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UN has failed to live up to expectations, says Annan
 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday told ministers and senior officials from Asia and Africa the world body had lost its way.
| Most spectacularly on his watch, but he doesn't dwell on that... |
| Expect some underlings to be tossed overboard real soon now ... |
Annan called on members to support sweeping reforms.
| ... but not to support booting him... |
The time had come for an enlargement of the Security Council to loosen the grip of large powers and give the developing world a say, Annan said, seeking to lobby representatives from two continents that make up three quarters of the world's population.
| The UNSC's an unwieldy body that's susceptible to deadlock because five of its members wield a veto power. Making it larger, and handing out more veto powers will therefore make it better. That's logic. Of a sort. |
He said in all areas of its work, from human rights, to tackling poverty, hunger and conflict, the United Nations was not living up to the ideals of its member nations.
| It's living down to the ideals of some of them, however... |
"The multilateral system is not delivering for its member states the results that it should," Annan told foreign ministers and officials from 100 African and Asian countries gathered in Jakarta.
| "I mean, us African and Asian countries should have a much larger share of the boodle!" |
Heads of state at the Asian-African Summit are due to meet in the Indonesian capital today and tomorrow, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung. The secretary general released a 63-page report on reform in March, proposing the most wide-ranging shake-up of the UN since its creation in 1945.
Posted by: Fred 2005-04-23 |
