Progress on World Summit Commitments

World Federalists are tracking progress on United Nations institutional reforms agreed at the September 2005 World Summit. Many of the important reform commitments in the World Summit Outcome Document were watered down at the time, or postponed to subsequent negotiations. The following provides an overview of recent developments.

Human Rights Council

On March 15, 2006, recognizing both the achievements and shortcomings of the Commission on Human Rights, the General Assembly adopted resolution 60/251 creating a new Human Rights Council.

The Council will be responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights, addressing human rights violations, and promoting effective coordination and mainstreaming of human rights within the UN system. Unlike the 53-member Commission which met for a single six-week session per year and was a subsidiary body of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the 47 member Human Rights Council will be a subsidiary body of the General Assembly (GA) and will meet for a minimum of three sessions for no less than 10 weeks per year, with the ability to convene additional sessions. Members are now elected by absolute majority of the GA. The 47 seats are distributed according to a new regional allocation based on equitable geographic distribution. After serving two consecutive terms, members will no longer be immediately re-eligible to serve another term, thus prohibiting de facto permanent membership. The GA will have the ability, through a two-thirds majority vote, to suspend the membership of a Council member that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights. As an important step forward, the Council will undertake a new universal periodic review to assess all states’ fulfillment of their human rights obligations. To avoid attracting members whose purpose in joining the Council is to block scrutiny of their human rights records, members of the Human Rights Council will be the first countries subject to this review process.

On May 9, the General Assembly elected the 47 founding members of the UN’s new Human Rights Council for staggered one-to-three year terms. Canada was elected and will serve a three-year term. While several countries with notably poor human rights records (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Russia) were elected, others such as Iran and Venezuela did not receive enough votes, while countries previously on the Commission on Human Rights were dissuaded from even running (e.g. Sudan, Zimbabwe, Syria, Libya, Nepal, Eritrea and Ethiopia).

The new Council will maintain the key strengths of the old Commission, including the “special procedures” for reporting on thematic human rights issues, country-specific resolutions and mechanisms for NGO participation at meetings of the Council. The majority of human rights NGOs welcomed the new Council as a modest improvement.

Peacebuilding Commission

As reported in the March 2006 Mondial, resolutions creating the new Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) were passed last December. The PBC will be responsible for addressing a critical institutional gap within the UN and global systems by providing a coordinated, coherent and integrated approach to post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction. It is estimated that up to half the world’s ongoing armed conflicts are actually instances of recurrence of hostilities following a failed peace agreement. It is hoped that the PBC will extend the period of attention of the international community to post-conflict recovery.

The Commission will be composed of a subsidiary intergovernmental “Organizational Committee,” a Peacebuilding Support Office within the UN Secretariat, and a small multi-year standing Peacebuilding Fund administered by UNDP to support initiatives not funded elsewhere that address urgent post-conflict stabilization and capacity-building needs.

This spring, prolonged discussions and haggling at the GA focused on the 31-member Organizational Committee and were not finalized until May 16. Composition of the (too large?) Organizational Committee is as follows:

a) Security Council (7 seats – 5 permanent members plus 2 non-permanent members): China, Denmark, France,
Russia, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States;

b) ECOSOC (7 seats – 5 seats for each region plus 1 Africa and 1 Asia): Angola, Guinea Bissau, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Poland, Brazil, Belgium;

c) Top UN Financial Contributors (5 seats – top 5): Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Norway;

d) Top Troop Contributors (5 seats – top 5): Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Ghana

e) General Assembly (7 seats based on filling gaps to achieve equitable geographic distribution): Burundi, Egypt, Fiji, Croatia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Chile.

A Canadian, Carolyn McAskie, will take up the important position of Assistant Secretary-
General heading up the new Peacebuilding Support Office. At a recent meeting, McAskie was asked about the importance of civil society contributions to the PBC. “It’s important, given the limited resources provided to the Support Office,” she noted. “However, the prolonged discussion of Organizational Committee membership may have sucked the oxygen from the process, leaving little time for adequate debate on rules and procedures. It should be possible, one way or another to facilitate civil society contributions, both in New York and, more importantly, when the PBC holds in-country meetings.”

Secretariat/Management Reform

The General Assembly is currently focusing on two administrative reform areas: a) reforming the overall structure and culture of the UN Secretariat; and b) carrying out a review of all UN mandates older than five years.

Management reform issues continue to ignite tensions between developed and developing countries. While the G77 countries have blocked significant progress on Secretariat reform, requesting additional reports from the Secretariat, the U.S., Japan and the EU have threatened to impose additional spending caps on the UN budget unless significant reforms take place. The UN biennium budget has already been subject to a six-month spending cap that ends on June 30 and is likely to be followed by shorter renewals due to U.S. demands for results on management reform.

In March, the Secretary-General released his report Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger Organization worldwide. The report presents 23 recommendations in six areas (people, leadership, information and communications technology, delivering services, budget and finance, and governance) on how to radically overhaul the rules, structure, systems and culture of the UN Secretariat.

While the purpose of Secretary-General’s report is to reduce ineffective and time-consuming micromanagement in the General Assembly by allowing the Secretary-General to make basic financial, budgetary and post reallocations without the approval of the GA, developing countries have interpreted the recommendations as an encroachment upon their already limited authority within the UN.

While the South can mobilize voting majorities to block “progress,” the wealthier developed states employ the withholding of funds to leverage outcomes. Unfortunately, the brinkmanship on this issue is affecting many other issues at the UN, including discussions surrounding selection of the next Secretary-General.

Democracy Fund – Central Emergency Response Fund

Progress has been made implementing two other commitments from the World Summit: a new UN Democracy Fund and the Central Emergency Response Fund.

Although the Democracy Fund has received pledges of only $41 million, its creation signifies growing normative acceptance around the principles of democratic governance and new possibilities for UN efforts elsewhere (e.g., UN development and elections monitoring agencies).

On March 9, the UN launched its $500 million Central Emergency Response Fund to provide more rapid, effective predictable and balanced disaster response. Thus far, the Fund has attracted $256 million in pledges from governments. It will have the capacity to accept donations from corporations and individuals.

Also noteworthy are the discussions mandated at the World Summit that appear to be going nowhere or are on life support. These include reform of the Security Council, GA revitalization and “system-wide coherence.”  

– Report by Fergus Watt, with files from WFM NY.