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UN Performance Problems UN Management Accountability Struggles Where is the Rule of Law? Inadequate UN Oversight Recent Developments
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"There is at
present in the United Nations system a large number of bodies exercising
global policy-making functions related to development and international
economic cooperation. In addition
it has become a
recent practice of the United Nations to convene on an ad hoc basis
world conferences to deal with
[many] global issues
. While all these mechanisms [make
available] a wealth of policy inputs, an unchecked proliferation of such
initiatives may undermine their ability to attract world attention and
lead to an excessive diffusion of responsibility for global policy making,
with a consequent loss of coherence. Furthermore, the fixed periodicity
of conferences is not always conducive to good results in that it may
prevent the United Nations system from responding in a flexible and
effective way to new developments and newly perceived interrelationships
among development issues." A new United Nations structure for global economic co-operation, Report of the Group of Experts on the Structure of the United Nations system, E/AC.62/9, United Nations, New York, 28 May 1975. "The decline of the U.N.'s public
image and performance is spoken about commonly. Staff morale is at rock
bottom
Meetings
The introduction and enforcement
of accountability into a bureaucracy like ours is a major
undertaking. It could be
partially achieved through a series of small measures. For
example:
-- If a meeting of one week's duration does not consider anything
else but who should chair, and over which agenda item, then the secretary
who was responsible for that meeting should not preserve his function on
the next occasion;
-- The authors of U.N.
documents should be identifiable.
The responsibility of the Secretariat for the contents of such
documents should be unaffected, but the possibility of hiding behind the
anonymous Secretariat should be reduced
" Andreas Kahnert, "Needed: U.N. accountability", UN Special
(Geneva), March 1985, pp. 10-11.
" The United States should
. make
the very deliberate decision that the U.N. serves neither its own original
purposes nor ours.
There is no reason the United
States cannot support independent agencies, that pass the test of both
fiscal responsibility and ideological neutrality. Originally non-political entities
such as WHO might even benefit from a delinking from the U.N., which in
recent years has helped politicize and thus devalue the work of many of
these specialized agencies. Conferences on telecommunications, water
resources, postal cooperation, or population will be more productive if
they do not have to deal with the U.N.'s permanent agenda of
neocolonialism, disarmament, apartheid, and Palestinian
rights." Charles Krauthammer, "Let it sink: Why the U.S. should bail out of the U.N.", The New Republic, August 24, 1987, pp. 18-23 [22-23].
"According to U.N. [and member
government officials] some of the greatest waste
. stems from publishing
mountains of material of negligible value. A propensity for holding
conferences and churning out endless reams of reports has given the United
Nations a reputation as a huge talk shop and paper mill.
. Some critics see the blizzard of paper as
symptomatic of
a swollen U.N. bureaucracy and, often, a lack of genuine
productivity in which issuing reports becomes an end in itself. U.N. bodies will often spend a
year doing a report that hardly anybody ever reads -- in any of the organization's six
official languages. [The UN argues] that member
governments continually request the reports. However, critics say that many
publications are never solicited but seem to be cranked out to justify the
existence -- and budget -- of the offices that issue
them. Despite repeated recommendations
to cut back, the U.N. paper flow continues unabated. In 1991, the [New York, Geneva,
and Vienna offices] produced 164.1 million documents totaling 2.12 billion
pages
Printing these tons
of documents cost $275 million, a figure that excludes the cost of writing
them
" William Branigin, "The U.N. empire: polished image, tarnished reality", "Costly publications raise concerns about red ink: Documents criticized as out of date, too esoteric", Washington Post, September 20, 1992.
