While no panacea for our troubled world, a new, beefed-up Trusteeship Council starting in Liberia makes sense, writes Suzanne Nossel
Heard among the horror and outrage over the bombing of the UN Baghdad headquarters are impassioned calls on the body not to retreat from its humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts.
One place to answer that plea is Liberia. The proposal to reactivate the UN Trusteeship Council to oversee Liberia's recovery is good news for that country and could set a precedent that would help the US bear the burdens of lone-superpower status.
The Trusteeship Council has been dormant since 1994, when the last territory under its control, Palau, achieved independence. When the UN was founded in 1945, the council was seen as one of the world body's most vital organs, on par with the General Assembly or Security Council. At that time some 750 million people lived under colonial rule. A primary purpose of the UN was to extend self-determination to those lands.
The UN founders wisely understood that replacing colonial rule with successful self-government would be neither swift nor automatic. The Trusteeship Council - consisting of the five permanent members of the Security Council and other temporary members - supervised these transformations, ensuring that exiting colonial powers met their responsibilities for political, social and economic development. The council was also empowered to hear grievance petitions from trust territory peoples, offering an outlet of expression for populations still en route to democratic rule.
The council ultimately assumed responsibility over 11 territories, including what were later to become the nations of Togo, Rwanda, Burundi, Cameroon, Samoa, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as parts of Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Somalia. Trusteeship was not an unqualified success. While most trust territories reached stable self-rule, long after their declared independence, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi succumbed to murderous factional violence.
But while no panacea, a new, beefed-up Trusteeship Council starting in Liberia makes sense for three reasons. First, by vesting accountability for the country's fate with a body of powerful member states that is solely dedicated to reconstruction, the measure would stop Liberia from once again being orphaned by the international system. A second benefit is that trusteeship would avoid placing all the weight of Liberia's reconstruction on the shoulders of a fragile new government.
The third benefit extends beyond Liberia. The war on terrorism and spread of weapons of mass destruction may continue to require US-led military action in difficult hot spots. The expectation is now entrenched that when such interventions occur, the lead power - usually the US - becomes responsible for the costly, complex and politically fraught task of reconstruction.
"You break it, you own it" has become an unwritten rule of international law.
Liberia is not unique. Its secondary strategic importance, coupled with US obligations in Afghanistan and Iraq, makes the US unwilling to assume primary responsibility there. The US needs to further empower the UN to backstop situations such as this. US difficulties in Baghdad underscore the benefits of internationalising such operations from the start.
The UN has, in effect, played the role of trustee in recent years in Cambodia, East Timor and, at present, Kosovo. There are calls for it to do the same in the Palestinian territories. With such demands arising regularly, this capability should be institutionalised.
A trustee's responsibilities go well beyond traditional peacekeeping, entailing tasks including infrastructure repair, the establishment of new government structures and economic development, each of which would involve different UN departments, other international agencies and contributions from member-states. A dedicated, operational body is needed to oversee this core function.
Unless the UN alternative is strengthened, our choice may be limited to Iraq-style US-led occupations, with the crushing burdens and risks entailed.
The Trusteeship Council was dismantled because it was hoped that the demise of colonialism would see the last of crippled states, unable to get back on their feet without extensive outside support and involvement. Now we know better. - (LA Times/Washington Post Service)
• Suzanne Nossel was deputy to the US ambassador for UN management and reform in the Clinton administration