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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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Chronological
quotes "The formidable aspect of [Secretary-General
Dag] Hammarskjφld's character, with its conscious superiority, did not
markedly favor his work at the United Nations.
. Hammarskjφld displayed
an autocrat's imperviousness to defects of his own policies; an autocrat's
incapacity for delegating authority; and an autocrat's indifference, also,
to conditions of individual or collective injustice that did not directly
touch his imagination. The
United Nations, which might -- and, in pursuance of its own proclamations,
ought to -- have led the
postwar world in the defense of human rights, made no advance in that
field during his tenure, when countless thousands of unavailing appeals
gathered dust in U. N. archives." Hazzard,
Shirley, on Hammarskjφld's leadership in the 1950s, in "Breaking
Faith, Part I", The New Yorker, September 25, 1989, pp. 63-99, [ 81]. "As [Kurt] Waldheim began his decade [as
Secretary-General] at the U.N., he had asserted to the General Assembly
that the 'unwritten moral responsibility which every Secretary-General
bears does not allow him to turn a blind eye when innocent civilian lives
are placed in jeopardy on a large scale.' By 1974, however, Amnesty
International had presented innumerable cases, in diverse lands, of
official torture and unlawful imprisonment to U.N. humanitarian organs
with little response." Shirley
Hazzard, "Breaking Faith: II", The New Yorker, October 2,
1989, pp. 74-96, [75]. "To continue with the charade [of official
development assistance] seems to me to be absurd. Garnered and justified in the name
of the destitute and the vulnerable, aid's main function in the past
half-century has been to create and then entrench a powerful new class of
rich and privileged people.
In that notorious club of parasites and hangers-on made up of the
United Nations, the World Bank and the bilateral agencies, it is aid --
and nothing else -- that has provided hundreds of thousands of 'jobs for
the boys' and that has permitted record-breaking standards to be set in
self-serving behavior, arrogance, paternalism, moral cowardice and
mendacity. At the same time,
in the developing countries, aid has perpetuated the rule of incompetent
and venal men whose leadership would otherwise be utterly non-viable; it
has allowed governments characterized by historic ignorance, avarice and
irresponsibility to thrive; and, last but not least, it has condoned
-- and in some cases facilitated -- the most consistent and grievous
violations of human rights that have occurred anywhere in the world since
the dark ages.
the time has come for the lords of poverty to
depart." Graham
Hancock, Lords of poverty: The freewheeling lifestyles, power,
prestige, and corruption of the multi-billion dollar aid business,
Macmillan, London, 1989, pp 192- 193. [emphasis added]
The most fundamental debate concerns the role
of the United Nations in the protection of human rights and the
development of international law.
This is where the proclaimed purposes of the UN touch the lives of
individuals most closely; and in no area is its performance more
inadequate. This debate
directly addresses the basic premise on which the UN was founded that
there are inalienable individual rights that have universal validity and
which governments are bound to respect.
the [UN] Charter itself is ambiguous. There is a contradiction between
the principle, which is the foundation of international human rights law,
that the international community has a legitimate interest in the way in
which governments treat their subjects, and Article 2.7 of the UN Charter,
which prohibits interference in the internal affairs of states. The UNs human rights machinery
lacks credible enforcement procedures
The gap between what governments
say and what they do, and the impunity with which regimes have curtailed
or suppressed
basic rights
have done more than anything else to bring
the UN into public disrepute.
Private citizens [human rights] groups
have captured the public
imagination as the UN never has. Rosemary Righter, Utopia lost: The United
Nations and world order, Twentieth Century Fund, New York,
1995, p. 18. "[New UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary] Robinson told delegates in the General Assembly's Third
Committee
. her duty was to
ensure UN leadership on human rights
. She intended to 'be a strong moral
voice for the defense of victims of oppression'
. And 'in so doing, also
respond to my obligation of anticipating potential serious violations of
human rights or reacting to such violations.'
.
.
