UN at 75

The United Nations is marking its 75^th anniversary at a time of great upheaval, as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, exacting a heavy toll on lives, societies and economies in all regions of the world. How we, the people of this globe, respond will determine how fast the world recovers, and will shape our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to manage other global challenges.

Excerpts and resulting facts of PM’s Speech at UN

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic address in the United Nations General Assembly, last week, was remarkable in many ways, particularly for the assertive manner in which he laid out India’s claim to be a permanent member of the Security Council. PM Modi also did what no other head of state managed to — to highlight the failure and incompetence of the UN in dealing with the pandemic. Thus, besides being the voice of 130 crore Indians, PM Modi emerged as the voice of many nations, particularly the smaller and weaker ones.

Without mincing words, the PM categorically questioned for how long will India — which has been contributing immensely towards the growth and strengthening of the UN — be kept out of the global body’s decision-making process.

PM Modi highlighted how the situation has changed since the formation of the UN 75 years ago, when the world was trying to emerge out of the ravages of World War II. The entire world was badly shaken by the atom bomb explosions in Japan, India was waging a decisive battle for its Independence and colonialism was in its last throes. He highlighted how, in the last seven decades, the global scenario has completely changed. The world has seen far-reaching changes in this period — the Cold War era, the disintegration of the USSR and the unification of Germany. We have also seen many countries attaining freedom, while many nations have been racked by civil wars. There were also many small and big wars, and many nations disintegrated to become smaller entities.

He said that the UN has kept itself aloof from reforms and restructuring — that he, emphasised, is the need of the hour. When the UN came into being in 1945, its charter was signed by 50 nations. Today, it has 193 member states. But the structure of such an important global organisation remains unchanged. We still have five permanent members in the Security Council. The PM said the UN’s 75th anniversary should not just be a symbolic affair, it should go down in history as a landmark occasion by making the body more inclusive.

The PM made clear his disappointment at the UN’s response to the COVID pandemic. He said that the global body has acted indifferently in these unprecedented times when lakhs of people have succumbed to the deadly virus. It has been pointed out how the WHO failed to rise to the occasion by not providing succour and hope to the poor and weaker nations.

The PM told the world how India has believed and practised universal brotherhood and cooperation. India has also been committed to global peace, prosperity and security. India has always stood by the UN in dealing with forces which are against humanity and global peace. The PM reiterated that as a founding member of the UN, it is India’s obligation and responsibility to fight and stand for its core values. A testimony to India’s commitment is its unwavering contribution to peace missions and the supreme sacrifices made by the country’s soldiers.

It is due to the PM’s sustained efforts that, besides creating a unique space for itself in the world in the last six years, India has also managed to make the lives of its citizens better through various social and economic schemes. PM Modi gave a glimpse of this during his address. He told the world how the policy of “reform, perform and transform” has led to massive changes in the Indian society, which used to be perceived as impossible or unimaginable.

In the last five years, the Modi government has added 40 crore people to the banking system. It has also brought 60 crore people out of the curse of open defecation. PM Modi has now taken the pledge to provide safe drinking water to 15 crore households and connect six lakh villages with high-speed broadband. PM Modi has made a visible impact on the health infrastructure through his unique initiatives and made available to the masses affordable healthcare through the Ayushman Card scheme and Jan Aushadhi stores.

The PM has also turned the pandemic into an opportunity by giving the nation a golden chance to become “atmanirbhar” (self-reliant). PM Modi’s philosophy is being widely appreciated in the world. It is also giving inspiration to other nations.

PM Modi’s address to the UN has forced the world to take note of the fact that India is no longer a pushover. It has become a nation that dares to stand up for its rights. He also underlined India’s rightful claim — permanent membership of the Security Council.

In 2021, India will become the non-permanent member of the Security Council, for the eighth time. India has made valuable contributions to the growth and success of the UN, and it is for this reason that India is more emphatically demanding its rightful position. The world is looking up to India. A glimpse of this was seen when 187 out of 190 nations voted overwhelmingly in favour of India to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

India, a nuclear superpower, has remained committed towards nuclear non-proliferation. It is the world’s largest democracy, inhabited by 18 per cent of the global population. India has been an important member of all major global economic forums and has been contributing to the world’s economic progress.

PM Modi categorically stated how the representation of Africa and South America has been disproportionately low in the UN, which is dominated by five nations. The time has come to rectify this anomaly, a demand that has been repeatedly raised by various global bodies including the G-4. The PM’s address has brought a majority of the nations to a common platform; these nations strongly feel that UN reform is the need of the hour and India deserves its rightful position at the global body.

What UN has achieved so far and road ahead

While the UN has so far successfully averted a third world war, the aggressions in Iraq, Ukraine and Syria remind us that interstate conflicts remain a real and present danger. The Security Council’s failure to resolve intrastate conflicts, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Yemen to Myanmar and the prolonged occupations in Kashmir, Palestine and Western Sahara have undermined its credibility as the ultimate peacemaker and enforcer in the international system.

