FAILURE OF CONGRESS TO ACT ON PAYMENT OF ARREARS RAISES TROUBLING QUESTIONS ABOUT UNITED STATES, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Press Release
SG/SM/6404
FAILURE OF CONGRESS TO ACT ON PAYMENT OF ARREARS RAISES TROUBLING QUESTIONS ABOUT UNITED STATES, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
19971124 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address on "Tomorrow's United Nations" to be delivered tonight at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University:It is truly a pleasure to join you here today at this great centre of higher learning. Our respective institutions are already engaged in a spirited dialogue. Just last week, Dean Rothschild joined other deans of schools of international affairs for breakfast at the United Nations. We discussed ways of reaching and educating the next generation of world leaders and citizens, and I am grateful for their advice and support.
Princeton has produced an impressive number of Nobel prize winners over the years -- physicists, molecular biologists, mathematicians and others. They and their fellow laureates around the world are among our most valuable intellectual resources. Several of them, I should add, particularly in the field of economics, have worked for the United Nations in the course of their careers.
Recently I wrote to all living Nobel laureates, asking whether I might look to them from time to time for advice and ideas. I hope I will not embarrass Princeton's own Professor Philip Anderson of the physics department by revealing that he was one of the quickest to reply. He expressed his willingness to be of service. He also offered an amusing comparison between our respective lines of work. Scientists, he noted, often turn out to be correct, but only in the long run; whereas the art of politics is being right only at the right time!
As Secretary-General, timing is always very much on my mind, especially now, as I approach the end of my first year in office.
I began my tenure as Secretary-General with a vision of tomorrow's United Nations: a revitalized Organization, a transformed instrument of service to humankind.
I knew the Organization had to question long-held assumptions, update outmoded practices and readjust its priorities for the changing needs of a new global era. At the same time, I was proud of the Organization's many achievements. I knew we needed to build on that record.
Throughout 1997, as in previous years, the international community has looked again and again to the United Nations for action on a wide range of global concerns.
As rebellion engulfed the former Zaire, United Nations relief workers provided emergency assistance to refugees and displaced persons; United Nations envoys helped negotiate a peaceful transfer of power; and United Nations human rights experts were called into action in an attempt to investigate allegations of atrocities and other violations.
As conflict continued to plague an already devastated Afghanistan, the United Nations was asked to help mitigate suffering and to protect the rights of women and girls facing strictures and harassment solely because of their gender. We also embarked on a new effort to rid the country of drug crops.
And when Iraq again placed obstacles in the way of United Nations arms inspectors, the United Nations was the centre of multilateral efforts to secure Iraq's compliance with Security Council mandates. Let me remind you that more arms have been destroyed by the United Nations Special Commission than during the Gulf war itself. Only the United Nations could have had the legitimacy and the authority to accomplish this.
Such crises and conflicts are perennial features of the United Nations calendar. They demonstrate the ongoing utility of the Organization even as they offer a sad commentary on the human proclivity for conflict and bloodshed.
But the past year also witnessed something entirely new at the United Nations: a robust, good-faith effort at reforming the Organization. This reflects a counter-phenomenon, if you will: the human capacity for hope.
The reform effort now under way is premised on the belief that the United Nations needs to be more coherent, more agile and more unified in responding to the increasingly complex tasks placed before it by the Member States. As the world changes, so must the world Organization.
At the very outset of my administration, I initiated a thorough review of our activities. I began introducing changes in the way our work was organized, and in how that business was carried out.
In July, I submitted to the General Assembly a programme for reform and renewal containing the most extensive and far-reaching reforms in the 52-year
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history of the Organization. Member States have since discussed the plan in great detail.
Just 12 days ago, little noticed amid the confrontation between Iraq and the Security Council, the General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing the first part of my plan -- those measures within my authority -- in its entirety.
That was an important moment in the history of the United Nations, not least because it showed that the Organization can reform itself.
I am pleased to recall that the United Nations will have, with the new year, continued zero growth in its budget. The number of staff will be 25 per cent smaller than 13 years ago. Departments with overlapping work and mandates have been merged. Administrative costs are being reduced by one third.
But reform is far more than the sum of its cuts.
Administrative savings are to become a dividend for development activities. We are beefing up our fight against drug traffickers, money launderers, criminals and terrorists -- the insidious forces of what I call "uncivil society".
A code of conduct has been drawn up to hold the staff to the highest standards of professional ethics. A focal point for our expanded dealings with the private sector will be established so that the vast power of business and industry can be better harnessed for the common good.
I have put in place a new leadership and management structure, with a senior management group that meets weekly to improve coordination and consultation. Our embrace of new technologies enables colleagues from Geneva, Vienna and elsewhere to participate in these meetings by teleconference.
Member States are now discussing a range of additional measures that require their approval.
I have proposed creating the post of Deputy Secretary-General.
I have called for there to be sunset provisions for all new mandates.
I have recommended a shift to results-based budgeting, which will be an antidote to micromanagement, while sacrificing nothing in terms of performance and accountability.
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And I have suggested that a commission examine ways to achieve greater coherence among the wider system of specialized agencies -- each of which answers to its own governing body.
