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The UN: Still a Long Way to Go
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13843 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
12 / 1988 |
2,045 Words |
| Author
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Mark A. Franz
Mark A. Franz is director of the United Nations Assessment
Project at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think
tank. |
As many of the world's conflicts begin to show possibilities for resolution and the United Nations continues to play a highly visible role in attempts to negotiate agreements among belligerent states, there has been an increasing clamor about how the United Nations has finally become what its founders envisioned in 1945. The September 13 announcement by President Reagan that the United States would resume its share of funding of the United Nations may appear to ratify this sentiment, but this decision should not be misconstrued as implying that the United Nations has turned the corner and is necessarily headed toward a long-awaited renaissance. The general feeling in the United States remains, as it should, one of cautious optimism.
True, there has been some progress in the particular areas of reform addressed by Congress in the most recent Foreign Relations Authorization Act. In response to the call for a 15 percent cut in UN Secretariat personnel, Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has submitted plans for the elimination of 1,465 staff positions by December 31, 1989. This is a reduction of approximately 12.8 percent.
Furthermore, marginal efforts have been made toward reaching a 50 percent limit on the number of Secretariat employees from any one country on fixed-term contracts, a practice known as secondment that makes them more responsive to their own countries' demands than to the United Nations'. The Soviet Union, 100 percent of whose nationals working for the Secretariat are seconded, has promised to allow between 3 and 6 of its 184 UN staff members to accept permanent contracts. With the small number of people that Moscow promises to put on permanent contracts, some 97 percent of the Soviets at United Nations will
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