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Tuesday, 02 January 2007 13:55 |
 After a decade of service, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan left office last week, leaving behind a legacy of many accomplishments ÇƒÓ as well as some dark spots in the organizationës history.
Annan should be commended for his efforts to combat the effects of poverty on the worldës most downtrodden people.
Particularly significant was his involvement in drafting and promoting the U.N. Millenium Development Goals.
These
goals, which Annan had a crucial role in writing, range from halving
extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing
universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015.
Having been
approved by the world body as a blueprint for global development, the
MDGës have had a positive effect on efforts to meet the most basic
needs of people worldwide.
On the other
hand, Annanës term has witnessed one of the darkest and most
challenging periods of the organizationës 60-year history.
Perhaps the
worst blot on Annanës legacy is the Oil-For-Food program. The U.N.
program ÇƒÓ which Annan had publicly praised as a successful humanitarian
effort ÇƒÓ was intended to provide food relief to Iraqis in exchange for
oil that could not otherwise be sold while the country was subject to
U.N.-imposed sanctions.
However, it was
discovered in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, that the
program had contributed billions of dollars to Saddam Husseinës
totalitarian regime.
Furthermore, the
inability of the Security Council to prevent the U.S. from invading and
occupying Iraq left many doubting the effectiveness of the
organization, as well as souring relations between the U.S. and the U.N.
To his credit,
while Annan may not have been fully aware of the true impact of the
Oil- For-Food program, once it was discovered, he began to undertake a
set of radical reforms within the organization.
These included
allowing for far greater oversight of the U.N.ës financial operations
and stricter human-rights standards for countries on the bodyës new
Human Rights Council.
We welcome these
reforms. Clearly, the U.N. was in need of such a process and,
hopefully, it will continue to reform under Annanës sucessor, Ban
Ki-moon.
Meanwhile, the
leadership of the U.S. should heed the words of Annan in his farewell
address Dec. 11. at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in
Independence, Mo.
Standing in the
shadow of the great multi-nationalist and supporter of the U.N., Harry
Truman, Annan called on Americans to reclaim "the natural leadership
role that the U.S. has played in the past and can play today."
It would serve America well to heed those words as we strive to tackle the great challenges of our times.
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