From the Toronto Star:

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Sep. 14, 2005. 07:07 AM
U.N. backs diluted reform blueprint

Canadian plans win approval
Document called heavy on rhetoric

OLIVIA WARD
STAFF REPORTER
NEW YORK—Weary diplomats ended days of wrangling over a landmark United Nations reform package late yesterday, producing a diluted declaration that was labelled heavy on rhetoric and light on substance.

The document, which is to be presented to the U.N.'s 60th anniversary summit, covers issues ranging from fighting poverty to combatting terrorism and eliminating inefficiency in the running of the world body.

But some key Canadian-backed proposals were the success stories of the day, endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly, and to be discussed by 180 world leaders during the historic three-day gathering that opens today.

They include an agreement on U.N. members' responsibility to protect vulnerable people from massive violations of human rights, and a substantial boost for the office of U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour.

"There was sleep deprivation and long negotiations," said Allan Rock, Canada's U.N. ambassador. "But in the end we made real progress."

Other sections of the summit declaration, he admitted, drew a "more mixed reaction," including failure to agree on the membership of a new Human Rights Council, to get a universally agreed definition of terrorism, and to move swiftly to form a peacebuilding commission for countries in the perilous transition from war to civil society.

"It isn't everything we wanted, but we can build on it," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose sweeping proposals for U.N. reform shrank to mere statements of principle in some sections of the summit document.

Negotiators also failed to agree on how to tackle nuclear proliferation and disarmament, drawing sharp criticism from Annan.

"This is a real disgrace," he said.

The summit, the largest in world history, takes place on the 60th anniversary of the U.N. But diplomats say, the birthday present Annan hoped for — endorsement of visionary reforms — was little more than a consolation prize.

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From the Tehran Times:

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United Nations reform

By Gwynne Dyer
If we set out to create a farm in the wilderness, we should not expect the top local predators to help. We have our interests, and they have theirs: as our little patch of order spreads, their ability to hunt freely and dominate the local environment will be increasingly constrained. So we should not be surprised that John Bolton is trying to sabotage the reform of the United Nations.

The United States ambassador to the UN, recently appointed by President Bush in defiance of Congress's wishes, believes that if the United Nations is not an instrument of American power, then it is an obstacle to the free exercise of American power. There is no point in getting angry about that. He and his neo-conservative colleagues are deeply traditional men and women who see world politics as a zero-sum game in which there are only winners and losers, and they believe that America's best chance of remaining a winner is to preserve the world as a free-fire zone for the exercise of US military and economic power.

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