U.N. in danger of fading into irrelevance

There is a bizarre lexicon of code phrases that professional diplomats use to mask their real thoughts.

When they report that they had a "useful exchange of views" with a foreign interlocutor, it generally means nothing got decided. When they say they had a "full and frank discussion," it means the session was rowdy and may have come near to blows. And when they report that some institution may be "fading into irrelevance," it means it's going down the tubes.

That's where we stand with the United Nations today. Are we going to get a revitalized and reformed United Nations? Or is it going to "fade into irrelevance?"

There is a narrow window of opportunity to effect the reform acutely necessary if the United Nations is to emerge from recent scandal and political impotence and regain stature and relevance.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose own stewardship of this unwieldy, bureaucracy-ridden organization is under fire, is in the forefront of those calling for change. Declaring last year that the United Nations was at a crossroads, he appointed a panel of wise men and women to make recommendations for improvements and restructuring. The panel came back in December with some drastic comments. They included criticism of various U.N. agencies, called for efficiencies in the U.N. bureaucracy, and faulted the United Nations for lagging in combating terrorism.

One of the panel's most significant recommendations for restructuring was expansion of the U.N. Security Council beyond the present five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China — and 10 revolving members, each of whom serve two years. The aim was to provide more realistic representation than was countenanced when the United Nations was founded.

Last week Annan released details of his own recommendations, largely based on the suggestions of his independent panel but going substantially beyond them in the area of human rights. Specifically he called for a remake of the United Nations' Human Rights Commission, which has been sharply criticized by the United States for paying lip service to human rights and paradoxically has included in its membership such chronic abusers as Cuba, Libya and the Sudan. In his report, Annan conceded that the commission had lost credibility and been manipulated by such offenders. He proposed scrapping the present Human Rights Commission and replacing it with a smaller one made up of member nations pledged to observe the highest human rights standards.

Annan wants his ideas discussed in the next few months, then acted upon at the next General Assembly of the United Nations in September.