Vol. 54 Issue No. 48 Mumbai May 28 to June 3, 2013 Pages 8 Price Rs. 3/- JUST WHAT DOES THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL DO – AND HOW DOES HE DO IT? t has taken a Bombayite, a former was the period of economic depres- Political Director in the Executive sion. OfficeI of the Secretary-General of the But out of the ashes of the Second United Nations, to explain the intri- World War, the allied powers estab- cate, highly nuanced workings of the lished the United Nations, the third world body. generation of international organ- Mr. Kishore Mandhyan, who work- isations. But they had learnt the lesson ed over the last five years in the above that it was not only political but eco- post, revealed all at the last meeting nomic engagement that mattered. The when he gave an interesting talk on “The UN emerged as the political arm of in- view from the 38th floor of the United ternational co-operation. Nations: A day in the life of the UN Coming up around the same time Secretary-General”. were the Breton Woods Institutions PP Haresh Jagtiani revealed while such as the IMF and the World Bank introducing him that he had rubbed which were the economic dimensions shoulders with several Heads of State, of international economic governance. including Barrack Obama, George W. It was this institution, the United Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Nations, that the Secretary-General many others. Countries have tried since centuries to set up mechanisms of co-operation. managed. Essentially, these institutions He had lectured at Harvard Univer- The United Nations is only the latest such attempt, says Mr. Kishore were State-centric; but although they sity and at Boston College and had re- Mandhyan, former Political Director in the Executive Office of the were driven by States’ interests, they ceived several accolades, including Life- UN Secretary-General were regulated by the United Nations time Achievement Awards from the General were located), the context of relative stability during which many Charter. Tufts Global Institute and the Univer- within which it occurred, the content technical international institutions The UN Charter was founded sity of Bombay. of the occurrences and some of the key emerged, such as the International Tele- during an idealistic period. Its pre- Mr. Mandhyan said that in the challenges faced by the office. communications Union (ITU), the amble started with the words, “We course of his talk he would make an Starting with the context within Universal Postal Union (UPU) and so the people of the United Nations attempt to offer a snapshot of what which the Secretary-General func- on. wanting to save the succeeding gen- occurred on the 38th floor of the UN tioned, he pointed out that contrary to These were now taken for granted, erations from the scourge of war (where the offices of the Secretary- popular belief, international institutions but it was almost impossible to imag- and to promote human rights and for co-operation between States (such ine in today’s world that a letter posted economic development...” Thank you, Rotary! as the United Nations) had existed for in one part of the world reached an- Clearly, it was an idealistic Charter, r. Kishore Mandhyan, the a very long time and were not recent other remote part safe, secure, un- based upon co-operation among States Mguest speaker at the last meet- phenomena. In ancient Greece, the con- opened and within a certain time pe- and the Secretary-General only at- ing, expressed his gratitude to Ro- test between Athens and Sparta, the riod. These norms and conventions tempted to facilitate that co-operation. tary which had enabled him to fulfil Hellenic leagues and the Peloponnesian were established by the ITU, the UPU That was the core of his work. his dream of an international career leagues, had managed the bilateral rela- and so on and formed the foundation (Continued on Page 2) through the Rotary Graduate Fellow- tions between the city-states. for the setting up of the new internet ship that he had received in 1976. These efforts were not very well and social networks regimes that were Forthcoming He had gone on to study abroad and developed, not very mature and rather popular today. Similar institutions also landed an excellent job with the primitive in form, but there was, none- helped identify and allocate “corridors” meetings United Nations. theless, the genesis of co-operation to international civil aviation organ- May 28, 2013 For the last five years he had among States. isations. Mr. Cyrus Broacha to speak. worked as the Political Director in If one fast-forwarded to 1815, just But, Mr. Mandhyan said, that order June 4, 2014 the Executive Office of the Secre- after the Napoleonic wars, there was collapsed in 1914. There emerged the PP Haresh Jagtiani to address the tary-General of the United Nations. the establishment of the Concert of League of Nations which could be issue of match-fixing, spot-fixing, “It’s great to say thank you to Europe which was an informal mecha- called the second generation of formal bookies and players in cricket and Rotary today. It’s wonderful that I nism for consultation amongst Euro- international institutions. It was a uni- whether the law has any role to play. have come full circle to say this in pean States of the time, to set the rules versal, general-purpose organisation. June 11, 2013 the very city in which I was born. of the game, to engage and to reduce Along with it came the International Mr. Ronnie Screwvala to address Besides, I am saying it in a room the outcomes of war which they had Labour Organisation. That was a pe- the Club. where I had my first date with my experienced for 25 years between 1789 riod of revolution in the former Soviet June 18, 2013 wife when she was 16 and I was 18. and 1815 after the deposition of the Union and the effort was to get labour To be announced. I had to take her to the best. So I monarchy in France. This was a big management and the States together in June 25, 2013 borrowed money from friends to change in the area of co-operation. creating a particular kind of order. Evening meeting, with Fellowship bring her here. And then, for almost 100 years be- The League of Nations didn’t last from 7 pm onwards. President “Thank you very much,” Mr. tween 1815 and 1914 when the First very long, because the Second World Nowroze Vazifdar to present his re- Mandhyan added. World War broke out, it was a period War was just round the corner and so port for the Rotary year 2012-13. ‘The UN is a complex web of organisations created by member States and overseen by the Secretary-General’ (Continued from Page 1) bly, it was a challenge for the Secre- tary-General was the Chief Adminis- Turning to the basic architecture, he Taking up the functional geography tary-General to coordinate their ac- trative Officer or the Chief Executive said the Secretariat had many depart- of the organisation, Mr. Mandhyan said tivities. of the UN. But some had posed the ments. These were the department of that in reality there was more than one In addition to the above, there was question, whether he was the Chair- political affairs, which he called the “in- UN; there were three UNs, like paral- an additional “adjunct” player, which man or the Managing Director. Or ternational state department”; and lel universes. comprised the permanent missions or both? Was he more secretary, or more the department of peace-keeping oper- The first and foremost was the core the ambassadors of the various coun- general, or was he a “secular Pope” ations, or the “international pentagon”, UN which consisted of the principal tries. These were extensions of the implementing a new Bible called the involved with peace and security. legislative organs, viz., the Security States, but because the permanent rep- UN Charter, the Blue Book? There was also the office of legal Council and the General Assembly. resentatives were always in New York, “These are questions that come up affairs, or the judicial arm of the Secre- While the Security Council functioned Geneva or Vienna (the three main from time to time in debates surround- tariat. These were some of the depart- “like some form of Senate with the places where the UN worked out of), ing the role of the Secretary-General. ments, but there were many others powerful nations ensconced in it”, in they more or less participated in the The UN is a living institution, a work dealing with humanitarian, economic, the General Assembly the principle of day-to-day decision-making processes in progress, so that each time new social and other issues. To coordinate equality was well established, where of the organisation. norms are developed, the old ones all these, to have them followed through one nation had one vote. The other or- Key issues in this area, said Mr. metamorphose and a new dialectic and to bring up issues from the ground gans, the economic and social councils, Mandhyan, were the interests of emerges.” was an important aspect of the Secre- dealt with socio-economic issues. The States, the norms they supported, how Another aspect of the terms of ref- tary-General’s work. He also had to International Court of Justice in The they collaborated, the give and take in- erence of the Secretary-General was make decisions on policy.