Conference on The United Nations - A New Role in a Changing World?

Statement by Mr Bjørn Tore Godal
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Conference on The United Nations - A New Role in a Changing World?

University of Oslo, 24 October 1995

Dear friends,
Although we have no candles and cake - probably a reflection of the lack of government funding - I wish you a happy anniversary! "If We Can Keep on for 50 Years..." - This was the title of one of UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie's speeches in 1949. He stated that "in building a peaceful world society we have to think in terms of decades, not of years. If we keep at the job all the time and never falter we ought to be able to get quite a lot done in the next twenty years, and a great deal more in 50 years. If we can keep on building a peaceful world on a U.N. basis all that time without a war, permanent peace will really be within our grasp."

Fifty years have passed since the Charter of the United Nations came into effect. Is permanent peace within our grasp? Many will, of course, have their doubts. But I think we can claim to be at least closer to it now than at any other time in the history of the United Nations. As we know, the post-war climate for international cooperation has been unstable, ranging from the iciest days of the Cold War, through the over-ambitious belief in the 1970s that a majority of nations could rule the world by means of resolutions in the General Assembly, to a virtual freeze on globalism in the early '80s. The beginning of the nineties was marked by widespread optimism. In recent years, the UN has been overburdened with work and its progress in various areas has been uneven. This has led to the UN being judged, in my view unjustly, more by its failures than by its successes.

The achievements of the UN so far are important: The UN took the lead in the decolonization process and integrated scores of new member states. It established peace-keeping operations, promoted and protected human rights, helped abolish apartheid, ran field operations in developing countries bringing relief to millions. Moreover, it established agencies to deal with newly recognized problem areas such as the environment. All of these bear witness to the way in which the UN has harnessed the best of humanity and civilization.

While recalling this successful part of UN history, we should also remind ourselves of the shortcomings. For 50 years, the United Nations has, for better or for worse, reflected its members, their problems and aspirations as well as the extent of their preparedness to work together internationally in the cause of peace and social progress. It has reflected global political trends, contrasts, conflicts and confrontations.

In 1948 Trygve Lie remarked: "There is nothing wrong with the United Nations Charter except the failures to live up to it. There is nothing wrong with the machinery of the United Nations except the failures to use it." This was probably more true in 1948 than it is today. As we are approaching a new century, it has become increasingly evident that new challenges require new responses. Conflicts between states are no longer the sole threat to security. Many conflicts are rooted in poverty, social inequity, ethnic problems, environmental degradation and human rights violations. It is of paramount importance that these problems be dealt with at an early stage, before they escalate, before the costs become enormous, before it is too late. Preventive action is urgently needed.

The new challenges are of such a scale and magnitude that they threaten to outgrow our present capacity to deal with them. These global issues are issues of survival. Population growth threatens to exceed the carrying capacity of our planet. One billion people live in absolute poverty and the number is still growing. The situation in Africa is particularly bleak. The prospects of feeding a growing world population are grim. The annual growth of the world economy corresponds to the entire economy of South America. If sustainable development strategies are not implemented, the ecological implications may be disastrous. Millions of people still have unfulfilled aspirations to take part in the shaping of society by participating in democratic political processes, in spite of the considerable progress that has been made in recent years.

All of this testifies to our need for an effective global organization. The member states of the United Nations must provide the Organization with resources, ideas and commitment to ensure that we can collectively meet and respond to present-day challenges. The required renewal will take place in a world of changing power structures, in the midst of a technological revolution, where the position of the nation state as the predominant international subject and actor is receding.

Classic inter-state relations are no longer the most frequent source of conflict. Nowadays, internal affairs of states affect the international community to such an extent that the concept of non-interference must be tempered by the recognition of mutual interests and concern, even as regards issues which, in the words of the UN Charter, are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the Member States.

