Overdue Criticism

...Last year it was officially reported that "a sense of malaise, of dissatisfaction" affects the staff, and this year "frustration at all levels" was publicly cited...

...The final decision now rests with the Commission on Human Rights, but most observers are less than sanguine that meaningful measures will emerge from the highly politicized organs of the UN...

...Secretary-General U Thant was even less optimistic: He gave the UN only 10 more years to organize effectively before chaos engulfs the globe...

...He would like it to become a genuine "parliament of nations," exercising "a greater moral and legal force...

...that it assume administrative authority in areas not under national sovereignty, such as outer space and the ocean floors...

...It is an imperfection, moreover, underlined by the fact that the notion of individual petitions has not been rejected by the international body...

...The value of Clark Eichelberger's UN: The First Twenty-Five Years is precisely his refusal to bow to this kind of moral blackmail...

...The proposal aroused considerable anxiety among a number of states—especially those whose standards in the human rights field are deficient...

...Yet, as President Kennedy recognized, "peace, in the last analysis, is a matter of human rights...

...The way of the future must therefore be to place an ever greater emphasis on human rights...

...And the UN's failing in this respect, 25 years after the adoption of its Charter, constitutes a major imperfection in the overall structure...

...He recommends that the UN acquire an independent source of income...

...In a perceptive chapter on the UN human rights program, Eichelberger finds that it lags behind progress in peacekeeping and economic development...

...Then the Soviet bloc, supported by Arab and Moslem states, insisted at the Commission session last March that any investigation must have the approval of the state charged with "consistent patterns of gross violations...

...that it become universal in membership...

...The former Canadian Prime Minister warned that unless fundamental changes are introduced, the UN may not be around to celebrate its 50th anniversary...

...and that it make greater use of the International Court of Justice to broaden the development of world law...

...Ambassador Edvard Hambro of Norway, president of the General Assembly, neatly summarized the situation in a speech before the Assembly last November: "If world order and world organizations shall have any meaning, we must realize that suffering and humiliation of human beings everywhere is ultimately the concern of all of us...

...He was referring not merely to the 6,400 major meetings held annually by the UN but to the failure of these massive talk-athons to cope with the real problems of the world...

...Lacking the machinery for dealing with complaints from the public about violations of their rights, the UN is forced to pigeonhole several thousand such petitions every year...

...This emphasis, quite clearly, would require the establishment of international machinery for securing compliance with the human rights provisions of the Charter...

...In the case of the commissions on trusteeship, apartheid and decolonization, procedures have been established for at least investigating complaints and making the findings public...

...In 1969, the Commission drafted more precise guidelines: All complaints would be sent through the Secretary-General to a special working group of the Sub-Commission...

...That, of course, would effectively thwart the steps being considered...

...Even its warmest friends have felt intimidated...

...In an era when virtually every institution has been challenged, the UN has found itself almost immune from criticism...

...A cool, impartial inquiry could cause one to be labeled an enemy of peace...

...These Cassandra-like forebodings were actually refreshing...

...Although his analysis of the UN's various Secretaries-General is especially good, Eichelberger unfortunately neglects the now widely discussed subject of morale in the Secretariat...

...Eichelberger's treatment of the General Assembly, however, leaves much to be desired...

...A partial breakthrough seemed imminent in March 1967, when the Commission on Human Rights requested that its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities be authorized to examine communications revealing "consistent patterns of gross violations" of human rights and fundamental freedoms...

...A major source of unhappiness is the geographical distribution of jobs in a system that, to quote one critic, often "discriminates against ability...

...It is regrettable that Eichelberger's generally commendable work does not explore this vital issue in greater depth...

...Reviewed by William Korey Director, B'nai B'rith United Nations Office On the eve of the UN General Assembly's 25th-anniversary session, Nobel Peace Laureate Lester Pearson observed that the international body was "drowning in its own words and suffocating in its own documents...

...For too long, the public has hesitated to criticize the UN for fear of giving comfort to jingoists and racists...

...But the UN has not done as much to protect the rights in the Universal Declaration...

...The Assembly's activities have been marked by an endless flow of self-serving statements, the bloc system of voting, and a variety of irresponsible resolutions...

...How can it become a parliament of nations in these circumstances...

...Eichelberger questions "the rigidity of one vote per state," but offers no alternative...

...Many nations are notoriously reluctant to open their internal structure to public scrutiny, shielding themselves behind the so-called "domestic jurisdiction" clause of the Charter...

...One of the organization's staunchest supporters for many years, he has probed its numerous weaknesses, particularly where peacekeeping is concerned, and advanced a series of constructive proposals for making it more viable and relevant...