UN General Assembly President Speaks in Los Angeles

Jan Kavan spoke last Thursday to the LA World Affairs Council. I wondered if his speech would be a "rose colored glasses" look at subject since he is leading the lesser known body of the UN. Kofi Annan is the current General Secretary of the Security Council which was where all the diplomatic action was in the run up to the war in Iraq. Kavan joked that he was the warm up act for Annan which drew laughter from the crowd. The dinner program with Kavan cost $41 and was attended by almost 100 people. Annan is scheduled for a much larger LAWAC event later this month where many hundreds are expected and the price of admission will be $300!

I was plesantly surprised at his honesty about the struggles of leading the UN. He started his talk by acknowledging that the UN has had many failures. In the UN Charter, the prevention of war is its primary goal and he said it has been estimated that 127 conflicts have occurred around the globe since the UN was founded.

Nonetheless, he believes its mission of conflict prevention must continue. There were three things that can help prevent wars: democratization, economic development and adherance to international law. The UN can help foster progress in all three areas. The UN provides a forum where diplomatic efforts at least can be attempted.

The second aspect of the UN mission is to manage conflicts if prevention efforts fall short. The traditional role has been to provide peacekeepers to separate the parties in conflict. The UN has had some successes in that role. Additionally, the UN has played important roles in election monitoring and reconstruction efforts. These are essential efforts after conflicts damage a country.

He concluded his talk with a realistic assessment: the UN is only effective if there is a willingness to act from its member states. If there is that willingness than the UN provides a good forum to resolve problems.

He then fielded questions from the floor.

He was asked why Israel has never been on the Security Council. Kavan explained how nations get on the Security Council. There are five permanent members (USA, UK, France, China, Russia) and ten elected members. The elected members are voted in from regional groups. Previously, Israel was in a regional group that would never vote Israel into the security council. Recently, Israel has moved into the regional group called Western Europe plus other nations. Laughter ensued as he explained Canada and Australia is in this regional group. Thus, Israel now has a slim though remote chance of someday being elected to the security council.

A question about UN credibility was raised by the presence of Cuba on the Human Rights Commission. Kavan remarked that as a diplomat and leader of the General Assembly he really can't complain too much. He explained that there are certain rules about how nations get selected for the commissions and so by the book Cuba got in. However, he said at a personal level, he would prefer that Cuba was not on the Commission. His shared briefly about his experience with political repression when Czechoslavia was ruled by the communists and so understood the nature of the Castro regime.

Upon the heels of that challenging question was a question on how Syria got on the security council. Again, he had to acknowledge that the UN has certain rules about how nations get voted onto the security council.

The final question of the night was about the differences between the UN formed after WW2 and the failed League of Nations formed after WW1. He believed there were two key differences. One was that the UN security council, a much smaller body, was given the authority to address issues of conflict. The League of Nations decision making power was vested in too large a body and thus became paralyzed. The second difference was the United States. The US was not a part of the League of Nations and thus immediately hampered from the outset.