"There is a succession of
high-level meetings in store for early 2000, starting with Davos. In the spring international
meetings at the United Nations and in Geneva will mark the fifth
anniversaries of the 1995 Copenhagen Social Summit and the Fourth World
Conference on Women. There's
the Millenium Summit at the United Nations later in the year, which is
expected to attract more than 150 world leaders. There is a growing expectation
that the privilegerati will fashion a new agenda for equitable
development, economic and social." Pranay
Gupte, "The Mahatma's message: 'Think about tomorrow, but act for today'
Ghandi said. Not a bad
millennial mantra", Newsweek, January 31, 2000, p. 4. "It took decades of international
pressure and weeks of intense negotiations, but when a month long
conference of more than 185 nations ended at the United Nations in New
York this weekend the five original atomic powers had agreed for the first
time to the 'unequivocal' elimination of nuclear
arms. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
called the move, part of a broad agreement to reinvigorate nuclear arms
control, 'a significant step forward in humanity's pursuit of a more
peaceful world.' The five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and
the United States -- never considered setting a
deadline for this goal, and there are strong lobbies in every country
arguing for a retention of nuclear arms as a deterrent against possible
future threats
. But the five nations' pledge,
brokered by a group of seven middle-level powers
., gives at least a
psychological boost to flagging efforts to contain and abolish nuclear
bombs, the aim of a 30-year- old treaty whose achievements and failures
have been under review by the UN conference. The accord, the Treaty on the
Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, was adopted in 1968, went into
effect in 1970, and was extended indefinitely in
1995." Barbara Crossette, "5 atom powers agree to scrap arms: But UN accord provides no timetable in first such declaration", International Herald Tribune, May 22, 2000. "In retrospect, it is difficult to
understand why United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his senior
advisers
were so determined to organize a summit conference of world
leaders
on the occasion of the first General Assembly of the new
millenium. In many ways, the
1990s was a decade of peacekeeping failures and conferences for the world
organization. The failures
are all too obvious; and most of the conferences, if they are remembered
at all, exist only in the institutional memories of the organizations that
participated in them.
This [Millenium Summit] is of
course a public relations ploy, not a serious idea. The problems of the world
organization cannot be solved by summits, millennial or otherwise.
Yes, almost every major head of
state dutifully trooped to New York to address the summit -- for an
allotted time of five minutes each!
That alone should have been enough to demonstrate what an
inconsequential event the entire summit really was.
Tellingly, almost no
one at the United Nations today talks about the summit, although the event
took almost two years to plan and occupied the attention of some of the
institution's best minds. It
is almost as if it never happened.
And, in a sense, it never did." David Rieff, "The
Millenium Assembly", Global Governance, 7 (2001), pp.
127-130 [127, 130].
"The idea of a UN conference on
racism was flawed from the start, and the protracted wranglings in South
Africa have only underscored this point. Racism, xenophobia and related
prejudice
. are so entrenched that they are a difficult challenge for
national governments, let alone an unwieldy gathering of all the world's
nations.
. There is a simple lesson here: The
United Nations is an umbrella for many indispensable activities, from
peacekeeping to care for refugees, as well as for much insufferable
posturing. The more the
UN members allow the organization's name to be associated with the kind of
posturing that went on in Durban, the more they stoke anti-UN feeling in
key industrial nations. This year, when a global AIDS fund
was established, many poor countries were angry that the United Nations
was not allowed to administer it, since they have a stronger voice within
the organization than in other international bodies, but the United
Nation's deserved reputation for disorder and confusion made that decision
inevitable. The Durban
conference will only encourage the world's leading powers to keep more of
the world's business outside the United Nations.
." "After the walkout", The Washington Post, in the International Herald Tribune, September 10, 2001. "Hamlet famously moaned 'words,
words, words' when Polonius
asked him what he was reading. Such dismissiveness is often echoed by
observers of the international diplomatic scene. 'More empty talk,' a journalist
said to me the other day.
'What difference will it make?' He was referring to the meeting I
was attending, a United Nations-organized seminar in Copenhagen on peace
in the Middle East. But he
could as well have been talking about the confabulations of the food
summit in Rome earlier this year or the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg next month. I have no doubt critics are
dusting off the clichιs for that one, preparing to denounce one more
gabfest.
. Yet talk is the necessary
precursor for action.
. Of course, talk can be distorting,
hate-filled, unconstructive.
It doesn't matter.
. Apathy is the real
enemy. Silence is its
accomplice. We can only know
each other by talking to each other." Shashi Tharoor, "Don't knock gabfests: Not all UN talk is empty", International Herald Tribune, August 15, 2002. [Note: The struggling defense that Mr. Tharoor, the UN Under-Secretary-General for communications and public information, makes of this recent UN world conference, as the UN's top "PR" man, is interesting: the reverse formulation of the article's title is of course that almost all UN talk is empty.]
"In the end, the UN World Summit
on Sustainable Development was just too complex.
. The ambitious project
. ended
with a sprawling document that had something for everyone but few specific
promises.
