UN Reform & Revitalization

About UN Reform & Revitalization

For well over a decade, there have been calls from government, the media, and by citizens for "reform of the United Nations". However, reform can refer to many different topics in the course of public debate. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role reduced use the term "UN reform" to refer to their ideas. As an organization that values the power of global cooperation, we believe that the UN should have the structures and means to do its job.

Citizens for Global Solutions envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. We believe that the UN has an important role to play in achieving this vision. UN reform is about improving coordination between UN bodies, making the UN machine run smoother and more effectively, and increasing transparency and fairness. It is also about making sure the UN has the tools and clout it needs to accomplish its mission. The United States should work with our friends and allies to strengthen the UN so it can respond to the threats and challenges of this century.

The United Nations in 10 Years...

In March 2011, Citizens for Global Solutions CEO Don Kraus travelled to Abu Dhabi to speak at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research's (ECSSR) Annual Conference, titled "Global Strategic Developments: A Futuristic Vision." You can read Don's speech, entitled, "The Evolution of the United Nations and the Security Council." In this speech, Don imagines how the United Nations and the Security Council will look in ten years.

UN Reform Issues

Security Council Reform

Security Council Reform is a hot topic that has been debated at the UN since 1993. The Security Council has changed relatively little since 1945, when World War II victors crafted a UN Charter that awarded five "permanent" veto-wielding Council seats to the U.S., UK, Russia, China, and France, also known as the P5. There are also 10 elected non-permanent members with two-year terms that do not have a veto. Today many member states would like to make the Security Council more transparent, representative and efficient. Many also question the legitimacy of the veto power retained by the P5 and seek ways to reform this.

At the 2005 World Summit, leaders agreed to reform the Security Council. Several models have been proposed for expanding the membership, limiting veto privileges, and reforming sanctions and working methods.

In February 2007 the President of the General Assembly established five tracks for discussion: membership, veto power, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Security Council, and the working methods of the Council and its relationship with the General Assembly. Member States are currently in the midst of submitting and discussing position papers on these topics and negotiations are in full swing.

Ambassador Zahir Tanin of Afghanistan is the Chair of the current Security Council reform negotiations and is in charge of accepting, summarizing and distributing position papers, recommendations and amendments submitted by Member States. The negotiation takes place in 'meetings' and 'rounds'. As of June 16, 2010, the process is on the third meeting of the fifth round.

Next, Ambassador Tanin will include feedback from this round of negotiations and produce a revised paper on Security Council Reform for Member States to consider. If Member States accept the paper, it will form the basis for the sixth round of negotiations during the 65th General Assembly. Many Member States believe that the end of the process is near, and if Ambassador Tanin stewards the process such that real progress is feasible during the next General Assembly, the long history of debates over Security Council Reform may come to a close.

See the "Responsibility Not to Veto" proposal to limit the use of veto when addressing mass atrocities
See further information and documents on Security Council Reform (Global Policy Forum)

General Assembly Revitalization

The General Assembly (GA) includes representatives from all 192 Member States. It is the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations (UN) and is invested with overseeing the general budget, appointing non-permanent members to the Security Council, and making key recommendations in the form of non-binding resolutions.

Operating in the GA is often a challenge. Striking the right balance between maintaining a healthy level of inclusiveness and putting forward effective and timely policies is difficult, even for the most seasoned of Diplomats. Delegates have noted that debates in the GA are often tedious and sometimes result in the adoption of repetitive resolutions. It’s universal membership, and one nation/one vote policy, allows it to be mathematically possible for the 128 smallest countries to achieve a two-thirds majority while only representing 8% of the world's population.

Evolution of the General Assembly: A More Perfect Union?

In March 2005, then Secretary General Kofi Annan recognized the need for reform and laid out steps towards a stronger and more effective GA in his report, In Larger Freedom. Annan called for improvement in the working methods of the body and argued for new ways to make the GA's authority more relevant in the broader UN system.

While far from comprehensive, the report was an important institutional first step. An Ad Hoc Working Group was established in 2008 with a mandate to “identify further ways to enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly...” David Walker, former head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, now heads the Independent Audit Advisory Committee (IAAC), which assists the GA in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities.

For further internal discussion regarding reform from the UN: Reforming the United Nations

Institutional reform of the United Nations is a daunting task, but several comprehensive ideas have been promulgated by academics and policy experts in the past few years with the understanding that the current one nation, one vote system is unrealistic and impractical.

The Schwartzberg System

Under present rules, the votes of scores of states with populations of less than a million people and/or states that make the minimum monetary contribution of only 0.001% of the total UN budget count as much as the vote of nations such as China or the United States.