In reaching for those goals [she] will have to
. improve the quality of
UN documentation on human rights. With a few outstanding exceptions -- most recently the Graca Machel
report on children as victims of war
-- UN documents on
human rights have traditionally been of low quality. Submissions from Special
Rapporteurs, in particular, are often poorly written, badly organized and
erratically referenced; few of them would survive [proper] editorial
scrutiny. The [Rapporteurs]
also seem to suffer from a lawyerly reticence about putting the
depravities they condemn into any meaningful economic and social context.
. Although the stories they tell warrant a Shakespearean howling in the
desert air, they are set down like bus schedules.
." "Much room for improvement in quality of reports on human rights", International Documents Review (NY), November 17, 1997, p. 3. "There is something of the apostle in Mary
Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
. She has brought that faith to
her present task -- convening
the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance
. scheduled for the end of August in Durban, South
Africa..
She hopes for 'a breakthrough' in Durban that
ushers in a new era in human relations
. a 'catharsis'
. Many of her U.N. colleagues share neither her
enthusiasm nor her faith.
Instead,
. they see [the conference] as an invitation to
litigation and demands for compensation, and a venue of potential
embarrassment. So the
preliminary sessions
.. have bogged down in disagreements.
. No single conference could satisfy all the
various demands -- certainly
not a U.N. conference.
.
.
most ethnic leaders who saw the conference as an avenue of redress are
likely to be disappointed.
And as for ushering in a new way of thinking, the cold reality is
that midlevel diplomats are not those to whom we generally look for
innovation." Ellis Close, "Shining a light on our 'dark corners': The UN world conference on race is in disarray .", Newsweek, July 16, 2001. "[At the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights session that ended this week,]
Rory Mongoven of Human Rights Watch
said that
the Commission
had become 'hostage to a group of human rights abusers
who defended themselves and others from scrutiny,' referring to voting
alliances that blocked efforts to condemn countries like
Zimbabwe. The high commissioner for human rights, Mary
Robinson, said
that it was a 'very worrying' session, and
that 'bloc'
voting was weakening the commission's role. The commission's rotating roster of 53 member
nations, which includes Algeria, China, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan
and Syria -- all countries with questionable rights records --should
reconsider their approach, she said.
Increasingly, voting alliances are emerging to prevent the
commission from singling out individual countries for
criticism.
a recurring question at this year's session
[was] whether combating terrorism can excuse curbs on human
rights.
a resolution, proposed by Mexico, that
antiterrorist measures conform with international humanitarian law [was
not accepted.]
[a coalition of human rights advocacy groups] criticized the move,
[stating that
'The
commission's silence on this critical issue sends a dangerous signal in
the fight against terrorism -- anything goes.'" Elizabeth Olson, "U.N. fears 'bloc' voters are abetting rights abuses," New York Times, April 28, 2002. "
This story is not about a metaphor. Not people living like slaves,
working hard for lousy pay.
Not people 200 years ago.
It's about 27 million people worldwide who are bought and sold,
held captive, brutalized, exploited for profit.
Roughly two-thirds of the world's captive
laborers -- 15 to 20 million -- are debt
slaves in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
'Is it a crime to sell women? They sell footballers, don't
they?' Milorad Milakovic,
after his brothels in Prijedor were raided, complained that the now
liberated women had cost a lot of money to buy
and he wanted
compensation.
'The slaves in Lake Placid were invisible
People were playing golf at the retirement community, and right behind
them was a slave camp.' Countries where slavery is legal:
0. Countries where more than a hundred human
beings are known to have been trafficked last year [a list follows, with a total of
some 115 countries, many highly-developed.] Estimated contributions by slaves to the global
economy: $13 billion
One U.S.
shelter has rescued 10,000 child prostitutes.
" Andrew Cockburn, "21st century slaves," National Geographic (USA), September 2003, pp. 2-24. "The deadly bombings of commuter trains in
Madrid is igniting debate at the top United Nations human rights group
over how far governments can go in the name of combating terrorism.
The 53-nation UN Human Rights Commission
is facing heavy opposition from
Spain, the United States and their allies over moves by Mexico to appoint
a UN expert to look into whether antiterrorism measures breach
international human rights standards.
