UN reform report

Report: Secretary-General Kofi Annan is presented the report by panel chairman Anand Payarachun.

By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has given his support to the findings of the UN High-Level Panel that studied the security threats, challenges and changes that face the international community.

The panel’s findings are contained in a 95-page report that also contains recommendations for reforming the UN.

The report includes a list of fi ve basic criteria of legitimacy, which the panel recommends the Security Council should address when considering whether to authorise or apply military force.

The criteria are:

Seriousness of threat: Is the threatened harm to state or human security of a kind, and suffi ciently clear and serious, to justify the use of military force? In the case of internal threats, does it involve genocide and other large-scale killing, ethnic cleansing or serious violations of international humanitarian law, actual or imminent?

Proper purpose: Is it clear that the primary purpose of the proposed military action is to halt or avert the threat in question, whatever other purposes or motives may be involved?

Last resort: Has every non-military option for meeting the threat in question been explored, with reasonable grounds for believing that other measures will not succeed?

Proportional means: Are the scale, duration and intensity of the proposed military action the minimum necessary to meet the threat in question?

Balance of consequences: Is there a reasonable chance of the military action being successful in meeting the threat in question, with the consequences of action not likely to be worse than the consequences of inaction?

In a letter accompanying the report, Mr Annan said the report offered the UN an opportunity to refashion and renew its institutions.

“I wholly endorse its core arguments for a broader, more comprehensive system of collective security, one that tackles both new and old threats, and addresses the security concerns of all states – rich and poor, weak and strong,” Mr Annan said.