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November 5, 2005
His Excellency Kofi A. Anan
The Secretary-General of
The United Nations
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017, U. S. A.
Sub.: A Proposal for Reform at the UN
For General Assembly Representation
Your Excellency,
Now that you have embarked on the much needed and long overdue reforms
at the United Nations in an admirable effort to enable this world body
to face up to the present day realities and challenges, I would also
like to make a proposal which I hope you will take into consideration,
if it is not already included in your agenda of proposed changes and
improvement.
When the UN Charter was signed back in 1945, there were only 51
independent countries in the world that signed the Charter and became
members. Today, the UN membership has more than quadrupled, mostly due
to the independence of former colonial territories and the break-up of
the former Soviet Union. Out of the original 51, less than a handful
could have been referred to as democracies. Now, not only the membership
has grown in number, but the number of countries with democratic system
of government has also grown appreciably.
However, not all the member governments truly represent their own
people; and the UN representatives sitting in the General Assembly are
all government appointees. The debates in the General Assembly on issues
relating to improvement of relationships among member countries,
improvements in living conditions of the populations of member countries
and, particularly, the human rights issues often run into obstacles
caused by those member states which do not enjoy true support of their
people. Autocratic governments are not likely to approve or enact
measures negatively affecting their bases of power and group interests,
no matter what the benefits to the people.
My proposal for reform is to make the General Assembly more
representative of the "peoples" rather than the "states".
In order to accomplish this, the UN rules on representation should
change to require that all representatives to the General Assembly
must be elected in free elections in their respective countries for
the specific purpose of representing the nation at the UN. This rule
not only grants the General Assembly more legitimacy by the peoples it
is chartered to serve, but it makes UN representation an important
political and election issue in every country and the UN representation
an honor to serve rather than just a job.
The General Assembly must become a truly representative world body, much
like a parliament is in a democratic country. No longer can people of
the world accept the fate of their countries be decided by persons who
themselves are often participants in power mongering, repression and
corruption. This proposed reform will be, in my opinion, one of most
essential and necessary steps toward progress of the UN, if we are going
to see it become a powerful world parliament and law-making body, as it
was destined to.
Respectfully submitted,
Kourosh Zaim
Author & Political Activist
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