EU 'disappointment' over UN proposals

The EU is disappointed with a draft blueprint on UN reform tabled at world summit in New York on Wednesday.

The European Commission is concerned that action on human rights, the environment and UN management reform do not go far enough.  

“The outcome we seem to be moving towards will not include everything we in Europe hoped for,” EU Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

“But it is a long way from the disaster that some commentators predicted.”

The EU has called for an overhaul of the present UN Human Rights Commission which it says is, “no longer up to its job.”

Appealing for “root and branch reform”, Ferrero-Waldner claimed a draft ‘outcome’ document of merely paying lip service to human rights reorganisation.

“I have to confess to a little disappointment that we seem to be heading for a simple name change for the Human Rights Commission,” she said.

“We have argued that the new Human Rights Council should have a higher status in the organisation than the existing body.”

The EU has called for the mainstreaming of human rights in the whole UN system, suggesting that candidates for the new council should have to demonstrate that they carry out their own human rights obligation.
 
“I fear that too much discussion on this issue has been put off for another day: but we will continue to put the case for a really robust new body to be created as soon as possible,” Ferrero-Waldner added.

The EU has questioned whether the UN Secretary General has been given adequate tools to improve the internal administrative mechanisms.

“He needs to be given not only the responsibilities of a chief executive, but the authority of a chief executive to tackle problems when they arise,” said Ferreo-Waldner.

Brussels has responded optimistically to proposals for recognition of the international community's responsibility to protect civilian populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. 

“This new step is an important reinforcement of the UN's role, and an acknowledgement that in a peaceful modern world, we have not only to protect borders, but people,” Ferrero-Waldner said.
 
“No reform is ever the end of the road.  This summit is a step on the way in the UN's continuous development. We will need to take further steps.  But this summit has brought some progress.”

But with UN chief Kofi Annan's aides gloomily predicting the failure of a raft of issues, the secretary general warned all 191 member states against procrastinating.

“We have reached a fork in the road,” he said.

“If you, the political leaders of the world's nations, cannot reach agreement on the way forward, history will take the decisions for you, and the interests of your peoples may go by default."

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