Main focus of Thursday, September 25, 2008

The UN seeks direction

The 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations currently meeting in New York presents the picture of an institution seeking direction. Amid the international financial crisis, competition for raw materials, discussions on climate protection and military missions, its member states are demanding clear rules for facing the challenges of globalisation. The European press questions the international body's ability to act.

ABC - Spain

The daily newspaper ABC writes that to meet the global challenges it faces, the UN is in urgent need of reform: "Once again the traditional plenary meeting of the General Assembly has been transformed into a tribunal where the most important heads of state gather for a ceremony whose sole major consensus in its 60-year existence has been to agree it should be repeated the following year. The existence of the UN as an organisation for uniting the world powers and solving global challenges by multilateral means should under no circumstances be called into question. Yet the time may have come to reflect seriously on whether the UN as we know it is able to fulfill its tasks, and whether a basic reform of its structures and objectives should not be carried out as soon as possible. ... The UN's democratic values are clearly set out in its Declaration of Human Rights. If it declines to defend these values against the dictators in its own ranks then it is not neutral, but supports the very governments that trample their citizens' freedoms underfoot." (25/09/2008)

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Le Figaro - France

The United Nations Organisation is far from achieving its aims and is crippled by institutional problems, complains the liberal-conservative newspaper Le Figaro. "In the General Assembly's 63rd session the UN will seek to show its best side: that of an assembly of nations representing the weakest and the strongest states. But the recent blocking of its executive - the Security Council - underscores the need for reform. As things stand now the UN is more than ever a resonating body. ... With 100,000 Blue Helmets in operation the institution has never been as highly in demand as it is today. But comes up against regional interests. Its multilateral approach is sometimes seen as an attack on national sovereignty. The result: the Security Council cannot reach a consensus. It becomes powerless as soon as a crisis divides the five members with veto powers. ... Nevertheless all agree on one point: reform is urgently needed, and could begin in the months to come." (23/09/2008)

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Večer - Slovenia

The proposal put forward by Slovenian president and former UN ambassador Danilo Türk to increase the UN Security Council to 25 members has not fallen on deaf ears, owing, in the opinion of the Slovenian daily Večer, to Türk's having worked for the organisation for many years. "If we understand Türk correctly, a structure like this would make it possible to get around a veto - the trump card the great powers have played against each other only too often. The UN is a rigid bureaucratic organisation. ... It is often rocked by scandals and is frequently left entirely helpless. Just remember what happened with Srebrenica! But in reality it is all we have. And at any given moment it is needed somewhere in the world. Even [US president] George W. Bush conceded as much on Tuesday when he said that the UN's role must be strengthened. This is a complete reversal of his former views, brought about among other things by the financial crisis in the US, for which everyone, in particular the world's poorest, will pay. But this, too, could give this would-be world government the decisive impulse for change to and also for more efficiency." (25/09/2008)

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Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

The international community of states lacks binding rules in all matters, writes the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Anything and everything seems to cross borders as if weightless, be it raw materials, climate gases, information or weapons. The world has long been over-globalised and under-regulated. ... Not only do we need a new legal order, we also need new institutions. The perceived age of the Security Council structure is 200 years, and at G8 meetings emerging markets like China, India and Brazil are still sitting on the sidelines. And the best UN organisations are persistently ignored. It is symptomatic that no one is talking these days of Ecosoc, the UN's Economic and Social Council. ... The fact is that it will not be enough to just lengthen the conference tables as long as there is no basic consensus among the states with the biggest say. ... National interests - which are primarily financial - still dominate everything, and frustration at the other party's intransigence has led states to prefer national or regional solutions over global ones." (25/09/2008)

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