The African Union Position on UN Reform
Name: Huang Na Student ID：S07453
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
Abstract：Africa has many countries and the African Union is an intergovernmental organization, consisting of 53 African nations. So, the position of AU on UN Reform is worth our study. There are four parts in my paper. PartⅠ: The Introduction to the African Union and United Nations reform. PartⅡ: The African Union Position on UN Reform. PartⅢ: The Analysis about African Union Position on UN Reform. PartⅣ: Concluding Remarks. As to the reform of the United Nations, African countries can not only reach a consensus, but also have firm and positive attitude. However, it is a long way to go for Africa's entry to the United Nations Security Council.
Keywords: African Union; Position; UN Reform
Ⅰ: The Introduction to the African Union and United Nations Reform
ⅰ: About the African Union
Introduction
The African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other working languages) is an intergovernmental organization consisting of 53 African nations. Established on July 9, 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the amalgamated African Economic Community (AEC) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Its headquarters is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Among the objectives of the AU are to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent; to promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples; to achieve peace and security in Africa; and to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights.
Overview
The African Union, the African equivalent of the European Union or Organization of American States is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest political organ of the African Union is the Assembly, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU and currently chaired by Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania, elected at the 9th ordinary meeting of the Assembly in January 2008. Its secretariat is the AU Commission, whose chair is Jean Ping of Gabon.
Other institutions of the AU include the Executive Council, made up of foreign ministers; the Permanent Representatives Committee, made up of the ambassadors to Addis Ababa of AU member states; the Pan African Parliament; and the Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), a civil society consultative body (see further below).
The AU covers the entire continent[1] except for Morocco, which opposes the membership of Western Sahara as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. However, Morocco has a special status within the AU and benefits from the services available to all AU states from the institutions of the AU, such as the African Development Bank. Moroccan delegates also participate at important AU functions, and negotiations continue to try to resolve the conflict with the Polisario Front in Tindouf, Algeria and parts of Western Sahara.
The AU's first military intervention in a member state was the May 2003 deployment of a peacekeeping force of soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to Burundi to oversee the implementation of the various agreements. AU troops are also deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping in the Darfur conflict. The AU also has pledged to send peacekeepers to Somalia, of which the peacekeepers from Uganda have already reached Somalia.
The AU has adopted a number of important new documents establishing norms at continental level, to supplement those already in force when it was created. These include the African Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003) and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), as well as the New Partnership for Africa's Development and its associated Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.[2]
History of the African Union
The historical foundations of the African Union originated in the Union of African States, an early confederation that was established by Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s, as well as subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was established on May 25, 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. Critics argued that the OAU in particular did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it the "Dictators' Club".[3]
The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi: the heads of state and government of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration (named after Sirte, in Libya) on September 9, 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted. During the same period, the initiative for the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), was also established.
The African Union was launched in Durban on July 9, 2002, by its first president, South African Thabo Mbeki, at the first session of the Assembly of the African Union. The second session of the Assembly was in Maputo in 2003, and the third session in Addis Ababa on July 6, 2004.
Current issues
The AU faces many challenges, including health issues such as combating malaria and the AIDS/HIV epidemic; political issues such as confronting undemocratic regimes and mediating in the many civil wars; economic issues such as improving the standard of living of millions of impoverished, uneducated Africans; ecological issues such as dealing with recurring famines, desertification, and lack of ecological sustainability; as well as the legal issue of the still-unfinished decolonisation of Western Sahara.
ⅱ: About the United Nations reform
Since the late 1990's there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations (UN). However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or otherwise reduced use the term "UN reform" to refer to their ideas. The range of opinion extends from those who want to eliminate the UN entirely, to those who want to make it into a full-fledged world government.
An official reform program was initiated by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan shortly after starting his first term January 1, 1997. On March 21, 2005, Annan presented a major report on UN reform, In Larger Freedom. [4]
Security Council reform
A very frequently discussed change to the UN structure is to change the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, which reflects the power structure of the world as it was in 1945. There are several proposed plans, notably by the G4 nations, by the Uniting for Consensus group, and by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
UN Secretariat
At another level, calls for reforming the UN demand to make the UN administration (usually called the UN Secretariat or "the bureaucracy") more transparent, more accountable, and more efficient, including direct election of the Secretary-General by the people (see presidentialism).
UN Secretariat/administration reforms seldom gets much attention in the media, though within the Organization they are seen as widely contentious issues. The UN Secretariat has about 30000 staff around the globe, of which 35% work at the headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi. They run the bureaucracy of the UN, responding to the decisions by the Member States in the Security Council and the General Assembly.
During 2005 and 2006 there was little progress within the area of Secretariat reform, not least due to a wide confidence gap between groups of Member States as well as an enforced "spending cap" which soured relations between the North and the South. During late 2006 and 2007 the discussion atmosphere has greatly improved in the UN and successful resolutions have been taken such as resolution 61/261 on Administration of Justice and 61/244 on Human Resources Management.
Enhancing its democratic nature
Another frequent demand is that the UN become "more democratic", and a key institution of a world democracy. This raises fundamental questions about the nature and role of the UN. The UN is not a world government, rather a forum for the world's sovereign states to debate issues and determine collective courses of action. A direct democracy would request the presidential election of the UN Secretary-General by direct vote of the citizens of the democratic countries (world presidentialism) as well as the General Assembly (just as cities, states and nations have their own representatives in many systems, who attend specifically to issues relevant to the given level of authority) and the International Court of Justice. Others have proposed a combination of direct and indirect democracy, whereby national governments might ratify the expressed will of the people for such important posts as an empowered World Court.
Financing reform
On the subject of financing, an interesting proposal has been made," a tax on missiles, planes, tanks, and guns would provide the UN with its entire budget, as well as pay for all peacekeeping efforts around the world, including the resettlement of refugees and reparations to the victims of war."
The main problem with implementing such a radical tax would be finding acceptance. Such a system may find acceptance within [...]
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