Kofi Annan's visit gives Ireland the ideal chance to speak out for the oppressed, writes John O'Shea
Kofi Annan's five-day visit to Ireland presents the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs with the ideal opportunity to speak out for the vulnerable and oppressed people of this world - and they should find the courage to pose the question "is the UN, as structured, relevant to the modern world?".
The Taoiseach and Minister should point out to Mr Annan how badly the UN has lost its way, how it is failing in its job of policing the world. The latest group to feel the effects of this failure are the 1.5 million people who have been driven from their homes by armed conflict in Darfur, Western Sudan, and are now waiting in vain for the UN to come to their rescue. These people have been abandoned to their fate by the UN which is either incapable or unwilling to assist them.
If the Secretary-General, Mr Annan, is as frustrated as he has claimed to be by the Security Council's inability to agree on a response to Darfur, then he should seriously consider a meaningful protest of some kind. He should propose that either there is a total reform of the UN or else it be wound up and replaced by an organisation with human rights as its central focus which can get to grips with the issues that everyone knows it should be dealing with.
A reformed UN should be prepared to intervene in the internal affairs of a nation if the government of that country is seen to be acting illegally or committing human rights abuses - or genocide.
The Security Council is so hung up on national sovereignty that it seems to have forgotten about its obligations to the human rights of civilians, the protection of whom was one of the cornerstones on which the UN was established in the first place. If the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is worth defending, then surely states that either attack their own citizens or fail to protect them from attack by others must forfeit the right to national sovereignty.
Some mechanism must be found to prevent genocide and to stop it when it does occur. Mr Annan, of all people in the international community, must be familiar with the horror and insanity of genocide. The UN was well aware of what was going on in Rwanda 10 years ago but a million people were slaughtered and it did nothing to stop it. During his watch there has also been genocide in Bosnia and now Darfur. The UN must become more proactive in saving human life; it must develop a sense of urgency because it is the early days of a crisis that are the most dangerous to the defenceless civilian.
Splitting hairs about whether or not the Khartoum government has carried out genocide in Darfur or simply lost control of its Janjaweed militia, quibbling over the numbers of dead and who did what to whom is to miss the point. Innocent people are dying and thus far they have been denied the protection they so urgently need and which should be theirs as of right.
The world desperately needs an international standing army to be kept in readiness for such situations as the Darfur crisis. Many millions of people have died needlessly over the years because the lack of such a force leaves the UN unable to respond quickly enough when civilians come under attack from whatever source. A similar logistics army should be established to be kept in readiness to respond to natural and humanitarian disasters when they occur.
Another major issue that Mr Ahern could raise with the Secretary-General is the ludicrous situation which gives certain members of the Security Council the right of veto over decisions that body makes. This facility that is enjoyed by the permanent members of the Security Council is outdated and an anachronism.
It has certainly meant, in the case of Darfur and many other crises in the past, that the UN has been unable to respond effectively because nations with a veto often put their own national interests before universal human rights. Perhaps more power should be given to the General Assembly which, while it is not without its own problems, is certainly more representative of world opinion.
Another area which needs tackling urgently is the corruption and bureaucracy within the UN itself. The recent food for oil scandal in Iraq is just the latest in a long line of disgraceful episodes involving corruption among UN officials. Equally depressing is the UN's spendthrift attitude and infamous bureaucracy. These are vital issues for the UN which must be addressed. If it can't police itself, how can it possibly be expected to police the world?
But it is in the protection of the poor and the vulnerable that the UN has failed particularly badly. They deserve a much improved performance in these areas and Ireland should threaten to revoke our membership unless the reforms are made. We should try to initiate a debate about whether or not the UN is worth retaining in its present format or perhaps it would be better to close it down and start again from scratch with a new, more streamlined and better focused organisation.
The UN Security Council has become more of a social club than a credible force for peace. The expensive suits, flash pads in Manhattan, and jet-set lifestyles of the council members have blinded them to what life is like for so many millions of people out here in the real world.
John O'Shea is chief executive of the international humanitarian organisation GOAL