Joseph Schwartzberg, a University of Minnesota professor and active member of Citizens for Global Solutions, has developed a weighted voting reform scheme. Under Schwartzberg’s system, voting in the GA would be dependent upon a mathematical formula that considers a member nation’s population, its contribution to the UN budget, and its unit share of the UN membership. Thus under this method, the nations with the greatest voting power would be the U.S., China, Japan, and India. This system avoids giving microstates disproportionate influence (as under one state, one vote) while also avoiding giving a coalition of populous developing countries such as China and India control over the UN, as might happen under one man, one vote.

In the Security Council permanent membership would be terminated. Seats would instead be guaranteed to nations with weights in excess of a specified threshold value and also to self-formed caucuses of nations whose combined weights exceeded that threshold. The veto would be terminated, either at once or gradually phased out.

A more comprehensive discussion can be found in Schwartzberg’s original academic paper: Revitalizing the United Nations: Reform Through Weighted Voting

The Binding Triad

With permanent Security Council (UNSC) members cautious of reform initiatives, those looking for practical institutional change point to a proposition proposed by The Center for War/Peace Studies known as the Binding Triad. Like the Schwartzberg System, the Binding Triad is in essence another weighted voting system that would empower the GA to make binding decisions similar in mandate to that of the UNSC. Binding global law would be adopted provided it had support of three concurrent majority votes based on three factors:

A simple majority of the world's nations
A majority of the nations representing most of the world's population
A majority of the nations who make the greatest contributions to the UN

The GA could continue to adopt non-binding recommendations by simple majority based solely on the current one-vote-per-nation system.

Parliamentary Assembly

In recent years support has been growing for greater participation in the deliberative process of the United Nations through direct citizen involvement. The creation of a Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA), distinct and independent of the GA and analogous to that of other regional organizations (such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO], the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE], the African Union and the European Union) would not only allow for greater involvement of citizen populations autonomous of direct government influence, but would be a practical step in making the UN more effective as a global policy making body.

A proposed UNPA could initially function as a consultative body within the UN, with the ultimate goal of creating a successful bicameral institution. Comprised of representatives from member states’ national parliaments, delegations could be proportionally based on population, with representation also proportionally comprised of both minority and majority parties. Decisions would eventually have to pass both bodies, the GA and a UNPA, with certain qualified majorities in order to have binding effect.

A U.N. Parliamentary Assembly could help:

provide a democratic forum to draft treaties and conventions and better foster international co-operation;
build popular support in member states for the UN as in institution through direct elections of UN parliamentarians;
encourage the fostering of greater democratic traditions and transparency in all member states.

A global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations has been established to further advocate for citizens' representation at the UN. Resolutions of support have been successfully passed by the European Parliament, the Pan-African Parliament and the Latin-American Parliament. Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Mike Moore, and former UNESCO director Federico Mayor Zaragoza have also come out publically in support of the establishment of a PA.

Further Reading

Women and the UN

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

UN Women focuses exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment and is intended to give women’s issues a stronger voice within the UN system. It's creation came about as part of the UN reform agenda. It merges and builds on the work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

The main roles of UN Women are:

To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.
View the Official UN Women Press Release: UN Creates New Structure for Empowerment of Women
Read the UN Women's Frequently Asked Questions

Management and Secretariat Reform

The UN Secretariat has about 30,000 staff around the globe, of which 35% work at UN headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi. They run the bureaucracy of the UN, responding to the decisions by the Member States in the GA and in the Security Council. At the 2005 World Summit, leaders committed themselves to strengthening the UN through a series of management and secretariat reforms. The categories of reform include: 1) Changing the Secretariat’s management structure 2) Reviewing UN mandates older than 5 years, 3) Restructuring the Office for Internal Oversight (OIOS), and 4) Establishing of an Ethics Office. Read More at the Center for UN Reform Education

System-wide Coherence

In 2007, the UN launched "Delivering as One" (PDF available here) to streamline the work of all UN funds and programs in eight pilot countries, especially in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. This program will allow agencies like the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Food Program (WFP) to better coordinate work in the field, as well as reduce administration costs and improve efficiency.

The UN also is replacing its information management system with a new system that will streamline the management of operations, resources, and staff; reduce business processes by over 70 percent; and save the UN hundreds of millions of dollars. Once implemented, the new program will also ensure tha the UN meets International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

A Chronology of UN Reform

Here is a list of UN Reform accomplishments from 1992 to today. The list includes policy and procedural changes at the UN, improvements in oversight and accountability in UN programs and organs, updates of general business practices, and the institution of new ideas, programs and reports.

