The World Needs a Responsive and Better United Nations (UN)

Has the UN lived up to the mandates of its Charter since its birth in 1945?

Among the mandates of the UN are to prevent wars, ensure fundamental human rights, respect treaties and international law, promote social progress and improve the quality of life, establish international cooperation and dispute settlements, maintain international peace and security, refrain from using armed force except in the common interest, and promote the economic and social advancement of all. These may seem lofty ideals, but they are legitimate mandates of the UN.

After 65 years in existence, the UN has been through failures and successes on the exercise and performance of its mandates set in the Charter. One of the most remembered failures of the UN which drew a great deal of criticisms happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo or at that time simply "Congo" in early 1960s. From all sides of the conflict in Congo, the UN was the recipient of harsh and valid criticisms. Another event that elicited criticisms worldwide was the inability of the UN to halt the invasion of Iraq, a sovereign member-state, by the allied-forces led by the US.



Despite of these criticisms and failures, the UN was able to survive and remains highly regarded. It was so because the UN had successes in other endeavors such as negotiating and bringing peace in Arab-Israel war in 1948, French-British-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, independence of Namibia in 1990, civil wars in Central America in 1990s, and war and election in Cambodia in 1992. In all these good news, the UN had a hand in significant and pivotal role. Another reason was that the UN codified international laws and reminded the Member-states to respect and abide by these laws. The two reasons were made possible by the reforms of the UN through the years.

To understand the UN, it is better to consider and acknowledge what it is not. The UN is not a world government. It is an aggregation of sovereign governments, and sovereignty resides in each member-states. Although it may appear and at times function as a government, it certainly lacks some essential powers of a government such as power to tax and power to legislate policies that are automatically binding to member-states.

In the 2006 Report of the former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mandating and Delivering: Analysis and recommendations to facilitate the review of mandates, it was one of the many initiatives for reforms in the UN under the leadership of Annan. It sought to inventory the mandates emanating from the resolutions of various bodies and councils in the UN. It identified the following problems; "burdensome reporting requirements," "overlap between and within organs," "an unwieldy and duplicative architecture for implementation," and "gap between mandates and resources." The identification of problems can be interpreted as an admission of failures. However, it is also an expression of resolve for a better UN to effectively live up to its mandates.

The UN is under a new Secretary-General in the person of Ban Ki-moon who took over early this year. In his 2007 Address to the General Assembly for its 62nd session, he recognized the need for reform because the overall theme of his speech was "A Stronger UN for a Better World." He said that "transforming the way the UN does business - shifting our focus to emphasize results rather than bureaucratic process - will take patience, perseverance and courage." Indeed, the challenges facing the UN are tremendous. For examples, it has to deal with Darfur crisis, Kosovo status, Iraq instability, Iran nuclear ambition, Myanmar democratization, Georgia's territorial integrity, Russia's emerging intransigence, just to name a few.

The world is getting more complex and challenging for the UN which is mandated to maintain international peace and security. Conflicts abound, human rights abuses perpetuate, poverty is widespread, climate change displaces millions of people, terrorism threatens, and among all other things that need actions from a stronger UN to better the world.

It is true that the world is rapidly changing. The UN can not simply watch the world changing and act accordingly. To be effective, reforms have to be instituted. That's why the 2004 Report of the High-level Panel advises the UN and its Security Council "to be more proactive and acquire greater credibility, legitimacy and representation." It can start from reviewing the expediency of veto power from any permanent members of the SC. How can any of the five members take hostage the whole world in decision-making?

The world is changing and so the UN too. After 65 years, the UN has acted and not acted on issues with regards to its mandates to the world. Still, the UN remains our hope for peace in the world in spite of some shortcomings and failures.