. One thing seems certain. There may never be a conference
like this again. Prime
Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark, currently president of the
European Union, said he did not think such 'megasummits' were the way to
ensure implementation of critical environment and development tasks. 'The 1990s was the decade of mega
summits,' he said. 'I think
we should make the next 10 years the years of action.'
. Another shortcoming of the summit,
according to its critics, was its failure to go beyond a general sentiment
to reduce trade distorting energy and farm subsidies in the rich
countries. .... But having made and broken so many
promises at the Earth summit meeting in Rio [in 1992], some say it was
just as well that the Johannesburg summit meeting did not erect another
series of pledges to be broken. 'Why make promises you can't
keep?' asked Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development
." Barry James, "Johannesburg summit: A triumph or a disaster?", International Herald Tribune, September 6, 2002. "Just as the nuclear standoff
between the U.S. and the Soviet Union defined an age, so too may the
emerging era of [nuclear weapons] proliferation.
. the 'axiom of proliferation' is
still operative -- as long as
any state possesses nuclear weapons (or any weapon of mass destruction),
others will seek to acquire them.
. The problem
.is that the ultimate
[preventive] power
. is supposed to be the UN Security Council. And as [former UN chief weapons
inspector] Richard Butler concedes, 'deep concern about the Security
Council's unreliability' in enforcing its nonproliferation treaties is
'reasonable.'
. Despite the UN's inadequacies,
[some think] now is precisely the time for the Security Council to show it
has teeth on this, the most pressing issue it faces. [But] If, despite a UN-ordered
embargo, North Korea or Iran continues to flout the nuclear
nonproliferation treaty (NPT), what then? Does the UN accede to [or the US
undertake] military action to defang the violator? If [they don't], it would mean the
end of arms control as we know it.
. What other options are there? Anyone have any ideas? If not,
last one into the bomb shelter shut the door, thank
you." Bill Powell, "The end of the world: Is there any way to stop the spread of nuclear weapons", Fortune, October 27, 2003, p. 72. "The Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty is arguably the most popular treaty in history. Except for five states, every
nation in the world is part of it.
For more than three decades, it has helped curb the spread of
nuclear weapons. Since the Sept. 11 attacks,
however, the viability of the treaty has been called into question. Some say it is obsolete. Others say it is merely
ineffective.
Those who say the treaty is
useless argue that either the bad guys don't sign the treaty, or they do
and then cheat. The good guys
sign and obey, but the treaty is irrelevant for these countries because
they have no intention of becoming nuclear proliferators. This all-or-nothing approach is
wrong.
Of course,
[new arrangements]
would hardly be a cure-all.
And making it work would be difficult. But at a time when its
effectiveness and relevance are being questioned, such an approach would
strengthen the treaty by furthering its goals: preventing the spread of
nuclear weapons while promoting the development of peaceful nuclear
energy." Ashton B. Carter et al., "Mend the nonproliferation treaty, but keep it," International Herald Tribune, December 23, 2003. "The head of the United Nation's
watchdog agency on atomic weapons said Friday that the illicit trafficking
of nuclear-related material and equipment had grown so widespread that it
amounted to a Wal-Mart for weapons-seeking
countries. Mohamed ElBaradei, the
Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was
taken aback during a recent trip to Libya by the scale and complexity of
the black market, through which Libya obtained material and blueprints for
nuclear weapons designs.
neither the atomic energy agency
nor the intelligence branches of the big countries have a grip on the
extent of nuclear trafficking. 'The system is under a good deal
of stress,' he said. 'We need
to take this seriously.' For many experts who gathered [in
Switzerland, for the Davos Forum], nuclear proliferation is looming as the
next big security threat.
Much of the focus has centered on the suspected trail of nuclear
material and skill from countries like Pakistan and North Korea to
striving nuclear powers like Iran and Libya." Mark Landler, "Trafficking in nuclear arms called widespread," International Herald Tribune, January 24-25, 2004. Western nations and arms traders
are dealing out death and destruction while touting the values of peace
and stability. The arms trade
complicates efforts to improve human rights, fight poverty and promote
democracy. Developing nations
spend billions of dollars every year on military expenditures, and are
guilty of neglecting their people, who often lack basic necessities such
as food, clothing, education and health care. The United Nations must address
the issue of the arms trade as the most dangerous plight of the
21st century.