'Time and time again the commission has behaved
in a highly-fractious, self-interested, expedient manner, turning a blind
eye to human rights violations and allowing perpetrators to operate with
impunity,' said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International.
there is some opposition to the entire
principle of censuring abusive countries. Some commission members say the
United Nations should offer advice, training and other assistance to
countries with poor human rights records, rather than condemning them
directly.
[The acting UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights strongly rejected that approach, stating that]
'It is a matter of
principle: a commission on human rights which is no longer ready to
condemn gross violations of human rights will no longer be a commission on
human rights.' " "UN group to weigh security vs. rights," Associated
Press, International Herald Tribune, March 15, 2004. "The world cannot continue to tolerate the
slaughter of innocent civilians in the state of Darfur, western Sudan, or
the duplicitous acts of the Sudanese government that let the perpetrators
turn their backs on justice and saunter away. Arab militias, called the
Janjaweed, are [terrorizing]
groups of African origin
according to the UN
, the Sudanese
government has supported indiscriminate killings of civilians, gang rapes,
looting of private property and humanitarian aid, burning of villages,
abductions, forced migration and general intimidations. [A US official calls Darfur] 'one of the worst humanitarian
crises in Africa.' Despite growing pressure for intervention,
Khartoum is mounting a campaign of intimidation against the UN Human
Rights Commission. More
troubling, Khartoum also is engaged in efforts to conceal evidence that
might implicate its officials and allies in the militias for gross human
rights violations.
Anything less [than firm action] puts a lie to
the repeated call for 'never again' to tolerate the targeted persecution
of an entire people.
America and the international community need to
act quickly to bring to justice the perpetrators of these heinous acts and
to end the climate of impunity for future human rights
violators." Tom Lantos, "Ethnic cleansing in Darfur: Time to get tough with Sudan," International Herald Tribune, May 6, 2004. "The UN Commission on Human Rights]
has
become an annual six-week exercise in desperate attempts to shield
malefactors from criticism.
[Some abusive governments]
act in a bloc to
prevent scrutiny of their own human rights records and those of their
abusive peers. The
justication: that old chestnut, defending state sovereignty.
Members of the high-level reform panel [in
December 2004]
propos[ed] that all 191 UN member countries should be
invited to sit on the commission
an unworkable proposal.
[Kofi Annan, the late High Commissioner, Sergio
Vieira de Mello] and some human rights groups have [urged that]
commission membership should be awarded only to countries that have shown
a genuine commitment to human rights. One worthy proposal
is having the commission
in session permanently
[This] would allow the international community
to focus on more than a handful of countries -- and to take stronger measures
to address abuse. The commission has fallen into such an abysmal
state because governments ostensibly concerned about human rights have let
it happen. They must now take
up the cause of reforming the commission properly, or it will sink into
even greater disrepute." Loubna Freih, "Overhaul the UN's human rights
body", International Herald Tribune, January 18,
2005. [Note: The author is the Geneva-based UN representative of Human Rights Watch.] "The UN commission of inquiry that has compiled
devastating documentation of crimes against humanity in the Darfur region
of Sudan nevertheless brought shame on the United Nations by submitting a
report last week that absolves the National Islamic Front in Sudan of the
crime of genocide. The commission did find that the murdered
civilians of Darfur -- probably more than 200,000 already -- and the 2.4
million refugees facing death from disease and malnutrition have suffered
from violations of international humanitarian law. The commission even identified the
government in Khartoum and its Arab militia allies known as Janjaweed as
the parties responsible.
Moreover, the commission said these crimes
were perpetrated 'on a widespread and systematic basis.' Yet in what seems a
politically-motivated contortion of language and logic
the commission
decided that Khartoum's crimes satisfied only two of three elements needed
for
[a finding of a policy of genocide.]
In denying the existence of the Darfur
genocide in a way that suits the amoral interests of governments
represented in the United Nations, [the UN commission of inquiry] has
failed to end a much greater wrong -- the genocidal annihilation of
Darfur's African tribal groups."
"UN denial on Darfur", International Herald Tribune, February 8, 2005.
"The United Nations Human Rights Commission,
the UN's principal forum for promoting human rights, opens its annual
six-week session today amid unprecedented criticism of its competence and
credibility. For years human rights groups have complained
of growing politicisation and double standards that have stifled debate
and allowed countries responsible for egregious abuses to escape
condemnation.
