In preparing his report on United Nations reform presented to the General Assembly in New York yesterday the secretary general Kofi Annan explained how he was inspired to entitle it "In larger freedom".
It is an apposite phrase drawn from the UN's founding charter to describe the ambitious agenda he set out yesterday and the continuing relevance of the document agreed in 1945.
Realising that the goal of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war would not be realised if the UN was too narrowly based, the founders aimed to ensure respect for fundamental human rights, establish conditions under which justice and the rule of law could be maintained, and "promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom".
These are the most far-reaching proposals for UN reform put to the organisation since its foundation. They will be decided upon at a summit meeting of government leaders next September and must be debated by them and their citizens between now and then.
Mr Annan has drawn principally on two reports commissioned by him, one on how to achieve by 2015 the Millennium Goals for human development adopted in 2000, the other on threats to global security. He is convinced development, security and human rights go hand in hand. His proposals are intended to drive home that message within a commitment to a larger freedom which reinforces each of them.
This wider purchase on reform adds conviction to his detailed proposals. Mr Annan is determined not to lose sight of the Millennium Goals on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating killer diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating a global partnership for development.
He insists the latest action plan to achieve them must be endorsed at global and national levels and that the UN should be empowered to oversee this. Without that, as he puts it, many millions of lives that could have been saved will be lost, freedoms that could have been secured will be denied, and "we shall inhabit a more dangerous and unstable world".
Based on such foundations, Mr Annan proposes changes in the Security Council's membership and structures, a radical shake-up in its human rights commission, a new working definition of terrorism, better controls on weapons of mass destruction, enhancing the rule of law, human rights and democracy.
There is much that is good in these proposals. They are calibrated politically to the various blocs and interest groups which compete to use the UN to achieve their ends. There is material here for US sceptics about the world body, and for those who want to see its remit strengthened, extended, made more democratic and underpinned by the achievement of development goals. In this document they have good grounds for argument.