Newton Bowles Report: December 1997

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The G.A. Acts: Historic Reform

Although the fault line between "North-South," developed/developing, has become less clear and deep, yet the old familiar antagonism continues to colour Assembly debate. And no wonder: development aid has gone down, and globalization has done little to change the balance of wealth and power. Nevertheless, the Assembly in general was sympathetic to the Secretary-General in his enormous effort to strengthen the U.N. His insistence that reform was not aimed primarily at cutting costs but rather at strengthening capacity went some way toward allaying "southern" suspicions. So also was his insistence on the dual roles of the UN: peace and security, economic and social development. Indeed, his reform package could say nothing useful about the Security Council; it is weighted more toward "development" than "security". The bizarre performance of the U.S. Congress, aimed at cutting down the UN in the name of reform, raised hackles North and South, and fed smouldering fires. The G.A. is not noted for break-neck speed, there was the real danger that reform would fade away in an orgy of nit-picking.

In the G.A. debate major donors, with the European Union up front, said: let's not tear this to pieces, let's take hold of this as a package. "Because we believe that the programme of reforms, taken as a whole, represents significant progress for our Organization, the Union does not intend to press for the fine points of its position . . . It is our hope that other delegations will approach this exercise in a similar spirit . . ." (Luxembourg, for the E.U.) Canada's Foreign Minister, Lloyd Axworthy, took the same line: Certainly the "package" in mind was orientation and management of the Secretariat more than anything else.

Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), meeting in New Delhi in April 1997, had Kofi Annan's sketch of his approach to reform (March 1997); and reacting to that, they said that they welcomed his emphasis on the UN role in economic and social development. "The Ministers emphasized that the promotion of development is a main priority of the United Nations, and expressed the need to restructure and revitalize the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields in order to better promote the interests of developing countries." These views were reaffirmed when NAM Foreign Ministers met with Kofi Annan in New York on 25 September 1997. The Group of 77 developing countries, led by Tanzania, was a strong advocate of these policies during the G.A. negotiations: the UN should not become an instrument of the "North", handling only security and social/humanitarian affairs.

Time was on Kofi Annan's side. Reform talk had gone on for years enough. Delay could spell disaster, especially with the fractious U.S.A. Putting itself into informal off-the-record negotiations, the G.A. achieved compromise, supporting the basic intra-mural package. On

12 November, in Plenary, the G.A. passed a resolution of general endorsement, in time to be ignored by the aborting U.S. Congress as it recessed without releasing funds for the UN. The full intra-mural package, including the Deputy Secretary-General, was approved on 19 December.

None of the Secretary-General's proposals was rejected outright: indecision (or disapproval?) took the form of asking the S/G to elaborate on several elements of his extra-mural suggestions; and, hélas! to submit more reports to the resumed 52nd session, inter alia, on these lines: