SOUTH BEND, Indiana -- American policy makers should help transform the United Nations from a stage for the global powers to act upon into a legitimate global actor working for human rights and justice, a panel of political researchers agreed on the eve of the UN Global Summit.

Their discussion, “Why do we need the UN?” was organized by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The September 13 panel was intended to give voice to the civil society’s plea for a strong and reformed UN, the agenda for which would be discussed at the UN Global Summit being held on September 14-16 in New York. The summit is believed to be the biggest gathering of heads of state in the history of the world.

“We have the responsibility to put citizen pressure on the government to ensure that UN exists in a revitalized form,” said Kroc institute faculty member and coordinator of the discussion, Jackie Smith. Terming US ambassador to the UN John Bolton’s actions in the recent past as ‘disruptive,’ Smith asserted that the civil society must ensure that the UN implements its Millennial Development Goals to end global poverty by 2015.

The UN could effectively use those goals to get the developing world to comply with human rights norms and international rules, in return for global support for eradicating poverty, said Robert Johansen, senior fellow at the Kroc Institute. Unless the millennial development goals are implemented, he said, nearly 41 million children will die of hunger and malnutrition. Implementing them can lift at least 1.5 billion people out of poverty by 2015, he said.

There can be no better global player than a reformed UN to regulate the use of military power, ensure human rights protection, and strive for global justice, Johansen said.

“Problems facing the world today, like terrorism, are global in nature and the solution also needs to be global to be successful. Unilateralism, like the U.S. practices today, is expensive and ineffective, especially in the absence of global cooperation,” he said, listing compelling reasons why it is in America's interest to reform the UN.

The world badly needs a legitimate wielder of military power and a global body that can share burdens during international crises, Johansen added.

Kroc Institute research fellow David Cortright attributed the Bush administration’s hostility towards UN reforms to the government’s desire to continue its policy of pre-emptive international armed actions. “Such profoundly misguided policy would only undermine legitimacy and weaken established tenets of international law rather than serving legitimate national interests,” Cortright cautioned. “Unless non-military strategies are pursued to counter the threat of terrorism, the whole effort going into ‘war on terror’ would prove to be counter-productive,” he added.

Cortright emphasized the dire need for globally representative bodies to legitimize the use of military force. It was the mass support of anti-war advocates that gave the UN strength to withstand US pressure before the Iraq invasion, Cortright said. In this hour of need, he added, civil society should help the UN stand up to the Bush administration’s attempts to derail the reform process.

Paul Mishler, assistant professor of labor studies at the Indiana University-South Bend focused on U.S. policies favoring the spread of multinational corporations. Rather than improving lives, those policies have helped sustain poverty and conflict, Mishler said. It is the responsibility of the U.S. working class to ensure that the UN is revitalized so that the International Labor Organization can carry out its agenda of ensuring a job for everyone who wants to work.

Panelist Ana Garcia Rodicio, a researcher at the UN Human Rights Commission focused on some proposals in the UN reform agenda. While UN reorganization is required, she contended, proposals such as the UN Peace Building Commission leave much to be desired. The membership pattern of the Peace Building Commission reflects the same concentration of power as in Security Council and, more importantly, the commission’s action agendas make it amply clear that UN is yet to imbibe the spirit of grassroots peacebuilding. The psycho-social aspects of peacebuilding, such as restorative justice and reconciliation, have been ignored in the commission’s agenda, said Rodicio, a Kroc Institute visiting fellow. She said she was disappointed that the commission is proposed as an advisory body rather than an operational one.

The panelists expect much attention in the coming weeks to be focused on the outcome of the global summit and whether the UN is able to gather enough support for reform and revitalizing of the UN Organization.

Lison Joseph, a journalist from Kerala, India, is a member of the Kroc Institute M.A. program in Peace studies class of 2007.

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