UN at 64

Today the world celebrates the 64th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Convened and constituted at the immediate aftermath of the Second World War the UN declared as its objective the maintenance of peace in the world and promotion of international cooperation.

During these 64 years the world has seen many developments some of which were really momentous. To name a few, the fall of powerful empires that divided the world among themselves, the birth of over 100 new and independent states, the birth of the emergence and the demise of the system of socialist states, the development of a bi-polar and then uni-polar world and now the latter’s disintegration with the emergence of a multi-polar world are all of epochal significance.

The UN itself saw its membership increasing nearly four-fold. Today it has 192 member states whereas at the time of its founding there were only 51.

With all its defects, the UN has been able to avert a Third World War so far. This does not absolve it of all sin. The post-Second World War period has seen several ferocious and deadlier regional or local wars, the most notable of them being the wars in Indo-China and the Korean peninsula. To them also one should add the three wars that sprung in the Middle East between Israel and the Arab nations and the contemporary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The same period saw the birth and spread of international terrorism, which remains the number one threat facing many nations, large and small.

Though the United Nations has failed in many respects, it still retains its relevance. With the entire humanity threatened by climate change, its relevance is more than ever before as it is the only international body that commands the widest international acclaim.

There is, of course, one qualification. In order to rise up to the occasion and confront the challenges facing humanity it must remedy its defect. The most obvious and most dangerous deficit lies in the composition and powers of the Security Council.

The Security Council still retains largely the geo-political reality that existed at the end of the Second World War. With the developments since then it has become an anachronism. The only discernible change since then was the inclusion of the People’s Republic of China as a permanent member in place of the break away province Taiwan which occupied the seat of China long after the PRC was born.

The reform of the UN is an imperative necessity of the time. Above all the Security Council should be reformed or abolished. The veto power given to its permanent members is a negation of democracy and the universal principle of one member one vote. As it is permanent members of the Security Council are more equal than the rest. One country with a veto could override the decisions and wishes of the rest.

The General Assembly, the most representative UN body has no powers. Its decisions are not binding. The majority of members have no say. It has been the practice in recent history that powerful nations have used the name and offices of the United Nations to further their narrow individual interests.

They have even acted unilaterally usurping the name of the United Nations while the majority of nations were kept watching helpless as it happened in the case of the infamous Iraq invasion.

The voice of the developing nations, the Non-Aligned Movement should be heard. Also it is necessary to take under United Nations authority the control of the world economy and its financial structure.

The folly of leaving them in the hands of organizations distantly related to the UN in principle but de facto independent of it was seen clearly in the current global economic and financial crisis.

UN organizations such as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and United Nations Conference on trade and Development (UNCTAD) should take over the functions of the Bretton Woods institutions the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) - the Unholy Trinity as Richard Peet says.

It is logical that the UN and its executive arms should reflect not the geo-political reality of 1945 but that of today. The 21st Century is the century of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The centre of gravity of world political and economic power is shifting towards Asia. Real production is being transferred from the US and Europe into the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China. The future is theirs, and hence ours.