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Shashi Tharoor :

Reflections on a changing

United Nations

impoit-expoit trade of a lffglily adaptable institution tliat
April Fool's Day 2007 is
Member State, or set rip iiiter- lias evolved in response to chan-
actually a ratlier serious day for
national ci'imiiial tribamals and giiig times.
yorir cotumnist. Yesterday I
coerce govei'iunents uito

ended my career as an inter-
l'ianding over tl'ieir citizens to be There's little aclaiowledgement
national civil servant, just one
tried by foreigners under iiiter- of tliat in tlie pereiuffal calls for
month sliy of what would have
national law, I an'i sure tliey "refon'n" of tlie UN. "Refonn"
been 29 years at tlie United

would liave told n'ie tliat I did is a tei'in tliat means different

Nations. Today is tlie first day
not understand wliat tlie United tliings to different people
of tlie rest of my life, aiid yet I
Nations was all aborit. Indeed, nowadays asiy cliange a coruitiy
can't help looliig back a bit at
siitce tliose were the late 1970s, wants at tlie UN is labeled
tlie Organization I've just left
tliey n'iiglit well have asked me, "refonn", wliicli conveniently
behind.
"Young man, wliat are yori garbs self-interest iii tlie cloak of
smokiiig?" institutional progress.
I joiiied the '[JN iii 1978 as an
idealistic young man of 22,
And yet tlie {JN has done evei'y Today's refonn imperatives can
liopiiig to sei've refugees and
one of tliose tl'iings dririiig tlie be taced back to the divisions
discover tlie world. I did a bit of
last tl'iree decades, and more: it over the Iraq war. In the sum-
botli. But liow mucli tlie iiistitu-
l'ias administered territory, mer of 2003, a pon conducted
tion I joiiied lias changed! If I
o liad suggested to my seniors at conducted luige mrilti- by the Pew Organization in 20
din'iensional peace-keeping countries around the world
tliat tiine tliat the {JN worild one
operations witli nearly 80,000 revealed that the UN's standing
day obsei've and even run
soldiers iii tlie field, deployed had gone down in all twenty. It
elections in sovereign states,
liunan riglits monitors to repoit had gone down in the US
conduct inhusive inspections
on the beliaviou' of sovereign because the {JN did not agree to
for weapons of n'iass
goveri'unents. Tlie United support the US Administration
destruction, in'ipose compre-
Nations, in sliort, lias been a on the war, but it had also gone
liensive sanctions 011 the entire
6 2 2007 Dive
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