UN System, Regional Cooperation

and the SAARC

(with reference to Nepal’s role)

Madhu Raman Acharya

 UN Backgrounder
• UN – not equal to world government, no “supra-national”
organization, part of global governance
• UN-product of collective will of nation states, not just its
organs and systems which carry the UN logo
• Founded (1945) by victors after World War II- their values
• Experience of failure of League of Nations
• “Enemy state” clauses yet to be removed

• “Parliament of Man”- Paul Kennedy (2006)

• Most representative organization- 193 members
Founded to (according to UN preamble):

– Save succeeding generations from the scourge of wars;

– Reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights;
– Respect for international law;
– Social progress and better standards of life
 UN objectives

• To keep peace throughout the world;

• To develop friendly relations among nations;
• To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor
people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to
encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;
• To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to
achieve these goals
 UN Charter Principles

• Sovereign equality of members states

• Non-interference in the domestic affairs
• Peaceful settlement of disputes
• Non-use of threat or force, except for “collective
security”
 UN System
• Six Main organs of the UN
– General Assembly/ Six main committees/ Subsidiary
bodies
– Security Council
– Economic and Social Council /Subsidiary bodies and
commissions
– International Court of Justice
– Secretariat
– Trusteeship Council (defunct)
• Agencies, Funds and Programmes
– WHO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, Brettonwoods Institutions, etc
 General Assembly
• Four main functions
– Deliberative

– Representative
– Decision making
– Legislative

• President, Vice-Presidents and Six Main Committees

• Many Subsidiary bodies
• Too many resolutions/mandates

• Lack of implementing capability

 Security Council
• Main responsibility- “international peace and security”
• Has enforcement capacity- binding to other member states
• Permanent members with “veto powers” control its actions
• political differences - sources of deadlock

• Encroaching legislative authority of the General Assembly

• Representative structure -not reflective of realities

• Non-transparent working methods

• Inability to act in many situations

• implement protection of civilians” and “responsibility to protect”
– selective use (Libya, Syria)
 ECOSOC
• Focussed on economic and social development agenda- e.g.
Millennium Development Goals
• President, 54 members elected from GA
• Too many subsidiary bodies, committees, commissions,
regional commissions,
• Duplication with agencies, funds and programmes
• Many decisions unimplemented
 The Secretariat
• Headed by the Secretary-General- elected by the General
Assembly and the Security Council
• “International civil servants”- all appointed by the Secretary-
General, under GA resolutions
• Lack of system of hearing of senior officials / lack of
transparency in appointment
• Weak geographical representation (weaker in senior levels)

• Still away from gender-balance

 International Court of Justice

• Principal judicial organ of the UN– 15 judges

• Lost relevance after creation of the International Criminal
Court and the tendency to appoint separate tribunals
• Acts when referred to by member states (contentious cases)
or by a UN body (advisory opinion)
• Not too many issues referred to it – only 155 cases so far

• Slow decision-making (rare example Kosovo)

 Trusteeship Council

• Created to administer the “trust territories” – under

permanent members until their self-governance
• Not in operation since 1994- when Palau became the last
trust territory to become independent
 Thematic pillars of the UN

• Peace and security

• Development
• Human Rights
• Humanitarian affairs
• International law
 UN’s successes
•No third world war- UN was created to wars

•Decolonization/ Ending racial discrimination

•Conflict resolution/ innovation of peacekeeping

•International treaties / international law

•Human rights mechanisms

•Humanitarian roles/ support to refugees, disasters

•Development agenda – e.g. MDGs

•Global agreement on important agenda through international

conferences
 UN’s assets

• Good offices/ preventive diplomacy roles

• Conflict resolution capacity
• Humanitarian network
• Development agencies

• Human rights mechanisms

• Universality
• Impartiality
 UN Peacekeeping
• Charter does not provide for peacekeeping concept
• between peaceful settlement of disputes (Chapter Six) and
use of force (Chapter Seven)
• Expanding concept- truce monitoring to peacebuilding-
expanding roles in elections, rule of law, etc.
• Too big (nearly 100,000 peacekeepers in 16 missions)
• Principles being undermined–
– Impartiality
– consent of parties
– non-use of force except for self defence or defense of the mandate
– doctrinal challenges
 Peacekeeping…
• Problem of enforcement mandate under Chapter VII and the
consent of the member state (e.g. Darfur)
• Lack of political direction, often guided by big power
interests, and weak on enforcement mandates
• Deployed in places where there is “no peace to keep”
• Brahimi Report 2000/ New Horizons Report 2008
• Protection mandate requires use of force, which is very
restricted under existing mandates and rules of engagement
 UN’s budget and financing

