A number of individuals and groups in Malaysia have come together to initiate a global citizens’ campaign to transform the United Nations into a body that represents the will of ‘We the Peoples of the United Nations’.

The campaign is a response to the UN Secretary General’s Report entitled, ‘In larger Freedom : Towards Development, Security and Human Rights’ which  many people feel  fails to address the most critical  challenges facing the world body today. The Report does not even acknowledge what is obvious to any human being: that the veto of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council makes a mockery of democracy within the UN.  Neither does the Secretary-General’s Report make any attempt to strengthen the UN General Assembly  which it recognizes as the “chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations”. It is the General Assembly and only the General Assembly that should have the authority - when all other avenues for the peaceful resolution of a conflict have been exhausted - to mandate the use of force against a member state.  Instead of moving in this direction, the Report suggests that the UN “Charter gives full authority to the Security Council to use military force, including preventively, to preserve international peace and security.” This is a blatant attempt to justify the sort of pre-emptive military action that the world’s only superpower has begun to resort to in pursuit of its own agenda. 

In view of these and other glaring omissions and commissions in the Report, it is imperative that the citizens of the world make it explicitly clear that they:-  

1)     Reject any attempt to use the UN Charter to justify pre-emptive military action by any nation against any other state or people. 

2)      Reject the UN Security Council veto and seek its immediate abolition. 

3)     Resolve to empower the UN General Assembly by bestowing it with the ultimate responsibility to prevent “the scourge of war” and to enhance global peace. 

It is to enable the citizens of the world to express their support for these three demands that this global campaign  for a democratic United Nations has been launched. The campaign aims to collect  as many signatures as possible from all over the world from now until 31^st August 2005. The signatures will then be presented to all the member states of the UN and the UN Secretary-General in time for the special session of the UN General Assembly in September 2005 which will debate the Secretary General’s Report.   

You are cordially invited to endorse this campaign. Please encourage your friends to sign up. Every signature counts.  

We would also urge you to organize talks and seminars on the theme of a people oriented UN. Write articles on this in the media. Campaign for the democratisation of the UN in other peaceful ways. Join hands with other groups that are also working towards the same goal.  

In a world wrecked by war and violence, the UN, in spite of all its weaknesses, remains our only hope for peace and justice. This is why we should never allow it to be a tool in the hands of a few who seek to perpetuate their global hegemony.  

The UN belongs to us – the peoples of the world. 

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,