Californians
for the United Nations
A
Conference to Plan for the U.N. to End
“The
Scourge of War,” Beginning in 2005
As the United Nations prepares to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter, the Center for
War/Peace Studies is organizing a Conference on the Future of
the U.N. on June 26-27, 2005, at the Chaminade conference center
in Santa Cruz, California.
The central purpose of the conference is to encourage the
world organization to make changes in its operations – without
amending the current U.N. Charter – so as to “save
succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the goal
proclaimed in the Charter’s first sentence.
In proposals being put forward by the Center for
War/Peace Studies, four specific aims are being advanced. Each
objective is worthy in its own right, but taken together they
are all of one piece. The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.
(1)
Reform of the voting procedure in the U.N. General
Assembly to one based on the Binding Triad system for global
decision-making, which provides that binding decisions can be
made only by winning approval of majorities of the sovereign
nation-states, of states representing a majority of the
world’s population, and of states constituting a majority of
contributions to the regular U.N. budget, which approximate
levels of GNP. This mix assures a balance of support among
countries, people, and state political, economic and military
power. The General Assembly clearly has the authority to adopt
the Binding Triad system under Article 21 of the U.N. Charter,
which states: “The General Assembly shall adopt its own rules
of procedure.”
(2)
The framers of the U.N. Charter foresaw close cooperation
between the Security Council and the General Assembly, although
the Security Council was given the exclusive right to authorize
the use of military force. (See Chapters IV and V of the
Charter.) However, as the U.N. membership grew from 51 in 1945
to its current 191, the large number of mini-states vitiated the
legitimacy of the Assembly to the point where the Security
Council no longer took the Assembly’s decisions seriously. The
adoption of the Binding Triad system by the Assembly would
radically increase the stature of its decisions.
(3)
The financial resources available to the United Nations,
based on assessments on member-states and voluntary
contributions, are pitifully inadequate to meet the aspirations
stated by the international community. The solution to this
problem lies in what has been called generically “The Tobin
tax,” named after the late Professor James Tobin, a Nobel
Prize-winning Yale economist. The original version was to levy a
small tax (a fraction of one percent) placed on all
international currency exchange transactions. Although the
percentage of the tax would be low, the revenue produced would
be high – a multiple of present U.N. revenue, both assessed
and voluntary – because of the very high volume of
international currency transfers. There are many versions of the
Tobin tax now being discussed in the international community. In
addition, there are two other possible global taxes under
consideration that would not only produce revenue, but would
also have beneficial side effects: a carbon tax, which would
restrict pollution, and a tax on international sales of
armaments, which could slow the arms race. The authority in the
Charter for the U.N. to impose global taxes emanates from
Article 17, Paragraph One: “The General Assembly shall
consider and approve the budget of the Organization.”
(4)
Global society has in recent times been struggling to
function under the rules laid down by the Treaty of Westphalia
of 1648, which essentially established the uninhibited
sovereignty of nation-states. These rules are dysfunctional in a
world that is in practical terms growing smaller and more
interdependent by the day. If the international community is
going to end the institution of war and create an order of
worldwide justice and prosperity, it will have to establish a
system based on the federal concept, under which decision-making
is left insofar as possible to individuals, but elevated at the
same time to higher levels – local, national, or planetary –
of governance as indicated by the exercise of reason.
There is one urgent problem – the instability and
violence in and among nation-states – that should be dealt
with immediately. Fortunately, a clear outline of what should be
done was laid out in The Report of the Secretary General’s
High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Under
the section “A Peacebuilding Commission” (page 85), the
proposal is spelled out in the first two paragraphs:
82.
The Security Council, acting under Article 29 of the
Charter of the United Nations and after consultation with the
Economic and Social Council, should establish a Peacebuilding
Commission.
83.
The core functions of the Peacebuilding Commission should
be to identify countries that are under stress and risk sliding
towards State collapse; to organize, in partnership with the
national Government, proactive assistance in preventing that
process from developing further; to assist in the planning for
transitions between conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding;
and in particular to marshal and sustain the efforts of the
international community in post-conflict peacebuilding over
whatever period may be necessary.
How can the Santa Cruz conference on June 26-27, 2005,
help achieve the four goals of introducing the Binding Triad
into the U.N. General Assembly, of reinvigorating synergy
between the Assembly and the Security Council, of creating some
form of global tax to provide adequate funds for the U.N., and
of reducing strife in and among sovereign states?
The CW/PS is inviting six categories of people, each of
which could play a useful role in achieving these four goals. A
deliberate effort is being made to assure that a preponderance
of the participants are “Multis” – those who favor
multilateral, nonviolent solutions to global problems – as
opposed to “Yunies” – those tending to support unilateral,
military approaches to various issues.