• Regular budget biennial/ Peacekeeping –annual

• “Assessed contributions”/
• Scale of assessment- ceiling and floor rates
• “Ability to pay” principle
• US (22%), Japan (10.8%, 2013), Nepal (less than 1%)
• Fifth Committee-
• Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary
Questions (ACABQ) – mandatory consultation on all issues
• Voluntary contributions
 UN Funds, Programmes, Agencies
• Nepal’s role in the funds and programmes –neglected
• Focus on candidacy but not on programmes
• one-UN agenda and system wide coherence
• UNDAF process- aligning UN with national priorities
• Need to focus on development agenda
 Groups in the UN

• Regional groups
• Group of 77 and China
• Non-aligned Movement
• LDCs

• LLDCs
• SIDS
• Small states

• Troop-contributing countries
 UN’s current issues

• Post-2015 Development agenda, post MDGs

• Negotiation of Sustainable Development Goals (balancing
environment, equity and economy)
• Reforms / expansion of the Security Council
• Peacekeeping missions- linkage to peacebuilding and
development/ robust and unmanageable
• Implementation of “responsibility to protect”
 UN’s problems
• Too much structural differentiation too big to manage

• Bureaucratic inefficiency and waste

• Too many resolutions- on too many subjects from domestic
conflicts to outer space
• Non implementation of its own decisions
• “Blind man touching an elephant” – too many things
• Proliferation of development agencies /Alphabet soup-
• Many setbacks and disappointments (e.g. Rwanda,
Srebrenica, Syria)
 UN’s problems…

•Too little, too late (slow response to crises)

•Called as the last resort by big power, regional powers

•Tarnished reputation (“working for big powers”, ineffective to
solve major crises, unable to adapt to changing circumstances)
•Weak accountability mechanism
•Recent failures (Syria, stalled trade negotiations, etc)
•Flawed, but necessary (cheaper e.g. peacekeeping)
 UN reforms
• UN at 70: needs reforms
• Necessity to reflect the changed circumstances (51 members to
193)
• Expansion of security council in permanent and non-permanent
categories
• Transparent working methods
• Revitalization of the General Assembly- reducing mandates,
implementing its decisions
• Democratization of the UN system
 Nepal in the UN
• UN membership (1955) -new political identity
• Charter principles guiding the foreign policy- constitutional
provision
• Forum for articulating positions on international issues
• Partner in UN’s major achievements- e.g. peacekeeping

• Party to several international treaties and conventions

 Nepal in the UN…

•Beneficiary of development agenda- funds and programmes Role in

major UN Conferences

•Assumed elected responsibilities at UN at different levels

•UN’s role in Nepal’s internal conflict (UNMIN experience)

•Strong supporter of UN’s reforms

•Utilization of UN as platform for multilateral diplomacy

•Reaching out to the world through the UN

 Enhancing Nepal’s role at the UN

• Revamp multilateral diplomacy

• Multilateral negotiation skills to experts/ expert skills to diplomats

• Improve candidacy in UN system

• Push to increase Nepali officials in the UN

• Focus on issues of comparative advantage

– peacekeeping role

– LDC/ LLDCs
– Development agenda
Thank You

Q&A
 Regional Cooperation
• Political imperatives-

– working in groups is better than working individually

– common regional identity

– Common threats
– Common opportunities
– Common interests against other groups
 Regional Cooperation
•Economic imperatives-

–High cost of non-cooperation

–Regional economic integration

–Regional cooperation by compulsion, not by choice

–To increase intra-regional trade and investment

–Growth cannot take place in isolation

–Rationale of efficiency and equity

 Why Regional Cooperation ?
• Growing focus on regions and regional diplomacy
• Shifting balance power toward the developing countries-
towards Asia
• Rise of regional economic grouping and trading blocs
• Rise of interdependence/ globalization

