Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton today told NDTV that the United Nations is a huge organisation and that many bodies of the global body are irrelevant. He said the UN’s massive size is a part of its problems.
“Some of the specialised and technical agencies do good work when they stay out of politics. But the Security Council and the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council are paralysed and therefore largely irrelevant,” Mr Bolton told NDTV.
“I am not sure if there is any way to bring meaningful reform. Many people have tried over the years, many suggestions have been given. It’s very hard to see if any of them can be brought to bear,” he added.
Mr Bolton’s comments come at a time when the world is beset by wars, humanitarian crises and other problems, bringing the focus back to whether the UN is becoming incapable of ensuring multilateral responses to solve serious global problems.
On how the UN can address some of the problems – if it can – the former diplomat said it is important to look at some of the particular pieces of the UN because some pieces are clearly much much better than others when they do the work they are supposed to do.
“Some of them are obscure, such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation which deals with a hugely important subject matter and so far we should keep our fingers crossed it has done good work,” Mr Bolton said.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Security Council, for example, is not fixable at its current state, he said.
“The Security Council I don’t think is fixable in its current format where you have Russia and China in this increasingly close axis with China as the dominant partner determined to pursue their own interests. It is not the Cold War, but not also dissimilar to the gridlock that was the cold war,” he said.
Mr Bolton shared some suggestions as to what kinds of reforms may work.
“The reforms that I have suggested are based on my very long experience in the UN system, and that is we need to change the funding system. I would eliminate the system of cess contribution where every nation pays a percentage of the budget of different UN bodies, and replace it with entirely voluntary contributions,” Mr Bolton said.
“This is a radical theory that if something doesn’t work, then you shouldn’t have to pay for it. You should put your money in an institution that does work and I think that reform has very little chance of being adopted by the members,” he said. “But that I think is something that might actually wake the UN up,” he added.
India has also been aspiring to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It recently received a huge boost after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed India’s bid for the permanent membership, days after US President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron made a similar pitch.
At present, the UNSC comprises five permanent members and 10 non-permanent member countries which are elected for a two-year term by the General Assembly. The five permanent members are Russia, the UK, China, France, and the United States, which have the power to veto any substantive resolution.
“We want to see permanent African representation on the Council, Brazil, India, Japan, and Germany as permanent members, and more seats for elected members as well,” Mr Starmer had said.