The United Nations, NGOs and Global Governance

Table of Contents

• FOREWARD
• OVERVIEW OF THE CONFERENCE DEBATE
• INTRODUCTION
• THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
• THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA AND COOPERATION, CONFERENCE FOLLOW-UP, AND UN-NGO COLLABORATION
• WHITHER THE UNITED NATIONS?
• NGOS AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
• THE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AGENDA AND DEMOCRACY, EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY WORK, AND THE ECOSOC REVIEW ON NGO ARRANGEMENTS
• STRENGTHENING UN-NGO COOPERATION: VIEWS FROM THE UN SYSTEM
• THE UN, NGOS AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
• CLOSURE
• Annex I: PROGRAMME
• Annex II: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• Annex III: LIST OF ACRONYMS

WHITHER THE UNITED NATIONS?

Panel Presentations

Erskine Childers (Ireland) described the international community's response to the genocide in Rwanda as discreditable because of blocking by permanent members of the Security Council. He said there is a lack of understanding of what is meant by international law, and this is weakening the UN. He also said the United Nations' most powerful member state is in gross violation of international treaty law and legal obligations by holding back its payment of dues. Europe has allowed this situation to go on for the past ten years. NGOs and others must overcome their still widespread intimidation in the face of "great powerdom."

The UN was created to prevent war by promoting economic and social development and by securing human rights. One hopeful sign is that many statements in the 1995 General Assembly acknowledge that the root causes of conflict must be addressed. This theme should be a top priority for the NGO movement, together with the declaration of support for the UN issued by 16 important member states, led by Sweden. The declaration echoed the work of the "like-minded" group of both Northern and Southern countries over ten years ago. This time such a bridge must be reinforced by "people power."

Martin Khor (Malaysia) said that the erosion of influence, power and capacity of the UN--particularly in economic questions--is a very serious matter. Since the end of the Cold War, Northern countries have been pursuing their own narrow economic self-interests. The UN's development work is based upon principles and policies of redistribution, but the social democratic welfare model has been eclipsed by one founded upon laissez-faire. This can be seen in the attacks made on the work and even the purpose of UNCTAD.

The UN is relevant today for its valuable role in advocating social and development dimensions at a time of rapid global change. The people of the South badly need a revitalized and strengthened UN, and this challenges the people, NGOs and governments of developing countries to defend and enlarge the UN's role through greater South-South cooperation on international policy issues.

Many governments in the South do not have the resources to enter into serious negotiations with the North. For some NGOs, the WTO and the agreements it is administering represent a return to colonialism. These NGOs believe that the WTO should not be allowed to take up the issue of investment as well. Not enough people know about the political struggles being waged at the international level. NGOs with this kind of experience and understanding should form a broader movement to challenge some of today's worrying political trends.

Angus Archer (Canada) said that while support for Canada's aid programme is in trouble, the country does not question the existence of the UN. But there is probably more interest and support for the UN's role in peace-keeping and human rights than for development. Many different views exist on UN reform, and there is widespread disappointment in the various international studies and reports undertaken on the issue during the year of the UN's 50th anniversary.

In Montreal in March 1995, a major NGO conference produced a number of recommendations for UN reform. One was to increase the Security Council to 21 members, with five new permanent members, including three from the South. There was also support for adjusting the veto power: for example, it could require the vote of three countries rather than allowing a single country to veto a decision. Another recommendation called for the appointment of a UN auditor-general and for more scrutiny and control of UN finances. There were proposals on the arms register and the arms trade, and on setting up a Sustainable Development Security Council--along quite different lines to the Economic Security Council proposed by the Commission on Global Governance. There was a great deal of support for the Secretary-General's Agenda for Peace, and much work has taken place in Canada on the idea of a rapid deployment force.

Serious consideration will be given to the Agenda for Development when it is finalized. Canada had been surprised by the lack of resources going into the UN's human rights work and would like to see improvement in the information support system for the UNHCR. It has also been suggested that an International Development Advisory Council, with the full participation of civil society, be established in Canada.

Michael Zammit Cutajar (Malta) said that during the recent discussions on UN reform, the main concern of governments has been with membership of the Security Council and how power in the UN context is shared. The likely outcome of reform is the incorporation in the Council of several new, large and powerful countries from the developed and developing worlds. This would maintain the Security Council as an assembly of the most powerful but would also change the dynamics of its agenda.

One positive change would be a better distribution of UN budget contributions among member states, since the UN has an unhealthy dependence on the contributions of the United States. A lower cap on budget contributions (10-15%) would lead to broader burden sharing and a better distribution of power.

