The preamble to the UN Charter sets high aspirations for the organisation and its member states.
We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights … to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom … have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.
Four purposes are identified for the UN: peace, human rights, the rule of law, and social and economic progress. It is striking that the first paragraph of the UN Charter contains a commitment to respecting treaties. Failure to honour this commitment was the central political reason for opposition to the American-led invasion of Iraq. Rejection of international law by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia threw the international system into disarray.
In the General Assembly in September 2003, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan said that ‘We have come to a fork in the road’. He rejected the doctrine that states have the right to use force pre-emptively, without the agreement of the Security Council. The international community has to choose whether to accept this deviation or to continue on the formally ‘agreed basis’. He made another powerful statement in the Assembly in September 2004 on just one theme, the centrality of complying with the international rule of law.
Since Australia was one of only a few countries to send troops to support the US during the invasion of Iraq, the decisions of the Australian Government during the next year on these issues will be unusually important. By discarding international law and denouncing international institutions Australia has become less secure, as has the US. Similarly, our condemnation of other countries and of the UN has antagonised not only our neighbours in Asia but also the Europeans.
There has been great anguish in being an Australian working at the UN in recent years, and hearing the assertive self-righteousness of Australian speakers, and the gentle criticism of other delegates in response. Our country has become an impediment to the effective work of the UN. Obsequious support for American unilateralism, opposition to control of greenhouse gas emissions, denigration of the Human Rights Commission, and neglect of the UN’s work on economic, social and environmental policy has disappointed