The Role of The Secretary-General: A Personal History
By Jean Gazarian01.03.2007
Ban Ki-moon has taken the “most impossible job in the world”, as Trygve Lie famously said about the role of the Secretary-General. The Charter of the United Nations included the Secretariat among its principal organs, most certainly to grant some political prerogatives to the Secretary-General.
The UN General Assembly Advances the Global Agenda
By Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa
Presiding over the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, I quickly learned that an effective president needs to be able to juggle many issues and remain in close contact with key negotiating groups and regional constituencies.
A Special Partnership with the UN: A European Perspective
By Thomas Matussek01.03.2007
When Ban Ki-moon was appointed eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations on 13 October 2006, he declared: “The world’s people will not be fully served unless peace, development and human rights—the three pillars of the UN—are advanced together with equal vigour”.
A Special Partnership With the UN: A Latin American Perspective
By Heraldo Muñoz01.03.2007
Latin America is the region in the developing world where democracy is now almost universal. 1 Its roots, however, are weak. Latin America has a population of approximately 550 million people, of which about 44 per cent live under the poverty line and 18 per cent are affected by extreme poverty.
A Special Partnership With the UN: An Asian Perspective
By Hilario G. Davide, Jr.01.03.2007
The mission of the United Nations to carve out a safe, prosperous and just world from the ashes of the Second World War remains today an urgent global undertaking. For the past 61 years of its existence, the Organization’s major organs contributed significantly, and greatly, to this end.
A Special Partnership With the UN: An African Perspective
By Patrick Hayford01.03.2007
Even before formally assuming office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had already made it very clear, in a series of public statements, that Africa would be among his highest priorities.
The Chronicle Interview: ‘We are more advanced in peacekeeping than in peacebuilding efforts’
By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi01.03.2007
Today’s peacekeeping is reaching unprecedented levels. There are, as we speak, roughly 100,000 personnel—military, police, civilian—in 18 missions around the world.
The Secretary-General’s Agenda: Progress On Disarmament Required For Global Security
By Natalie J. Goldring01.03.2007
It is an honour to suggest agenda items and top priorities in international security for Ban Ki-moon’s first term in office as Secretary-General of the United Nations. However, it is also a daunting prospect, given his special expertise in foreign affairs and international security policy.
The Secretary-General’s Agenda: Indispensable For Sustainable Development
By Jeffrey D. Sachs01.03.2007
Global sustainable development and security are deeply interconnected, a fact that is increasingly recognized by world leaders. Sustainable development signifies the challenge of combining economic development with environmental sustainability.
The Secretary-General’s Agenda: Prioritizing Commitment To Combat Global Poverty
By Muhammad Yunus 01.03.2007
As the first Secretary-General of the United Nations elected in the twenty-first century, Ban Ki-moon has inherited responsibilities that span the globe and run the gamut of issues, which included peace, prosperity and everything in between.
The Secretary-General’s Agenda: Sustainable Development In Africa Requires Good Governance
By Mo Ibrahim 01.03.2007
The significance of the selection of Africa for the first official overseas visit of Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General of the United Nations cannot be overstated. Promoting stability and development in the region must continue to be at the heart of the Organization’s work.
ESSAY: Silent Reform Through The Global Compact
By Thomas Hale 01.03.2007
For the first time in its history, the United Nations is embracing business and civil society as vital partners in advancing its goals of international peace and development.
Sixty-first General Assembly
By Melissa Gorelick01.03.2007
General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, in her closing statement to the sixty-first session, told Member States that “when we are united in partnership and overcome mistrust, we can achieve much more for each other”, noting that the adoption of the long-awaited resolution on strengthening the UN Economic and Social Council was a good example.
Sixty-first General Assembly: First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)
The First Committee, one of the main bodies of the General Assembly, enforces disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons. In 2006, it made huge strides in international security when it adopted resolutions condemning surplus weapons stockpiles and agreeing on deeper international cooperation in the tracing of black market arms.
Sixty-first General Assembly: Second Committee (Economic and Financial)
The Second Committee continued to tackle the enormous dilemmas of economic inequality, poverty and environmental degradation. Many developing countries expressed their frustrations at the lack of progress on the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round of multilateral negotiations, aimed at increasing economic growth by lowering trade barriers worldwide.
