United Nations General Assembly 2018: IRC Report

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords, I begin by declaring an interest as the co-chair of the All-Party Group on the UN and the former chair of the UN Association. I join the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, in paying tribute to the work done by the UN Association, which is quite outstanding considering its minuscule resources.

The report by your Lordships’ International Relations Committee that we are debating, and which has been so excellently introduced by our chair, the noble Lord, Lord Howell, reaches one overriding conclusion: that the rules-based international order, to the sustaining and development of which the Government—quite rightly, in my view—attaches the greatest importance, is facing greater threats and more stress than at any time since the end of the Cold War. The UN, which has primacy among the institutions underpinning that order, is under considerable strain, to put it rather mildly. Our debate, which should perhaps have come in full time in this Chamber, is both topical and relevant.

Many of the strains at the UN relate to the malfunction of its Security Council, the permanent membership of which is frequently referred to by Ministers as a jewel in the crown of our foreign policy, but which is in fact not much use if the institution we are talking about is not functioning terribly well. We need to be deeply concerned about the way that the Security Council has, in recent years, been paralysed by vetoes such as those used—abused, I would say myself—by Russia and China on Syria and by the United States on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Improving the functioning of the Security Council, and in particular preventing it being frustrated by these sorts of vetoes when gross violations of international humanitarian law are taking place, should be a high priority for any British Government. I hope the noble Baroness is able to confirm that it is.

We will, unfortunately, get little help at the UN from our principal ally, the United States. Its lamentable withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, from the agreement with Iran and from UNESCO, its flouting of Security Council resolutions on the status of Jerusalem, its cutting of funding to UNRWA, and its refusal to participate in the negotiations of a global compact for migration are all heavy blows, and there are probably more to come. Neither President Trump nor his national security adviser, John Bolton, has any time at all for the United Nations. Let us not kid ourselves about that: they are on the record saying so.

If we are to sustain this organisation through these difficult times, we need to try to group around the UN what is often in New York called “friends of the UN”. In my view, we should be principal among these friends, along with our EU partners, whose policies at the UN so closely match our own.

Two important areas of policy at the UN are surely deserving of our full support, and I hope that the Minister will be able to say something on both of them: migration and cybersecurity. In those cases, the best—that is to say, legally binding international treaties or laws—is probably beyond our reach at the moment, and it could well be the enemy of the good. It is quite right to look in terms of international rules of the road rather than binding treaties for both these. I hope we will endorse the global compact when it is put to the members of the United Nations later in the autumn. There is a real need to inject a little humanity and a little bit of respect for human rights into the handling of this extraordinarily vexed and sensitive subject. Secondly, there is surely a need to avoid drifting—as I believe we are—towards what I would call mutually assured damage, which currently characterises the cybersecurity scene. I hope that we will lend our support to efforts to mitigate that.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, said, resources are always important and they are certainly important at the UN. Our 0.7% gross national income commitment remains a crucial support for the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals. I hope that the Minister will be able to respond positively to the committee’s recommendation that we make a clear multi-year commitment at the General Assembly this month to the UN Secretary-General’s resources for conflict prevention and peacebuilding, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord McConnell. The UN Secretary-General needs more resource and help in those fields.

In return, we should look to a reinforced effort to stamp out sexual abuse by UN staff, whether peacekeepers or civilians, and I join totally with the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, in what she had to say on that subject. She made a notable contribution when she was on the Front Bench. We should also ask of the UN that we make progress in breaking down some of those silos in which policy-making there is so burdened—as one sometimes discovers it is in this capital too. It is a heavy agenda, perhaps, but one that is really important. It is in troublesome moments like this at the UN when you really know who your friends are. I hope we will be among them.

Finally, I join in the tributes to Kofi Annan. He was a personal friend but he was also a great Secretary-General. He made a massive contribution throughout his life to the work of the organisation. He was hugely respected and achieved a lot. I hope that his memory will inspire us to continue to support the UN to the fullest of our ability.