What the UN does for peace

Preserving world peace is a central purpose of the United Nations. Under the Charter, member states agree to settle disputes by peaceful means and refrain from threatening or using force against other states.

UN efforts have produced dramatic results. The UN helped defuse the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the Middle East crisis in 1973. In 1988 a UN-sponsored peace settlement ended the Iran-Iraq war. In the 1990s, the UN was instrumental in restoring sovereignty to Kuwait and played a major role in ending civil wars in Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mozambique.

UN peacemaking brings hostile parties to agreement through diplomatic means. The Security Council may recommend ways to avoid conflict or restore or secure peace – through negotiations, for example, or undertake mediation, or recourse to the International Court of Justice. In the event of fighting the UN tries to secure a ceasefire. It may send a peacekeeping mission to help the parties maintain the truce and to keep opposing forces apart. Peacekeeping operations may last for a few months or continue for many years.

Talking Point

Express your opinion on the following questions:

1. What recent actions or peacekeeping operations of the UN can you remember? Were they successful?

2. Do you think that the UN peacekeeping forces could substitute for NATO or EU forces in the future?

3. What role does the Secretary General play in the UN? How has it changed recently? Is the UN Secretary General an important political figure in the world?

Part 3  

United Nations Organization Reform

Rendering

One of the most important issues of the UN reform today is the reform of the Security Council. Since the 1990s, there has been growing controversy over which countries should have permanent seats on the Council. Some nations believe that other countries beside the original five should be included. For example, Japan and Germany are powerful countries that pay large membership dues and make substantial contributions to the UN, yet they do not have permanent seats. There is no easy solution to this problem. Adding more permanent members creates its own set of complications, including how to decide which countries get a seat and which do not. If Germany joined, three of the permanent members would be European, giving that region an unfair advantage. Several proposals for addressing this problem have been considered, including adding Germany and Japan as permanent members, waiving veto power of the permanent members, and limiting Council membership to one year. Thus far, none of the proposals have been adopted, partly because the present structure works well for the five permanent members and they can veto any changes to it.

Read the following English and Russian articles about the UN reform and render them:

Article 1

Security Council reform must result in profound changes –

Assembly President

Security Council reform must be about more than just changing the composition of its membership, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim says, calling on the body to be “based on an equilibrium of interests rather than a balance of power.” In an opinion column for the United Kingdom-based pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, published yesterday, Mr. Kerim wrote that reform of the Council must lead to “a new culture of international relations” based on full respects for human rights, human security, responsibility to protect and sustainable development.

While changing the Council’s composition is a necessary first step, it should not be viewed as an end in itself.

Instead, Council members should be “ready to share responsibility, willing and able to act to protect human life – as the body of last resort – whatever and wherever the threat may be.”

Mr. Kerim said such ideas are needed because “our present institutional structures are too rigidly anchored in an international system where pre-eminence is given to the State as the primary interlocutor and agent of change.”

He called for renewal of the UN as a whole, for the Bretton Woods institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and for other international and regional bodies.

Speaking to reporters today at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Kerim echoed those remarks.

Council reform, he said, must have “a more profound meaning than just enlargement. It has to mean adaptation of the institutions, of the United Nations above all, and that goes for the General Assembly and the Secretariat as well. It all has to adapt to a new, very different world.”

Yesterday the President told a working group on Council reform that Member States should show “effective flexibility” in their negotiations on reshaping the 15-member body, and ensure that the concerns of all sides are taken into account, especially those currently underrepresented.

April 2008

Article 2