Open the Chronology

Skip to: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

1992

Boutros Boutros-Ghali comes into office as Secretary General and changes the organization of the Secretariat, bringing many disparate programs together into a single large Department for Economic and Social Development. He reduces the status of UN disarmament work and closes down the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations. The Commission on Transnational Corporations also ends its work. The Secretary General issues An Agenda for Peace, a reform plan in the peace/security area.

The UN World Summit on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro, popularly known as the "Earth Summit," sets new standards for NGO and public involvement in global conferences. It issues an important statement establishing new international norms on environmental issues.

1992-1994

The blue-ribbon Commission on Global Governance reflects concern that the major international institutions (and especially the UN) must be strengthened. Its report, Our Global Neighborhood, speaks of better UN funding and Security Council reform. A parallel blue-ribbon commission based at Yale University also issues a report on UN reform, as does a Ford Foundation project by Erskine Childers and Brian Urquhart.

1993

The UN GA creates the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights. In the Security Council, the new "Arria Formula " enables the Council for the first time to invite guests for informal meetings, giving the Council access to new information.

The Volcker-Ogata Commission studies UN finance and concludes that nations should pay their bills on time, in full and without conditions and that the UN's reserve funds should be substantially increased.

The UN organizes a major world conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in June.

1993-1996

The GA sets up five Working Groups to consider reforms in the run-up to the UN 50th Anniversary, but few important results emerge. The Working Group on Security Council reform continues its debates long after other groups end.

1994

The GA sets up the Office of Internal Oversight Services, a watchdog body to detect malfeasance and inefficiency at the UN.

Secretary General Boutros-Ghali issues another major reform document titled An Agenda for Development, responding to complaints that his first report gave unbalanced attention to security issues.

The UN establishes a web site and begins regular and effective development of this new communications tool. Due to budget pressures and U.S. opposition, the UN reduces other public information programs, including film production and radio broadcasts.

1994-1995

The UN organizes three more pathbreaking international conferences that set new policy standards – on Population at Cairo (September 1994), on Social Development at Copenhagen (March 1995) and on Women at Beijing (September 1995). The UN appears more effective and more connected to ordinary citizens than ever before. But the U.S. government increasingly opposes these conferences and charges that they are a waste of money.

1995

Conservatives in the U.S. Congress, spurred by right-wing think tanks, insist that the UN abandon work on ending poverty and universalizing health care in favor of "attainable goals and useful activities" like disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to refugees.

A gathering of world leaders at the UN's 50th Anniversary GS affirms broad support for the UN, but the leaders agree to few reform changes.

1995-1996

As arrears on U.S. dues grow steadily larger, the UN suffers from an increasing financial crisis. UN officials advocate global taxes to address the funding crisis, but in 1996 the U.S. Congress passes a law stipulating that the US.. will not pay its dues if global taxes are discussed. Sen. Jesse Helms, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee says the UN is "power hungry and dysfunctional" and the U.S. should withdraw as a member.

The UN sets up an Efficiency Board, with leading outside experts to advise on steps towards greater Secretariat efficiency.

1996

The newly-formed South Centre publishes For A Strong and Democratic United Nations, a major report that sharply criticizes pressures from Washington for UN downsizing, favoring instead greater democracy, better funding and a larger development role for the UN.

1997

The UN develops its "Optical Disk System" [later called the " Official Documents System"], a vast digital store of UN resolutions, meeting transcripts, reports and other documents, making it available to member states through a password protected site on the internet.

After lengthy negotiations, the UN Economic and Social Council agrees to new arrangements for NGO access, resulting in improved NGO rights. However, shortly after, member states rebuff accreditation of NGOs to the GA.

Kofi Annan assumes office as Secretary General, announces a reform package, and appoints Maurice Strong as Under Secretary General for Reform. Annan merges several units into a new Department for Economic and Social Affairs and seeks to reduce Secretariat costs. The UN creates a new Senior Management Group to better coordinate operations.

Responding to downsizing demands from the U.S., the UN reduces its regular staff and uses an increasing number of temporary consultants and staff on short-term contracts.

The GA creates the post of Deputy Secretary General to strengthen UN management. A new Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is also created.

In the Security Council, individual ambassadors begin to hold regular meetings with a group of NGOs.

1997-1998

The UN accepts a ten-year gift program totaling $1 billion from US media magnate Ted Turner, setting the controversial precedent of seeking funding from private donors for UN programming. Turner's UN Foundation is then set up and makes its first disbursements.

1999

Due to pressure from poor countries, the UN greatly reduces its use of "gratis personnel" (on loan from member states), especially affecting the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Gratis personnel are seen as loyal to their national government for which they may act as sources of influence, rather acting as independent international civil servants.

The Security Council decides to hold more open meetings and to organize its meetings on a more flexible basis.

2000

Secretary General Annan sets up the Global Compact , a rights-based initiative addressed to private business corporations and financed outside the UN's regular budget. The UN and its agencies begin policy "partnerships" with companies. Many NGOs protest this intrusion of business and charge that the Global Compact provides public relations for corporate malefactors.

The Security Council's Working Group on Sanctions comes close to completing negotiation of a text to improve sanctions procedures.

To resolve tensions with Washington over dues assessment and payment, UN member states agree to a new scale that reduces Washington's regular dues from 25% to 22% of the budget and its peacekeeping assessment from 30% to 27%. Other nations reluctantly pick up the difference.

NGOs first hold the Millennium Forum in May and make extensive proposals to the General Assembly. World leaders attend the Millennium Summit in September and adopt a statement affirming UN policies, including support for the "Millennium Development Goals."

The Security Council passes Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

2000-2001

At the request of the Secretary General, Lakhdar Brahimi prepares a report that becomes the basis for the "Brahimi Reforms" of UN peacekeeping. The GA eventually votes to accept many useful changes, substantially strengthening the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

2001

The UN introduces IMIS (Integrated Management and Information System) for budget and management information worldwide.

2002

Kofi Annan begins his second term as Secretary General and announces further reforms. Under pressure from Washington, the Department of Public Information closes nine UN information centers in Western Europe, leaving only one in Brussels.

The International Criminal Court begins work at The Hague, after many nations have ratified the Rome Statute of 1998. For the first time, a permanent international court can prosecute individuals responsible for gross violations of human rights and international law.

2003

The U.S. and UK attack Iraq in defiance of the Security Council. Many governments and UN officials – as well as the worldwide public – regret the UN's inability to prevent the war and wonder what the UN future holds. Secretary General Annan gives speech at the opening of the GA in September, saying the UN is at a "fork in the road" and calling for reforms to strengthen the organization.

2003-2004

The blue-ribbon "Cardoso Panel" considers UN relations with NGOs, business, parliamentarians and local governments. The panel issues a controversial report, speaking of the UN as a "convenor" of policy meetings and not as an authoritative law-making body. NGOs offer sharp criticisms of the report and the GA never acts on a follow-up resolution

A blue-ribbon panel on "Threats, Challenges and Change" studies global security issues and makes recommendations for institutional reform and policy initiatives. The report links security, development and the environment and it proposes a new Peacebuilding Commission and a Human Rights Council .

2004

The UN organizes its first international conference of top business leaders in the framework of the Global Compact.

Upon the invitation of the Secretary General, the Inter-Parliametary Union organizes the first of a series of annual conferences at UN headquarters for parliamentarians of all countries.

The UN opens its Official Documents System to the public through an internet access site.

2005

Following intense pressure from Washington, the Secretary General agrees to sweeping personnel changes at the top levels of the organization, beginning with his own chief of staff, Iqbal Riza. Among the many who depart are Kieren Prendergast, head of the Department of Political Affairs, and Louise Frechette, Deputy Secretary General.

Annan issues his report In Larger Freedom, based on the "Threats" Panel report. Intergovernmental negotiations begin on the Millennium+5 summit reform document.

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan make bids for permanent seats in the UN Security Council, while Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa also seek permanent status. These bids falter as the U.S. and China express opposition and the majority of GA members oppose the idea.

After months of negotiations towards the Millennium+5 UN Summit, Washington announces last-minute objections to hundreds of passages in the official summit document, effectively wrecking negotiations. The Millennium+5 Summit takes place in September with 153 world leaders assembled, but only minor reforms and weak policy results emerge.

After the Millennium +5 Summit, the General Assembly establishes a new Peacebuilding Commission, with a special office in the Secretariat to support it.

2006

In a second follow-up to the M+5 Summit, the General Assembly establishes a new Human Rights Council, which replaces the Human Rights Commission of ECOSOC.

Under pressure from Washington and with only six months of UN budget authorized, the Secretary General calls for extensive management reforms that would shift power to the office of the SG from the General Assembly. UN staff and the G-77 vigorously oppose these proposed measures.

The Secretary General names a high-level panel to consider consolidation of the UN's many agencies, funds and programs.

As the process of selecting the next Secretary General gets under way, Canada leads an effort to reform the selection process and many NGOs call for more transparency and accountability in the way the SG is chosen.

