Annan Suggests expansion of Security Council, definition of terror
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for the boldest changes to the United Nations in the history of the world body, saying they are needed to tackle global threats in the 21st century.

He urged the leaders to “act boldly” and adopt “the most far-reaching reforms in the history of the United Nations,” which was founded in 1945.

One of the major proposals in the package calls for a new Human Rights Council as a major UN organ — possibly on a par with the Security Council — to replace the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights. That panel has long faced criticism for allowing the worst-offending countries to use their membership to protect one another from condemnation.

“The creation of the council would accord human rights a more authoritative position,” and put it on the same level as security and development, Annan said.

Expansion of Security Council

Annan also called for an expansion of the UN Security Council to reflect the global realities today, but he left the details to the General Assembly. He urged its members to decide on a plan before the September summit, preferably by consensus, but if that’s impossible by a vote.

Annan backed two options proposed in December by a high-level panel. One would add six new permanent members and the other would create a new tier of eight semi-permanent members: two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. He left open the possibility of other ideas.

UN chief Kofi Annan warned of a “crisis of confidence” affecting global nuclear security.

The secretary general said nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts were being hampered by “dysfunctional decision-making procedures and the paralysis that accompanies them.”

The spread of nuclear know-how, Annan said, had exacerbated long-standing tensions within the nuclear regime, arising from the fact that the technology required for civilian nuclear fuel can also be used to develop nuclear weapons.

In his report, Annan proposed guaranteeing supplies of nuclear fuel for civilian use to non-nuclear weapon states, as an incentive to prevent them developing their own unranium-enrichment and plutonium-separation capacities.

As well as beefing up the verification authority of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Annan said measures were needed to strengthen the 35-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

He called for the Security Council to fix guidelines on when countries may go to war and to agree on a universal definition of terrorism.

Annan said consensus among member states on when and how the use of military force might be justified was crucial if the world body was to be a forum for resolving differences, rather than “a mere stage for acting them out.”

Invasion of Iraq

In a clear reference to the bitter divisions caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq, Annan said it was particularly important to agree on the use of pre-emptive or preventive military action.

“No state can protect itself acting entirely alone,” Annan said, proposing that the Council adopt a resolution that would guide the UN’s top decision-making body in considering whether to endorse the use of force.

On the question of defining terrorism, the secretary general proposed a formula stipulating that no cause or grievance, “no matter how legitimate,” could justify the targetting of civilians.

Actions by states or organisations aimed at killing or harming non-combatants in order to intimidate a population or influence government policy should be considered an act of terrorism, Annan said.●