RESTORING THE FAITH

Some see the United Nations as out of shape for the times. Others feel it's primarily a problem of perception.

That its Chief Executive has been compelled, in the course of his proposals on its reform, to conclude "unity of purpose, coherence of effort, agility and flexibility" are in short supply at the United Nations is indicator enough of the time being out of joint. This awareness informs his specific ideas for it to "advocate and undertake with credibility its larger mission as an agency of progressive change for the world's nations and peoples alike".

If, in its fifties, fitness is to finesse flab in the Organization, the General Assembly session now under way in New York must realise real reform and renewal. Less than two years ago, Heads of State and Goverment resolved at its fiftieth anniversary to "redirect"

the Organization, promising to "give to the twenty-first century a United Nations equipped, financed and structured to serve effectively the peoples in whose names its was established".

Mr. Annan's intent is clearly to suggest that structure and refresh its resources, human, logistical and financial. He has already taken some important steps . It now falls upon Member States to evaluate or elaborate, accept or excise, each of the proposals he has put before them, leaving him ready to get on with the job.

Platitudes only placate, decisions deliver. But reforms remain instruments; Mr. Annan describes the real measure of United Nations strength as lying in near-universal norms that "have not only a moral import (but) provide the institutional underspinnings of daily life within the international community". It is this strength that empowers moral rebellions against political tyrannies. It is this strength that enjoins the enfeebled in seeking life that is secure, just and humane.

By allwowing access through action to the peaks and pinnacles upon which United Nations purposes and principles have often precariously perched, and recharting the roads to their realization through realistic routes, Mr. Annan's answer to our cover's question can restore the Organization to the ownership, and not occasional tenancy, by "the peoples in whose names it was established".