U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan put a brave face Saturday on modest reforms to the work of the United Nations, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world body needed nothing short of a revolution to become a real force in the 21st century.
Both spoke at the annual opening debate of the new General Assembly session, preceded in this, the 60th anniversary year of the United Nations, by a three-day summit of world leaders.
The summit endorsed a document mapping out approaches to poverty, terrorism, human rights and management of the U.N. but it was a much diluted blueprint after months of wrangling between developing nations and the West.
Annan: ‘Progress has been made’
Having said Wednesday that members had failed to achieve the fundamental reform he believed was needed, Annan sought Saturday to highlight the positive.
“Progress has been made across a broader front than on any other single occasion in the 60-year history of the organization,” Annan said.”
“The scale of this achievement seems to have been missed by some,” he added. “So let’s make sure we live up to our promises to the world’s poor.”
Among the gains of the summit were an unprecedented agreement on international responsibility to intervene to protect civilians from genocide, establishment of a peace-building commission to help nations recover from war and a reaffirmation of goals set in 2000 to halve poverty by 2015.
Rice calls for ‘revolution of reform’
But the document fudged a definition of what constitutes terrorism, reached no agreement on how to deal with the spread of weapons of mass destruction and did little on far-reaching reforms to the U.N.’s bureaucracy or its decision-making.
Rice, in her maiden speech to the General Assembly, said the United States wanted to see fundamental reform.
“For this institution to become an engine of change in the 21st century, it must now change itself. The United Nations must launch a lasting revolution of reform,” she said.
The United States has been among the most vocal critics of the United Nations, which many in Congress see as a bloated and inefficient body, particularly after revelations of corruption and mismanagement of the U.N.-run Iraq oil-for-food program and a sex abuse scandal involving peacekeepers.
Rice said the United States was open to expanding the 15-member U.N. Security Council, although it was among nations which thwarted the most serious attempt in decades to broaden the forum to include countries like Japan, Germany and Brazil.
Wrangling over terror definition
Rice urged leaders to adopt a comprehensive anti-terrorism treaty that would include a definition of terrorism outlawing attacks on civilians. The document deleted this definition, although it condemned terrorism in all its forms.
“No cause, no movement and no grievance can justify the intentional killing of innocent civilians and noncombatants,” Rice said. “This is unacceptable by any moral standard.”
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who chairs the 53-member African Union, said terrorism could not be “justified under any circumstances.” But he said a dangerous correlation existed between grinding poverty and political instability.
“Notwithstanding our efforts, poverty remains endemic in Africa,” he said. One way out of misery was new technology for farmers to combat drought and freer trade as an engine for economic growth through the lifting of subsidies and tariffs.
On development, Annan took credit for the summit having spurred the Group of Eight industrial nations to add $50 billion a year within five years in foreign aid.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said young Arabs were increasingly alienated because of limited economic prospects and “stunted political freedom.”
“Everyone knows that the Arab peoples want prosperity, freedom and democracy every bit as much as anyone in Europe or America,” Straw said, adding that the EU would strongly support political, social and economic reform by the Arab world.
