By publishing his report on the reform of the United Nations, on the 21st of March, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan caused quite a stir.

Entitled ‘In Larger Freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all’ the document starts impressively, however, the contents hardly live up to the title’s promise.

In fact, although the Secretary-General wishes to undertake a complete reform of the United Nations system, a careful reading of his report shows that his proposals do not address any of the UN’s fundamental problems.

The proposals concerning the enlargement of the Security Council amount to mere cosmetic measures and do nothing to further its democratization.

Regarding his vision for development, Kofi Annan fails to mention the triumvirate of the IMF/WTO/World Bank that dictates the economic policies of member states, the consequences of which undermine state sovereignty and are catastrophic for the majority of humanity.

Finally, it seems that the UN human rights mechanisms will ultimately bear the burden of all this shuffling.

Moreover, the ratification process for these proposals is difficult questionable, given how the Secretary-General is pressing member states to adopt his proposals as rapidly as possible so that he can submit them to heads of state when they meet in New York in September at the follow-up meeting to the Millennium Summit. Now, given the issues, it is necessary that the people debate the reform proposals and that the reforms not remain the exclusive preserve of the diplomats.

Of course, it is widely acknowledged that the United Nations is in need of reform . Nevertheless, it seems to us that the proposed reforms are inadequate as we intend to demonstrate in our publications, statements and position papers as presented bellow. This campaign is developed with the American Association of Jurists (AAJ).