The UN’s Renaissance

ADAY before he left for Tokyo and the conference on Afghanistan, Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, entered the debate on the human rights of terrorists that grew out of the transfer to the American military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of a group of detainees identified by the United States as ‘unlawful combatants’. According to some critics, these are prisoners of war entitled to Geneva Convention safeguards. As is her wont, Mary Robinson, the UN high commissioner for human rights, did not mince words on this issue; Annan is more subtle. “While we certainly need vigilance to prevent acts of terrorism, and firmness in condemning and punishing them,” he said in remarks in the Security Council, “it will be self-defeating if we sacrifice other key priorities, such as human rights, in the process.” US Ambassador James Cunningham responded mildly that this was a “very important” point to keep in mind.

Double standards

The Bush administration likes the secretary-general’s emphasis on human rights – as long as he is addressing countries like Iraq and not pointing a finger at the United States. But both he and Robinson have stirred misgivings in several UN member states over their advocacy of the need for vigilance in the protection of human rights. Last year, she complained of “UN constraints” on her right to speak her mind and announced she was quitting. Annan persuaded her to stay on at least until this September. Her replacement – no names have come out yet – will probably be admonished to speak more softly, lest irked members demand that the controversial office be eliminated. China might prefer that.

As the Nobel Prize-winning secretary- general begins his second five-year term, the UN is enjoying a surge in international confidence, resulting in part from the unifying impact of the events of 11th September and the firm and unanimous responses of the Security Council and the General Assembly, which have repeatedly condemned terrorism in all its forms while approving coalition-sought measures to fight the menace. American opinion polls record high approval ratings for the UN and the secretary-general is now a frequent and welcome visitor to the White House and Capitol Hill.

Invited to pay a tribute, at a Kennedy Centre awards ceremony, to Luciano Pavarotti, one of his designated ‘ambassadors of peace’, Annan himself received a standing ovation – apparently in acknowledgement of his Nobel Prize – from an audience of political and show-business stars that included President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell as well as Jack Nicholson, Julie Andrews, Michael Douglas and Quincy Jones.

Can it last? This secretary-general is far more deft at diplomacy than any of his predecessors, save possibly Dag Hammarskjöld (who ran into serious political problems in the final months before his death in a plane crash on a 1961 Congo peace mission). The current rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, strong support from Britain and France and an inactive China can only help Annan and the UN. (Hammarskjöld’s conduct of Congo policy deeply offended Russia, which broke relations with him, and President Charles de Gaulle, who dismissed the UN as “ce machin” – “this thing.”)

The secretary-general now has the difficult task of wooing the most powerful member states away from their obsession with the aftermath of 11th September. In this regard, he mentioned recently that a quarter of the UN’s scarce secretariat resources are currently devoted to the processing of member states’ reports to the counter-terrorism committee, on the defensive measures they have instituted. Still, he was also quick to welcome the decision to give this task to the UN, observing that “states are for once really using this organisation in the way its founders intended” – as an instrument to meet a global threat.

Don’t forget Aids and the poor

One immediate casualty of the heavy focus on terrorism is the international Aids fund, which was and still is among Annan’s primary concerns. At last year’s special session of the UN General Assembly on the pandemic – a first for that body – he set a goal of up to $9 billion a year to fight the disease, which is estimated today to be affecting more than 45m people, with African countries the worst affected.

However, Fred Eckhard, UN spokesman, estimates that no more than $1.5 billion was raised by the end of 2001 – including $200m from the United States. World Trade Centre relief appeals were too strong a competitor. Annan has frequently reminded UN members that third-world poverty is a powerful breeding ground for political and religious extremists and urged them to do more to help them to achieve self-sustaining development. However, worries about Al-Qaeda’s possible future plans for death and destruction and how to combat them, as well as the massive reconstruction needs of Afghanistan, will diminish the impact of other appeals for development aid. There will be a summit conference on the subject at Johannesburg in August.

From Jane’s Information Group Ltd.,
Sentinel House, 163 Brighton Road,
Coulsdon, Surrey CR5 2NH, UK –
January 24, 2002