A more secure world :
Our shared responsibility
The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously 15-0, for a
resolution 04 May 2005 approving a one-month extention for UN
peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, at UN headquarters in New York. France
has put forward a draft resolution to beef up the force in its
former colony, which has been divided betweeen government and rebel
areas since a failed uprising to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in
2002. - AFP
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Executive Summary of the Report of the UN Secretary General's High
Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.
In his address to the General Assembly in September 2003, United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Anan warned Member States that the United
Nations had reached a fork in the road. It could rise to the challenge
of meeting new threats or it could risk erosion in the face of mounting
discord between States and unilateral action by them. He created the
High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change to generate new ideas
about the kids of policies and institutions required for the UN to be
effective in the 21st century.
In its report, the High-level Panel sets out a bold, new vision of
collective security for the 21st century. We live in a world of new and
evolving threats, threats that could not have been anticipated when the
UN was founded in 1945 - threats like nuclear terrorism, and State
collapse from the witch's brew of poverty, disease and civil war.
In today's world, a threat to one is a threat to all. Globalisation
means that a major terrorist attack anywhere in the industrial world
would have devastating consequences for the well-being of millions in
the developing world. Any one of 700 million international airline
passengers every year can be an unwitting carrier of a deadly infectious
disease.
And the erosion of State capacity anywhere in the world weakens the
protection of every State against transnational threats such as
terrorism and organised crime. Every State requires international
cooperation to make it secure.
There are six clusters of threats with which the world must be
concerned now and in the decades ahead:
* War between States;
* Violence within States, including civil wars, large-scale human
rights abuses and genocide;
* Poverty, infectious disease and environmental degradation;
* Nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons;
* Terrorism; and
* Transnational organized crime.
The good news is that the United Nations and our collective security
institutions have shown that they can work. More civil wars ended
through negotiation in the past 15 years than the previous 200. In the
1960s, many believed that by now 15-25 States would posses nuclear
weapons; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has helped prevent this.
The World Health Organization helped to stop the spread of SARS
before it killed tens of thousands, perhaps more.
But these accomplishments can be reversed. There is a real danger
that they will be, unless we act soon to strengthen the United Nations,
so that in future it responds effectively to the full range of threats
that confront us.
Policies for prevention
Meeting the challenges of today's threats means getting serious about
prevention; the consequences of allowing latent threats to become
manifest, or of allowing existing threats to spread, are simply too
severe.
Development has to be the first line of defence for a collective
security system that takes prevention seriously. Combating poverty will
not only save millions of lives but also strengthen States' capacity to
combat terrorism, organised crime and proliferation.
Development makes everyone more secure. There is an agreed
international framework for how to achieve these goals, set out in the
Millennium Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus, but implementation
lags.
Biological security must be at the forefront of prevention.
International response to HIV/AIDS was shockingly late and shamefully
ill-resourced. It is urgent that we halt and roll back this pandemic.
But we will have to do more.
Our global public health system has deteriorated and is ill-equipped
to protect us against existing and emerging deadly infectious diseases.
The report recommends a major initiative to build public health capacity
throughout the developing world, at both local and national levels.
This will not only yield direct benefits by preventing and treating
disease in the developing world itself, but will also provide the basis
for an effective global defence against bioterrorism and overwhelming
natural outbreaks of infectious disease.
Preventing was within States and between them is also in the
collective interest of all. If we are to do better in future, the UN
will need real improvements to its capacity for preventive diplomacy and
mediation.
We will have to build on the successes of regional organizations in
developing strong norms to protect Governments from unconstitutional
overthrow, and to protect minority rights. And we will have to work
collectively to find new ways of regulating the management of natural
resources, competition for which often fuels conflict.
Preventing the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons is essential if we are to have a more secure world. This means
doing better at reducing demand for these weapons, and curbing the
supply of weapons materials. It means living up to existing treaty
commitments, including or negotiations towards disarmament. And it means
enforcing international agreements.
The report put forward specific recommendations for the creation of
incentives for States to forego the development of domestic uranium
enrichment and reprocessing capacity.
It urges negotiations for a new arrangement which would enable the
International Atomic Energy, Agency to act as a guarantor for the supply
of fissile material to civilian nuclear users at market rates, and it
calls on Governments to establish a voluntary time-limited moratorium on
the construction of new facilities for uranium enrichment and
reprocessing, matched by a guarantee of the supply of fissile materials
by present suppliers.
Terrorism is a threat to all States, and to the UN as a whole. New
aspects of the threat - including the rise of a global terrorist
network, and the potential for terrorist use of nuclear, biological or
chemical weapons - require new responses.
