Can The 69th UN General Assembly Be Different?
Yuba Nath Lamsal
The heads of state and government from across the globe are now gathered at the United Nations headquarters in downtown Manhattan, New York, to debate issues facing the globe at the 69th UN General Assembly. As years pass by, the world sees new challenges and crises, and every year at the UN General Assembly, the world leaders promise to provide a better solution. But, much to the dismay of the people, the UN jamboree concludes with cosmetic rhetoric without any concrete steps to address the problems facing the global community. As a result, the world continues to suffer from multiple challenges.
The United Nations General Assembly is, perhaps, the only global forum in which all member states, irrespective of their physical size, economic strength and military might, enjoy equal rights and say. All leaders are given equal time to speak while participating in the debate on several topics. The annual high-level debate, which officially kicked off on September 23, has numerous issues and agendas for discussion.
Climate change agenda
However, the looming threat of climate change has been the key issue upon which leaders of the world’s more than 140 countries have already spent a day focusing on this pressing global issue. Given the unprecedented challenges and threats to humanity emanating from the growing climate change, mainly caused by the unsustainable human activities in the name of development, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon personally took initiative and proposed a one-day debate ahead of the UN General Assembly session, aimed at drawing the attention of global leaders to work more for the environment and ecological conservation and save humanity from a possible climate change disaster. For this the secretary general definitely deserves a big applause and acclamation.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, participating in the debate called the UN Climate Change-2014 Conference, notably raised the problems faced mainly by the developing countries due to environmental degradation, global warming and climate change, which are largely the making of the developed and emerging economies of the world. Prime Minister Koirala’s particular concern was the impact of climate change on the Himalayan ecosystem, which is the lifeline of more than a fifth of world’s humanity. The Himalaya has come under tremendous threat due to climate change, which will have a direct impact on the rain pattern, water flow of the rivers and agricultural productivity in the entire South Asia region.
Experts are of the view that the negative impact of climate change has already been visible in the Himalaya and South Asia as water sources are drying up, the flow of the rivers has become uneven, rain pattern has changed and glaciers are melting at a faster pace. South Asia is now seeing more natural disasters in the form of flash floods and landslides mainly due to degradation of the Himalayan ecosystem.
The share of the developing countries in environmental destruction, global warming and climate change is minimal, but they are the ones which have suffered the most. The developed countries are primarily responsible for global warming and climate change as their activities are unsustainable and environmental unfriendly. The Western developed
countries have been exploiting nature more than it can sustain. The capitalist production system of the Western world is guided by unlimited profits, which nature with its limited resources cannot sustain.
It is estimated that 15 per cent of the people of the global north have access to and control over 85 per cent of the world's resources, while 85 per cent people mostly living in the global south survive on less than 15 per cent of the resources. While the developed world dumps a huge quantity of surplus food into the sea, a large chunk of the population in the
developing and least developed countries suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
This uneven distribution of wealth and resources must be brought to an end and a new mechanism devised to ensure that all will have access to food and resources that alone will ensure equitable development. This should, perhaps, be the key agenda of the UN General Assembly. The United Nations is expected to devise a mechanism requiring the developed countries, which benefit from over exploitation of the natural resources at the expense of the larger mankind, to pay compensation in the form of increased aid volume for sustainable social, economic and ecological development of the developing countries.
However, foreign aid is being termed as merciful endowment of the Western countries. In
fact, it should be made mandatory for every developed country to commit and give at least 10 per cent of their GDP for the development of the developing countries as compensation for plundering and exploiting the resources of the developing countries in the past. However, this is less likely to figure prominently in the UN General Assembly because most of the developing countries are, unfortunately, not united and also not in a mood to antagonise the Western powers. As a result, the 69th UN General Assembly may not be different from the previous ones.
The world is now in a perilous condition in terms of peace. Although the United Nations has been able to prevent another world war, which was one key objective of this global organisation when it was formed, scores of wars have broken out in different parts of the world in which more people have been killed than the number of people killed in the two world wars. Ironically, the same world powers that created the United Nations in the aftermath of the devastating World War II are in one way or the other involved in these wars, which is a matter of utmost concern for all peace loving people in the world.
Now peace is elusive, development is deformed, international cooperation is selective and democracy and human rights are mere showcase commodities in the world due mainly to the double standard and hypocrisy of some Western powers. As a result, the United Nations, too, is just a toothless tiger which only barks but cannot bite when injustice takes place in the world. The United Nations is unable to act because the global body is too dependent on the Western powers for funds and resources.
Moreover, the decision of the General Assembly is not binding as the executive body is the Security Council, which has been dominated by the five big powers called the permanent members, namely the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. Any proposal that is against the interest of these five permanent members cannot be adopted as the UN Charter has given them veto power that can undo the entire exercise of the United Nations. If the United Nations is to be made a really effective body, the organisational structure of the UN Security Council needs to change, with more representation of the other regions and continents and the veto power ended.
No better alternative
It is against this background that the 69th UN General Assembly has started, but it is not expected to make any decision having far-reaching consequences. Despite its inability to act to address the problems facing the world, the United Nations is still at the center stage of global politics, and it is more so during the period of its General Assembly that takes place between September and November when world leaders, accompanied by their delegates and over 2,000 media personnel, rub their shoulders in the UN headquarters. This is because there is no better alternative to the United Nations. And we cannot imagine a world without the United Nations in the present global context.
