- UN: In search of the sword and representation ...
TPSIPOL FORUM: NETWORK DEMOCRATIC
March 2004
UNITED NATIONS REFORM:
SWORD IN SEARCH OF REPRESENTATION
SWORD IN SEARCH OF REPRESENTATION
Rel Peru reaffirms multilateralism. (Oct 2003) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eleccion/message/16818
By Oswaldo de Rivero ( * ) SPECIAL for Democratic Network
The United Nations was invented to prevent international conflicts between nation states. His big problem is that today the vast majority of non-international conflicts, but rather, domestic armed conflict in the quasi-United Nations underdeveloped.
After the Cold War have emerged or been revived more than 33 civil conflicts in the developing world that have caused more than 5 million deaths and nearly 17 million refugees. These conflicts are real characteristics of domestic hell, where respect for the most elementary principles of humanity are lost and where civil war is confused with mass crime. Are true struggles of national autodepredadación hate pregnant social, ethnic or religious hatred that makes developing countries into real factories of crimes against humanity.
autodepredación face of this fierce national United Nations Charter does not allow military intervention to prevent armed groups or criminal regimes destroy human rights and commit mass genocide. The famous Article 2, paragraph 7 of the Charter explicitly prohibits interference in the domestic affairs of States. Perhaps worth asking if the domestic affairs of States that their populations do not protect and be slaughtered?
is clear that this provision of the UN Charter of absolute respect of domestic affairs are not in line with the new global ethic of punishing crimes against humanity. Therefore, this provision of article 2, paragraph 7 to protect national sovereignty should be interpreted in line with the new reality of the world democratic and humanitarian means that the regimes that destroy or fail to protect the lives of its citizens, lose their sovereignty , and therefore can be operated by the United Nations, since it can not ever abdicate its ethical responsibility to protect humanity.
Legal Reform of the Charter to limit national sovereignty would take years of negotiation and require the approval of 2 / 3 of the members of the UN, including the unanimity of the permanent five Security Council. This reform will most likely not be adopted because a large majority of UN member countries are authoritarian regimes that need to constantly take refuge in the principle of nonintervention in domestic affairs "to justify abuses against its own citizens.
Despite the prohibition on intervention in domestic affairs, to the enormous proliferation of domestic conflicts and crimes against humanity, the Organization was forced to abdicate his no ethical duty to protect human rights, poor ride "humanitarian intervention", where peacekeepers from intervening militarily to protect civilians and disarm to the rival factions, did so only to ensure access of humanitarian aid. Granted relief but did not protect the people of the killings, that is, surreally, it distributed food, medicine and blankets to potential corpses. The fiascos of the United Nations in Somalia and Bosnia and inaction in the Rwandan genocide are clear examples of his lack of sword to pacify domestic disputes in the developing world.
recently sovereignty over domestic issues has been further limited by the Organization. Indeed, the Security Council has approved small military intervention to prevent crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote D'Ivoire and Haiti. Even the UN has legitimized the large ex post facto unilateral military intervention by NATO in Kosovo. Today
reform must be undertaken to consolidate and systematize the practice of military intervention to defend human rights. This could be achieved, making the five permanent members with veto-wielding Security Council acuerden como “código de conducta” no usar el veto cuando se trata de intervenciones militares para evitar crímenes de lesa humanidad. Es decir, para evitar masivas violaciones de derechos humanos, genocidios y limpiezas étnicas sistemáticas. Como contrapartida a este código de conducta se establecería para darle solidez a la situación, que la intervención militar sea solicitada por el Secretario General de las Naciones Unidas a pedido del Alto comisionado de Derechos Humanos o también a pedido de Organizaciones Regionales o de un gran colectivo de países. La idea es que los miembros permanentes del Consejo cooperen, frente a un pedido de la comunidad internacional, no usando su veto contra intervenciones militares that can save thousands of lives.
might happen that one or more members of the Security Council fails to comply with the code of conduct not to veto actions against crimes against humanity and to freeze the action of the Council. In this extreme case, it should allow a "coalition of democratic countries of the General Assembly ask the Security Council reconsider this attitude and if the impasse persists, then the coalition of democratic states intervene militarily outside the Security Council . The ethical-political justification behind this collective action by the democratic nations of the General Assembly is that you can not never give up the duty to protect human rights and resign yourself to look horrendous crimes against humanity only by the fact that the Security Council is paralyzed by a veto counter anti-humanitarian code of conduct of its permanent members.
