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UN Should Represent The Reality Of Today, Not 1945June 19, 2006 16:51 PM
UN Should Represent The Reality Of Today, Not 1945
PUTRAJAYA, June 19 (Bernama) -- Emerging countries which hold chairmanship in various international organisations should be given more room to participate in the deliberations at the United Nations and play a more constructive role.
United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, however, said that this was not the case due to the current UN system.
He said the UN and the global scenario of today was very much different from 1945 when the world body was formed after the Second World War, and new emerging countries such as Malaysia felt that they did not have a role to play.
"You look at the number of hats Malaysia is wearing...NAM (the Non-Aligned Movement), OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) and Asean. It should see Malaysia seated at the main table in all the political deliberations in New York (UN headquarters) and informally, you have an ambassador who could leverage on that (and) play a constructive and important role.
"The truth is, in an organisation (like the UN) the governance should represent the 2006 and not 1945," he told a group of Malaysian journalists here when asked about the progress of the reforms currently being undertaken by the UN.
Malloch Brown is here to attend the inaugural meeting of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development, a new initiative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to promote effective use of ICT for development.
Malloch Brown said once institutions like the UN Human Rights Council and the Peace Building Commission were fully developed, there would be more room for countries like Malaysia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to feel that there were more opportunities to contribute to a more decisive voice in the UN.
"I think when that happens, the argument about more power for the Secretary-General will be pulled away.
"The root point is that we are trying to change the management that was designed in 1945 but the problem is that the governance is held hostage to 1945," he said.
Citing the UN Human Rights Council (successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights), the new democracy fund to promote democracy throughout the world and a new revolving fund for early assistance in facing natural disasters, Malloch Brown said a lot of changes were underway at the UN but these were not enough.
He said in many ways, the world body of 191 member countries was much bigger in terms of its operations, where among others, there were currently 18 UN peacekeeping missions worldwide with some 80,000 troops.
"We are trying to build a management and human resource system and an institution able to deal with this kind of challenges, " he said.
-- BERNAMA
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