UN: The United Nations must take "bold decisions" to stem public disillusion by reforming its structures and putting in place a more effective system of global security, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, in a speech prepared for delivery at last night's UN General Assembly, writes Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent in New York
On Northern Ireland, he said "substantial progress" was made in the Leeds Castle talks regarding the issues of paramilitarism and arms decommissioning, and talks were continuing in Belfast this week to see if the gaps between the parties on the operation of the political institutions could be resolved.
"It was noteworthy that the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Dr Ian Paisley, made the point immediately after the talks that 'a golden opportunity has been available to realise a stable and entirely peaceful future'.
" For our part, the Irish Government is open to considering changes which would improve the workings of the institutions, while maintaining compliance with the fundamentals of the agreement, and we have brought forward proposals in this regard. "But, I reiterate, as the Taoiseach emphasised last weekend, such changes must not disturb the fundamental balance of the Good Friday agreement, in particular its key power-sharing provisions."
On the issue of UN reform, Mr Cowen said there should be "a modest and regionally balanced increase, both permanent and non-permanent" in the 15-member Security Council, but he urged council members to "rise above national or regional interests".
He said the Government "remains committed" to achieving the UN target of allocating 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product to Official Development Assistance (ODA). The text of his speech did not specify whether this would be achieved by the end of 2007, as stated by the Taoiseach at the UN Millennium Summit four years ago, but Mr Cowen pointed out that Ireland's ODA had increased "very substantially in recent years".
Looking forward to the report on UN reform by a high-level panel in two months' time, the Minister continued: "The Secretary-General expressed the hope that when heads of state and government meet next year to review progress on the Millennium Declaration, they will be ready to take bold decisions. They must, because the longer we linger at the fork in the road, the more difficult will be the road ahead.
"We cannot afford to postpone action. More and more citizens of the world are questioning whether the UN has the capacity or even the will to prevent conflict and protect the vulnerable from injustice. They are becoming increasingly disillusioned with an organisation which either cannot take decisions or whose decisions are ignored with impunity.
"They see the politics of the lowest common denominator in operation, with strong and sensible draft resolutions watered down to mere platitudes. They hear the UN being denigrated by those who make a virtue of their determination to put national interests above all other considerations."
Pointing out that the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, had warned that the world was falling short in its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals agreed four years ago, Mr Cowen said that "in sub-Saharan Africa, especially, many countries are caught in a poverty trap and face the crippling challenges of unsustainable debt and HIV/AIDS, often compounded by instability".
Commenting on the situation in western Sudan, he welcomed the recent Security Council resolution calling on the Sudanese government to bring the Janjaweed militia under control although it was "a matter of regret and bewilderment to many" that four countries abstained (Algeria, China, Pakistan and Russia).
A reference to Sudan in yesterday's interview with Mr Cowen stated that "the Janjaweed militia has apparently been killing villagers in Darfur at a rate of 10,000 a month". The minister in fact said: "There are 10,000 people dying every month."