All these reforms serve to resolve a case by case, whether or not to intervene against crimes against humanity. Often the discussions in the Security Council delayed a military intervention. Also, when it is approved, it may take up to three months to deploy military force. Such a system is difficult to prevent crimes against humanity. If you want to turn the UN into an organization that has truly sword for rapid intervention is necessary to establish a permanent military force of UN peacekeepers. Without a permanent military force, the United Nations may lose precious time to save lives, as happened with the infamous inaction by the organization against ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and genocide in Rwanda, and it happens today with late and poor interventions in Africa.
Until now the creation of this permanent force of blue helmets is difficult because many developed democratic states, which are the only ones who have economic and military capacity to mount global operations against crimes against humanity are reluctant to participate in a military force UN permanent. In fact, any citizen in the richest countries of the West, accustomed to instant gratification of a consumer society, we accept death and dying fellow barbarian land by war do not understand, and they say, do not compromise your safety and prosperity. Consequently, the democratic governments of the Western powers, have an obsessive fear sending armed ground troops, casualties and then electoral punishment. Almost all their staffs, when they think troops intervene in a civil conflict, first make a calculation as close to zero casualties if the scenario is somewhat greater than zero, is simply not involved.
addition to the lack of permanent bar to pacify domestic hell, the other major problem the United Nations is its lack of global representation. In other words, the organization that is composed exclusively by the United Nations, represents less and less, the true structure of the international community today is also made of non-state actors such as transnational corporations and civil society organizations of global reach . For example, today the great debate between two approaches to globalization, one posed by transnational corporate interests and an alternative put forward by civil society organizations are given outside the United Nations.
Nations Agencies can not remain just a diplomatic forum, speeches, discussions and negotiations between representatives of governments which have in reality no real power to change the global economic and ecological trends. The stark reality is that most UN member countries are underdeveloped quasi-United Nations which have less real power and less transnational global projection that many large civil society organizations. How to protect ecology, if not even consulted with civil society body that complaint or the company that pollutes, nor to invent technology transnational pollution? How modernization program the sectors of underdeveloped economies without contacting potential investors transnational?
To solve these problems and other environmental and economic challenges it is necessary to extend the concept of representativeness and hence international co-responsibility for transnational corporations and civil society. Only then will the United Nations a true reflection of real world and his decisions accepted by all actors of globalization ..
Although the two biggest challenges the UN in this century, are its lack of sword and lack of global representation, now attempts to reform the Organization ignores these challenges and for ten years are concentrated in that increasing or not the permanent members with veto-wielding Security Council or if you delete or restrict the veto. In other words, after a decade of discussions no agreement to give them veto powers of second order such as Germany, Japan, Brazil, India and South Africa nor is there agreement on the elimination or restriction of the veto. The most curious is that this impasse around ten years is a harmless reform ignores the two biggest challenges have the UN in the XXI century., Lack of bar and global representativeness
Indeed, the increase of new permanent members with veto power does not guarantee that the Organization more effective to act against crimes against humanity. If you already have five permanent members with veto power is difficult to military intervention, much more difficult it will be nine or ten. On the other hand, the elimination of the veto or extensive restriction of it, would turn the UN into an organization metaphysics, far from any realpolitik, as ineffective as was the League of Nations, where the superpowers would begin to act unilaterally before submit to the will of a majority composed of second-order powers and developing countries. Neither increased more members in the Security Council and other United Nations bodies solve the problem its lack of representativeness. The UN does not need bodies with more states, but with the presence of transnational corporations and civil society organizations to negotiate realistically the global economic and ecological problems.
Today the United Nations reform should aim to overcome the two biggest challenges facing the Organization in the XXI century: having no sword against the proliferation of crimes against humanity and have no global representation for the low participation civil society and transnational corporations in making their decisions. If the UN does not reform to overcome these two major challenges: security risk of becoming in the coming decades in an organization globally irrelevant.
New York, March 2004 *
Oswaldo de Rivero of Peru's Ambassador to the United Nations
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