3. UN Reform
Reform of the Security Council is needed, but should not be a precondition for reforms in other areas. A permanent membership limited to five countries that derive their primacy from events that occurred sixty years ago is not acceptable. For the reasons of accountability, efficiency and necessary political guidance the permanent members need to reflect the world of today and the world that is likely tomorrow.
Whatever formula for reforming the Security Council is considered, it needs to ensure more relevant representation from Asia, Africa and Latin America and a permanent seat for a country with a Muslim majority and identity. A condition for any new permanent membership should be a clear and verified status as a non-nuclear-weapon state.
Your report discusses in some detail the present structure and shortcomings of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The World Council of Churches supports your proposal for additional funding of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. From our own experience we feel that some important mechanisms of the Commission have suffered because of lack of funding and other resources.
The proposal of setting up a Human Rights Council and the need for the High Commissioner to relate directly to the Security Council is both novel and interesting. It will go a long way to help draw attention to some of the most critical human rights situations that require immediate action from the international community. It will also allow the Security Council to have a constant and regular overview of the global human rights situation.
We identify closely with your views that human rights cannot be compromised in the name of national security. If poverty and terrorism are to be eliminated it is essential that civil and political rights as well as socio-economic cultural rights of all peoples be realised.
We have noted that the reform proposals regarding the ECOSOC are comparatively weak and lack appropriate links to the International Financial Institutions. It is of utmost importance to provide credible and relevant political mechanisms to manage a world of growing economic interdependence to ensure life in dignity for millions of people and to promote trust in the UN system. The ECOSOC could improve, for example, by using its capacity to hold short focused sessions to discuss high priority issues or emergencies, by introducing a segment of its annual session on global macro-economic management to which finance ministers should be invited and by inviting the International Financial Institutions to report to it.
4. Environment
To address the issue of Climate Change, the WCC stresses the need, beyond technical changes in areas such as energy, transport and economic policy, for a fundamental reorientation of the socio-economic structures and personal lifestyles that are at the origins of the phenomenon. Those convictions need to be at the centre of the more inclusive international framework that is needed to ensure the follow-up required to the Kyoto Protocol, in particular beyond 2012.
The centrality of water to life and the experience of water as a gift are two sources of the WCC’s affirmation of water as a basic human right. To treat water as a gift of God and as a human right implies that clean fresh water should be available to meet the basic needs of all, rather than be treated as a private commodity to be bought and sold.
The adequate financing of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is to be assured through increased national contributions. Eco-sustainability will require the vision and reality of economically viable alternatives; corporate accountability along with corporate social and environmental responsibility; green accounting, or full cost accounting, e.g. Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI); Environmental Indicators that account for the value in the light of Global Common Goods against Global Common Bad.
5. The Role of Religion and Culture
There is in most cultures today a growing interaction and interplay between religion and politics. This phenomenon is related to fundamental changes in our society, linked to globalisation, the decreased power of the main ideologies of the 20th century and the changing role of the nation state.
Religious influence on politics can be both destructive and constructive. If religion is used as an instrument to gain political power and emphasise the exclusiveness and primacy of one's own group at the expense of others, it will be a destructive contribution. On the other hand, by stressing fundamental ethics and humanity, by giving a voice to the voiceless, by focusing on inclusiveness and a deeper sense of hope, religion can make a much needed and constructive contribution to societies.
The High-Level Panel has in its report overlooked the increased role of religion in conflicts, international affairs and politics. We would like to encourage you to explore ways for the UN to work closely, constructively and creatively with this issue, seeking to understand and interpret the growing influence of religion, searching for ways to prevent a destructive role for religion and to promote religion's constructive role. This could mean the UN Secretariat having the capacity to analyse and understand these developments. It could also mean increased interaction between the Secretariat and the General Assembly and faith communities and academics involved in this field.
