In an initial response to plans to overhaul the United Nations, members of the world body favored replacing the discredited human rights commission and adopting a tough anti-terrorism treaty but glossed over proposals for when to use military force. UN members, in a draft document released on Friday, also gave broad agreement to a timetable for rich countries to increase development aid to the poorest of the poor and backed the International Criminal Court, proposals Europeans support but the Bush administration does not.The paper, drawn up by Jean Ping, president of the 191-member UN General Assembly, is a summary of discussions of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's effort to reconcile the gap between rich and poor nations. The document will be reviewed by governments, then discussed again in New York before approval at a UN summit of world leaders in September, Ping said. "Much is at stake, and I am confident that when world leaders meet in New York this coming September, they will agree on the most far-ranging and ambitious reforms of the United Nations in its 60-year history," Annan said in a statement. He called the draft document an "important step towards decisive action for halving poverty by 2015, reducing the threat of war, terrorism and proliferation and promoting human dignity in ever corner of the world,"
Left out of the draft is expansion of the 15-member Security Council, which is expected to be put to a vote later this month and which is still a divisive issue. But the report gave some support to several of Annan's proposals for internal reform, asking him to prepare proposals on a one-time buy-out of staff, management accountability, transparency and a more independent UN watchdog. Annan in March produced a report, titled "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All," an effort to reconcile the gap between developing nations, who want more efforts towards fighting poverty, and Western countries, who often stress action on terrorism and proliferation of unconventional weapons.
With divisions over the US invasion of Iraq still strong, Annan urged that the UN Security Council produce guidelines on when and how force can be used, such as "whether the military option is proportional to the threat at hand and whether there is a reasonable chance of success." The Bush administration, which reserves the right to use force unilaterally, was cool to the proposals. Ping's document said only the Council should consider the proposals.
The draft, however, agreed to abolish the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, which includes nations with major rights violations, and create another body elected by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly. Currently, members are rotated by regions. But the paper ignored Annan's plan that a new body should be smaller than the existing 53-member commission and that those elected "should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards."
On terrorism, the document agreed with Annan on a quick adoption of a resolution calling for a comprehensive anti-terror treaty, including suicide bombers or anyone who deliberately harms civilians. It set a deadline for June 2006 But it still mentioned the need to address factors that may contribute to terrorism, including "foreign occupation," concepts Annan said did not belong in that treaty. Surprisingly, the document backed a controversial proposal on when to use force to save civilians from abuses by their own governments, a concept that first offended nations as an interference in their sovereignty.
Under women's equality, the paper promotes access to "reproductive health," long-established in UN conferences but opposed by the Bush administration as a possible license to abortion.
| I'm not too sure how ladies' nether regions came to be a concern of the World Community™. The thought mildly offends me, in fact. |