UN General Assembly
1994

order. Intervention for humanitarian purposes must not be capable of use for violating the sovereignty of States in pursuit of the interests of any member of the Security Council. As co-Chairman of the Commission on Universal Governance, Sir Shridath Ramphal said recently: “An activist United Nations will not long survive as a legitimate andeffective actor if it is used simply as a cover for the intervention of major Powers. Intervention should follow principled criteria and should be consistent and even-handed. Above all, intervention should not be unduly influenced, much less determined, by the interests or domestic political agendas of powerful nations acting within a region or globally.” In this connection, and particularly if we pursue the notion of amending the Charter to provide for United Nations-authorized humanitarian intervention, the membership of the Security Council itself must be revisited to change the anachronistic nature of the Council and make it more representative of the nations of the world. No State or group of States can proclaim the overarching importance of democracy, nor can any nation