| To Reform UN, Get Folk
Involved
The WSF as the UN’s Second Chamber?
By Kalinga Seneviratne
If you want to change the world, start with the United Nations.
And to change the world body, maybe what is needed is a second
chamber of elected representatives from each country.
These suggestions came out of a workshop of UN reforms yesterday
at the WSF.
Peter Hesse of CONGO (the Conference of NGOs in consultative
status with the UN) said his organisation had drawn up a proposal
that could go a long way toward UN reform.
"The UN is not integrating the people themselves. What
is happening at the UN is country representation. What is
lacking at the UN is direct representation of the people of
the world," he said.
Hesse outlined the CONGO proposal to the workshop, which
was attended by a small group consisting mainly of youth delegates
from South America. "Every country will have one representative,
but, those with 10 million or more people will have extra
representatives for each 10 million," he said.
The proposal had several critics, who noted that the issue
of representation was bound to be problematic. Geraldo González
Cortes, a Chilean who spent 27 years working at the UN, said
problems such as indigenous peoples whose community was divided
by national boundaries may find themselves without representation
under this plan. Additionally, it would be difficult to attach
religion to any one country and so many religious entities
would similarly not be represented.
Cortes noted that the way the UN functioned needed to be
changed in order for changes to be effected in the world.
Very often good intentions get watered down at the UN, he
noted, pointing the attempt by indigenous peoples to set up
their own assembly at the world body. "The UN created
a commission for indigenous people when they wanted an assembly,"
he pointed out.
Hesse admitted that the issue of adequate representation
could pose a problem for the CONGO proposal, but, he continued,
"the idea is to raise consciousness" around the
issue of direct representation.
Jennifer Opiyo from Kenya suggested that popular education
across borders could be used to jump start the process to
change the UN system. "We need to build strong networks
with a focus," she said.
"We need to change the power of rich countries to control
the UN. Missing is a system to get a process going, something
of a road map of systematic change," said Jonah Wittkamper
of the Global Youth Action Network.
Perhaps the WSF may be developed into the second chamber
of the UN?
Hesse thinks it is a possibility. "If the idea of the
Social Forum can develop around the world, it’s one
of the models that could forward such ideas. People here are
engaged in changing something mostly the peaceful way,"
he noted. "What is particularly good about it is that
it is so open."
The discussion also focused on how to fund the UN so that
the opportunities for rich countries to manipulate the world
body are reduced. Cortes explained the idea of the Tobin Tax
and making the UN the beneficiary or the owner of the exploitable
natural resources outside national borders such as in the
sea bed or in the Antarctic.
Many of the participants, however, felt that these ideas
for raising independent revenue for the United Nations would
not work unless the body is first reformed so that poor countries
are able to benefit from the system and the rich countries
will not be able to block it.
"The UN is too weak, so we can't use it to initiate
change. We need to give the UN power first for it to be able
to do it," said Opjiyo.
A Brazilian youth suggested that Porto Alegre may have a
solution to that dilemma and he explained how the local councils
call up the community to gather at the local council hall
todecide how to use the annual budget for the area. Still,
he conceded that sometimes the more vocal and macho members
of the community got their way.
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