2007

The UN launches “Delivering as One” to streamline the work of all UN funds and programs in eight pilot countries. This program allows agencies to better coordinate UN development assistance in the field, reduce administration costs, and improve efficiency.

2008

Former U.S. Comptroller and head of the GAO, David Walker, heads the Independent Audit Advisory Committee (IAAC) of the UN, which acts as an expert advisory board to assist the GA in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) — which performs internal audits, inspections, evaluations and investigations within the UN System — increases its capacity to handle investigations, provide internal auditing, and evaluate peacekeeping missions.

2009

Improvements are made to UN recruiting and maintaining quality staff. Streamlined contractual arrangements are implemented so that there are only three types of appointments under a single set of staff rules. This replaces a complex system of multiple contracts and reduces inefficiencies. The UN stops the practice of issuing permanent contracts, in order to ensure that only the most qualified people remain on staff.

A new independent and more expedient internal justice system becomes operational on July 1, 2009. The two-tiered system uses the UN Dispute Tribunal and UN Appeals Tribunal to address disputes among staff and managers.

The GA agrees to give the Secretary General limited budgetary discretion of $30 million to respond to crises and emerging situations, such as the H1N1 flu.

UN member countries vote to consolidate the four UN offices confronting women’s issues into a single, more robust entity. This gives women’s issues a stronger voice within the UN system while reducing overlap and enhances policy coherence and financial efficiency.

2010

The Secretary General begins developing a framework that would make staff and managers more accountable for their performance. He also begins developing ways to streamline and strengthen the budgetary process to address inefficiencies and reduce unnecessary UN reports.

The UN begins improving business practices to replace its information management system with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). ERP will streamline the management of operations, resources, and staff; reduce business processes by over 70 percent; and save the UN hundreds of millions of dollars. Once implemented, ERP will also enhance internal controls and ensure the UN meets International Public Sector Accounting Standards.

*This chronology was sourced largely from The Global Policy Forum and the Better World Campaign - NGO's whom closely follow and report on UN Reform issues.

United States Positions on UN Reform

Security Council Reform

The United States is open to UN Security Council reform and expansion, as one element of an overall agenda for UN reform. We advocate a criteria-based approach under which potential members must be supremely well qualified, based on factors such as: economic size, population, military capacity, commitment to democracy and human rights, financial contributions to the UN, contributions to UN peacekeeping, and record on counterterrorism and nonproliferation. We have to look, of course, at the overall geographic balance of the Council, but effectiveness remains the benchmark for any reform.
~ U.S. State Department, Bureau of Public Affairs, June 20, 2005

Peacekeeping

In the past, our failure to pay all of our dues and to pay them on a timely basis has constrained the UN’s performance and deprived us of the ability to use our influence most effectively to promote reform. [President] Obama believes the U.S. should pay our dues to the UN in full and on time.
~ Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations

Read President Obama's Speeches at the 64th General Assembly

Special Report

Managing Change
at the United Nations
_{By Center for UN Reform Education}

Introduction
Chapter 1: Security Council Reform
Chapter 2: Revitalization of the General Assembly
Chapter 3: System-Wide Coherence
Chapter 4: Secretariat & Management Reform
Chapter 5: The Establishment of the Human Rights Council
Appendices

^{(all sections are downloadable PDF's)}

The Global Citizen

A blog by Citizens for Global Solutions

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The Responsibility Not to Veto: A Way Forward

Read a white paper by Citizens for Global Solutions Policy & Programs Director Ariela Blatter. The paper outlines the origins and evolution of the concept, discusses relevant cases over 20 years where the principle could have come into play (such as in Rwanda, Kosovo, and Darfur), and provides key recommendations for moving the principle forward.

Download the White Paper

External Links

Center for UN Reform Education - This non-profit research organization works to encourage a public discussion on United Nations reform by publishing and distributing papers and organizing public forums and conferences.
The Better World Campaign - BWC works to foster a strong, effective relationship between the United States and the United Nations and follows many U.S.-UN related issues, including reform.
ReformtheUN.org - This website by the World Federalist Movement provides information about UN reform initiatives, including Member States' positions, and reactions from parliamentarians and civil society groups.
The Global Policy Forum - GPF is an independent policy watchdog that monitors the work of the United Nations and follows UN Reform issues..
Official UN Website UN.org/Reform - Links to information on official reform proposals, including proposals by the Secretary General and intergovernmental proposals.
Official U.S. Website United State Mission to the UN - This website tracks statements by Ambassador Rice on Security Council reform and reports on other UN Reform issues of special interest to the U.S.