One way in which the UN influences the real world is in setting agendas which define the issues that will receive political attention. In the 1970s developing countries took the lead in setting the UN's development agenda. Since the mid-1980s, developed countries have set the agenda, and developing countries have assumed a more reacting role. The agenda of developed countries gives priority to problems they perceive as threatening: international terrorism, crime and drugs, migration, epidemic diseases and environmental destruction. At the same time, these issues underlie the development agenda, since many of their causes lie in poverty and misery. There has been growing recognition of this link, particularly at the WSSD.

Developed countries are also concerned with a number of global issues which lie outside the domain of the BWIs and cannot be dealt with by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) alone. They include some global money and finance issues and transboundary environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity, hazardous waste and desertification. These issues enable the reintroduction and the refocusing of the development agenda. In the final analysis, turning around policies of rich countries that give priority to financial interests over employment is up to voters in the rich countries.

Despite its difficulties, the UN is building a holistic vision of what development should be by incorporating and integrating into its work important issues such as environmental sustainability, the social agenda and women's equality. It is important for the UN to retain a critical view of current economic and social realities and to provide space for alternative views on what is good for the world and the world economy. UNCTAD is among those institutions playing this critical role. Finally, the opportunities and dangers of globalization and marginalization must be identified and addressed.

Discussion

After the panel presentations the floor was opened for discussion. What follows is a summary of the observations, viewpoints and recommendations put forth during the discussion.

The problem of the international community's differing response to different emergency situations is largely a matter of political will. The international community moved rapidly during the Gulf War and was very slow in its response to Rwanda. The criteria and mechanisms for UN intervention are very complex and highly politicized. Many NGOs share a sense of outrage at the lack of responsibility of the international community concerning the genocide in Rwanda. There was a great opportunity for preventative diplomacy but not enough was done. The pattern of Security Council resolutions over the past four to five years is also very disturbing, with little emphasis on the protection of people. Instead, there appears to be more concern with protecting assets, and resolutions lack the passion of the original authors of the genocide convention. The resolutions seem bland, mechanical and even disrespectful of life. The NGO community should be concerned that NGOs involved in humanitarian work were politically silenced about what was really happening on the ground in Rwanda.

Why were NGOs, such as those in Canada, supporting an increase in the number of countries holding permanent membership in the Security Council? The political rationale behind increasing the number is to deflect criticism from groups such as the Non-Aligned Movement. NGOs concerned with democratizing international decision making should be working to abolish permanent membership of the Security Council and to strengthen the General Assembly.

The rich countries do not want the UN to take the lead in macro-economic coordination; but they do not want the BWIs to do it either. Compared to the financial power that is needed to manage the world economy, the BWIs are very small in scale. The G-7 countries see themselves as leaders in this macro-economic role, but really only consider the economies of Europe, North America and Japan in their deliberations, which form less than 25% of the world's population. The idea that the BWIs and the G-7 are managing the world economy is an illusion.

The NGO movement needs to push governments to start an integrated and interdisciplinary negotiation process through the UN on trade, money, finance and sustainable development. They should also push for the integrated institutional machinery the UN needs if it is to have a central role on the "commanding heights" of the world economy. The alternative is "global convulsion" as economic apartheid spreads, and there is plenty of evidence that the violence is beginning. There needs to be much more strategic thinking on how civil society can use its power to create the kind of UN the world needs. Civil society in the South and North needs to be better informed about what is happening at the international level.

The Cold War was a monstrous and costly distraction from the real agenda of humankind. Post-Cold War expectations of democratization and the peace dividend have been too high. The Cold War provided psychological and cultural benchmarks for choosing sides in foreign relations. It also provided a gap or space in which alternatives--a third way--could be debated. Now there is decreasing pluralism combined with a wave of political complacency. In the post-Cold War context a coherent rationale for the public existence of states has not been developed. It is important to reassert the values of pluralistic approaches and debates. NGOs need to break the complacency and keep alive the idea that there are alternatives. The value of a pluralistic approach is underlined by the fact that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were wrong in their analyses of the strength of the Mexican economy prior to the "peso crisis," while UNCTAD and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean had correctly identified the underlying weaknesses of the Mexican economy.

The conservative forces for UN reform are very active, while the positive reformers are not active enough. It is unacceptable for one, or a handful, of member states to monopolize UN reform. It is not clear how much power governments want to cede at the international level. A similar tension can be observed among NGOs, who call for enhanced grassroots and local power while advocating stronger global governance. The years 1996-97 will be a critical period for shaping the future of the UN; NGOs should demonstrate support for the UN and defend its valuable points.