This commission would report to a special "Millennium Assembly" in the year 2000, at which world leaders would articulate a vision of prospects and challenges for the new century and beyond. To underscore my commitment to popular participation, I have proposed that a "Millennium Forum" of non-governmental and civil society organizations be held concurrently.
These are just some of the measures that are propelling the United Nations forward. Taken together, they compare favourably with any such reforms yet undertaken by any public sector organization, anywhere. They are advancing the interests of people everywhere -- including in the United States.
The benefits of the United Nations for the United States have always been clear. But do not just take my word for it.
In August 1996, a distinguished panel reflecting a broad spectrum of American political opinion, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the financier-philanthropist George Soros, concluded that the United Nations had served United States interests well when United States presidents had a clear and firm position.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright herself told the Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee that the United Nations and international organizations "contribute in varied and cost-effective ways to our security, prosperity and safety".
But beyond pragmatic notions such as burden-sharing and legitimacy, there is an affinity of basic values -- a fundamental bond that stretches back to the very origins of the Organization in President Roosevelt's inspired summons to form a global instrument of common progress.
That is one of the main reasons I was so dismayed by the recent failure by Congress to enact legislation on the payment of United States arrears to the United Nations.
The vote was of course on the unrelated domestic issue of abortion, meaning that the legislation concerning the United Nations was not considered on its own merits. Instead, we became a bargaining chip in a high-stakes game. That status is not worthy of this great Organization at any time, but especially not now.
At a time when the United Nations is rising to the challenge of reform, and at a time when it is proving its mettle yet again in coping with the Iraqi
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threat to international peace and security, the troubling asymmetry between what the Member States want of the Organization and what they actually allow it to be is especially stark.
Indeed, although the legislation concerned money, the message sent by Congress was unreservedly political. But that message was not about United States confidence in the United Nations; by now, that is well-trodden terrain.
Rather, the message concerns the United States itself: for troubling questions are being raised by such an action. Is Washington's will to lead diminishing even as many around the globe look to it for leadership? Is it no longer convinced of the myriad benefits to be had from multilateral cooperation even as it seeks multilateral cooperation in Iraq? Is it prepared to step away from the world of expanding freedom, democracy, growth and opportunity that it did so much to bring about?
In an age of globalization, the United States needs the United Nations, and the United Nations needs the United States. This is one of the pivotal relationships of our day.
I know that President Clinton and his Administration, for their part, are committed to supporting the Organization and the reforms I have undertaken. I have every expectation that this situation will soon turn for the better.
In the meantime, the Organization faces perhaps the most serious cash crisis in its history. Ted Turner's gift of $1 billion was a wonderful boost. But his generosity will not alter the cash crisis and in no way substitutes for the responsibility of Member States to meet their financial obligations.
That is why I have asked the General Assembly to provide urgent advice on two fronts: how to ensure prompt payment of Member States' dues, and whether to continue borrowing from peacekeeping cash for regular budget purposes.
Our options for speeding up our cash flow include a number of possible incentives and disincentives. These are not my recommendations, but ideas being considered by Member States. For example, countries paying in full and on time could receive discounts on their dues.
Some think disincentives would have more bite. There could be stricter implementation of the Charter provision under which Member States lose voting rights in the General Assembly if they fall two years behind in their payments.
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We could also consider charging interest on debts. Recruitment of nationals from debtor countries could be suspended. So could procurement in those countries.
Some say the United Nations should be able to borrow from the World Bank or from commercial lenders.
My reform plan proposes a revolving credit fund, financed from voluntary contributions or other means, to draw on in time of need.
Such measures are all controversial; a few raise legal questions, are possibly inconsistent with the Charter and might even be counter-productive. I mention them only to give you a taste of the debate.
Currently, we are borrowing from peacekeeping to cover our regular budget costs. This is imprudent at best, and inhibits our ability to reimburse troop-contributing countries. It is in fact the forbearance of this group -- many of them poor developing nations -- that is helping us to survive the cash shortages caused by late payments by major contributors. It is ironic that, in effect, Bangladesh, Fiji, Ghana and Nepal are advancing interest-free loans to the United States.
But with the reduced level of United Nations peacekeeping even this source of funds is being depleted. Something, somewhere, has to give.
The United Nations needs both the support and the constructive criticism of its Member States. My reform plan has been drawn up in that spirit; a spirit of honest partnership and shared commitment to a truly global mission.
I have described the process as a quiet revolution, but it is also time to make a little noise. About our long record of achievement. About our efforts for development, environmental protection, human rights and the rest of the humanitarian agenda, which comprises 80 per cent of our work. And, in the broadest sense, about our determination to take full advantage of this extraordinary moment of promise in world affairs.
Another Princeton Nobel laureate, Albert Einstein, once suggested that fear of atomic energy could have the beneficial effect of intimidating the human race into bringing order into its international affairs. However, while fear of atomic energy is still with us, so is disorder.
Allow me to suggest that tomorrow's United Nations, though lacking both the desire and the power to intimidate, could well be the vehicle through which humankind realizes its highest aspirations for peace, justice and well-being. I am dedicated to this cause. I know I can count on you to help.
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