UNITED NATIONS MUST UNDERGO FUNDAMENTAL, NOT PIECEMEAL, REFORM, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

22 September 1997

Press Release
SG/2039
ORG/1248

UNITED NATIONS MUST UNDERGO FUNDAMENTAL, NOT PIECEMEAL, REFORM, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

19970922 Three-Part Report on Organization's Work, Reviews Forces Shaping World Agenda, Efforts to Adopt and Guide Them

The United Nations must undergo fundamental, not piecemeal, reform, if it were to be the most effective instrument in the next millenium for the achievement of peace and progress "for our children and theirs", Secretary- General Kofi Annan said in his annual report on the work of the Organization currently before the General Assembly.

The report (document A/52/1), which he presented to the Assembly this morning -- the first time that a Secretary-General had ever done so in the 52- year history of the Organization -- is divided into three parts. In part I, entitled "Contours of the New Era", the Secretary-General highlights some of the key forces transforming the world around the United Nations. Part II, "Managing Change", presents an overview of the Organization's activities in the past year, with an emphasis on how they sought to adapt to and guide those forces and in conformity with the Charter and priorities set by Member States. The Secretary-General reflects -- in part III, "The Steps Ahead" -- on how and why his proposals for institutional reform, which he had submitted to the Assembly on 16 July, constitute a necessary first step in ensuring that the Organization remains a vital instrument of international collaboration as the world heads into a new millenium.

In discussing the key forces transforming the world, the Secretary- General highlighted the diverse ramifications of the end of the cold war; globalization, which he terms as the most profound source of international transformation since the industrial revolution.

Globalization has generated economic expansion and one of the most rapid changes in the shape of international economic relations. As a result, countries once mired in poverty only a generation ago have become economic Powers in their own right. Further, in the next generation, a majority of the most rapidly growing economies will be found in what is now the developing world.

However, globalization also poses crucial policy challenges. Among them are the risks of markets lacking regulatory safeguards, as in the case, sometimes, of international financial markets. Globalization is also eroding the effectiveness of policy instruments used by industrialized States to seek full employment and social stability after the Second World War. Developing countries, too, face challenges from the process. For example, the fruits of globalization gravitate towards a few, with China accounting for about 40 per cent of the direct foreign investment in developing countries and East Asia absorbing nearly two thirds. By contrast, Africa gets only 4 per cent, in an era that has seen the decline in official development assistance.

Despite the decline in public aid, he says, the State has critical roles to play in providing an environment for sustainable development. But finding the appropriate balance between the State sector and market forces, especially where civil society is weak, is very complex. And, that is where some United Nations "good governance" programmes come in: they are helping governments define the balance that best meets their needs.

Other factors shaping the international agenda are information technology revolution, on which globalization rests and is sustained; global environmental interdependencies; the transnational explosion of civil society, made possible by a combination of political and technological changes; a growing trend towards democratization and respect for human rights; and the menace of "uncivil society", organized crime, drug traffickers, money laundered and terrorists.

Finally, and somewhat paradoxically, he adds, these integrative trends are accompanied by tendencies towards fragmentation, which in some cases has led to intra-communal strife and conflict. The broad uncertainties and insecurities engendered by fundamental change frequently result in a heightened quest to define and reassert collective identities. At their best, identity politics provide a robust sense of social coherence and civil pride. At their worst, they result in the vilification of "the other, whether that other is a different ethnic group, a different religion, or a different nationality".

This exclusionary form of identity politics, he adds, has intensified and is responsible for some of the most egregious violations of humanitarian law and of elementary standards of humanity: genocidal violence, the conscious targeting of civilian populations; rape as a deliberate instrument of organizational terror; and attack on emergency relief workers and missions.

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Overarching Issues

Drawing attention to critical overarching issues that affect the Organization's future performance, he states that the fiscal precariousness of the United Nations is unprecedented and debilitating. "I hope and trust that we shall soon be able to put this problem behind us, and that in the future all Member States will fulfil their legal obligations to the Organization -- and one another -- by paying their dues in full and on time."

Noting that the resources available to international organizations, including the United Nations, are declining relative to the magnitude of the tasks they face, the Secretary-General states that the Organization must undergo fundamental, not piecemeal, reform. He outlines the following three related steps, each requiring the support of Member States.

