SELF-ADVOCACY

 

R APID developments in the international arena has possibly compelled United Nations Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres to assert that the UN has been “very active” in mediating conflicts. Even as United States President Mr. Donald Trump tries to form a Board of Peace involving several countries, and also withdraw financial support to several global institutions, Mr. Guterres possibly felt it necessary to tell the world what the UN has been doing. His assertion, of course, is not without substance -- which deserves appropriate attention by the world. The world must acknowledge Mr. Guterres’ right of self-advocacy in the light of the growing propaganda against the UN. Of course, the issue of reforms in the United Nations’ form and content has little to do with Mr. Trump’s diatribes against the world body. The reforms issue is altogether different -- and it does not seek a disregard to the UN.

 

Much to the contrary, countries like India emphasising UN reforms want the UN to keep functioning -- but more on practical grounds and not on rhetoric of a few powerful nations that have cornered the Veto power only to further their geopolitical interests. In the past few decades since its inception, the United Nations has proved its utility on countless occasions. Yet, as the texture of world order keeps changing periodically, the need for appropriate reforms in the UN’s form and content is often felt. But this need, in no way, suggests that seekers of reforms are indirectly seeking liquidation of the United Nations. Much to the contrary, reforms-seekers want a more capable UN -- which is being blocked by a handful of nations to serve their narrow ends. The reform seekers, thus, push for a more utilitarian UN in which elitism of a few member-nations has no place and space. Mr. Antonio Guterres’ assertion, thus, about the UN’s role in conflict mediation in the world has to be taken seriously.

 

The world must recognise that the Secretary General is trying his best to showcase what the UN has been doing and how well. The outcry, thus, is not against the UN per se but it is against the UN being used as a hand-maiden of a few countries. The outcry is against the elite club culture of the Permanent Member-Nations of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The outcry is against those few nations who block reforms and try to run the world body as per their own designs and wishes -- often at the cost of interests of the smaller member-nations. And the general membership of the UN understand this very well -- including every member-nation. In other words, the conflict within the United Nations is between haves and have-nots among the membership of 200- plus -- and not against the world body itself. With minimal reforms implemented sensitively, the same UN can become acceptable to a wider range of nations. There is no denying to the fact that the United Nations has built over time a great network of truly great ideas -- such as UN Development Programme, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Children’s Fund ... ! Each of these institutions has done a great job to help the larger humanity. It has also tried, as Mr. Antonio Guterres has stressed, to mediate in every conflict around the globe and has come up with great solutions -- which is the stress of Mr. Gutrerres’ assertion at the media conference. If understood in proper perspective, the Secretary General’s statement can be treated as a starting point for a reforms movement.