A Time for Change – The UN Decides to Reform Itself

Changes to the United Nations Human Rights System can be positioned within broader reform. Reforms to make the UN more efficient and effective have been on the agenda for a long time.Secretary-General Kofi Annan had talked about his intention to bring about change during his acceptance speech when taking office in 1996. Since then, he has published several reports dealing with reform, which contain various proposals to be taken into consideration. The first report on this issue came out in 1997 and was aptly called ‘Renewing the UN: A Programme for Reform’. However, things only really started moving forward when, in September 2000, 147 Heads of State met at the Millennium Summit and developed the Millennium Development Goals, which are to be achieved by 2015.

The next major step came at the World Summit of September 2005, where Annan presented his latest report called ‘In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All’. This report led to a discussion on several reform proposals, as well as commitments to strengthen the General Assembly and the Security Council. The two main proposals were the replacement of the Commission on Human Rights with a new Human Rights Council and the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission, as well as the establishment of an Ethics Office. Other changes to the UN with relevence to human rights include establishing the UN Democracy Fund in 2005.

So far, the General Assembly (GA) has not been targeted by any major reforms, except for the intention to strengthen the role and leadership of its President and to increase coordination between the GA and other principal organs of the UN. Unfortunately, Kofi Annan’s proposal that the GA’s engagement with civil society should be improved was not taken into consideration. The decision to double the budget for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was a positive move that is expected to help the OHCHR be more effective in its work. This increase in budget, which has been proposed by the High Commissioner’s Plan of Action, is to take place over the next 5 years and has received the commitment of the Heads of State at the last World Summit. The OHCHR has also proposed a unified standing treaty-monitoring body, which would incorporate all the seven existing treaty bodies. The idea behind this proposal is to ease the reporting burden of States and to overcome other problems such as the treaty bodies’ ability to ensure that countries do in fact hand in reports. So far nothing has come from these proposals since the main focus has been on creating the new Human Rights Council. Nevertheless, the High Commissioner is still gathering proposals on all treaty bodies currently in existence to see how they can be rendered more effective.

A proposal which is soon to become reality, and which will benefit the field of human rights, is the creation of an intergovernmental advisory body called the PC. It is expected to start functioning soon after both the Security Council and the GA adopt identical resolutions on its establishment. The PC has been mandated to advise and propose integrated strategies for post-conflict recovery, focusing attention on reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development in countries emerging from conflict. The Commission will take advantage of the UN’s competence and experience in conflict prevention, mediation, peacekeeping, respect for human rights, the rule of law, humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and long-term development.

While many were hoping for more sweeping reforms, particularly with regards the Security Council and the General Assembly, the current reform process has brought about a handful of positive changes, as well as a number of interesting proposals which are being taken into consideration. Although the main positive developments have been the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council, other measures such as doubling the budget of the OHCHR and the proposal to improve the treaty bodies are also expected to reap benefits for human rights in the long run. During a time of change, it is possible to look ahead with optimism but it is also vital to work hard to ensure that the reforms taking place will be as effective and meaningful as possible.