First, it should create appropriate Secretariat structures to allow the Organization to act as one across its diverse areas of work and deploy its units without duplication. It was in order to ensure such an outcome that he has proposed the position of Deputy Secretary-General, the Senior Management Group, the Strategic Planning Unit, four sectoral Executive Committees and the United Nations Development Group, he argues.

[In his 16 July proposal (document A/51/950) the Secretary-General explains that the Sectoral Executive Committees are established in the following core areas to sharpen the contribution of each unit to the overall objectives of the Organization: peace and security; economic and social affairs; development cooperation; and humanitarian affairs. The Senior Management Group, chaired by the Secretary-General, includes the convenors of the four Executive Committees, plus several additional senior managers. It is primarily responsible for assisting him in leading the process of change. The Strategic Planning Unit will be charged with identifying emerging global trends, analysing their implications and devising policy recommendations for the Secretary-General and the Senior Management Group. The United Nations Development Group, comprising major development programmes and funds as well as departments and other relevant entities, is to facilitate joint policy formation and decision-making, encourage programmatic cooperation and realize management efficiencies.]

Then, he continues, the balance of functions between the Organization's legislative organs and the Secretary-General should be redressed by streamlining the Assembly's agenda, introducing "sunset" provisions for new mandates and moving to results-based budgeting system.

Finally, in speaking of United Nations staff, he asks Member States to help him devise personnel policies to provide the Organization with a functioning career development programme, meaningful criteria for performance

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evaluation with real incentives and disincentives, as well as a corporate culture that animates those who serve it.

Work of Organization

In reporting on the work of the Organization in the past year, the Secretary-General reviews the following areas: good governance, human rights and democratization; international economic cooperation and sustainable development; development operations; preventive diplomacy and disarmament; humanitarian action, peacekeeping and peace-building; and new transnational threats.

In its efforts to promote good governance, the Secretary-General says, the Organization's various entities have supported a large number of developing countries and those in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The support includes efforts to strengthen judiciaries, parliaments and electoral bodies as well as to promote civil service reforms and civic organizations.

For example, he continues, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has increased funds for good governance, which now account for more than one third of all UNDP allocations. Last July, the UNDP convened the first International Conference on Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity, bringing to United Nations Headquarters elected officials, judges and community leaders from more than 100 countries. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), too, has helped women in Africa, for instance, to effectively campaign for public office. Similarly, the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs has supported training programmes for women as voters, electoral officials and candidates.

In human rights, Mr. Annan says he has consolidated the Office of the High Commissioner and the Centre for Human Rights and appointed the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, as High Commissioner for Human Rights. Further, some 15 United Nations projects were under way, helping Member States set up institutions for promoting human rights. The United Nations human rights programme also addresses threats to the right to life, to freedom of expression and movement, and to independence of the judiciary. By July 1997, he says, 191 States had become parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

With growing trends towards democratization in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, the Secretary-General continues, the United Nations has received up to 80 requests for electoral assistance in the last five years. Looking to the next year, Mr. Annan says 1998 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Assembly

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will review the progress made in implementing the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action in Human Rights.

In the field of international economic cooperation and sustainable development, a priority in the Organization's medium-term plan for 1998-2001, the Secretary-General states that two major events highlight the Organization's work in that area. One is the Assembly's adoption of the Agenda for Development, which addresses not only conventional development issues but also stresses mutually supportive though complex relationships among development, peace, democracy, good governance and human rights.

The other is the nineteenth special session of the Assembly to review the implementation of Agenda 21, the plan of action for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The special session stressed the need for developed countries to increase their financial and technological support to developing States, if they were to effectively pursue environmental goals.

The Secretary-General also states that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has refocused its policy analysis work, intergovernmental deliberations and operational activities, and has streamlined its intergovernmental and secretariat structures. It is examining the relationship between globalization and development, together with ways of promoting the effective integration of all developing countries into the international trading system.

On development operations, the Secretary-General says that the UNDP fosters capacities for poverty eradication and sustainable human development from 132 field offices serving more than 170 States. In 1996, it introduced a new resource allocation formula which assigns nearly 90 per cent of its core funds of some $850 million to low-income countries. It also began a Poverty Strategies Initiative which helps national partners assess the distribution of poverty nationwide.

