UNITED NATIONS: The war against Iraq launched unilaterally by the United States has posed a challenge to the international collective security system, with the United Nations (UN) Security Council at its core.

And the failure of the UN to prevent the war also raised a critical question by the international community, to which it has to give an answer after the 58th UN General Assembly Session which began on Tuesday.

The question is: How should the UN be strengthened to safeguard international peace and security while individual countries act unilaterally?

Among other leaders, the heads of state and government from 88 countries will come to the UN headquarters in New York in the next few days to discuss this critical issue when the general debate of the forthcoming General Assembly session starts on September 23.

The number of heads of state and government expected to attend the debate this year surpasses that in most previous General Assembly sessions. This reflects, in part, the greater importance attached to the UN by various countries as well as their new expectations for the organization and the common aspiration of the international community to seek to build up multilateralism to meet the common challenges facing the world.

To counter the common problems such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, the widening gap between north and south and the menace to international security posed by conflicts and terrorism calls for joint efforts by the international community. And no individual country or group of countries or organization can substitute the UN in co-ordinating such joint efforts.

Thus, the role of the UN and its reform, among other major issues, will dominate the general debate and other meetings of the General Assembly session. Speaking of the role of the UN and its reform, discussions will likely focus on two aspects: what kind of role the UN should play in safeguarding peace and security while individual countries sometimes act unilaterally and what kind of common agenda this organization should adopt.

Most member countries favour a stronger UN, but differences persist on how to make it stronger and for what kind of purposes. Therefore, the issue of how the organization should act in safeguarding peace and security will likely draw a heated debate in the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, the United States views terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as the greatest menace to the world, but others think differently. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on September 8, most people in the rest of the world are more concerned with poverty, civil war, free trade and HIV/AIDS, so it is clear that the issue of a common UN agenda will also dominate discussions in the General Assembly.

There is consensus on the necessity of the reform of the UN, but little consensus on how the reform should be carried out. Many member countries agree that the agenda of the General Assembly needs to be shortened, simplified and focused as part of the efforts to revitalize it. However, it is often more easy to say than do as each item on the agenda has the support of some member countries.

The reform of the Security Council began years ago, yet little progress has been achieved so far, particularly in the enlargement of the council.

During the forthcoming General Assembly session, economic and social development will likely attract greater attention than in the past two years.

Some developing countries have already expressed their resentment toward the UN for attaching greater importance to combating terrorism than to development.

The General Assembly will address member nations' progress toward meeting the goals of the 2000 Millennium Declaration, which includes halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, ensuring universal primary education for both girls and boys, reducing the child mortality rate by two-thirds and halting and reversing the spread of AIDS by the year 2015.

(China Daily September 18, 2003)