If drafted today, the Charter of the UN would certainly have looked different. Both its principal organs and the specialized agencies would probably have been altered. If we were to sit down at the drawing board to design the UN today, we would perhaps have grouped the most closely interlinked challenges together and designated agencies to deal with them in a concerted manner. Population, education and health could have been the responsibility of one agency. Energy, environment, science and technology that of another.

Most likely, there is not going to be a new San Francisco Conference. Required reforms must have the present Charter and Organization as their point of departure. We would definitely welcome substantial changes in the UN system aimed at creating a sound, relevant and effective international public sector which can serve as an umbrella for regional cooperation and national development. A global principle of subsidiarity should be defined to ensure that decisions made by the UN are of a kind that can best be made by a global organization, while regional cooperation is strengthened and founded on the characteristics of each region.

Conflict situations that may threaten international peace and security should continue to be the responsibility of the UN Security Council. However, the composition of the Security Council reflects the world of 1945. The question of enlargement of the Council is on today's agenda for reform of the UN system. The need to reform the Security Council has been triggered by changes in the world order which cannot be disregarded. Nevertheless, enlargement of the Council requires a careful assessment of how to balance the criteria of legitimacy and effectiveness.

The issue of enlargement of the Security Council will have to be resolved. So will the need to overhaul the UN agenda. We must ensure that the agenda at all times reflects the most important challenges facing the international society. The UN agenda must cope with the disintegration of states, human tragedies on a vast scale, management of the environment and natural resources as well as issues of redistribution implied by the concept of sustainable development. And most important, we need to find a conceptual and organizational answer to how development efforts can best be addressed in conjunction with peace and security measures such as peacekeeping operations.

The disintegration of states and the erosion and weakened legitimacy of national institutions will pose a major challenge in the time ahead. In this regard, the challenge to the UN will be to prevent contention and alleviate human suffering. Even if there is currently a certain disillusionment with the practical results of some UN peace operations, such as in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda, in most cases there are no effective alternatives to actions taken by the Security Council. However, there is a need for an accepted global instrument to identify potential conflicts. The need to deal with erupting conflicts will not diminish, and improved mechanisms are required for the rapid deployment of preventive forces in such situations.

There is a need for a better rapid reaction capability which can deal with a conflict situation as well as provide relief to suffering communities. Coordination and efficiency in emergency assistance must be further improved. I believe that a major challenge in the next century will be to protect human rights and democracy in societies characterized more or less by anarchy. In exceptional situations, assistance may be needed to reconstruct the basic infrastructure of a state. Then, there may be no alternative to intervention by the UN or other organizations operating in cooperation with the UN.

A future comprehensive UN agenda should also include the strengthening of UN peace-keeping operations. The current resources of the UN are stretched to the limit as are those of many troop-contributing states. The UN is faced with a serious financial situation which threatens to adversely affect the UN's ability to fulfill its important mandate, which is to maintain international peace and security. These problems must be solved on a permanent basis. The financial crisis in the UN is no longer simply a financial matter. It has become an urgent political problem. The widening gap between ambitious political decisions and the resources provided to the UN undermines both the authority and the credibility of the Organization.

Despite the present disturbing funding situation of the United Nations, it is my deep conviction that in addressing common global problems there is no real alternative to multilateralism. I trust that this conviction is shared by a great number of decision-makers all over the world, including the major fund contributors. Once again I would like to read from Trygve Lie's "If We Can Keep on for 50 Years..." speech: "... even present-day Americans and their ancestors took over 300 years to build the U.S. into what it is today. In that scale of time, 50 years is a very short time in which to accomplish so great a result as the prevention and abolition of war."

On this 50th anniversary of the United Nations, I think we have to reach to a point where policies should be adapted to a perspective in which time is very short. Urgent action is needed to improve today's United Nations while preparing it for tomorrow's challenges. As a true friend of the United Nations, Norway will continue to make every effort to promote constructive reforms in the interest of all mankind.

Lagt inn 2 november 1995 av Statens forvaltningstjeneste, ODIN-redaksjonen