The UN has not done all that it can. The report urges the United
Nations to forge a strategy of counterterrorism that is respectful of
human rights and the rule of law. Such a strategy must encompass
coercive measures when necessary and create new tools to help States
combat the threat domestically. The report provides a clear definition
of terrorism, arguing that it can never be justified, and call on the
General Assembly of the UN to overcome its divisions and finally
conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism.
The spread of transnational organized crime increases the risk of all
the other threats. Terrorists use organized criminal groups to move
money, men and materials around the globe. Governments and rebels sell
natural resources through criminal groups to finance wars. States'
capacity to establish the rule of law is weakened by corruption.
Combating organized crime is essential for helping States build the
capacity to exercise their sovereign responsibilities and in combating
the hideous traffic in human beings.
Response to threats
Of course, prevention sometimes fails. At times, threats will have to
be met by military means.
The UN Charter provides a clear framework for the use of force.
States have an inherent right to self-defence, enshrined in Article 51.
Long-established customary international law makes it clear that States
can take military action as long as the threatened attack is imminent,
no other means would deflect it, and the action is proportionate.
The Security Council has the authority to act preventively, but has
rarely done so. The Security Council may well need to be prepared to be
more proactive in the future, taking decisive action earlier. States
that fear the emergence of distant threats have an obligation to bring
these concerns to the Security Council.
The report endorses the emerging norm of a responsibility to protect
civilians from large-scale violence - a responsibility that is held,
first and foremost, by national authorities. When a State fails to
protect its civilians, the international community then has a further
responsibility to act, through humanitarian operations, monitoring
missions and diplomatic pressure - and with force if necessary, though
only as a last resort. And in the case of conflict or the use of force,
this also implies a clear international commitment to rebuilding
shattered societies.
Deploying military capacities - for peacekeeping as well as peace
enforcement - has proved to be a valuable tool in ending wars and
helping to secure States in their aftermath.
But the total global supply of available peacekeepers is running
dangerously low. Just to do an adequate job of keeping the peace in
existing conflicts would require almost doubling the number of
peacekeepers around the world. the developed states have particular
responsibilities to do more to transform their armies into units
suitable for deployment to peace operations. And if we are to meet the
challenges ahead, more States will have to place contingents on stand-by
for UN purposes, and keep air transport and other strategic lift
capacities available to assist peace operations.
When wars have ended, post-conflict peacebuilding is vital. The UN
has often devoted too little attention and too few resources to this
critical challenge. Successful peacebuilding requires the deployment of
peacekeepers with the right mandates and sufficient capacity to deter
would-be spoilers; funds for demobilization and disarmament, built into
peacekeeping budgets; a new trust fund to fill critical gaps in
rehabilitation and reintegration of combatants, as well as other early
reconstruction tasks; and a focus on building State institutions and
capacity, especially in the rule of law sector. Doing this job
successfully should be a core function of the United Nations.
A UN for the 21st century
To meet these challenges, the UN needs its existing institutions to
work better. This means revitalizing the General Assembly and the
Economic and Social Council, to make sure they play the role intended
for them, and restoring credibility to the Commission on Human Rights.
It also means increasing the credibility and effectiveness of the
Security Council by making its composition better reflect today's
realities. The report provides principles for reform, and two models for
how to achieve them - one involving new permanent members with no veto,
the other involving new four-year, renewable seats. It argues that any
reforms must be reviewed in 2020.
We also need new institutions to meet evolving challenges. The report
recommends the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission - a new mechanism
within the UN, drawing on the Security Council and the Economic and
Social Council, donors, and national authorities.
Working closely with regional organizations and the international
financial institutions, such a commission could fill a crucial gap by
giving the necessary attention to countries emerging from conflict.
Outside the UN, a forum bringing together the heads of the 20 largest
economies, developed and developing, would help the coherent management
of international monetary, financial, trade and development policy.
Better collaboration with regional organizations is also crucial, and
the report sets out a series of principles that govern a more structured
partnership between them and the UN. The report recommends strengthening
the Secretary-General's critical role in peace and security. To be more
effective, the Secretary-General should be given substantially more
latitude to manage the Secretariat, and be held accountable.
He also needs better support for his mediation role, and new
capacities to develop effective peacebuilding strategy. He currently has
one Deputy Secretary-General; with a second, responsible for peace and
security, he would have the capacity to ensure oversight of both the
social, economic and development functions of the UN, and its many peace
and security functions.
The way forward
The report is the start, not the end, of a process. The year 2005
will be a crucial opportunity for Member States to discuss and build on
the recommendations in the report, some of which will be considered by a
summit of heads of State.
But building a more secure world takes much more than a report or a
summit. It will take resources commensurate with the scale of the
challenges ahead; commitments that are long-term and sustained; and,
most of all, it will take leadership - from within States, and between
them. |