United Nations Reform

TNI

Aug 8 2006

Are the UN's Millennium Development Goals achievable? interview with Fiona Dove and Guido Schmidt-Traub, 23 September 2005
The world should be held accountable, this is not just an African problem or a developing country problem - this is a problem for everyone.
Mariano Aguirre Momento crítico para las Naciones Unidas El Correo Digital, 12 September 2005
Walden Bello On Secretary General Annan's Vision of "Freedom from Fear" Seminar Speech Makati (Philippines) 6 September 2005
Commenting of the UN Secretary General's report on UN reform, Bello says that most of the proposals lie at the level of improving efficiency. What is really needed are reforms that address the prevailing development paradigms informing the policies of the IMF, World Bank etc. which have made the Millennium Development Goals impossible to reach, and a focus on the key destabliser of global security right now - the belligerent USA.
Phyllis Bennis A Declaration Of War TomPaine.com, 31 August 2005
The UN reform envisaged in the US proposal prepared for the September UN Summit does not represent "reform", writes Bennis. Rather, it is designed to force the world to accept as its own the US strategy of abandoning impoverished nations and peoples, rejecting international law, privileging ruthless market forces over any attempted regulation, etc. Much of the US effort aims to undermine the power of the UN in favour of absolute national sovereignty. It is again time for the UN to reclaim its charter and to join with people and governments around the world in defence of the UN and against empire.
Phyllis Bennis Bush Sends John Bolton to the United Nations Institute for Policy Studies, 3 August 2005
Relying on an emergency constitutional provision President Bush appointed John Bolton the new US ambassador to the UN. He is unequivocally committed to the Bush administration's long-standing policy of unilateralism. But following his reputation of a bully, few at UN headquarters are likely to take his "persuasions" seriously. As a result, this may turn out to be an opportunity for international social movements and allied governments to advance campaign to reclaim the United Nations.
Phyllis Bennis Corpocracy vs the Global Commons Seminar Speech Melbourne (Australia), 29 July 2005
The US Empire is rising, but so too are the challenges to it, said Bennis in her speech at a public meeting in Melbourne recently. The demand to stop the occupation of Iraq comes not only from the peace movement. There is a large group of Iraqi parliamentarians putting forward the demand, and even the US congress has created an "Out of Iraq" caucus. The moral deficit of the illegal US policy in Iraq is increasing, and the coalition backing it, such as it ever was, is dissipating. Bennis urged the peace movement to continue to expose the moral bankruptcy of US policy towards Iraq, to build itself on the basis of international law and move forward to reclaim the UN.
10 Questions the Senate Should Ask John Bolton at his Confirmation Hearing, But Probably Won't Institute for Policy Studies, 8 March 2005
Phyllis Bennis Reform or Die. The United Nations as Second Superpower openDemocracy, 16 December 2004
Phyllis Bennis US Right-Wing Ratchets up Attacks on the UN. UN Panel Calls for Wide-ranging Reforms, Still Fudges on Preemptive War Institute for Policy Studies, 9 December 2004
The escalating attacks on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, including calls for his resignation, are not responses to any "scandal", writes Bennis. Rather, they must be seen as major attacks on the United Nations as a whole. They reflect, among other things, a growing view among many in Washington that Iraq was a step too far in the UN challenging US legitimacy and credibility.
Phyllis Bennis The Roller Coaster of Relevance. The Security Council, Europe and the US War in Iraq Institute for Policy Studies, 29 July 2004
Bennis proposes that governments willing to stand up to the US join forces with the "second super power" (mobilised global civil society) to reclaim the central role of the United Nations and international law as the centre pieces of peaceful relations among nations. Key to this, she argues, would be the potential role of leading European governments in creating an empowered Security Council capable of recasting global power away from reliance on nuclear arsenals and corporate treasuries.
Mariano Aguirre The UN and Humanitarian Crises TNI Website, 6 June 2000
Susan George The Political Demand for Change. A New Charter For a Worldwide Organisation?
International Colloquium sponsored by the IUHEI and the GIIS, Geneva, 27-28 February 1995