should be the key priority. The UN system will need to provide a credible analysis of poverty profiles in different parts of the world as well as mature policy guidance. The latter should include policy recommendations related to those with the greatest needs, whether they are ethnic minorities or other identity groups. A national policy intended to address poverty issues cannot be enough if it relies only on general statistical information. Disaggregated data usually help identify the groups most concerned and allow for a good diagnosis of the problem, and consequently, better policy-making.
The sustainability of development initiatives has been hitherto considered mainly in its environmental dimension. There are good reasons for that. Social ←25 | 26→sustainability has been less prominent, even if understood well. One of the criteria for the good governance is the existence of policies designed to promote growth and to ensure that economic growth translates into social improvement to the largest extent possible. The expectation of an automatic “trickle down” effect is most often an illusion. In recent years that illusion has started to wane, while current debates on growing income inequality within states places the question of social sustainability more centrally into the development debate. Moreover, the question of balancing the environmental, economic and social sustainability of development remains as critical as ever.
The third concept, fairness, should be understood in its general meaning. Development requires rules and rules need to be fair. Ideally, development brings with it an increasing sophistication of the rule of law and a steadily improving level of achievement of universal human rights standards. However, these requirements are as sensitive as they are necessary. Perfect is an enemy of good. It is important to set priorities related to the realization of human rights in a manner that takes into account the economic and social context in which these human rights are to be realized. In addition, fairness within states has a counterpart in the need for greater fairness among states as well.
Unlike economic and social cooperation, human rights are scarcely mentioned in the UN Charter. The proposal made in San Francisco to include an international bill of rights did not succeed. However, the void was filled soon after, by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most important and most ambitious pronouncements ever made by the UN.
Let me remind you of the following provision in the Declaration, its Article 28:
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
This provision contains two key elements: first, the entitlement to a social and international order and, second, the aspiration of the full realization of rights, as opposed to mere recognition or formal enactment. Thus, the platform was set for significant development – first a standard setting, which dominated the first two decades of action, and later a gradual strengthening of the implementation of human rights – a more difficult and conflictual aspect of human rights work which dominates the agenda to date.
Let me conclude.
Observing the UN as a whole, as well as its evolution in more than seventy years of existence, shows that the organization is not only indispensable but also practically relevant to a wide variety of the international community’s ←26 | 27→needs. There are both possibilities and needs for improvement, with some of them obvious.
In terms of peace operations, the mere numbers of peacekeeping personnel and the fact that they remain under national disciplinary and criminal jurisdiction has made the task of preventing and suppressing the incidence of inappropriate behavior, including sexual abuse, difficult. It is encouraging that the Security Council has expressed its commitment to the principle of zero tolerance for this unacceptable behavior by peacekeepers. Now, the Council should develop methods to ensure that this principle is implemented.
With regards to the UN development system, much innovation is needed to take full advantage of the data revolution, to improve monitoring and develop capacities for sophisticated analysis and policy advice. This will require ever greater attention to UN activities in the field, as well as a more ambitious approach at the level of principal organs.
The human rights segment has to continue to improve its monitoring and implementation capacity, as well as think about the transformative potential of human rights. In fact, the language of Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be the guiding principle of human rights bodies and of the UN system as a whole.
The UN needs to strengthen its outreach to the general public to gain worldwide public opinion support. Communication with the general public is necessary to strengthen the natural alliance between the high aspirations of the UN, its practical work and the legitimate expectations of the public. In the twenty-first century, it is vital for the UN to go “as far as possible”. The visionary idea of William Pitt, expressed more than two centuries ago, needs broad public support to flourish in our era.
(Keynote Speech at the UN Forum, convened by the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom, London, 28 June 2014)
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Notes
1. 1 Douglas Hurd, Choose Your Weapons, The British Foreign Secretary, 200 Years of Argument, Success and Failure, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2010. p. 24.
2. 2 For the history of creation of the UN see Stephen C. Schlesinger, Act of Creation, the Founding of the United Nations, Westview 2003.
3. 3 For a more recent discussion of the practice of the UN Security Council, see Chinmaya R. Gharekan, The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council, Pearson –Longman, 2006.
4. 4 For a comprehensive overview see Sebastian von Einsiedel, David M. Malone and Bruno Stagno Ugarte, The UN Security Council in the 21st Century, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder-London, 2016.
The Global and Regional in the Contemporary International System
Can the international system function solely through global institutions, such as the United Nations? The answer cannot be yes because the world is too complex for a single type of international organization. A combination is necessary. The founders of the United Nations who met at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington DC in 1944 to draft the Charter of the future global organization understood the problem and devised an approach that is still relevant today.
The question, at the time, was whether an effective global instrument of peace could be hoped for and what could be expected from regional security mechanisms. The experience with the League of Nations was disappointing and a regional approach seemed more realistic, and closer to the needs of “realpolitik”.
The result of those discussions and subsequent negotiations was a compromise. The United Nations Security Council was endowed, in Article 24 of the Charter, with the “primary responsibility” for the maintenance of international peace and security. In addition, according to Chapter VIII of the UN Charter, nothing in the Charter precluded the existence of regional arrangements or agencies for dealing with such matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security as are appropriate for regional action, provided that they and their activities are consistent with the purposes and principles of the United Nations. The UN Charter established a hierarchy in favor of the global organization, the United Nations.1