UNITED NATIONS, April 8: The United States on Thursday joined other member states in rejecting many of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s reform proposals including a deadline on UN Security Council reforms, a timetable for aid increase and debt forgiveness.
Shirin Tahir-Kheli, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s adviser on UN reform, told the UN General Assembly that the summit in September should not become the focal point for UN reform but concentrate on goals pledged in 2000 to combat poverty, health needs and illiteracy.
“We should not be bound by artificial deadlines,” she said, adding that it would be unrealistic to adopt a “package approach to UN reform and development goals”.
Last month Mr Annan has presented a series of recommendations in the most sweeping overhaul of the world body since 1945 and urged members to adopt most of them as a package at a summit in September and “not as an a la carte menu.”
While the United States backs most of Mr Annan’s suggestions on security, human rights, terrorism and unconventional weapons, it has rejected a quick reform of the Security Council, debt forgiveness and a timetable for financing anti-poverty goals.
Pakistan and other developing countries, however, have expressed apprehension about Mr Annan’s suggestions on security which they said “has not only endorsed, but further accentuated, a concept of collective security that is conceived as an instrument of coercion and intervention rather than of universal cooperation and harmonization — which is the underlying spirit of the UN Charter.”
The United States also put off Security Council expansion, which Mr Annan would like settled this year, by rejecting a deadline and calling for “consensus” rather than a vote in the General Assembly on various plans.
Ms Tahir-Kheli, in her speech, rejected the proposals for debt forgiveness for the least developed countries. This would amount to about $50 million for the United States in Africa. Iraq’s debt of more than $30 billion has been written off by rich nations at Washington’s request. “The (debt) approach outlined in the report would set back many countries’ progress toward achieving or regaining access to capital markets,” Ms Tahir-Kheli said.
AGENCIES ADD: A UN expert called on the world body’s Human Rights Commission Friday to appoint a permanent monitor to ensure that counter-terrorism measures do not result in abuse or harm civil liberties.
Robert Goldman, a US lawyer appointed to make recommendations on the issue, said in a report that “a broad range of human rights... are being violated” by countries engaged in “counter terrorism initiatives”.
In his report, Goldman said the 53 member Commission should consider setting up “a special procedure... to monitor States’ counter terrorism measures and their compatibility with international human rights law”.
Goldman, whose mandate is due to come to an end this month, was appointed by the Commission last year despite opposition from Washington and Moscow.
The monitor, a legal specialist, should have a broad mandate to give technical assistance to governments and to make several missions a year to countries, the report said.
Goldman said that while comprehensive and decisive measures were necessary against the “grave threat” of terror attacks, there were gaps in existing protection or surveillance for human rights.
The United States has refused to allow existing UN rights investigators to visit detentions centres for terror suspects, and has bristled at criticism of its sweeping security powers.
Other countries including Australia, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have also objected to the UN Commission’s involvement in the issue.
Diplomats said the issue of monitoring could be backed up by a resolution put forward by European Union countries during the Commission’s annual meeting this month.