The heads of state and government from across the globe are now gathered at the United Nations headquarters in downtown Manhattan, New York, to debate issues facing the globe at the 69th UN General Assembly. As years pass by, the world sees new challenges and crises, and every year at the UN General Assembly, the world leaders promise to provide a better solution. But, much to the dismay of the people, the UN jamboree concludes with cosmetic rhetoric without any concrete steps to address the problems facing the global community. As a result, the world continues to suffer from multiple challenges.
The United Nations General Assembly is, perhaps, the only global forum in which all member states, irrespective of their physical size, economic strength and military might, enjoy equal rights and say. All leaders are given equal time to speak while participating in the debate on several topics. The annual high-level debate, which officially kicked off on September 23, has numerous issues and agendas for discussion.
Climate change agenda
However, the looming threat of climate change has been the key issue upon which leaders of the world’s more than 140 countries have already spent a day focusing on this pressing global issue. Given the unprecedented challenges and threats to humanity emanating from the growing climate change, mainly caused by the unsustainable human activities in the name of development, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon personally took initiative and proposed a one-day debate ahead of the UN General Assembly session, aimed at drawing the attention of global leaders to work more for the environment and ecological conservation and save humanity from a possible climate change disaster. For this the secretary general definitely deserves a big applause and acclamation.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, participating in the debate called the UN Climate Change-2014 Conference, notably raised the problems faced mainly by the developing countries due to environmental degradation, global warming and climate change, which are largely the making of the developed and emerging economies of the world. Prime Minister Koirala’s particular concern was the impact of climate change on the Himalayan ecosystem, which is the lifeline of more than a fifth of world’s humanity. The Himalaya has come under tremendous threat due to climate change, which will have a direct impact on the rain pattern, water flow of the rivers and agricultural productivity in the entire South Asia region.
Experts are of the view that the negative impact of climate change has already been visible in the Himalaya and South Asia as water sources are drying up, the flow of the rivers has become uneven, rain pattern has changed and glaciers are melting at a faster pace. South Asia is now seeing more natural disasters in the form of flash floods and landslides mainly due to degradation of the Himalayan ecosystem.
The share of the developing countries in environmental destruction, global warming and climate change is minimal, but they are the ones which have suffered the most. The developed countries are primarily responsible for global warming and climate change as their activities are unsustainable and environmental unfriendly. The Western developed
countries have been exploiting nature more than it can sustain. The capitalist production system of the Western world is guided by unlimited profits, which nature with its limited resources cannot sustain.
It is estimated that 15 per cent of the people of the global north have access to and control over 85 per cent of the world's resources, while 85 per cent people mostly living in the global south survive on less than 15 per cent of the resources. While the developed world dumps a huge quantity of surplus food into the sea, a large chunk of the population in the
developing and least developed countries suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
This uneven distribution of wealth and resources must be brought to an end and a new mechanism devised to ensure that all will have access to food and resources that alone will ensure equitable development. This should, perhaps, be the key agenda of the UN General Assembly. The United Nations is expected to devise a mechanism requiring the developed countries, which benefit from over exploitation of the natural resources at the expense of the larger mankind, to pay compensation in the form of increased aid volume for sustainable social, economic and ecological development of the developing countries.
However, foreign aid is being termed as merciful endowment of the Western countries. In
fact, it should be made mandatory for every developed country to commit and give at least 10 per cent of their GDP for the development of the developing countries as compensation for plundering and exploiting the resources of the developing countries in the past. However, this is less likely to figure prominently in the UN General Assembly because most of the developing countries are, unfortunately, not united and also not in a mood to antagonise the Western powers. As a result, the 69th UN General Assembly may not be different from the previous ones.
The world is now in a perilous condition in terms of peace. Although the United Nations has been able to prevent another world war, which was one key objective of this global organisation when it was formed, scores of wars have broken out in different parts of the world in which more people have been killed than the number of people killed in the two world wars. Ironically, the same world powers that created the United Nations in the aftermath of the devastating World War II are in one way or the other involved in these wars, which is a matter of utmost concern for all peace loving people in the world.
Now peace is elusive, development is deformed, international cooperation is selective and democracy and human rights are mere showcase commodities in the world due mainly to the double standard and hypocrisy of some Western powers. As a result, the United Nations, too, is just a toothless tiger which only barks but cannot bite when injustice takes place in the world. The United Nations is unable to act because the global body is too dependent on the Western powers for funds and resources.
Moreover, the decision of the General Assembly is not binding as the executive body is the Security Council, which has been dominated by the five big powers called the permanent members, namely the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. Any proposal that is against the interest of these five permanent members cannot be adopted as the UN Charter has given them veto power that can undo the entire exercise of the United Nations. If the United Nations is to be made a really effective body, the organisational structure of the UN Security Council needs to change, with more representation of the other regions and continents and the veto power ended.
No better alternative
It is against this background that the 69th UN General Assembly has started, but it is not expected to make any decision having far-reaching consequences. Despite its inability to act to address the problems facing the world, the United Nations is still at the center stage of global politics, and it is more so during the period of its General Assembly that takes place between September and November when world leaders, accompanied by their delegates and over 2,000 media personnel, rub their shoulders in the UN headquarters. This is because there is no better alternative to the United Nations. And we cannot imagine a world without the United Nations in the present global context.
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