The authoritative high-level panel on UN
reform
last December said the reputation of the UN itself was threatened
by the commission's 'legitimacy deficit' and 'eroding credibility and
professionalism.' Kenneth Roth, head of New York-based Human
Rights Watch, reckons that about half the 53 members are there 'not to
promote human rights but to undermine them.'
If there is general agreement that the
commission is broken, there is less accord on how to fix it.
[Mr. Roth] and others argue that countries
with the worst human rights records should not be allowed to serve on the
commission. In addition, he says, countries seeking
membership should promise to promote human rights, for instance by
ratifying the main human rights treaties and issuing a standing invitation
for visits by UN human rights envoys. Only 50 countries have done this
so far." Frances Williams, "Double standards on human rights 'undermining UN'", Financial Times (UK), March 14, 2005. "Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United
Nations proposed sweeping reforms Sunday, recommending [inter alia]
the restructuring of the discredited Human Rights Commission to keep
rights violators from becoming members
Annan said that the
Commission
had been
undermined by allowing participation by countries whose purpose was 'not
to strengthen human rights but to protect themselves against criticism or
to criticize others.' As a
result, 'a credibility deficit has developed, which casts a shadow on the
reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.' He recommended replacing the 53-member Human
Rights Commission with a smaller Human Rights Council, whose members would
not be chosen by regional groups as is now the case but by a a two-thirds
vote of the 191-nation General Assembly. 'Those elected,' he said, 'should
undertake to abide by the highest human rights
standards.' Warren Hoge, "UN chief seeks huge reforms of world body", International Herald Tribune, March 21, 2005.
"The six-week charade known as the UN Human
Rights Commission's annual session has begun. So, too, has the wheeling and
dealing by the world's worst human rights offenders to avoid any
rebuke. Notorious violators
like Cuba, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and
Zimbabwe sit on the commission this year. This virtual hall of fame of
abusers hangs together to fend off any complaints. In the process, they have
destroyed the UN commission's moral authority to render any judgment on
human rights. Last year, the
panel welcomed Sudan as a member even after Secretary General Kofi Annan
had likened government-sponsored atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region to
'ethnic cleansing.' The UN
Human Rights Commission must be cleansed of violators, and a strong human
rights record should be required for membership." "Bogus UN Human Rights Commission", the Miami Herald, in the International Herald Tribune, March 23, 2005.
"[At the UN Human Rights Commission's annual
session in Geneva] it has been business as usual. This year, as in almost all years,
[none of the 50 or 60] dictatorships besides Sudan will be in the
dock.
They seek
[commission] membership precisely to deflect attention from
themselves. Many developing countries
see the
commission as a sort of postcolonial Western tool of domination, judging
the "Southern' countries but not the Northern ones. The Europeans seem to lean to a
middle position
being more likely to play ball with the various
[protective] geographic groups
The Europeans understand perfectly well the
invasion of dictatorships
but have faith in the necessity of such
international organizations to do good, and they want to be patient
The Americans are convinced that
in the real world of self-protective and cynical dictatorships, the UN
often tends toward a kind of tyranny of the majority, and the American
goal is to fight back. There will be a lot of resistance to [a revised council], not least from the dictatorships that would be excluded, but also from small democracies who fear that the commission would become a big-countries club. " Richard Bernstein, "Are the foxes guarding human
rights at UN?",
International Herald Tribune, March 23,
2005. "Recent proposals by Kofi Annan
[would
certainly help strengthen] the UN system for defending human rights,
[officials and NGO's say.] But they face an uphill fight to gain consensus
among governments, including regular abusers of rights, more concerned to
protect their own self-interest
The proposed new [human rights] council would
be smaller
and members would be elected by a two-thirds majority of the
UN general assembly.
But it is left to UN member states to decide
what, if any, membership conditions to impose.
How can the criteria be framed
in a way that is accepted as fair and objective?
