Annan: A Quiet Revolution in the United Nations

By

Nduka Uzuakpundu

ozieni@yahoo.com

The on-going attempt by Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to reform the world body has opened up a lively debate and series of intervention by member-states. The main focus of the reform, which is informed by the bombing of the United States on September 11, 2001, is the Security Council. In response to the recommendations of the 16-member High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, Annan is pressing for a two-pronged expansion of the Security Council from 14 to 24 seats, with six new permanent positions as part of Option A, under which two of the new permanent seats will be occupied by African countries. There will be an increase in the number of semi-permanent seats, under Option B, to be occupied by states, whose representatives will be elected for four years on a rotational basis, instead of two years as is presently the practice.

Annan’s initiative could be seen as a second major attempt – since the one sponsored by Senegalese Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, in the ’80s, to give the world a new information order. M’Bow attempt drew the ire, as it were, of the western media – for what was allegedly his intendment to dictate to them how well, for one, they should portray Africa – and the rest of the developing countries – to the world. It was felt, in some quarters, that M’Bow, who was, then, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), wanted to wrest from western media the control of what is news; by implication, what is read and viewed via the print and broadcast media by more than 70 percent of the world’s population. M’Bow, who was seen as a disguised African dictator, that was trying to re-define or tamper with press freedom, lost. But underlying the fierce battle for a new world information order was the issue of durable human development: how best to extricate African and other countries of the South from such issues as crushing foreign debt, disease, famine, wars, refugee crisis, coups, irresponsible political leadership, corruption and, amongst others, environmental degradation and abuse of human rights. In effect, issues that African states and governments, and their counterparts elsewhere in the South, had failed to address adequately, such that, in the eyes of the western press, they had come to be seen as founts of attractive streamers and journalistic enterprise.

  Currently, it appears Annan has triggered off some revolutionary thoughts about the way forward for the world body. Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq by a group of countries led by the United States and Britain, one of the greatest challenges that has faced the world body is the restitution of respect to international law. Professor Amechi Uchegbu of the University of Lagos, Akoka, argued, at a recent skull session on U.N. reforms, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, that the U.N. was facing internal contradictions on account of frequent breaches of its constitution by member-states, especially with respect to unilateral use of force. The Charter of the U.N., he observed, was not equipped to defend itself against the command and machinations of super-powers, especially the United States of America, which bullies the developing countries into towing, not the line of the Charter, but that of its foreign policy. Situated in its territory, and contributing largely to its funding, Washington sees the world body, as Uchegbu put it: “as an instrument given to it by the world to maintain, create or re-create the world in its own image.” Might the world body be considering – to Uchegbu’s happiness – a re-location of the headquarters of the United Nations to another country in a strident protest against the rascally behaviour of the United States and her allies in their invasion of Iraq! Because the maintenance of world peace is not the sole responsibility of member-states alone, but also that of peoples, non-governmental agencies, and multi-national companies, some voices say the membership of the world body should be expanded to accommodate big industries. That, in part, is for the fact some of them are richer than some member-states of the world body, which find it hard, at times, to pay their dues. With such opulent agencies and multinationals, it’s being offered, the world body could, in times of international peace-keeping operations, have easy access to funds that are not entirely committed to noble causes. “No,” said Uchegbu, in that to admit the multi-national companies or the NGOs – most of whom are agents of imperialism – to the world body would hasten the process of recolonisation of developing countries. Still, in consonance with the changes going on in global politics, these corporate bodies or multinational companies, need to cultivate habits that are helpful to the peace of the world. Global environment and consumers safety, for instance, have suffered a great deal on account of the activities of the multinational corporations in places where, say, oil exploration is on – as in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska, in the United States. Elsewhere, multinational corporations are the ones that, in their indecent bid for filthy and sickeningly immoral profit, consciously, offer poison, like the cancer stick, for sale, especially to the youths, who constitute the reserve of labour force in developing countries. Their best mirror is the Green Peace Movement (GPM), which craves a safe world through consumer friendly environmental practices: a cessation of the emission of gases that harm the protective ozone layer, under sea nuclear tests etc. Perhaps, for its record of campaigning for social justice and environmental safety, the GPM should be accorded a visible position in the world body.

Indeed, Uchegbu’s position informs the need for the U.N. to compile a list of individuals – including operatives of the Burmese (Myanmar) junta, who are currently holding the Nobel Laureate, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi – illegally – under house arrest, governments that hound or murder journalists – and multi-nationals: oil, tobacco and defence corporations amongst them; that have been party to stirring crises – abuse of human rights, war, environmental pollution, proliferation of small arms, food insecurity, encouragement of bad governance via looting of national treasuries and transferring their contents to banks in foreign climes. Such notorious acts – and more – which, to this day, have been conspiratorial to virtually all indexes of underdevelopment, in most countries of the South, oughtn’t only to be frowned upon, but expiated – in registration of the determination of a world that no longer would be tolerant of both executive or corporate misconduct. The Israelis, who have suffered untold hardship in the hands of racial bigots, because of an unfair global order, might be good hands to compile such a list. They can very easily retail to a listening Annan the names of organisations and individuals who have been adjuncts to the financing and fuelling of such barbarous acts as using human beings as guinea pigs or commission of genocide or war crimes. Beyond Uchegbu’s expectations, there is a compelling need – and this is at the risk of sounding rather platitudinous – to reform the manner in which international commerce is conducted such that farmers and industrialists in Africa and other countries of the South would have a fair access to and gain from international trade, without such barriers as subsidies that the policy-makers in the European Union and North America are using, presently, to their disadvantage.

Uchegbu’s proposal that the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at The Hague, should be made compulsory – and not optional, with the General Assembly or the Security Council empowered to enforce compliance with such ruling, may avoid a repeat of the illegal invasion of Iraq. It could also dissuade ‘a future Iraq’ from either offending the mullahs of a post-Shah Iran or deter a belligerent Baghdad from invading Kuwait to the extent of igniting a war. Such a regime could hold back China and Japan and other claimants to the Diaoyu, Spratlys and other oil-rich islands in the Far East from going to war. It could discourage Morocco from occupying phosphate-rich Sahraoui Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) or Somalia invading Ethiopia’s Ogaden region under the pretext of revanchism. The last two instances were in breach of the Charter of the defunct Oganisation of African Unity, which spoke eloquently of the inviolability of the continent’s post-colonial borders.

For that, Uchegbu offered, the article of the U.N. Charter – 2(4) – governing the use of force should simply read: “The threat or the use of force by States against another State(s) is illegal and constitutes an act of aggression, which is a crime against peace.” And, as an extension of that, the International Criminal Court, in Rome, should be incorporated into the U.N. system and made its organ – and its jurisdiction should, as it appears to be the case, include the trials of persons for crimes against peace. And no country, besides, should – no matter its military prowess or influence in global affairs – be tolerated if it refuses to present its citizen for trial at the ICJ for alleged war crimes or crimes against humanity. The General Assembly, currently seen as “the talking shop of the world,” which makes resolutions, while the minority at the Security Council make binding decisions, should be reformed. It should be given the powers to make decisions. The position taken by Uchegbu was that Article 7 should be recrafted to reflect its decision-making status, and because the veto power is an anachronistic, dictatorial, irrational and undemocratic instrument, it should be abolished. His presentation, which may have been voiced rather aggressively, was more of an appeal for a safer and just world – a world where individual and corporate conducts would be well moderated for the common good of law and order, peace and security, justice and sustainable human development.

* Uzuakpundu is a journalist on the Foreign Affairs Desk of a Lagos-based newspaper – VANGUARD.