UN's 'gala' season

Today, it is the new unipolarity that keeps the UN totally paralysed with no role, credibility and authority on issues of global peace and security. In fact, it has never been so helpless and ineffective in meeting its Charter obligations. In recent years, its role has been circumvented by the unabashed use of power. Today's UN is no more than a debating club, producing voluminous and repetitive documentation without any tangible results or follow-up action. From all accounts, it is the largest consumer of printing paper and also the largest producer of waste paper. No wonder, some critics now like to call it as "a dustbin of history."

The Security Council is left with no role in preventing conflicts or resolving disputes. Its deliberations are conducted in a theatrical manner through stage-managed debates and choreographed scenarios. There is no transparency in its proceedings. The open meetings of the Security Council are merely a talk show in which member states are heard not listened to. Its decisions on critical issues are made either in Washington or reached behind closed doors among the Big Five in the ante-rooms of the Council's chamber.

No doubt, the events of the last decade have immeasurably shaken the international system which is no longer governed by rules, laws, values and principles. What aggravates this bleak scenario is the growing inability of the international community to grapple with these challenges. There is no consensus on global issues of peace and security. Indeed, the UN has never been so helpless and ineffective in meeting its Charter obligations.

The last secretary-general, Kofi Annan, was blamed for leading the UN into a global morass and belittling its role and relevance. His tenure was marked by "poor leadership and complacency" over numerous scandals involving the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme and sexual abuse charges against senior UN officials as well as the blue-helmeted peacekeepers in Africa. The world looked towards the present secretary-general, South Korea's Ban Ki-moon, with great expectations and hoped he would show a new vision and leadership in "repairing and reconditioning" the UN so as to restore its lost credibility and legitimacy.

One thing should be clear to him. Business as usual will not do. "Global carnivals," no matter how well motivated they are, will bring neither peace nor development, nor will they eliminate or reduce poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy from the world. If the UN of the 21st century is to be prevented from meeting the fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations, its "structure and culture" will have to be adapted to the new realities and challenges of the changed world.

This would also require an attitudinal change on the part of the governments of UN member-states which, instead of squandering their resources and energies in sponsoring "gala sessions" or special summits, indulging in meaningless and ritualistic annual debates and churning out voluminous repetitive documents, must improve their own governance patterns and fix the socio-economic and political fundamentals at home.

The writer is a former foreign secretary and senior political analyst