Governments must no longer be negligent -- they must factor human rights,
democracy and non-aggression into their arms sales decision-making. A global arms trade treaty is need
to ensure accountability and to prevent weapons from falling into the
hands of indiscriminate killers and human rights
abusers. UN
must establish global arms treaty, Daily Star (Beirut), in Other
views: opinions from around the world, International Herald
Tribune, September 14, 2004. "The recent report on global
security
identified seven principal threats
[and gave] primacy of
place to nuclear Armageddon. The entire nonproliferation regime
is now at risk because of withdrawals, a lack of compliance and new
international threats, the report notes. It warns that 'we are approaching
a point at which the erosion of the nonproliferation regime could become
irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation."
Without naming names, the report
points to two countries whose actions threaten to collapse -- or explode
--- the nonproliferation regime. [Iran and North Korea are then discussed
by the author]
The governments of the major
powers
must address the urgent nuclear danger today. A comprehensive strategy for
preventing nuclear terrorism should be organized under a doctrine of Three
No's: no loose nukes, no new nascent nukes and no new nuclear-weapons
states. Responding to the report,
Secretary-General Kofi ANnan recommended that the international community
debate these recommendations at the special summit next September. Yet avoiding the cascade about
which the panel warns requires urgent actions
now." Graham
Allison, "A cascade of nuclear proliferation", International Herald
Tribune, December 17,
2004. "Congolese often say, 'We'd be so
much better off if we weren't so rich.' The great wealth of this unhappy
territory at the center of Africa has long attracted foreigners.
[It is]
estimated that there
have been 3.8 million deaths in the six-year conflict
The territory has a long history
of plunder.
Mobutu Sese Seko
plundered the
country of an estimated $4 billion before being overthrown in
1997. Afterward, Congo slipped quickly
into war.
Neighboring countries joined in dividing the spoils
their [military] commanders
retained lucrative mineral concessions and an ever-changing web of
alliances
A wide variety of foreign corporations
have been eagerly
buying Congo's diamonds, gold, timber, copper, cobalt and coltan.
The world needs to pay more
attention to how anarchic civil wars like the one in Congo are fueled by
minerals.
The [recent pact to end trading in 'conflict diamonds]
is
relatively toothless, but it set a precedent
Agreements like this could begin
to slash the funding for Congo's warmakers. Such pacts would be difficult to
enforce, but for many years, so was the ultimately successful ban on the
Atlantic slave trade." Adam Hochschild, "The
dark heart of mineral exploitation", International Herald
Tribune, December
24-25-26, 2004. [Note: Mr. Hochschild
is the author of King Leopold's ghost: A story of greed, terror and
heroism in colonial Africa.
Useful Sources
Schechter, Michael G., Ed.,
United Nations-sponsored world conferences: Focus on impact and
follow-up, United security,
Public Affairs,
Oestreich, Joel E., "UNICEF and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child", Global Governance, 4(1998), 183-198. A global agenda: Issues before the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations: 2003-2004 edition, in Angela Drakulich, ed., An annual publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, UNA/USA, New York, Oxford, 2003. Brinkerhoff, Jennifer M., "Global public policy, partnership, and the case of the World Commission on Dams", Public Administration Review, May-June 2002, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 324-335.
Burkhalter, Holly, "A diamond in the rough", [the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme], Foreign Policy, March/April 2003, pp. 72-73. Krause, Keith, "Multilateral diplomacy: norm building, and UN conferences: The case of small and light weapons", Global Governance 8(2002), 247-263. Thakur, Ramesh, and Maley, William, "The Ottawa convention on landmines: A landmark humanitarian treaty in arms control?", Global Governance, 5(1999), 273-302. Haas, Peter M., "UN conferences and constructivist governance of the environment", Global Governance, 8(2002), 73-91.
"Security," in
A global agenda: Issues before the 57th General Assembly of the
United Nations, in Ayton-Shenker, Diana, ed., An annual publication of
the United Nations Association of the United States of America, Rowman
& Littlefield, Lanham, MD, Boulder CO, New York, Oxford, 2002, pp.
101-122. Cheever,
Daniel S., "The UN and disarmament", in Padelford,
Norman J. and Goodrich, Leland M., eds., The
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