UNITED NATIONS, March 20 (UPI) -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan Sunday sent a long-awaited report on U.N. reform to the General Assembly containing no surprises, side-stepping a major question on revamping the Security Council, but calling for an overhaul of the controversial Human Rights Commission, a new anti-terrorist treaty and fresh rules on the use of force.
On Monday he is scheduled to address the assembly, made up of all 191 member states of the world organization, outlining his 63-page report, which is to be considered for a September summit of heads of state and government review progress made since the United Nations Millennium Declaration prior to next autumn's general debate of the General Assembly.
"In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security, and Human Rights for All" was released to reporters Sunday.
In a briefing Sunday evening, Annan's new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said the report was an opportunity for the United Nation's member states to make real change to the organization.
"Here's an action plan that we can get done," he said. "It's ambitious, but it's within reach. With just that stretch and a jump, member states can reach it, and that's what we're going to be pushing for in the weeks and months ahead."
"I have drawn on my eight years' experience as secretary-general, on my own conscience and convictions, and on my understanding of the Charter of the United Nations," Annan said in an introduction to the report, explaining he has "drawn inspiration from two wide-ranging reviews of our global challenges."
They were from the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which was asked to make proposals to strengthen the world's collective security system.
It came out with 101 proposals for dealing with six such threats to worldwide security as continued poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and organized crime. It also proposed formulas for enlarging the Security Council.
The second was from the 250 experts who undertook the Millennium Project, which produce a 3,000 page plan of action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
While this series of reform reports has long been requested, the reports come at a time when the United Nations has become increasingly embroiled in management, financial and sexual misconduct scandals and the world organization is attempting to recover from the deep divisions associated with the Iraq War.
The reform effort has become one seen as trying to regain respect for the 60-year-old world body.
"In the present report ... I have limited myself to items on which I believe action is both vital and achievable in the coming months," he said. "These are reforms that are within reach -- reforms that are actionable if we can garner the necessary political will. With very few exceptions, this is an agenda of highest priorities for September.
"Many other issues will need to be advanced in other forums and on other occasions," the secretary-general continued. "None of the proposals advanced here obviate the need for urgent action this year to make progress in resolving protracted conflicts that threaten regional and global stability."
One major decision left for the summit was just how the present 15-member Security Council would be increased to 24 members. Two plans were offered by the high-level panel, but he approved neither one, leaving governments to decide, but endorsed efforts by Brazil, Germany, Japan to become permanent members of the panel.
"A change in the council's commission is needed to make it more broadly representative of the international community as a whole," Annan said, and it would "far preferable" for states to reach consensus before the summit. "If, however, they are unable to reach consensus, this must not become an excuse for postponing action" on council reform.
"In an increasingly interconnected world, progress in the areas of development, security and human rights must go hand in hand," he said. "There will be no development without security and no security without development. And both development and security also depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law."
In an obvious reference to the Washington's unilateralist approach, the secretary-general said, "No state can stand wholly alone in today's world. We all share responsibility for each other's development and security. Collective strategies, collective institutions and collective action are indispensable."
Malloch Brown said on Sunday the report should not be viewed as an attempt by what many view as a beleaguered United Nations to "pander" to the United States.
He said the secretary-general hoped all governments would look at the recommendations as an opportunity.
"One of the key things is to try and make governments get out of the right side of the bed (Monday) morning and look at this report in terms of what it is in it for them rather than what's against them in the report, or not in their interests," Malloch Brown said.
"The United States like any country can find a lot to like in this report."
Malloch Brown said the United States would most likely appreciate the definition of terrorism, a broader category of weapons and the commitment to a human rights council.
But he predicted U.S. opposition to the call for international states to offer, at the very least, 0.7 per cent of GDP for official development assistance and to help establish an international money-lending system for development.
"The U.S. is very against both of these issues," Malloch Brown said. "It has continually argued that it doesn't feel bound by the 0.7 commitment."
As part of the world body's reforms in terms of humanitarianism, the secretary-general wants the world body to embrace the "responsibility to protect" as a basis for collective action against genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
It should "agree to act on this responsibility, recognizing that this responsibility lies first and foremost with each individual State, whose duty it is to protect its population, but that if national authorities are unwilling or unable to protect their citizens, then the responsibility shifts to the international community to use diplomatic, humanitarian and other methods to help protect civilian populations."
He said if that doesn't work, the Security Council "may out of necessity decide to take action ... if so required."
Annan advocates a Human Rights Council, instead of the present commission where nations are elected in-turn fashion from regional groupings, often allowing states with questionable human rights records to gain a seat on the panel.
He wants to elevate the panel to become "a principal organ of the United Nations or subsidiary body of the General Assembly, whose members would be elected directly by the General Assembly by a two-thirds majority."
The report also outlined Annan's plans for a reserve peacekeeping force that could be called upon if an improved Security Council advocated intervention.
Assistant Secretary-General for policy and co-ordination Robert Orr said the recommendations concerning the reserve peacekeeping force differentiated it from the traditional argument for a standing army.
"Many people may look at this and say: 'Is this the old U.N. standing army?' This is not the standing army.
"This is having a series of agreements in place to enable the United Nations to immediately deploy units that are on call with a series of governments."
The Secretary-General also touched on the controversial Non-Proliferation Treaty and possible options for reform.
In an obvious allusion to negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, Annan cited an option that would allow the IAEA to provide countries with fuel in order to give incentive not to use uranium for enrichment.
"It's fashionable these days to talk down the NPT and say where it is efficient," Orr said in the briefing. "The fact is we need to start from the point of what the NPT has achieved. We do not have a world with 10 or 20 or 30 nuclear states, as was envisioned when the NPT was passed.
"Even recognizing that, the fact is the NPT has clearly shown the need for change. It is time to come to some agreement about incentives for countries to meet their legitimate needs for nuclear energy, (and) to accept legitimate restraints on the ability to produce nuclear weapons."
Annan also seeks an international accord "to regulate the marking, tracing and illicit brokering of small arms and light weapons; and ensure the effective monitoring and enforcement of United Nations arms embargoes."
For anti-terrorism, he wants the world body to "Affirm that no cause or grievance, no matter how legitimate, justifies the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and non-combatants."
The secretary-general advocates an anti-terrorist definition that any attack "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, when the purpose of such an act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act, constitutes an act of terrorism."