Sixty-first General Assembly: Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural)
The Third Committee during the sixty-first session of the General Assembly had at the top of its agenda the rights of women, children and migrants, as well as an evaluation of the work of the recently established Human Rights Council, and approved a draft resolution naming the right to development as a major goal of this new UN body.
Sixty-first General Assembly: Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)
The Fourth Committee handles special political matters not dealt with by the First Committee, as well as decolonization issues.
Sixty-first General Assembly: Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)
At the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, the Fifth Committee ensured that the United Nations would continue to function in the 2007-2009 biennium and finance its activities, by determining the contribution of each Member State to the Organization’s regular and peacekeeping budgets.
Sixty-first General Assembly: Sixth Committee (Legal)
The Sixth Committee, which deals with international legal matters confronting the 192 Member States of the United Nations, has helped give birth to judicial bodies like the International Criminal Court. Following the recommendations of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, the objective of strengthening the rule of law was at the top of the Committee’s agenda in 2006.
The Ethical Challenge of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations
By Mark Gibney01.03.2007
Ethics in Action is an intelligent, provocative and important contribution to the fields of human rights and ethics. The book emerged from a series of meetings-apparently rather dynamic meetings-over the course of several years, which brought together academics and those working for various international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).
About this Issue
UN Chronicle, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 2007
Addressing a conference of the United Nations International School in March 2007, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked that, unfortunately, his “generation has been somewhat careless in looking after our one and only planet”. He could well have been speaking of more than the disregard a substantial portion of the twentieth century visited upon the earth and its environment, and been referring to the lack of care invested in the very lives and survival of the children, women and men who are heir to its bounties. Caring, as our cover image dramatically affirms, is intensely personal, but that is a quality of its nature. Individuals, by instinct, have the capacity to care. Institutions must learn how, and how best, to do so.
For this issue, we invited a range of eminent contributors to reflect upon an agenda for the United Nations and its new Secretary-General, and we discovered that each of these related to that quality of compassion, concern and, ultimately, partnership with responsibility. Jeffrey Sachs speaks of “involved institutions” and “shared” international goals. Muhammad Yunus describes poverty as “humanity’s pre-eminent moral issue”. Mo Ibrahim argues for measuring and benchmarking governance.
Thomas Matussek elaborates upon the United Nations role as the “centre of gravity” of the multilateral system. Heraldo Muñoz speaks unequivocally of the responsibility of democracies to deliver to their citizens. Hilario Davide, Jr. writes of the “Asian obsession for unity in diversity”, while Patrick Hayford makes telling reference to the twisted logic of those who would ask the peoples of Africa to be “realistic” in the sights they set for themselves.
In her contribution, the current President of the United Nations General Assembly, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, recalls the “paradigm shift from a culture of war to a culture of peace” that the United Nations built upon, recognizing that “prosperity and peace are indivisible and, to be sustained, need to be shared by all”. That sharing animates the embracing by the United Nations, for the first time in its history, of “business and civil society as vital partners in advancing its goals of international peace and development”. And it is a sharing that emerged in the many extensive, and intensive, discussions that the sixty-first session of the General Assembly held and hear.
We trust that some of the ideas this issue suggests will spur your own. The United Nations is an organization that, in many senses, leads best when it understands most fully. As Jean Gazarian notes, Ban Ki-moon is the first Secretary-General to have taken the oath of office with his hand placed upon the Charter of the United Nations. We can expect its purposes and principles to inform the actions he initiates or suggests, and we can expect to be contributors to those actions by his pledge, which Mr Gazarian quotes, to be “accessible, hard-working and prepared to listen attentively”.
Cover Information: A young man in Darfur, sick with hepatitis E, is cared for by his mother at the city hospital in Mornei, West Darfur. James Nachtwey travelled to Sudan to document the everyday struggles of people who have been displaced because of the civil war. The ongoing conflict in Sudan has created an increasingly urgent humanitarian crisis. Photo by James Nachtwey © 2006, VII Photo Agency LL.C.