From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 12 Oct 92 10:45 PDT
Subject: Report on the UN
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700625:000:12501
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Oct 12 10:45:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Report on the UN

/* Written 10:26 am  Oct 12, 1992 by sbrackman@igc.apc.org in igc:gen.newsletter */
UN Reform : A Primer for the 1990's
The Path to Peace

Born in the shadow of a once new world order, the United 
Nations reflects the power structure of a post-war globe.  As 
a grand experiment in collective decisionmaking, it marked a 
bold effort to create and enforce humane international law 
upon a world recovering from unprecedented violence and 
disorder.  Under the mandate of the United Nations, wars 
and human rights violations were declared illegal and the 
security and sovereignty of all peoples guaranteed.  Almost 
fifty years later, it is time to consider what has become of the 
UN's mission.

	Has the UN fulfilled its mandate by acting decisively 
in defense of the weak?  Is it an effective agent of 
development and democratic reform?  Will it be effective in  
the post-cold war world?

	Since the founding of the United Nations in 1945, 
there have been over 100 major world conflicts leaving 20 
million dead.  Sadly, the UN has managed extremely limited 
success in either preventing or intervening in these armed 
conflicts.  Its peacekeeping forces, or "blue berets", have been 
deployed only to monitor agreed upon cease-fires.  When 
nations initiated combat, the UN has been unable to stop 
them.

	At the UN itself, paralysis has prevailed in difficult 
situations.  Effective action has been undertaken only when a 
permanent member of the security council secured enough 
votes for an action of collective self-interest (as was the case 
in Korea and Kuwait).  Throughout the Cold War, Soviet-
American rivalry precluded many meaningful moves to 
diffuse conflict and resulted in 279 Security Council vetoes.  
The Security Council has often found itself unable to agree 
on intervention or binding sanctions until very recently.

	The General Assembly, designed to be a world 
parliament,  remains little more than a rubber stamp for 
important decisions and a non-binding forum for world 
opinion.  In practice, UN policy has been guided by the five 
permanent members of the Security Council (U.S., China, 
U.K., France, and the U.S.S.R. (now Russia)) who select the 
Secretary-General, pay for over 35% of the budget and retain 
the power to prevent collective actions they regard as 
damaging to their national interests.

	Today, the UN stands at the brink of a new global era 
yet it is held back by a forty year-old structure which can no 
longer respond to the needs of a changing world.  Nearly a 
half century after its founding, the time has come for an 
overhaul of the structure and mission of the United Nations.  
If the UN wishes to be a leading force for global change, it 
must undertake reforms to dramatically increase its ability to 
respond to crises, prevent conflicts, promote disarmament, 
monitor planetary ecology and enforce international law. 

	The following proposals, culled from a variety of 
sources listed at the end of this article, are not a complete list 
but rather represent a starting point for a dialogue on UN 
reform.  

*  The UN was owed over $1.5 billion in unpaid contributions 
as of Aug. 31, 1992.  In the interest of stable financing, the UN 
should consider imposing interest charges on late payments 
and depriving member states who donUt pay of their vote.  
This authority, written into the charter, has never been 
enforced.

*  Reorganize the funding of the budget.  Currently, the U.S. 
is responsible for 25% of the entire UN budget while China 
and India together pay slightly more than 1%.  If the U.S. 
decides not to pay its dues or to withhold certain funds in 
protest, the UN could either lose its ability to act decisively 
or simply go bankrupt.  One way to change this is through a 
system of international taxation.  Revenues could be raised 
through taxes on all international transactions such as arms 
sales, fossil fuel transfers, mail, airline flights, telephone and 
satellite communications, licensing fees for multinational 
corporations and even a levy on nations which spend more 
than a set percentage of their Gross National Product on the 
military.  Some have suggested an international tax on 
pollution (or carbon emissions) requiring those who pollute 
to pay for the damage done to the global environment.  
Empowering the UN to collect tax revenues would result in a 
more stable system of funding, one which may ultimately 
preclude the need for member states to make formal 
contributions.

* Reorganize the Security Council by expanding the number 
of permanent seats to include Japan, Germany, Brazil, India, 
Nigeria and Egypt.  Or have each regional security 
organization hold a permanent seat and elect representatives 
to the Security Council.  With an expanded membership, the 
veto power could be replaced by a 2/3 or 3/4 majority of 
permanent members needed to pass binding resolutions.  If 
this is too radical a step, then exempt certain decisions from 
the veto, like the selection of the Secretary-General, 
admission of new member states and resolutions which place 
peacekeeping troops in war zones during dispute resolution.   
The five power approach is no longer representative of the 
changing geopolitical dynamic.  It needs to be expanded to 
include important regional powers which will enable a new 
era of multilateral peacemaking and conflict prevention. 

* Set up new structures for peacekeeping and peacemaking 
under the leadership of the Military Staff Committee (MSC).  
Have all permanent Security Council members be involved 
with the MSC's coordination of international actions by "blue 
berets".  Create a standing armed force to discourage acts of 
aggression and have nations earmark certain units for UN 
service, including troops heavily armed enough to enter 
dangerous areas.  Currently, warring nations must agree to 
the deployment of UN troops.  This too may need to change.  
The recent experience in a distintegrating Yugoslavia shows 
how good intentions and idle threats will not stop conflict.  
Place early warning stations in critical areas to provide 
advance notice of impending violence followed by rapidly 
deployed peacemaking troops can prevent combat and a 
highly trained UN Conciliation and Mediation Service to 
arbitrate disputes, civil wars, boundary conflicts and other 
threats to peace and security.

