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POLITICS: Firebrand Priest Leaves Mark at U.N.

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 16 2009 (IPS) - Few critics of the United Nations’ often skewed balance of power have matched the outspoken fury of the revolutionary priest who led the world body’s principal organ until Monday.

“Certain member states think that they can act according to the law of the jungle, and defend the right of the strongest to do whatever they feel like with total and absolute impunity, ” Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann told delegates on the last day of his presidency in the General Assembly’s 63rd session.

To Brockmann, a respected figure from Nicaragua who pioneered the movement for social justice movement there, and a firebrand critic of the United States and its allies, the U.N. needs to change itself or risk becoming irrelevant.

“[There is] the urgency to reform the U.N.,” he said. “But during this year as president of the General Assembly, I have come to the conclusion that the time has already passed for reforming or mending our organisation.”

Noting that in the past 64 years since the creation of the world body, there have been many scientific advances and developments in the “ethical consciousness of humankind”, he said he wanted the world to adopt a new declaration recognising the “Common Goods of the Earth and Humanity”.

“Once the consensus of member states have been obtained on this declaration,” he said, “[our] shared vision will have to be converged into a draft for a new charter of the U.N., one that is attuned to the needs and the knowledge of the 21st century.”

Reflecting on the complex web of problems facing the world community, including economic inequality, global warming and unsustainable patterns of consumption, D’Escoto often turned to the world’s indigenous leadership for guidance and inspiration.

“Our dear brother [Bolivian President] Evo Morales Aymara and our brother and liberation theologian Leonardo Boff have helped us understand, in a more integral and holistic form, man’s place in creation and his relation to Mother Earth,” D’Escoto told delegates.

“We understand that the Earth and humanity are part of vast, evolving universe, possessing the same destiny, and threatened by destruction as a result of the responsibility and recklessness of human beings,” he added.

In his final address to the Assembly delegates, the former Nicaraguan foreign minister also reiterated his concerns about the way the world community is dealing with the current economic crisis and called for changes within the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

D’Escoto also stressed that billions of people were still paying the price in many ways for the over-consumption of oil and gas by the richest countries of the industrialised world, which have been primarily responsible for the carbon emissions driving global warming.

“The G8 and G20 will continue to be significant minorities,” he said. “However, this is more due to the fact that they are rich and powerful than to their demonstrated ability to do things well. We cannot and should not forget that, after all, it is because of the extremely grave errors committed by them, and the Bretton Woods institutions run by them, that the world is currently undergoing what could turn out to be the worst crisis in history.”

During his presidency, D’Escoto repeatedly deplored Israel for its military aggression against Palestinian civilians, for which he was frequently criticised by Western media outlets.

The Nicaraguan Christian priest, however, defended in his position until the last moment on that issue.

“I find disgraceful the passivity and apparent indifference of some highly influential members of the Security Council to the fact that the blockade of Gaza has continued uninterrupted for two years, in flagrant violation of international law, and the resolution of the Security Council itself, causing immense suffering to the Palestinian population of Gaza” he told delegates.

Jim Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum, views D’Escoto as unique.

“I think we had an incredibly activist presidency,” he told IPS. “In my memory, no president has done anything like before.”

On Tuesday, D’Escoto was succeeded by a veteran Libyan diplomat, Ali Treki, who will serve for a year in the rotating General Assembly presidency.

“There are several benchmarks to build on (D’Escoto’s) presidency,” Paul said. “The General Assembly has to embrace this idea.”