Danish General Assembly President presses UN reforms

By Martin Burcharth

Note: As many of us at Rain Barrel have been deeply involved with the UN, we follow its ups and downs carefully. We are posting related stories and commentary in The Flow and welcome this exclusive interview from Martin Burcharth, one of our Associates and the U.S. correspondent of the Danish newspaper Information. Your comments are welcome.

New York — Mogens Lykketoft, the current President of the UN General Assembly, has been focusing on the reform agenda at a time when the United Nations needs a strong leader, having lost its credibility and influence over the past 25 years.
That it is a Scandinavian who is chairing the session of 193 Member States until next September gives rise to optimism in UN circles.

“While Western powers have cut back on their financial support for the UN and undermined the UN in many cases, the Scandinavian countries long remained committed to maintaining the Organization’s influence. They are considered to be kind of heroes in UN history, ” said Paul Hoeffel, who was an adviser to one of Lykketoft’s predecessors, the Nicaraguan Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, as well as a former UN liaison with the NGO community.

But Mr. Lykketoft is concerned about the Nordic countries’ influence at the UN these days.
”Unfortunately, there is a general trend in the Nordic region to cut back contributions to the UN. Look at my own government’s decision to reduce its annual contribution to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) by 56 per cent. Also, the Palestinians are getting less aid, as is UNAIDS (the UN umbrella organization coordinating the international response to the pandemic). I really do not believe we are the influential UN powers we used to be,” he said.

The now former president of the Danish parliament seems quite relaxed, focused on the agenda and keen to mingle with the 193 ambassadors and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Lykketoft, a Social Democrat who was Denmark’s foreign minister 2000-2001 and a president of the Danish Parliament, now speaks more fluently about the Organization’s numerous challenges.

Masterplan for the world

Behind him is the summit of Heads of State and Government in New York at the end of September at which Lykketoft stressed the importance of the follow up on the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This will happen at a conference in New York in April, and here Lykketoft, with his solid background in finance and business policy, has specific ideas on how to involve business and NGO groups.

“We’re getting to the point where it is more worthwhile to invest in green rather than fossil fuels,” said the Danish politician. “You can promote green energy by way of regulation and taxes, but getting business to engage is the largest part of the secret as to whether these goals can be achieved.”
One of the purposes of the April conference is to agree to an oversight mechanism, which would measure the performance of each member state in fulfilling the SDG goals.

Lykketoft also attaches great expectations to possibilities that recently opened up for reform of the UN Security Council – a very difficult knot, indeed. Here Lykketoft is helped by his predecessor, Sam Kutesa from Uganda, who was behind efforts to adopt two resolutions in the GA aimed to move longstanding reform efforts forward.

One of them is directed at changing the archaic composition of the Security Council, which dates back to the Second World War and no longer reflects today’s balance of power among Member States.
Since its founding 71 years ago, the UN has been dominated by the victors of the war — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China. The Permanent Five (P5) still wield veto power in the Security Council. In the 1960s, the Security Council expanded from 11 to 15 members, ten of which serve a two-year term.

After the Cold War

Since the end of the Cold War, various groups of countries have sought to convince the P5 to reform the Security Council in order to reflect the shift of the balance of economic and political power in the world, with Germany and Japan strengthened by their respective economic miracles, and in recent decades, the rise of Asia and the BRICS countries.

But every attempt has been in vain.

The power remains with the P5, since any reform has to be adopted by a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly and then be approved by the Security Council itself. Just one veto by one of the P5 is enough to make it fail.

Even within the GA membership there is deep disagreement as to how the Security Council should be reformed. Germany, Japan, India and Brazil believe the solution is to give them permanent status with veto power, but a group of 50 countries, led by Italy, are opposed. Others speak of diluting the veto power and changing regional representation.

A UN source, who requested anonymity, believes it is unrealistic to imagine that Lykketoft can achieve anything by crossing the P5.

The newly appointed President seems to agree.

“I’m not as President supposed to decide which reform model to promote, and I have not promised any Member State that I will support their preference. I simply need to get the process moving,” Lykketoft said.

Squaring the circle

The resolution adopted by the General Assembly in late September is a big step in the right direction. By a majority vote, the Assembly took note of a report prepared by the Jamaican ambassador, which lays out 130 member countries’ view of a reform.
Lykketoft welcomes the ”document”.

“If this document had not been adopted by the General Assembly, we would have had to start all over again,” he pointed out.

The next step is to reach agreement on a resolution that takes into account the interests of all parties, which is equivalent to squaring the circle and takes great diplomatic skills. Lykketoft will be involved.

Perhaps, the Danish politician has a better chance to leave his mark by following through on a resolution adopted in late September, which calls for a more open, transparent and democratic procedure to appoint the next UN Secretary-General.

Ban Ki-moon’s second term expires on 31 December, 2016. The choice of his successor will most likely take place during Lykketoft’s tenure. As the new procedures probably will be approved by the Security Council, he might have a greater influence on the decision than any previous President of the General Assembly.

It could be a historic election, because many Member States and NGOs are pushing to get the first woman elected head of the United Nations.

“The Danish Presidency has undoubtedly strong support from the General Assembly to achieve as much influence as possible on the election,” said Ian Martin, Director of the Security Council Report — a magazine which follows the Council’s work closely.

Lykketoft welcomes the new procedure.

“Until now the P5 decided in a back room who should be the new Secretary-General. This resolution gives member states more say in the procedure. As an example, it will be possible for the GA to question each of the candidates,” he said.

The process is already in full swing. Recently, Lykketoft and the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, sent a letter to all the missions at the UN in which they were asked to propose candidates for the position of the next SG. In March or April the GA will have a chance to ”interview” the various candidates and by July it should be clear who the General Assembly consider to be the favorite candidates after which time the Security Council will have to agree on a candidate or perhaps more than one.

”It’s difficult to imagine that the SC would refuse to take into account whom the General Assembly believes to be the best candidate,” said Lykketoft.

”Essentially a new dynamic has been brought about by opening up the process early on in the General Assembly and working in a transparent manner. It basically makes it a bit more difficult for the P5 to domineer the election of a new SG.”

For more articles by Martin Burcharth, go to https://mburcharth.wordpress.com/