THE annual meeting of the UN General Assembly that has just opened is, this year, a little different. With the organization 60 years old, it has inevitably become a special birthday party. Consequently it promises to be the most glittering session in the UN’s history. Never before will so many world leaders have assembled in one place — for any event. That is a powerful testimony to its place in the world today. In today’ global village, there is a consensus which no government challenges — that the UN is the only body capable of making international decisions. That was the idea at the start, back in 1945, but it has taken all this time to happen.
The change in attitude is due not to the collapse of the Soviet empire and the ending of the Cold War. It resulted, rather, from two events which sit uncomfortably beside each other: 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. The advent of international terrorism on a new and terrifying scale; the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan which had the UN’s sanction; the invasion of Iraq which did not: All helped set off a wave of agonizing about might and right, about who can authorize and undertake wars that are global by their very nature — against international terrorists, against possible megalomaniacs who may or may not be intent on regional domination.
In a world of only one superpower, a superpower which was prepared to flout international opinion when it came to the crunch, which arrogated to itself the right to make decisions for the welfare of the international community, the question inevitably became: Who restrains the superpower? The answer inevitably became: The UN. Even the Bush administration has made it clear it now wants to be a friend to the UN. But it is not just to celebrate the world body’s past that all these leaders have made the journey. They are there to chart its future.
The reform plans now likely to be endorsed are without doubt a major compromise on what was originally proposed. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called that a “disgrace”. It is a scandal that there is now little on fighting global poverty, persecution and war and the fact that plans to promote disarmament and prevent nonproliferation have been dropped.
On the other hand, it was right to push for greater emphasis on the fight against international terrorism, as the US and others have done; without a firm focus on it there is every likelihood of individual governments going off on their own again. But compromise is not a dirty word — and the compromise proposals are not the end of the reform road. Some of the issues that were not spelled out in the 35-page reform document will find their way in during the next couple of days; others will be added in time. For the body that has become the world’s legislature, reform is still going to happen. This session is merely a stepping stone.
