A view from the United Nations
October 2006
October 24, UN Day-Cause for celebration; reasons for concern
By Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
I am of two minds when it comes to the UN Day celebrations at UN Headquarters in New York.
Ever since I was a young man growing up in Franco’s Spain, the United Nations has represented to me a simple ideal of a world in peace where people would be considerate and caring; a world where people wouldn’t have to fight and instead would help each other. I still keep this childlike ideal engraved deep inside, and today, it is this simple ideal of the United Nations that I most dearly celebrate.
But as the glorious music resonates in the magnificent General Assembly Hall during the annual UN Day Concert, my mind wonders away and my heart goes out to the millions upon millions of human beings around the world who suffer and die in silence because of the inability of the United Nations to make the high principles of its Charter a living reality.
My heart goes out as well to the UN personnel in far and isolated areas this night, carrying out their duties in difficult and too often dangerous conditions. Some of them, most recently four UN observers in the Lebanon-Israel war, have paid the highest price. I would like to honour here the memory of Sergio Vieira de Melo, who gave up his life on duty in Iraq, and to the UN personnel who were killed in the same attack.
The deaths and the suffering, the injustice and the indignities, the exclusion and the never-ending misery all are unnecessary. The nations of the world have the human and financial resources, the knowledge, the technology, even the “blueprints” (ie, the Plans of Action or Outcome documents of major UN Conferences) needed to change this situation around in a relatively short time. There can be no serious doubt about the world’s ability to achieve each and every one of the eight Millennium Development Goals - the UN’s timid, yet laudable attempt to do at least what is “politically possible.”
But there is too much political posturing and not enough political will. Even achieving the MDGs looks like a far away objective.
Too many times it feels like the UN is only capable of producing high-sounding statements, solemn commitments from the member states that are not worth the proverbial paper they are written on.
There are no excuses.
I am still listening to the music, but the feeling is uncomfortable.
The United Nations represents humanity’s best attempt yet at an evolutionary quantum leap toward a world polity capable of providing good and effective global governance. Only the UN can provide the global legitimacy and the tools necessary to deal with humanity’s collective new challenges, including the scourge of terrorism. Sixty-one years after its creation, the UN remains humanity’s best hope for life in peace and dignity for all. However, undemocratic trends coming from mature democracies and dictatorial governments alike currently ignore, threaten, and occasionally dismiss outright the high principles and values upon which the United Nations was founded.
The UN was created at the impetus of the United States of America, and I shall always be grateful to the American people for their vision and admirable determination in doing so. Of course the UN was born with defects and one important original sin, that is, the veto privileges granted to five permanent members of the Security Council; a decidedly undemocratic feature of the institution’s most important and powerful organ. This might have been justified right after the Second World War, but the geopolitical landscape has since changed in unimaginable ways.
To be able to deal effectively with the global challenges of the new century the UN needs profound reform, indeed, a transformation. Multilateralism must prevail, and a sense of supranationalism must permeate the minds of the leaders of the member states. One day in the not too distant future, all nations, even the most powerful among them, will realise that the collective interest is intimately aligned with the national interest.
Or at least I hope so.
I reflect with deep sadness on the fact that the UN’s most lucid and foremost reason for being (ie, to avoid preventive wars) is currently under frontal attack.
At the same time, the United Nations must be credited with remarkable achievements through its short history, be it in areas of peace and security, development, human rights, health, education, environment, humanitarian assistance, peace-keeping and a long etcetera.
But its most precious values are being gravely challenged. Too often it seems we are getting farther away, not closer, to the achievement of the UN’s highest goal - a life in peace and dignity for each and everyone of us.
Clearly I have grown more realistic over the years; yet, the idealism of my youth remains.
So I live with this never-ending internal debate: to celebrate or to mourn the United Nations; a case of mixed emotions working at cross purposes.
As the music continues, I consider the possibility of holding and honouring both emotions within me. Instead of having to decide for one or the other, how about finding space within me for both? The many achievements of the United Nations are just as real as its many failures. Its high principles and values are as real as the reality of their lack of implementation.
Meanwhile the high goals and objectives of the UN, embodied in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the many treaties that have followed, remain a lighthouse whose powerful beam reaches into every corner of the world, constantly reminding us of our call to a higher, more evolved level of communal life; signalling us to a safe port of peace and dignity.
Happy Birthday, United Nations! You are still young…And we have a long way to go... I wish you all the best, tonight, and always.
And may all our wishes come true!
In solidarity,
Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
Please send your comments to CIVICUSUN@aol.com or kumi@civicus.org or editor@civicus.org
Below you will find all previous columns of Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS UN Representative (New York):
• Digital Divide or Digital Solidarity: Bridging the gap between the information-rich and the information-starved
• The UN: Limping along
• The last thing the world needs: Dismantling the UN
• The world needs a more democratic United Nations
• UN Management Reform hits a nerve: roadblock or power grab?
• A UN Secretary-General for “We the Peoples”: Civil society calls for a more democratic selection process
• Charting new ways of participation: Is it time for a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN?
• Changing the tone: General Assembly President Jan Eliasson reaches out to Civil Society
• Changing the tone: General Assembly President Jan Eliasson reaches out to Civil Society
• Argentina: Thriving without the IMF
• The Big Letdown: UN Summit shortchanges the poor
• The World Summit : UN Reform will mean little unless poverty eradication tops the agenda
• Millions roar but the G8 whispers - Let the Millennium+5 Summit make up the difference
• “Global Justice - Northern citizens have a special responsibility to make it happen”
• Letting the United Nations be all that it can
• “Appointment with History: The world looks up to John Bolton to help achieve the MDGs”
• “We are rolling!: Civil society’s call for poverty eradication impacts the World Economic Forum and the Group of Seven”
• No more excuses!: The Tsunami must not be allowed to wash away the Millennium Development Goals
• A Call To Action 2005: Global Civil Society mobilizes to demand an end to poverty and the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals
• TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Should civil society and the Global Compact live under the same UN roof?
• The UN Global Compact: A big red herring disguised in UN blue?
• Happening now: A global revolution of consciousness
• Lasting security for all: Shifting from state security to security of the people
• The UN – Permanently relevant or temporarily relevant?
