Will the United Nations survive the 21st century? - Part II
 

DR. RUWANTISSA Abeyratne

Continued from February 10

UNITED NATIONS: Therefore, the question that arises is "when international law remains retrogressive in this manner, could one expect the United Nations to progress?" The root cause of the regress lies in the legislators or States themselves, who have not acted with foresight in the face of emergent threats and problems.

Certainly, this somewhat bizarre collective disability is not characteristic of humanity, which has been quick to foresee the future.

The unique nature of the international community, which is increasingly showing a tendency to ignore the experiences of others and the complexities of the modern world in finding a compromise to new and emergent issues, could well be the reason.

The next is the issue as to what the UN should expect in the years to come. This invariably starts within the Organisation itself.

For a start, Secretary General Annan, in his vision and wisdom, took the measure in 2003 to convene a panel composed of 26 eminent persons to identify threats and challenges to and change in the United Nations.

This resulted in a Report published in December entitled "A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility" which contains numerous suggestions to reform the UN.

As for challenges to the UN at present and in the future, the first lies in the realization of the global community that the UN has to approach collective security on the basis that securing of peace no longer merely involves wars of conquest but rather has implications of terrorism, rogue States and the trans-boundary use of weapons of mass destruction.

As a corollary, intrastate conflicts such as those in Kosovo, Rwanda and Sudan have global impacts and adverse effects on the global order.

Although the UN Charter is abundantly endowed with the ability of confronting these issues, what is lacking is the global political will and support to enforce the Charter.

Secondly, there must be realisation that protection of human rights might involve the use of force. The peacekeepers are not sent to conflict ridden areas where there is a possibility of genocide such as Rwanda, Dafur and the former Yugoslavia merely to observe, but also to intervene if necessary.

Thirdly, an issue that has been debated, as to whether the Security Council should be more representative of the global community (by including Africa and Latin America in its membership for instance) is also a consideration that might be addressed.

With globalisation comes global governance. Global governance is certainly more inchoate than governance within States, as it has to deal with explosions and implosions of communities.

For example, while countries of Europe adopt a common currency and a political authority which could negotiate trading rights on behalf of all its member States, another country in the same region, Yugoslavia, implodes and fragments itself into various individual States.

One of the greatest challenges for the UN would be to arrive at a proper definition and realisation of the word "Governance" as there are none that have been officially accepted.

However, one thing is certain, that contemporary globalisation, which is neither uniform nor homogenous, is accelerating the intensity and pace of economic activity, quickly approaching a new epoch in human and economic affairs.

Therefore, economic globalisation will quickly undermine the effectiveness of State based collective action, and the States themselves, through the United Nations might have to stop an individual State from being a mere cultural entity if international accord were to continue throughout the 21st Century.

The United Nations has been, and continue to be a blend of idealism and reality. Through this harmonious coexistence of characteristics, the UN will continue playing its fundamental role of enforcer of international peace and security.

It is incontrovertible that this has to be done through collective action of the States and with the awareness that all that go to ensure peace and security, such as democracy, human rights, freedom and dignity, are also matters for the member States of the United Nations and not for the UN alone.

It is only then that the United Nations will continue influencing the world in the 21st Century, as it did in the past Century.

Concluded