The United Nations celebrates its 61st anniversary this year. From a conference of 51 countries, it is now a world-wide organization of 192 member-states—all bannering the United Nations Charter which upholds peace, inter and intra-state security, economic development, human rights promotion, among others. However, over the recent years, the relevance of the United Nations has been questioned: Has it fulfilled the roles it is expected to perform? Does it have actual powers or is it just another organization undermined by nations of greater influence?
FROM A CONFERENCE TO A TRULY GLOBAL SERVICE PROVIDER
This is how outgoing United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan describes the evolution of the world’s topmost universal organization. The statement was reiterated by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto Romulo in his keynote address during the opening ceremonies of the 61-year old organization at the Department’s Bulwagang Apolinario Mabini last October 19.
Attended by political and diplomatic dignitaries, the Philippine celebration kicked off with a photo exhibit of the various UN agencies and was highlighted with an unveiling of a commemorative stamp by the Philippine’s Postmaster General Hector Villanueva and a recognition of the recipients of the Diplomatic Order of the Knights of St. Gabriel Humanitarian Award of Merit by its Secretary-General Ramon Jose Sebastia-Moreno and of the members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations’ Philippine contingent from the Armed Forces and the National Police who have served in East Timor, Iraq, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Kosovo.
FROM 51 TO 192
In 1945, representatives from 50 countries signed the United Nations Charter in a conference held in San Francisco. It was ratified soon afterwards in October 24 of the same year. Original members of the UN include China, France, Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Poland was not represented during the Conference but became one of the original 51 countries. The Philippines as well as India, Belarus and Ukraine were also original members although they were not independent states at the time. Today, there are 192 member states constituting the United Nations, the most recent of which are Switzerland and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste or East Timor, which both joined in September 2002.
The UN’s purposes, as laid out in the Charter, are to “maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, cooperate in solving international, economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these ends.”
NEW SECRETARY GENERAL
Last October 3, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon accepted his appointment from the General Assembly as the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. In his acceptance speech in New York, he elaborated on the virtue of modesty, saying that “the true measure of success for the UN is not how much we promise but how much we deliver for those who need us most.” He is
the second Asian to be Secretary-General after Burmese U Thant in the 1960s.
Ban holds a degree in international relations from Seoul National University and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University. He has worked in the Korean foreign service offices in New Delhi, New York City, Washington and Austria as well as established posts in the United Nations.
The Secretary-General-designate will formally start functioning as the highest diplomat in the world on January 1 next year when Annan steps down on December 31 after a 10-year tenure. Ban is expected to further the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are a set of eight goals which serves as a blueprint for all nations to 1) eradicate extreme poverty, 2) achieve universal primary education, 3) promote gender equality, 4) reduce child mortality, 5) improve maternal health, 6) combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, 7) ensure environmental sustainability and 8) develop a global partnership for development, all by 2015.
THE UN TODAY
Sixty-one years hence, how relevant is the UN? Some sectors have criticized that the organization has only been titular and has not fully lived out the roles it was expected to perform. Arguably, the UN is undermined by powerful nations such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The UN Charter was drawn up after the Second World War for the purpose of maintaining international peace but its failure to prevent wars such as the Cold War and the Gulf War has put a question mark on the institution’s real powers and influence.
The settlement of international disputes was also one of the key premises for the establishment of the UN, yet issues of genocide in African nations have proposed that maybe the UN only has a series of broken promises under its belt. In addition, the services that the UN had rendered have
been labeled as vague and inconsequential in comparison to the degree of the necessity.
In his acceptance statement the Secretary-General-designate Ban assured that the “UN’s abiding relevance” is attested by the “surge in demand for UN services”. He added that the UN’s role is evolving from keeping countries fighting each other to strengthening the inter-state system in order to beef up the “weakening or absence of effective governance leading to the ravaging of human rights and the abandonment of longstanding humanitarian principles.”
In his address during the opening ceremonies, DFA Assistant Secretary of the Office of United Nations Aladin Villacorte said that the UN has a “mixed record of successes and failures.” Admitting
that this organization, which started from 51 to now nearly two hundred, has its own share of “perceived weaknesses” especially in facing the challenges of the millennium, it is “still healthy” and is able to come up with an agenda that addresses today’s pressing issues. He challenges closer working relations among nations with the premise that “combined efforts will make for a safer and prosperous world.”
On a similar note, Sec. Romulo challenged all member-nations as well as host countries and organizations to look at the United Nations “not as an abstract Picasso painting but a drawing we make ourselves.”
“BIG STEPS” BUT MORE
Terrorism, environmental degradation, pandemics and human rights violations—these are the
new challenges of the United Nations. “Fifty years later, the world is a much more complex place,”
said Ban, admitting the imperfections of the UN at the same time being an optimist in its potential. He said, “ I am elated by the success of the UN in making life better for countless people and I have also been pained by scenes of its failures.”
In his message on the United Nations Day last October 24, Annan detailed the “big steps” that the
organization has achieved over his ten-year tenure: aid and debt relief, increasing response to HIV and AIDS, “there are fewer wars between States than there used to be and many civil wars have ended” and more elected governments. He admitted, however, that much remains to be done, especially in the areas of closing the gap between the rich and the poor, the slow progress of most countries in fulfilling the MDGs, the latent nuclear proliferation regime, the continuing human rights violations, widespread poverty and terrorism.
However, Annan expressed his deep confidence to his successor of “exceptional qualifications”. As he turned over the “best possible job on Earth” to Ban, Annan advised that Ban “try to make full use of the unparalleled resource you will find in the staff of the Organization. Their commitment to the UN is the UN’s greatest asset, and has been the surest source of strength for me in my work as Secretary-General.”
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