Irrelevant or Indispensable?: The United Nations in the Twenty-first Century

16. Managing the Reform Agenda: A Call for Timely Action

Today’s context differs from the one which was prevailing when the UN was founded in 1945. The membership has grown from 51 to 191 member states, the Cold War has come to an end, and we are living in a globalized and interdependent world. As highlighted in the High-level Panel’s report, the world is facing many more challenges and threats of a much more complex nature. There is a growing demand for accountability, welfare, freedom and democracy between and within nations. In addition to that, the world body itself reveals some weaknesses in its functioning as it was mentioned yesterday by Mme. Louise Fréchette, Deputy Secretary General, and right now, by Dr. Bruce Jones. In this context, reforming the United Nations, whose value for the international community is unquestionable, far from being a simple routine exercise, has become a vital necessity. Today there is indeed general agreement that the time is ripe and favourable to carry out an effective reform of the UN. We must respond efficiently to the many threats to peace and collective security on the one hand, and to the pressing and legitimate expectations for development needs, liberty and human dignity on the other hand. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Lord Hannay and right now Dr. Bruce Jones have already explained these proposals. The question is what kind of organization do we need in order to effectively tackle the challenges before us, for we have no other choice but to act collectively and without delay if we are to succeed. The Secretary General’s report of 21 March 2005 entitled, In Larger Freedom: Toward Development, Security and Human Rights for All, on which Dr. Bruce Jones has developed his comment, constitutes in this jean ping 16 MANAGING THE REFORM AGENDA a call for timely action 177 regard a timely and important contribution to our quest for answers. The report offers a thorough and in-depth review of the current situation and presents us with a number of ideas and proposals on which member states will have to make important decisions. This report draws largely from both the High-level Panel and the Millennium Project reports initiated by the Secretary General. Both reports were debated at length by the General Assembly in December 2004 and in January and February 2005, respectively. The discussions revealed a great deal of ideas. They also showed that given the nature and sensitivity of the issues on the table, acting thereon would require both a shared sense of urgency and a strong political will. Hence, at stake is the question you have rightly asked us to address, namely, “how to move from ideas to action?” This implies that ideas alone will not be sufficient to change the way we do business at the UN. In fact, action, collective and effective action, is needed. But what does it mean for an international organization with 191 member states, “moving from ideas to action?” How can their often diverging interests be reconciled and set on the course of a coherent and efficient action? In other words, what is to build up the political convergence required to perform a balanced and actionable reform? What is the appropriate methodology to reach this end? Given the time constraint, I will just put forward some answers to those crucial questions and outline some of the steps already taken by the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly. The High-level Plenary Meeting to be held in New York in September 2005 will coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. This is the time when world leaders will gather to solemnly adopt the series of decisions that would define the new role and architecture of the United Nations. Member states all agree that this will be a decisive occasion. It is in this context that we have been engaged since the beginning of the fifty-ninth session in a continuous and active consultations process. This process is twofold. First, it aims at adopting the modalities for the organization of the High-level Plenary Meeting in September , and secondly its purpose is to ensure a framework for thorough consultations on the substantive issues before the member states. Besides designing the practical arrangements for the meeting, the modalities include, inter alia, organizing: • the informal interactive hearings of the civil society, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in June 2005; 178 jean ping • the high-level...