Peter Splinter of Amnesty International speaks
for many in arguing that countries might do better to focus on double
standards rather than wrangle interminably over membership
selection. One way
[would be to base council]
discussions on reports by the UN human rights office, experts and
investigators, rather than selective country-sponsored resolutions. Still, here too, powerful countries will be
reluctant to open a new avenue of international criticism they have
previously escaped. The next six months will test whether support
for a stronger UN human rights role can be made to work in
practice." Frances Williams, "UN faces struggle over new human rights council," Financial Times (UK), March 30, 2005.
Note: This subsection, and the other
five "UN performance problems" subsections that precede "Anecdotes and
Observations", are very much still in the "start-up" stage, due to the
priority need to establish all the parts of this archive. Material from the sources cited in
the "useful sources" for each of them, and other material, will be added
as soon as possible. Useful Sources
"A survey of human rights law: The world is
watching," The Economist, December 5, 1998, pp. 1 -
16.
Minow, Martha, Between vengeance and
forgiveness: Facing history after genocide and mass violence, Foreword
by Judge Richard J. Goldstone, Beacon, Boston, 1998.
Steiner,
Henry J., and Alston, Philip, International human rights in context:
Law, politics, morals, 2d ed., Oxford University, Oxford, UK,
2000.
Ignatieff, Michael and Gutmann, Amy, eds., Human Rights As Politics and Idolatry, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, Princeton NJ (USA), March 2003. "Chapter 4: Advancing human rights and society," in A global agenda: Issues before the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations: 2003-2004 edition, Drakulich, Angela, ed., An annual publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, UNA/USA, New York, Oxford, 2003, pp. 111-162. Chandler, David, From Kosovo to Kabul: Human
rights and international intervention, Pluto, London and Sterling VA
(USA), 2002. Pinheiro, Paulo Sergio, "Musings of a UN special rapporteur on human rights", Global Governance 9(2003), 7-13. Danchin, Peter, "Human rights," in A global agenda: Issues before the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations:2002-2003 edition, 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. 1-33. "The
politics of human rights" and "Righting wrongs", The Economist,
August 18, 2001, pp. 9 and 18 "Human rights and human nature" ["The human rights
charade"], Harper/s Magazine, April 2001, pp. 19-25.
Cardenas, Sonia, "Emerging global actors: The United Nations and national human rights institutions", Global Governance 9(2003), 23-42.
Muravchik, Joshua, "The UN on the loose", Commentary, New York, July/August 2002, vol. 114, 1, pp- 29-32. [Note: the article reviews the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human rights in the spring of 2002] "The burden of slavery", in partnership with Anti-Slavery International, New Internationalist, 337, August 2001, pp. 9-27.
Thakur, Ramesh, "Human rights: Amnesty
International and the United Nations", in Diehl, Paul F., ed., The
politics of global governance: International organizations in an
interdependent world, Lynne Rienner, Boulder CO, 1997, pp.
247-268.
Weiss, Thomas G., Forsythe, David P., and
Coate, Roger A., Part II, "Human rights and humanitarian affairs", The United Nations and changing
world politics, 2d ed., Westview, Boulder, Colo. USA, 1997, pp.
123-197.
Makinda, Samuel M., "Review essay: Human rights, humanitarianism, and transformation in the global community", Global Governance 7 (2001), 343-362.
Weiss, Thomas G., and Gordenker, Leon, eds.,
NGOs, the UN and global governance, Lynne Rienner, Boulder CO (USA)
and London, 1996.
[Chapters 1-11 from Third World Quarterly,
1996.]
Mower, A. Glenn, Ch. 6, "The U.N. in human rights", in Pines, Burton Yale, ed., A world without a U.N.: What would happen if the U.N. shut down, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, 1984, pp. 93-118. Henkin, Louis, "The UN and human rights", in Padelford, Norman J. and
Goodrich, Leland M., eds., The United Nations in the balance:
Accomplishments and prospects, Praeger, New York, 1965, pp.
140-153.
Miller, Lynn H., Ch. 6,"The advancement of human
rights", in Organizing mankind: An analysis of contemporary
international organizations, Holbrook Press, Boston, 1972,
213-265.
Donnelly, Jack, "Recent trends in UN human rights activity: description and polemic", International Organization, 35, 4, Autumn 1981, pp. 633-655.
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