The six categories:
(1)
U.N. Member Governments
The first priority of the conference will be to foster the
development of a group of cosponsors of a resolution in the
General Assembly creating a working political body that will
establish the institutional framework encompassing the four U.N.
system changes. The optimum means of doing this is unclear.
Among the many U.N. members that might be candidates to be
cosponsors of such a resolution are these: Austria, Brazil,
Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland,
India, Japan, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Timor Leste.
It may be noted that technically it won’t be very difficult to
get an item inscribed on the General Assembly agenda calling for
the establishment of a working group of some sort to consider
the four goals enunciated above: one small but determined member
state can do the job. There is a precedent for this. In 1967,
the late Ambassador Arvid Pardo of Malta gave a three-hour
speech in the U.N. arguing that there was an urgent need for a
Law of the Sea treaty. He observed that, among other reasons, a
treaty was needed to deal with the increasingly important
offshore deposits of hydrocarbons and the mounting dangers of
overfishing. Fifteen years later, in 1982, the Law of the Sea
Conference completed its work and the treaty was approved by the
overwhelming majority of U.N. members – although not the
United States.
Today, it is likely that a group of states – not just a small,
lonely Malta – are recognizing that the international
political system needs a major overhaul. The process can be
begun, although certainly not finished, without the U.S.
government. Along the way, many American NGOs and individuals
surely can be counted on to weigh in on the side of the Multis.
To augment the effort, the CW/PS will organize small meetings in
the U.N., both before and after the California conference, to
hold discussions with various delegations.
(2)
The California Factor
The logical place for this conference is California – the
founding venue of the United Nations, the most populous state of
the Union, and the wellspring of many politicians who have
played prominent national roles (not to mention, the birthplace
of the author of this document). In the hope that California
politicians can encourage, one way or another, the U.N. General
Assembly to adopt a resolution on U.N. reform, the CW/PS will
invite the following to the conference: Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver; the state’s two
U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein; and five
members of the House of Representatives, Sam Farr, Bob Filner,
Tom Lantos, Barbara Lee, and Nancy Pelosi.
(3)
Harnessing NGO Power
Among the various NGOs who will be invited will be
representatives of the U.N.A.-U.S.A. (California), Citizens for
Global Solutions (formerly World Federalist Association), World
Federalist Movement, World Federalists of Northern California,
the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, International Crisis Group,
and the Quaker U.N. Program.
(4)
U.N. Staff (current and former)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his Chief of Staff, Mark
Malloch Brown, Shashi Tharoor, Fred Eckhard, Paul Hoeffel,
Danilo Turk, Hans Corell, Gillian Sorensen
(5)
The Media
Among the most prominent journalists to be invited will be
former CBS TV anchor Walter Cronkite, who is now outspoken about
the need to strengthen the U.N.; Barbara Crossette, former U.N.
bureau chief of The New York Times, and Louis B. Fleming, former
U.N. bureau chief and foreign correspondent of the Los Angeles
Times.
(6)
Financial Supporters
The two most well-known philanthropists who generously support
the U.N., Ted Turner and George Soros, will be invited to
participate, either personally or by key people in their
organizations, such as Tim Wirth (Turner) or Mort Halperin (Soros).
Also to be invited will be foundations and individuals who have
contributed to the CW/PS in the past, as well as some who
hopefully will become new supporters.
Arranging
the Program
As of now, we are planning on having from 30 to 50
participants in the conference. The program will not be laid out
until we can envision fairly accurately who will be present, and
then we will plan the schedule from the opening reception and
dinner on Sunday, June 26, through breakfast, morning sessions,
lunch, and afternoon sessions on Monday. The CW/PS will pay all
expenses for participants during this period, including lodging
at Chaminade Sunday night (This will cost in excess of $10,000;
the CW/PS cannot afford to pay for travel to the conference or
lodging before or after the conference.)
Logistics
Participants will be responsible for getting themselves
to Chaminade for the opening reception and dinner, although the
CW/PS and Chaminade staff will be able to help in planning
schedules. Those coming by way of San Francisco may want to
consider coming to Santa Cruz on Highway One, with its
breathtakingly beautiful views of the Pacific. (Those who would
like to attend the conference without being full participants
are cordially invited, with rates to be set depending on whether
those attending require meals and a night’s lodging.)
Full particulars on Chaminade, including its beautiful,
redwood-studded grounds overlooking Monterey Bay and the Pacific
coastline, are available on its website: www.chaminade.com.
Prepared
by Richard Hudson, Executive Director
Center
for War/Peace Studies
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