*  Create an International Space Monitoring Agency (ISMA) 
with UN owned and controlled satellites in orbit to verify 
treaties, expose violations and locate troop movements 
which indicate imminent combat.  Establish an International 
Arms Registry and Verification Agency to record (and 
perhaps tax) all sales of weapons between nations as well as 
verify the progress of arms control agreements.  Coordinate 
its activities with a new International Disarmament 
Organization which supervises and enforces relevant 
treaties.  Working together, these agencies could interpret 
agreements, arbitrate disputes and enforce treaties by setting 
binding punishments for violators.

*  Change the General Assembly (GA) voting system to 
account for population and contribution to the UN budget.  
Adapt a form of the "Binding Triad" proposal which weighs 
votes to account for national representation, population and 
contribution to the total budget (unless alternative financing 
measures are enacted).  With a more equitable system of 
voting in place, the General Assembly can be transformed 
from a well-intentioned global forum to a world parliament 
with the power to pass binding resolutions, including the 
selection of the Secretary General without prior Security 
Council approval.  Further, the UN could commission 
worldwide plebiscites (binding or not) on key issues.  

*  Create an International Criminal Court to try persons 
accused of war crimes, genocide and international terrorism.  
The judgements would be based on the Geneva, Genocide, 
Hague and Montreal conventions as well as all recognized 
documents of international law.  The U.S. Senate recently 
passed S. Res. 76 (on March 14, 1992) calling for the 
establishment of such a court.

*  Reinforce the authority of the International Court of Justice 
(ICJ) by having its general compulsory jurisdiction (under 
article 36 of the UN Charter) accepted by all member nations 
(including the US, which withdrew in 1985 after being found 
guilty of mining Nicaraguan harbors).  At the very least, 
nations should settle upon certain issues which they will 
submit to ICJ adjudication.  In addition, subject transnational 
corporations to the decisions of ICJ, thereby making private 
entities accountable to international standards.  The 
enforcement of judgements could be pursued in national 
legal forums if governments fail to comply.

*  Disband the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  
The time is long past for the UN to promote nuclear power, a 
costly, dangerous and polluting energy technology which is 
the only source of fissile material used to manufacture 
nuclear weapons.  The IAEA has become a public relations 
arm of the nuclear industry, even going so far as to claim last 
year that there are no long-term health effects from the 
Chernobyl nuclear disaster, an unfathomable conclusion that 
invited ridicule from independent groups.  Instead, replace 
the IAEA with an International Agency for Sustainable 
Development to promote clean, renewable energy sources 
and energy efficiency in the developing world as well as 
strictly regulate existing nuclear power to prevent the 
diversion of nuclear materials for military uses.

*  Expand and reorganize environmental programs.  Draft 
pollution regulations to cover rivers, oceans, atmosphere and 
all international areas (including Antarctica).  Empower the 
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to arrest, 
fine and jail violators of international environmental 
regulations.  Use the International Court of Justice to try 
individuals, private entities or governments accused of 
noncompliance.  Create an International Ocean Authority to 
regulate sea commerce, protect areas from overfishing and 
pollution while assuring unrestricted transit around the 
globe.  Create a World Space Administration to coordinate 
and monitor activities in space, promote a military-free outer 
space and work with the International Satellite Monitoring 
Agency (ISMA).

*  Streamline the UN Secretariat and consolidate overlapping 
agencies.  Over 30 officials report to the Secretary-General,  
making decisive actions in times of crisis very difficult.  
Reorganize the chain of command and merge departments as 
outlined in "Towards a More Effective United Nations" by 
Brian Urquhart and Erskine Childers (see address below).  In 
addition, change hiring and promotion policies to reflect 
merit over geographic origin.

	These reforms speak to the possibility of the UN as a 
true world government and a constructive force for peace, 
law, development and protection of natural resources.  The 
1990's represent an historic opportunity to take advantage of 
dramatic shifts in worldwide alliances and provide new 
structure for the next fifty years of the United Nations.  There 
is too much at stake to waste any more time.


For more information on UN reform, contact the following 
organizations that have proposed many of the reforms 
included in this piece:

	The Henry L. Stimson Center, 1350 Connecticut 
Avenue NW, Suite 304, Washington, D.C.  20036.  Send $10 
for "Keeping the Peace: The United Nations in the Emerging 
World Order".

	Campaign for U.N. Reform, P.O. Box 15270, 
Washington, D.C. 20003-2070 (202-546-3956).  Ask for "The 
14-Point Program to Reform and Restructure the U.N. 
System"

	Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Ovre Slottsgatan 2, S-
753 10 Uppsala, Sweden or Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd 
Street, New York, NY  10017.  Write for "Towards a More 
Effective United Nations" or "A World In Need of 
Leadership: TomorrowUs United Nations"

	Center for War/Peace Studies, 218 East 18th Street, 
New York, NY  10003 (212-475-1077).  Ask for information 
about the "Binding Triad" proposal to reform the General 
Assembly and their "Global Report" newsletter

Also, send for the Secretary-General's new report on 
reforming the UN entitled "An Agenda for Peace" (Document 
#A/47/277) by contacting Public Inquiries, United Nations, 
New York, NY  10017  (212-963-4475)