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MULTILATERAL institutions are being
called upon to play a pivotal role in an ever more
interdependent global economic, social, culture, political
and physical environment.
It is of vital importance what kind United Nations system is
put in place on the verge of the 21st century.
The UN system – the only universal organisation – will
unavoidably play a very important role in shaping our
future. If we care about this future, then we must care
about what roles and functions are ascribed to the United
Nations, the scope of its agenda and its broad political
thrust.
Yet, as it approaches its 50th anniversary, the
UN system finds itself at a critical crossroads.
Contradictory assessment of its past performance and
usefulness, and divergent views concerning its future roles,
have given rise to political controversy….
The dominant false public image that is projected of the UN
today can be summed up as follows:
A.
The UN is a sprawling and highly
bureaucratized structure, which is excessively costly,
mismanaged and inefficient, corrupt and with low quality
staff. UN deliberations and documents are portrayed as
words and paper of little value. In contrast, the Bretton
Woods institutions organisations of the highest quality and
usefulness, and purveyors of concrete help to an increasing
variety of projects and countries in the developing world
and of helpful loans to debit distressed countries. The
immense flow of technical papers, studies and reports
emanating from these institutions is considered as evidence
of competence and dynamism. The high costs of these
institutions are taken as normal for organisation with a
global remit.
B.
The UN’s major problems stem
from its large membership, the principle that all states are
equal and the corresponding “one country, one vote system”.
The majority of this membership is depicted as undisciplined
or, by acting in concert, obstructive, divisive and
irresponsible in using its majority to impose its views on
how to manage the organisation’s resources which come mainly
form the North. This is contrasted with a more orderly
situation in the Bretton Woods institutions – based on
wholly different decision-making principles which reflect
the hierarchy of economic power among their membership.
C.
As regards
UN performance, a great deal of its past work is dismissed
as of a little value or simply having been misdirected. It
is alleged that the Cold War had virtually neutralized its
political role, while in the filed of economic and social
development, the UN is construed as having pursued a
mistaken set of objectives rooted in “statist” ideologies
which, now outdated, should be cast aside. Once more this
is contrasted with the work of the Bretton Woods
institutions and their supposedly sterling performance in
the field of development….
In a new era of democracy and pluralism,
the United Nations must lead and be seen to lead in the
practice of democracy in all of its organs and processes.
Inter alia:
1.
The Security Council must be
composed of fully accountable members, all appointed on the
basis of a democratic formula established by the General
Assembly. It must at all times act transparently, with
constant and close reporting to, and in consultation with,
the General Assembly.
2.
As an interim measure, while
efforts are made to agree and introduce new sources of
financing for the UN, all members must apply the principles
of democratic revenue-raising and governance with respect to
their contributions to UN financing and make their
legislators and citizens aware of the fact that this implies
that no-one contributes “most” to the United Nations.
3.
The Law of the sovereign equality of
member-states must be fully respected. Any member
infringing this must be held to account.
The United
nations must be empowered to deal with matters pertaining to
the world economy, establishing genuine multilateral
responsibility for macro-economic coordination, under the
existing and fully applicable, but long unused, mandates in
the Charter. Improved coordination between the G-7, or
combined efforts by an enlarged G-7 and the IMF, are
insufficient and unacceptable. This function must be
reassigned to the UN which should be enabled to take an
effective integrated approach to global problems.
1.
The General Assembly must
activate Article 58 and re-invigorate Articles 57, 63 and
64, exerting policy leadership in macro-economic and social
policy issues, bringing all specialized agencies under its
policy direction, including the IBRD, IMF and WTO.
2.
The Economic and Social Council
must be fully used in the discharge of its responsibilities
. Nothing in its mandates or composition prevents it from
performing the economic security functions now so widely
discussed, except the unwillingness to date of a small
number of member-states to work for the full world economy
in a world body. What is required is the designation of
mechanism to facilitate well-focused policy dialogue, and
the establishment of any required smaller, high level body
of ECOSOC for policy and operational purposes.
3.
The intellectual capacity of the
United Nations and its organs to undertake high quality
creative analytical and policy-oriented work in the
economic and development fields must be re-built, following
the many years of systematic erosion in favour of the
Bretton Woods institutions…
To reinvigorate the Internationals Civil
Service after many years of neglect and demoralisation, a
short-term independent and representative commission should
be established to study the situation and to recommend
policies and programmes to bring the Service up to standards
excellence required and to establish and to establish firmly
its intellectual independence and ability to commit itself
to the global objectives of the UN…
(An excerpt from
“The South and the Reform of the UN – A South Centre Series)
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