These aggressions and failures have compounded the attack on international law and multilateralism as a gathering storm of global crises — from Covid-19 to climate change, from genocide to terrorism, from WMD to cyberwarfare — threatens international peace and security and undermines the international order as we know it.

As the Covid-19 crisis has so clearly revealed, the Security Council’s most powerful members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — have shown as little initiative in responding to new threats as they have shown in resolving old ones. For many weeks, the Council was missing in action , and then on April 9, it held a closed meeting and several informal consultations since then that have so far failed to yield a concrete response to the worst global crisis since World War II.

The Security Council must be willing and able to act “promptly and effectively,” as the UN Charter says, to address threats as they emerge, to resolve conflicts and to prevent and punish violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law.

The UN’s 7^5th anniversary offers a chance for the Council to recommit to the promise and vision of the UN Charter and to resurrect the Council’s responsibility to ensure a multilateral response to common challenges, based on universally accepted principles. The secretary-general and the member states alike are seeking an ambitious plan to ensure a UN that is, as they say, “fit for purpose,” in the 21^st century. In his remarks to the Security Council on Jan. 9, 2020, AntónioGuterres said: “We must return to fundamental principles; we must return to the framework that has kept us together; we must come home to the UN Charter.” To do so, UN member states are negotiating a 75^th anniversary declaration to reflect a commitment to multilateralism, in general, and to the UN and its Charter, in particular.

In the same spirit, “Together First” is a rapidly growing network of global citizens and civil society organizations from across the world committed to finding collective solutions to global challenges and to expanding the boundaries of political possibility. “Together First” is hosting an “idea hub” presenting proposals and linking various campaigns to promote better global governance. The timeliest proposals will be featured in a “to-do list” to be sent to world leaders in the weeks to come. Together First has also commissioned a series of reports to study specific issues in our global system and to look deeper into the erosion of multilateralism. It launched the first report on April 21, marking the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.

The first report recommends several ways to improve the effectiveness, inclusiveness and transparency of the Security Council. All the reforms could be achieved without having to amend the UN Charter. Yet if they were fully implemented, the recommendations would significantly strengthen the Council’s ability to fulfill its “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The report and its recommendations are addressed to the UN secretary-general, to UN member states and to the elected and permanent members of the Security Council, calling for:

• More use of the secretary-general’s authority under Article 99 of the UN Charter to bring matters to the Council’s attention, including early warnings by the high commissioner for human rights;
• Greater reliance on the Uniting for Peace resolution adopted by the General Assembly in Resolution 377 (V) of 1950 to overcome a veto in the Council, especially in situations involving mass-atrocity crimes;
• More inclusive working methods, such as Arria-formula meetings, to hear from legitimate non-state parties to conflicts and reforming the single-penholder system.

While Article 99 has not been formally invoked in recent years, Guterres has drawn matters to the Security Council’s attention, most recently in his August 2017 letter on the situation in Myanmar. The secretary-general should use his Charter authority more often and more explicitly — not only to bring matters to the Council’s attention but also to propose actionable recommendations to resolve conflicts, to protect civilians and to ensure accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law. The secretary-general should also draw attention to the high commissioner for human rights’ early warnings of such violations.

The Uniting for Peace mechanism allows the General Assembly to act on matters where the Security Council has failed to do so because of a veto by one or more of its of permanent members. The Uniting for Peace tool has been used 10 times since 1950, but it has not been invoked since 1997. It remains a tried-and-tested mechanism that should supplement member states’ efforts to urge permanent members to refrain from using their veto in situations involving mass-atrocity crimes, including the France-Mexico Initiative and the ACT Code of Conduct Regarding Security Council Action Against Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity or War Crimes.

The working methods of the Security Council must also be improved. While Article 32 of the UN Charter explicitly refers to state parties to a conflict, the intent and spirit of Article 32 is that all parties to a conflict should be heard. The Council’s practice of convening Arria-formula meetings should be used to invite legitimate parties to intrastate conflicts to give them a voice and a stake in the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Hearing from all parties to a conflict is necessary — not only to ensure the fairness of the Security Council’s process but also to enhance the prospects of its success.

Council members must also move away from the single-penholder system, in which a small number of predominantly permanent members draft most Council resolutions. Recent precedents show that it is possible for the Council to work more collaboratively, where elected members have a more equal, active role in the drafting and consultation process.

The Council is expected to be the ultimate enforcer. Its failure and success determine the fate of humanity amid all threats to international peace and security — not only those arising from war and terrorism but also from pandemics and climate change.

Indian Strategies to secure a permanent seat Security Council : Diplomacy in Action

India has adopted a multi-layered strategy to assume the highly coveted permanent seat in the Security Council. According to Oliver Stuenkel (who is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) at Sao Paulo) the Indian strategy of “revisionist integration” into the Security Council consists of two components: Maximizing support in the UN General Assembly and Minimizing resistance in the UN Security Council. India’s continued leadership of various Global South forums such as G 77 and NAM, it hopes would garner the much needed numbers in the UNGA. This is amply reflected in India’s strong defense of the principle of sovereignty and the constant voluble criticism of the “Responsibility to Protect.” On the other hand, India’s growing strategic partnerships with the P5, including the historic nuclear deal with the US in 2005, reiteration of historic ties with Russia, and most importantly, seeking a rapprochement with China, in Indian eyes, paint a favorable picture for Indian hopes in the Security Council by the existing permanent members. (Stuenkel 2010, p. 59) Explicit public declarations supporting India’s candidature as a permanent member in the Council now embodied also in bilateral Joint Statements/Declarations since last few years by most of the P5, including China, have shown Indian successes in garnering agreement for its Council objectives.

