who would represent Chad?
Posted by: Genecis at March 19, 2005 10:53 AMkoffi doesn't know the difference between reforming and redecorating the u.n.
an international institution to replace the u.n. with only democratically elected govts as members
would be gwb's greatest achievement. it would totally disrupt any plans by the transnationalists.
Annan has a plan! Has he been taking pointers from President John France Kerry?
Posted by: Oswald Booth Czolgosz at March 19, 2005 12:29 PMGenecis:
Africa should certainly have a vote eventually, though there's no one now who seems ready.
Posted by: oj at March 19, 2005 3:36 PMIndia can't get on the Security Council because of Pakistan. Japan can't because of China and North and South Korea. France will never leave.
Posted by: Seven Machos at March 20, 2005 1:41 AMOJ: Better to be inside the tent.
The UN is really a quite disparate organization, with the General Assembly and other parts often having animus toward each other. The Security Council is really the one decent arm of the UN, and it is far and away the dominant arm when it comes to anything of substance.
Posted by: at March 20, 2005 3:04 PMIt can't be substantive until only major democracies are seated.
Posted by: oj at March 20, 2005 3:16 PM