United Nations - Confronting the soft bigotry of disenchantment

Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

UNITED NATIONS: When the eighth Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon commenced his tenure in early 2007, he brought with him his mission statement which is "promises should be made for the keeping".

He pledged to seek excellence with humility and to lead by example. His leadership of an organisation which is modest in its means but not in its aspirations and performance is yet to be seen, but his vision, that the true measure of success for the UN is not how much it promises but how much it delivers, is sound and encouraging.

At a time when the United Nations is shifting its gears of leadership, from Kofi Annan who guided the Organisation with astuteness, dedication and vision with a highly proactive agenda, the new leader Ban Ki-moon comes with impressive credentials and an illustrious career in diplomacy.

He brings more than 35 years of distinguished service both in government and the international community. This is the ideal profile of leadership needed to confront globalisation, the boom in information and communications technology and the robust and rapid urbanization of the developing world which have entrenched themselves as abiding characteristics of an evolving world.

Global partnership

The key focus of the United Nations at the present time is on implementing a global partnership for development, which was the theme of the debate in the General Assembly at its sixty first session in the fall of 2006.

General Assembly President Sheika Haya Rashed al Khalifa pledged during this session that the United Nations would continue to make development the central goal of the overarching framework of the Organisation, with sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental aspects as the key elements of the framework.

Against this backdrop, and at this critical time in the history of international relations, it is time for reflection as to whether the world is a better place because of the United Nations.

The most ominous disadvantage affecting the United Nations has been the prolific rate in which enormous challenges face the Organisation on a daily basis, obfuscating the steady progress made over time and the achievements of the Organisation.

Understandably this would inevitably make some feel demoralised and disgruntled with the failures of the United Nations.

Human Rights

Therefore, it is worthwhile reflecting on some of the many achievements of the Organisation and distinguish the forest from the trees.

The United Nations has played a role in bringing about independence in countries that are now among its Member States. Since 1945, the United Nations has been credited with negotiating 172 peaceful settlements that have ended regional conflicts.

Recent cases include an end to the Iran-Iraq war, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, and an end to the civil war in El Salvador.

The United Nations has used quiet diplomacy to avert imminent conflicts. An example of this is the deployment of a total of 63 Peace-Keeping Forces and observer missions from its inception to date, by which the United Nations has been able to restore calm to allow the negotiating process to go forward while saving millions of people from becoming casualties of conflicts. There are presently 16 active Peace-Keeping Forces in operation.

Also, the UN system has devoted more attention and resources to the promotion of the development of human skills and potentials than any other external assistance effort. The system's annual disbursements, including loans and grants, amount to more than $10 billion. The UN Development Programme (UNDP), in close cooperation with over 170 Member States and other UN agencies, designs and implements projects for agriculture, industry, education, and the environment.

It supports more than 5,000 projects with a budget of $1.3 billion. It is the largest multilateral source of grant development assistance. The World Bank, at the forefront in mobilising support for developing countries worldwide, has alone loaned $333 billion for development projects since 1946. In addition, UNICEF spends more than $800 million a year, primarily on immunisation, healthcare, nutrition and basic education in 138 countries.

Since adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the United Nations has helped enact dozens of comprehensive agreements on political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights.

By investigating individual complaints of human rights abuses, the UN Human Rights Commission has focused world attention on cases of torture, disappearance, and arbitrary detention and has generated international pressure to be brought on governments to improve their human rights records.

The United Nations has played a vital role in fashioning a global programme designed to protect the environment. The "Earth Summit," the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, resulted in treaties on biodiversity and climate change, and all countries adopted "Agenda 21" - a blueprint to promote sustainable development or the concept of economic growth while protecting natural resources.

The United Nations, through the International Atomic Energy Agency, has helped minimize the threat of a nuclear war by inspecting nuclear reactors in 90 countries to ensure that nuclear materials are not diverted for military purposes.

Over 300 international treaties, on topics as varied as human rights conventions to agreements on the use of outer space and seabed, have been enacted through the efforts of the United Nations.

Solidarity

At this critical time in history, what the United Nations needs most is empowerment by its member States and their political will to secure cooperation in the Organisation's efforts. International organisations can generally only work on the basis of legal powers that are attributed to them. Presumably, these powers emanate from the sovereign States that form the membership of such organisations.

Therefore, the logical conclusion is that if international organisations were to act beyond the powers accorded to them, they would be presumed to act ultra vires or beyond the scope of their mandate.

The universal solidarity of UN Contracting States that was recognised from the outset at the establishment of the Organization brings to bear the need for States to be united in recognizing the effect of UN policy and decisions. This principle was given legal legitimacy in the 1971 decision concerning the European Road Transport Agreement handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Community.

The court held that the competence of the European Community to conclude an agreement on road transport could not be impugned since the member States had recognised Community solidarity and that the Treaty of Rome which governed the Community admitted of a common policy on road transport which the Community regulated.

It should be noted that the United Nations does not only derive implied authority from its Contracting States based on universality but it also has attribution from States to exercise certain powers.

The doctrine of attribution of powers comes directly from the will of the founders, and in the UN's case, powers were attributed to the Organisation when it was established as an international organisation that would administer the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

In addition, the UN could lay claims to what are now called "inherent powers" which give it power to perform all acts that the Organisation needs to perform to attain its aims not due to any specific source of organisational power but simply because the United Nations inheres in organisationhood. Therefore, as long as acts are not prohibited in the UN's constituent document (the UN Charter), they must be considered legally valid.

Inherent powers

Over the past two decades the inherent powers doctrine has been attributed to the United Nations Organisation and its specialised agencies on the basis that such organisations could be stultified if they were to be bogged down in a quagmire of interpretation and judicial determination in the exercise of their duties.

The advantages of the inherent powers doctrine is twofold. Firstly, inherent powers are functional and help the organisation concerned to reach its aims without being tied by legal niceties. Secondly, it relieves the organization of legal controls that might otherwise effectively preclude that organization from achieving its aims and objectives.

The ability to exercise its inherent powers has enabled the UN to address issues on promoting self determination and independence, strengthening international law, handing down judicial settlements of major international disputes, providing humanitarian aid to victims of conflict, alleviating chronic hunger and rural poverty in developing countries and promoting women's rights, just to name a few.

In his address at the opening of the General Assembly debate on 19 September 2006, Secretary General Kofi Annan was unreserved in his belief that the only answer to a divided world is a truly United Nations. He cited climate change , HIV/AIDS, fair trade, migration and human rights as issues that bring to bear the relevance and usefulness of the Organization.

In his own words "together, we have pushed some big rocks to the top of the mountain, even if others have slipped from our grasp and rolled back. But this mountain, with its bracing winds and global views, is the best place on earth to be. It's been difficult and challenging, but at times thrillingly rewarding".

This statement well epitomizes the quintessential role of the United Nations and the value it brings to the diplomatic table, which is often grossly under appreciated.

(The writer is Coordinator, Air Transport Programmes International Civil Aviation Organization Montreal, Canada.)