Parallel to courting powers, big and small, in a bilateral framework, India has also formed the G4 comprising Brazil, Germany, itself and Japan, its “coalition of the willing”, a “collaborative strategy” to negotiate reforms of the Council. After initial euphoria after its creation in 2004 when its first summit-level meeting was held, Indian interest ebbed as its campaign to secure a seat did not fructify in 2004-05. After 2004, G4 has been revived by the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi, speaking at the G4 Summit held in New York in September 2015 clearly identified the rationale for coming together, viz., “our shared commitment to global peace and prosperity, our faith in multilateralism and our willingness to assume our global responsibilities that the world expects from us.” (“Modi pitches for permanent seat” 2016). He further reiterated that the UNSC “must include the world’s largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all major continents” to carry “greater credibility and legitimacy.” Making a much stronger case for the G4 in its entirety, he said that “more Member States have the capacity and willingness to take on major responsibilities with regard to maintenance of international peace and security.” In a move to garner substantive support, the G4 Joint Statement pledged to support “Africa’s representation in both the permanent and non-permanent membership in the Security Council,” and highlighted the significance of “adequate and continuing representation of small and medium sized Member States, including the Small Island Developing States, in an expanded and reformed Council.” (Full Text of G4 Joint Statement 2016)

India has also joined the L-69, the 42 member grouping of developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. India also, in late 2016, joined as a member the newly founded group of Friends on UN Security Council Reform created to accelerate the negotiating process of Council reforms. India had hoped that in next UN General Assembly session, the 70th one, and entering 10th IGN process and 25th year of the consideration of the issue of the reforming the Security Council by the UN General Assembly would bring out the desired outcomes expressed by a large majority of Member States, but it remains unrealized.

However, Mukherjee and Malone (2013) highlight at least three challenges in Indian aspirations at the UNSC: lack of enough Indian government resources for multilateral diplomacy, insufficient engagement with the normative aspects of many UN Security Council issues, and an over-reliance on entitlement as the bedrock of India’s claims to permanent membership, at the cost of more hard-nosed realpolitik bargaining in the UN. Further, with India as part of G4 seems to have limited its options to negotiate a seat for itself as great power and regional politics would circumscribe the G4 attempts to win permanent seats for all as a group (Baru 2015).

More significantly, the status quo bias amongst the existing P5, despite the General Assembly consensus, remains the overriding obstacle to adding permanent seats. This has been amply demonstrated by the lack of any progress since 2015 as the US, China and Russia have not yet submitted their country positions for TBNs and no agreement at all on the criteria for deciding permanent membership of the Council.

Conclusion

India has emerged as a foremost, singularly acknowledged rising power seen by most states, great and small, as making a legitimate claim to a place in the changing architecture of global governance, including the UN Security Council.

The Indian interests in joining the reformed UN Security Council stem from its long, civilisational history, an exceptional, globally impacting geography and demography, its rapidly increasing traditional great power ambitions, and assuming its rightful place in the comity of nations in addition to its truly rich, varied and significant historic contributions to the UN system. Successive Indian leadership have therefore, emphasized again and again, the pressing need to democratize the international relations embodied most importantly in the UN and its all-powerful Security Council. Reiterating this, the Indian PM Modi said in September 2014:

We must reform the United Nations, including the Security Council, and make it more democratic and participative. Institutions that reflect the imperatives of 20th century won’t be effective in the 21st. It would face the risk of irrelevance; and we will face the risk of continuing turbulence with no one capable of addressing it… Let us fulfill our promise to reform the United Nations Security Council by 2015.

Though these Indian desires repeatedly articulated at the highest levels of government remain unfulfilled and seemingly intractable, its ideas and diplomacy, bilateral and multilateral, over the last few decades on the UN Security Council and its reforms including its quest for a permanent seat, highlight a growing, powerful great power consciousness in India. The Indian decision makers realize that it is now historically placed to become an international rule maker and shaper than a meek rule follower in the policy relevant future. It truly marks a rising India’s dramatic desire to move to the centre from the periphery of global politics.

Connecting the Article

Prelims Q: 21st April is observed as:

(a) International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace
(b) International Yog Day
(c) International Day of anti terrorism
(d) None of the above

Mains Q: During the period between 2014 to 2020, two occasions when our PM addressed the UN general assembly, what has been the major achievements Indian diplomacy gained towards securing a permanent seat at Security Council ? Briefly describe the UN’s relevance and actions during world crisis since 1945 with special reference to Covid – 19 ?