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A few countries have recently allied to launch an aggressive diplomatic campaign designed to seek permanent membership in the UN Security Council.
The campaign, however, has in effect narrowed down UN reforms to expanding the Security Council, leading to widespread misunderstanding of the UN reform agenda among the international community.
In fact, in a world characterized by in-depth development of political multipolarization and economic globalization and increasing interdependence among the states, the UN reforms should be all-dimensional and multisectoral, dealing not only with the questions of development and security, but also with various other political issues.
The ultimate goal of UN political reforms is to enhance democracy and rule of law in international relations, and to lay down a solid political basis and create a favorable political atmosphere for safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.
In its position paper on the UN reforms issued last week, the Chinese government spelled out its views on UN political reforms and put forward a series of constructive proposals, which are of great realistic relevance and significance.
First, in the process of dealing with international political or humanitarian crises, the United Nations should adhere to the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, especially those of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and peaceful resolution of conflicts, among others.
No matter what crisis it seeks to defuse, be it internal unrest or humanitarian crisis, the United Nations should respect the primary responsibility of the sovereign state concerned to protect its citizens and respect the views of regional organizations concerned.
It is the responsibility of the Security Council to decide, within the UN framework and in light of the specific circumstances, to work for a peaceful solution as far as possible. In regard to enforcement actions, prudence is called for in the consideration of each case and more prudence should be exercised if military intervention is under consideration.
Second, the United Nations should promote the process of building an international legal system according to the principles of independence, impartiality, effectiveness and universality.
Through further reforms, international legal bodies, such as the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, should overcome their existing weakness to win wider acceptance of the international community through impartial and effective work and enable themselves to play a due role.
In exercising their functions, the international legal establishment should respect the right of each country to freely choose peaceful means to settle disputes. The Security Council should act with prudence in deciding whether to refer a certain situation to the International Criminal Court.
Third, China is in favor of and supports the reform of UN human rights bodies and believes that the essence of the reform is depoliticizing human rights issues.
As an important part of the United Nations' political establishment, UN human rights bodies, the UN Commission on Human Rights in particular, should be a platform for nations to conduct exchanges and dialogues on an equal footing and discuss how to promote and protect human rights.
Unwilling to give up their outdated Cold War mentality, a handful of developed countries have been indulging in political confrontation in UN human rights bodies, practicing double standards and using human rights issues to attack and vilify developing and smaller countries in a bid to achieve their own political ends. This has plunged the UN human rights bodies into a serious credibility crisis.
Acting upon the same political motives, those developed countries have intentionally been overemphasizing individual rights as well as civil and political rights while neglecting the developing countries' rights to survival and development.
By doing so, the developed countries have also attempted to sell Western values and ideologies and impose Western political systems and models of development on others.
All these practices have run counter to both the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and to the cause of promoting and protecting human rights.
Fourth, the reform of UN political bodies should be conducted according to the principles of democracy, fairness and efficiency.
As to the proposed "Democracy Fund," explanations should first be made of its sources, rules of use, and assessment procedure for the benefit of further discussions. Sovereign equality should be respected and the arbitrary classification of countries into "democratic" and "non-democratic" rejected.
The human rights bodies, such as the UN Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, must abide by the principle of equitable geographical distribution in their composition to ensure broad representation and acceptance.
The reform of all UN political bodies, including the UN General Assembly, UN human rights bodies and the International Court of Justice, should be aimed at helping improve the efficiency of those bodies and making them function more effectively.
As a universal, representative and authoritative inter-governmental international organization, the United Nations plays an indispensable role in international affairs.
The world body, acting in the framework of the UN Charter, should reform itself in an active and steady way in line with the principles of respect to the rule of law, democracy, fairness, impartiality and efficiency.
Such reforms should be conducive to promoting democracy and the rule of law in international relations, and help the world body play its role more effectively both as a platform for collective actions to cope with various threats and challenges and a messenger for the maintenance of world peace. This is undoubtedly in the common interests of all mankind.
(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2005)
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