Herald.com | 09/17/2005 | Summit produced parade of missed opportunities

The parade of world leaders was enough to take your breath away. Kings, emirs, presidents and prime ministers smiled for photographs, shook hands, and rose to the podium at this week's historic United Nations summit in New York. Stirring speeches and memorable phrases loftily gave the impression that the organization and its member nations are moving with unstoppable determination to make the United Nations -- and the world -- a better place.

And yet, this week's gathering celebrating the 60th anniversary of the U.N.'s founding had already become a failure of historic proportions even before it began.

You could already smell the whiff of hypocrisy rising from midtown Manhattan as more than 170 nations' leaders began arriving for the anniversary extravaganza. Once the General Assembly agreed on the document signed at the summit, it took all the diplomatic skill of politicians and civil servants to put a positive spin on the final agreement: a monument to under-achievement.



The United Nations began with much promise and optimism at the end of World War II. Today, however, there are few who disagree that the world body is in desperate need of reform and revitalization. For a moment it seemed we got lucky. An intersection of events produced the perfect opportunity to achieve meaningful change. The anniversary summit would come only days after the Volcker Report, which not only pointed a bright spotlight at endemic corruption and mismanagement in the U.N.'s Iraq Oil for Food program, but also produced credible and specific recommendations for improvement.

On Tuesday, delegates reached a last minute compromise on a summit document, producing little, if anything, of substance. Kofi Annan, barely restraining his disappointment, said the 35-page agreement was not all bad. And U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns called it, ''a good beginning.'' But I would bet they didn't quite believe their own words and found more truth in the statement of the Amnesty International U.N. representative, who called the entire exercise, ``a squandered opportunity.''

Even Annan, the world's top diplomat, called failure to agree on the issue of disarmament, ``a real disgrace.''

Once again, the United Nations let down those most in need. Some felt most disappointed by the watered-down language on improving the lot of the poorest of the poor. ''By any stretch of the imagination,'' declared a despondent representative of the charity Oxfam, ``they failed on this point.''

The delegates could not even agree on a definition of terrorism, even though they say the problem is urgent, global, and requires international cooperation.

So, if you're one of the billion people who struggle to live on one dollar a day, the United Nations let you down. If you fear becoming a victim of terrorism, the United Nations let you down.

You won't be surprised, then, to hear that the victims of human rights abuse were also let down.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission is the rare U.N. organ that everyone agrees is a shameful travesty. The Commission became a membership magnet for the worst regimes on earth. If you are a despot, you jockey for a seat on the Commission, thus managing to protect your regime from criticism. The fox-in-the-hen-house membership usually includes regimes guilty of the whole catalog of human rights abuses. Members usually include countries such as Sudan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Sierra Leon, Zimbabwe and other such well-known ''defenders'' of human rights.

Replacing the commission with a new Human Rights Council was one item on the summit's agenda that seemed a fairly sure bet. The Council would include only countries that respect human rights, and it would sit year-round, allowing it to condemn abuses with authority and without having to wait for its annual session.

Instead of creating this new body, negotiators decided to defer the issue to the ineffectual General Assembly until some time in the future.

There is plenty of blame to share on this debacle, along with a multi-national effort to paint the meeting as a success. Once again, world leaders have failed to muster the courage and skill to turn the United Nations into an organization that would make a real difference in the lives of those who most need its help. They have failed to move resolutely in a direction that would take the organization closer to the goals its founders envisioned 60 years ago. And they have again betrayed the most urgent needs of the weak, the impoverished, and of those who want to see the nations of the world work together for the common good.

Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs.