United Nations birthday - Nations must unite behind UN

AS the UN turns 60, it is timely to scrutinise the role of the world’s only global organisation, which stands at a crossroads, facing an uncertain future and urgently in need of sweeping reforms.

Notwithstanding the birthday celebrations, confidence in the UN will be eroded by the emasculated nature of the package of reforms being unveiled at the historic World Summit in New York.

While its pledge to honour poverty goals features strongly in the report from Secretary General Kofi Annan, it is hard to disagree with the charge by former President Mary Robinson that world leaders are indulging in lip service. With major aspects of the original document diluted or jettisoned altogether, her accusation of hypocrisy cannot be lightly dismissed.

It certainly applies to the Government’s betrayal of its Millennium pledge to meet the UN target of 0.7% of Gross National Product in overseas aid by 2007, eight years ahead of the deadline. Cynically, that pledge was delivered by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on the floor of the UN when, coincidentally, Ireland was campaigning for a seat on the Security Council.

Since criticised for abandoning that promise, Mr Ahern announced in New York yesterday that Ireland will now reach the target by 2012. The upshot is that having enhanced Ireland’s image with the original promise, the country’s reputation has been damaged by the Government’s subsequent backtracking.

With its role under assault from hawkish elements within an American administration bent on advancing global US hegemony, the urgency of ensuring the UN’s survival has never been more critical.

The only certainty is that it cannot survive in its present state. Both within and outside the organisation, there is broad agreement on the urgent need for fundamental change in the way the UN operates.

From Rwanda to Bosnia and Darfur, its failure to intervene in some of the world’s most troubled regions in time to save countless lives has left a dark stain on its reputation.

Equally, its failure to establish an emergency unit capable of taking swift action to counteract the ravages of war and famine is deplorable.

That said, however, there can be no denying that despite all its shortcomings, the UN is still a hugely important organisation.

As it faces the next 60 years, it must give an energetic lead in tackling the yawning gulf between rich and poor nations. Poverty can be expected to spread as global warming results in drastic climatic upheavals, with millions of people facing a future of hunger and starvation.

A new brand of suicidal terrorism, spawned by religious fanaticism and fuelled by poverty, is now a global threat. Aggressive new economies are rising to challenge the self-satisfied nations of the western world.

Even the most remote countries are no longer isolated. A disease that breaks out in Africa today could become the pandemic of tomorrow.

Unsurprisingly, in an international organisation characterised by competing national interests, the final version of Mr Annan’s report bears little relation to the original.

Deeply wounded by the scandal surrounding his son’s involvement in the Iraq oil for food programme, Mr Annan’s hope of spearheading root and branch reforms of the UN has been severely damaged.

By linking freedom with development, security and human rights, he has courageously sought to create a realistic setting for the meeting of heads of state and governments.

For all its faults, it would be a major setback if the world’s nations fail to give the UN collective responsibility to tackle global poverty, war and genocide.

From that perspective, the United Nations must survive.