Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Times for scooping the world by getting its hands on a draft copy of the UN reform blueprint Kofi Annan will present in New York tomorrow. In the space of two sentences, the plan titled "In Larger Freedom: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights for All", is described as "providing a historic opportunity to reinvent the UN" and "a last-gasp bid to restore the organization's relevance". Which one is it to be, then? A quick look at the main reform proposals shows how far the organization has fallen into the mire:

Nations that violate human rights should not have a place on the UN panel that monitors such actions.

Given the corruption associated with of the UN's "oil-for-food" program for Iraq, better oversight of UN contracts and sanctions is needed.

A policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers or other personnel should be put in place.

Problems? Well, yes, three big ones. First, there's a report due at the end of this month on whether Annan's son exploited his family connections to win a contract from the Iraq oil-for-food program. That could sink the captain's ship. Secondly, the reforms depend on the endorsement of the 191-member General Assembly and the agreement of world leaders attending a UN summit in New York in September. This suggests nothing will happen before next year. Thirdly, the US, the organization's biggest funder, is slated to contribute some $22 billion to the UN next year. A lot of people feel that the money would be better spent somewhere else.

Regardless of whether you support the UN and think it should become the world's government, or whether you despise it and feel its New York HQ should be turned into a shopping mall, nothing reveals the need for radical reform more than the Human Rights Commission, which is currently meeting in Geneva. Those famous bastions of human freedom, Sudan, Libya, Cuba and China, have seats on the 53-member commission and these nations are accorded the same privileges as the countries that regularly provide sanctuary for their victims. The word "scandal" and its synonyms "disgrace" and "shame" cannot begin to convey the awfulness of it all. Does Kofi Annan plan to throw the tyrants and the despots off the commission? Here's how the LA Times puts it: "But rather than establish criteria to exclude violator nations from the council, he gently suggests that they have no place on it." Love the "gently" there. "Those elected to the council should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards," the report says. You know: Maybe the time has come to close the whole rotten thing down. Meanwhile, you can get a jump on tomorrow's news by reading In Larger Freedom: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights for All.