Another core member of the newly constituted United Nations Development Group, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), spent some 70 per cent of its programme expenditures on protecting children in low-income countries, who account for 70 per cent of the world's child population, according to the Secretary-General. Total 1996 UNICEF spending was $921 million, two thirds of which were spent on Africa and Asia. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with 1996 pledged contributions of just above $300 million, formulated 47 new country programmes focusing on reproductive health, population and development strategies and advocacy. The World Food Programme (WFP) devoted about one third of its $1.4 billion resources to development.

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Secretary-General Annan informs the Assembly that, in the area of preventive diplomacy and disarmament, he has taken initiatives to revitalize some flagging processes of settlement in three disputes: Western Sahara, Cyprus and East Timor. He has appointed high-level emissaries to each and in the case of Western Sahara, former United States Secretary of State, James Baker III, is on the verge of producing a breakthrough in the effort to carry out a referendum on that territory's future. Furthermore, he has sent a United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative to the Great Lakes region, Mohamed Sahnoun, to seek peace in that area, and an investigative team to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to establish the facts regarding charges of acts of genocide in that country's transition from the former Zaire to its current dispensation.

In the area of disarmament, he continues, treaties covering a wide range of weapons of mass destruction have been negotiated, extended or bolstered, or have entered into force. Efforts under way through the Ottawa process to ban anti-personnel landmines should be universally encouraged, and means to eliminate them adopted at the earliest opportunity. He recalls his proposal to create a department of disarmament and arms regulation in the Secretariat.

United Nations agencies provide humanitarian aid to persons displaced by conflicts, which are estimated at 40 million people, the Secretary-General continues. While the number of refugees helped by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) dropped in 1996 from 15.5 million to 13.2 million, the internally displaced people it catered for number about 5 million of the total 20 million to 25 million worldwide.

Contributing to United Nations efforts, the WFP conducted 57 relief operations, six of which -- the Great Lakes region, Angola, Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia and the former Yugoslavia -- accounted for more than two thirds of all relief provided. The stagnation of donations to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has led to a decline in its services to about 3.4 million Palestinian refugees.

In its peacekeeping role, the Organization has sent some 22,500 troops and civilian police to 16 missions around the globe, Mr. Annan says. They are to be found in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and West Africa. Noting that the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court has almost completed its work on a draft statute, the Secretary-General states that the establishment of such a court would profoundly contribute to post-conflict peace-building.

The Secretary-General discusses the Organization's role in combating new transnational threats to national security, economic development and democracy, the "uncivil society" that take the form of transnational networks of crime, drug trafficking, money-laundering and terrorism. Among efforts to

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contain the threats are the consolidation of several relevant functions into a single Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Vienna and the appointment of an expert on organized crime, Pino Arlacchi, to lead it. The Assembly, for its part, has established an Ad hoc Committee to elaborate new international conventions to suppress terrorist bombings and acts of nuclear terrorism.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) helped counter drug trafficking by assisting 15 governments draft and implement national drug laws and by sponsoring cross-border cooperation among drug law enforcement agencies, including in the border zones between Iran and Pakistan and between India and Pakistan. It established closer cooperation with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and helped 15 eastern and southern African States detect new drug trafficking trends. To cut drug traffickers' economic muscle, the UNDCP finances a $4.3 million global programme to improve the capacity of law enforcement systems by creating financial intelligence units to counter money-laundering.

The past year has seen significant gains in advancing the cause of international law, in elevating the quality of the Organization's management systems and in sharpening its message about its activities, states the Secretary-General in elaborating programmes in legal affairs, management and communications.

Assistance is provided in efforts to establish an international criminal court, in removing obstacles to international trade through the progressive harmonization and unification of international trade laws, and to various institutions created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Implementation of the Organization's management plan has been accelerated, seeking improvement in five key areas: human resources; the overall work programme; information; technology; and cost structure. The Secretary-General notes that hostage-taking constitutes a new threat to United Nations personnel. Since September 1996, 47 staff members have been held hostage for varying periods of time and 21 civilian staff members have lost their lives in the performance of their duties.

In the area of information, the Secretary-General states that he has acted on the recommendations to fundamentally revamp the Organization's communications strategy and practices made by a task force of prominent communications experts. Elaborating on the current emphasis on the Internet, he states that the CyberSchoolBus, an interactive on-line educational programme, was launched last October. Dividends from the Internet include an increase in sales of United Nations publications. Press releases are posted instantly, reaching a vast new audience and allowing for a 25 per cent decrease in print runs. However, as information technology is not universally available, traditional media -- press, radio and television -- continued to be used.

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