[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5779-S5780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ANNIVERSARY OF THE U.N. CHARTER

  Mr. GRAMS. Madam President, fifty-five years ago, the members of the 
United Nation's founding delegation met in San Francisco for the 
signing ceremony that created the U.N. There was great anticipation and 
a collective enthusiasm for this new, global institution. Delegates 
spoke of hope, of expectation, of the promise of peace. President 
Truman echoed the thoughts of those founding members when he told the 
delegates they had, ``created a great instrument for peace and security 
and human progress in the world.'' Fifty-five years later, the United 
Nations is struggling to meet its potential.
  As Chairman of the International Operations Subcommittee which has 
U.N. oversight responsibilities and having been appointed by the 
President to

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serve two terms as a Congressional Delegate to the U.N., I have focused 
significant attention on the United Nations. On the anniversary of the 
signing of the U.N. Charter, I think it is appropriate to take time for 
us all to reflect on that important institution.
  The U.N. is making headway in implementing reforms, and I believe 
that is due in a large part to the efforts of the U.S. Congress. 
According to GAO, the U.N. has made substantial progress in 
restructuring its leadership and operations. It has also created a 
performance-oriented human capital system. Unfortunately, however, 
there is no system in place within the U.N. to monitor and evaluate 
program results and impact. In other words, the U.N. undertakes 
numerous activities on social, economic, and political affairs, but the 
Secretariat cannot reliably assess whether these activities have made a 
difference in people's lives and whether they have improved situations 
in a measurable way. I look forward to working with the U.N. to make 
sure in the future it will not just believe it is contributing to 
positive change, it will know it is doing so. As Secretary-General 
Annan noted, ``a reformed United Nations will be a more relevant United 
Nations in the eyes of the world.''
  In the area of peacekeeping, the U.N. is clearly in crisis because 
many countries, including the U.S., keep calling on the U.N. to take on 
missions it is not capable of fulfilling. The U.N. can play a useful 
role in building coalitions to address matters of international 
security, as we saw in the Persian Gulf War. Moreover, the U.N. has the 
ability to effectively conduct traditional peacekeeping operations, 
such as those in Cyprus and the Sinai Peninsula. Unlike NATO and other 
regional military forces, however, the U.N. is only successful when it 
takes on limited missions where a political settlement has already been 
reached, hostilities have ceased, and all parties agree to the U.N. 
peacekeeping role. The U.S. must be careful not to set up the U.N. for 
failure. We risk ruining the U.N.'s credibility if we insist on a more 
robust peace making role for U.N. forces. In Sierra Leone, a feel-good 
U.N. operation with no impact on keeping civilians safe and with 
``peacekeepers'' held as hostages sounds a lot like a replay of U.N. 
forces in Bosnia. I had hoped the U.N. learned its lessons since that 
terrible time.
  As we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter, 
we should celebrate the success of the U.N. without turning a blind eye 
to its failings. We should recommit ourselves to making sure the U.N. 
continues to reform. We should make sure our nation doesn't push the 
U.N. to do more than it can do effectively. If we do nothing, and in 
fifty-five more years the United Nations collapses under its own 
weight, then we will have only ourselves to blame.

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