Monday, 20th October 2014
By Ravi Ladduwahetty
The entire United Nations mechanism was deeply politicized and needed reforms, Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris said yesterday.
He was addressing the National Observance of the 69th United Nations Day at the Bishop's College auditorium.
He said: "There is a high degree of politicization of the system. Rules have been bent and distorted to be applied in a highly discriminatory manner."
"I do not mean to be unduly critical, but, anybody who looks at the UN system. with any sense of objectivity, cannot be satisfied that the system is fair across the board. There is a singular lack of uniformity and consistency of criteria and standards across the board. Similar situations are not dealt with in a similar vein."
Prof. Peiris also reminisced on a train journey that he had from New York to Washington with former US Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, whose book, at the dawn of his 90th birthday, had a sentence, which created an indelible impression in the mind of Prof. Peiris, which he described as "indicative of the intellectual sensitivity of one of the greatest commentators oninternational affairs of our times."
The sentence Prof. Peiris, quoted Kissinger, which he described as, pregnant with meaning was: "The fundamental problem of politics, is not the control of wickedness, but the limitations of righteousness"
Therefore, Prof. Peiris said the essence of the appeal of all nations is they should have confidence in the UN system. The principles should be sacrosanct. Equality should be applied to the core. Respect should be given to all the nations, whether big or small, rich or not so rich, he said, adding that those principles were sacrosanct.
He said that the UN system relied on a set of norms, by its very nature, which was different from a domestic nature, which is buttressed and fortified by Police, Courts and the Prisons.
On the contrary, the United Nations has some sanctions in its Charter and even some of the sanctions that exist, are not enforced against powerful countries, the minister contended.
Prof. Pieris also remarked that the UN system needed to improve its architecture which included some of the pressing problems that the world faced today.
From : http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-75870-news-detail-un-deeply-politicized-gl.html
