Publication |
2006.
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Summary/Abstract |
When the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, introduced his report 'In Larger Freedom' in March 2005, he set the organization on a path to pursue perhaps the most ambitious program for its reform since 1945. As part of that program, the Secretary-General proposed major changes to three key UN bodies: The Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission for Human Rights. This article traces the progress of attempts to restructure these organs in the lead up to and following the World Leaders' Summit held at the UN in New York in September 2005. It is argued that, while some incremental institutional changes were effected at the Summit, the larger ends of the reform program were frustrated by the inability of the North and the South to agree on appropriate ways forward. This in turn reflected the radically different visions the contending parties had of the organization's nature and fundamental priorities.
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