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Thursday, December 16, 2004

Hansard. PQ on the UN

Mr. Clive Soley (Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush) (Lab): The Secretary of State will know that I am a very strong supporter of the UN High-level Panel and his efforts to publicise it, but can we make absolutely clear the importance of this debate to the future of the world? We need to understand that the United Nations has been and will remain in danger of becoming a second league of nations unless it can act more effectively against tyrannies in failing states, and in reforming the Security Council to make it more relevant to today's needs. This issue is of vital importance.

Mr. Straw: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and I commend his work and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd). She had an important input into our thinking and consequently into the UN's, and the result is some of the report's recommendations, not least those in chapter VII. The key point about the report is that it emphasises the way in which the world has significantly changed since the charter was developed almost 60 years ago. The threats then were primarily from sovereign functioning states; today, they are primarily from failing states, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Hello Clive, if this was on TV and I missed it, I am really sorry. I look forward to reading your article and anything else you may care to write on the UN and security council reform. Also, I hope one day you'll have the time and inclination to share some thoughts about the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The US is listed alongside several rogue states as refusing to join the ICC. Unlike the other signatories, it is not prepared to be subjected to the Court. Seems the US is also against the proposed new "EU army" and formation of rapid response teams of 1,500 soldiers to react quickly to humanitarian situations such as those in Darfur, Sudan. The US appears to be anti UN, EU and ICC. I'm not clear where they stand on NATO.

China and Russia are becoming chummy and a new "Asian Union" is being created. UN reform with the US back onside (and paying their subs on time) seems more important than ever. If the UN security council is not reformed asap countries may just form their own alliances and bypass the UN. Best of luck with all of your work on this issue. And thank you for sharing it here.

Hi Clive,

"We need to understand that the United Nations has been and will remain in danger of becoming a second league of nations unless it can act more effectively against tyrannies in failing states, and in reforming the Security Council to make it more relevant to today's needs."

While the UNSC, with it's current veto system and make-up, is not perfect, the onus is on current SC members to include non-SC members views in its decisions.

The UN is not just designed to stop tyrannies in failing states, it has many other functions, namely, humanitarian assistance.

The only way the UN becomes in effective is when one or more veto members veto a resolution put to the SC and the whole process gets binned - Occam's Razor tells us to get rid of the veto.

Kind regards,

Andrew Price