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UN General Assembly to hear Annan overhaul plan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-21 16:30
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan awaited government reactions Monday for
sweeping reform proposals aimed at reconciling security concerns of rich states
with poor nations' battle against poverty and disease.
Proposing the most wide-ranging overhaul of the world body since its creation
in 1945, Annan recommended the expansion of the U.N. Security Council, a radical
program to combat poverty, a new human rights body, a condemnation of all forms
of terrorism and a series of management and watchdog reforms.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on Sunday called for 191
U.N. member nations to make a quick decision on expanding the 15-nation
Security Council but took no position on how the body should be reformed.
Annan is seen in this December 30, 2004 file photo speaking during a press
conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
[Reuters] | He was to formally present the 63-page report to the 191-member General
Assembly Monday in an effort to restore confidence in the world body, shaken by
the debate over the U.S. invasion of Iraq, corruption in the oil-for-food
program and revelations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers.
"This is a very doable deal," Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff,
said Sunday when the report was released.
"This is a package. Don't go for a la carte shopping on it," he said of the
proposals drawn from independent panels on security and poverty. Final proposals
are to be approved by world leaders at a summit in September.
Annan sought to balance U.S. and European concerns on terrorism and arms
proliferation and poor countries' focus on development. He stressed that freedom
must include freedom from want and the right to live in dignity.
"Even if he can vote to choose his rulers, a young man with AIDS who cannot
read or write and lives on the brink of starvation, is not truly free," Annan
wrote.
"Equally, even if she earns enough to live, a woman who lives in the shadow
of daily violence and has no say in how her country is run is not truly free,"
he said.
For the United States, Malloch Brown predicted Washington would would object
to a timetable for donating 0.7 percent of national income to "make poverty
history." The United States currently spends 0.1 percent for development.
On the use of force, the report seeks a Security Council resolution making
clear on when force is necessary. The Bush administration has insisted on the
right to act unilaterally,
"In today's world, no state, however powerful, can protect itself on its
own," Annan said.
The proposals also face objections from Arab nations because of a call for a
treaty that would define terrorism as any act intended "to cause death or
serious bodily harm to civilians." A treaty has been bogged down on arguments
about resistance fighters, code for Palestinian suicide bombers.
A key innovation calls for creation of a smaller Human Rights Council to
replace the 53-nation Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, many of whose
members are rights abusers seeking to protect other abusers. The new group would
be elected by a two-thirds General Assembly vote.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were quick to embrace this
proposal. But both cautioned that any overhaul should retain independent
investigators and the ability for witnesses and victims to testify.
Canada was the first nation to react. Its U.N. ambassador, Allan Rock, said
the report included many Canadian priorities such as the "responsibility to
protect" civilians from atrocities when governments failed to do so, and, as a
last resort, use military force.
"A lot of hard work lies ahead but we are optimistic," Rock said.
The humanitarian group Oxfam also stressed the responsibility to protect
civilians. "Millions of people are dying because of conflict and poverty while
rich countries are busy jostling for Security Council seats," said Nicola
Reindorp, head of Oxfam's New York office.
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