• Economic integration
 Progressive stages of regional economic
integration

• Regional Association
• Free Trade Area
• Customs Union

• Monetary Union
• Common Market
• Economic Union
 South Asia: Not so easy region

• Historical baggage (painful experiences of partition);

• Asymmetry; overwhelming prescience of India in the region,
80% of GDP in SAARC region
• Competition for regional leadership
• States of crisis (economic, governance, political or ecological,
poverty, terror)
• Low intra-regional trade
• Fragmented networks (smoother 60years ago)
 SAARC Structure
• Membership- 8 countries including Afghanistan
• Charter Bodies
– Summit- highest decision-making body
– Council of Ministers- foreign ministers
– Standing Committee –foreign secretaries
– Technical committees (Integrated Programme of Action)
• Programming committee (not a Charter body)
• Ministerial Meetings on specific subjects
 SAARC Structure..
• Secretariat- Secretary General (not mentioned in the
Charter), Directors from each member state
• Working groups
• Regional Centres-
• SAARC Apex Bodies and recognized bodies
 SAARC Structure: Observers
• Australia
• China
• European Union
• Iran
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Mauritius
• Myanmar
• USA

– (no clear role for observers yet)

 SAARC Funding mechanism
•Contributions (India 30%, Pakistan 22%, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka 10%, others 5%)

•Meeting costs- host government and member governments

•Contribution by member states for specific activities

•South Asian Development Fund -($ 300 million)

•Three windows-
–Social window
–Infrastructure window (not active yet)
–Economic window (not active yet)
 SAARC Achievements
• Meetings of leaders during summit (India-Pak dialogue)
• Trade pact: SAFTA
• SAARC Social Charter/ Democracy Charter

• Signing of regional conventions :

– Trafficking in women and children
– Promotion of welfare of children
– Mutual Assistance on criminal matters
– Convention on Narcotic Drugs
– Convention on suppression of terrorism
– Additional protocol on terrorism
 SAARC Achievements ..

• Signing of various regional agreements:

– Agreement on SAARC Arbitration Council

– SAARC Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation

– SAARC Agreement on Customs Matters
– Agreement on SAARC Food Bank
– Agreement on South Asian Regional Standards Organization

– Framework agreement for energy cooperation (electricity)

 Issues at stake in the region
(Areas of cooperation)
Poverty reduction Economic (Trade and investment)
Security Aspects Energy
Environment Agriculture and Rural
Biotechnology Funding Mechanism
Tourism Science and Technology
Social Development People-to-people contacts
Information/ commn Finance
EducationCulture
• (migration added in 2014 declaration)
 Poverty alleviation:
– accepted as overarching goal of SAARC
– Excellent reports, no implementation
• SAARC Regional Poverty Profile
• Independent Commission on Poverty Alleviation report
– SAARC Development Goals
– Reduction in poverty in the region not linked to SAARC
activities
– Two- Tier Mechanism (secretaries and ministers)- earlier
three tier mechanism
 Trade and Investment
–SAFTA agreement, low intra-regional trade (5%)
–Sensitive lists/ rules origin issues
–Cooperation on standards, SAARC arbitration council
–Agreement on avoidance of double taxation
–Non Tariff Barriers (still there)
–Weak trade facilitation measures under SAFTA
–SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services (SATIS)- yet to come to effect
–Special and Preferential treatment to the LDCs
•Longer periods to reduce sensitive list
•Revenue compensation mechanism
–Proposed SAARC Investment Protection Agreement
 Energy Issues

– Issues related to oil, gas, pipelines, transmission lines,

hydropower development etc
– Energy crunch (existence of market and potential)
– Need regional agreement on energy trade and
establishment of regional energy grids
– Technical committee on energy issues
– Meeting of Energy Ministers
– SAARC Energy cooperation agreement 2014
 Environment
– Includes cooperation on natural disasters and climate
change
– Melting of glaciers, rise of sea levels
– Action Plan on Climate Change (2008)
– SAARC agreement on disaster response (could not be
activated in Nepal earthquake- non-ratification by one
member state)
– Technical Committee on Environment
– SAARC Disaster Management Centre, New Delhi
– SAARC Coastal Management Centre, Maldives
– SAARC Forestry Centre, Bhutan
– SAARC Meteorological Research Centre, Bangladesh
– Decision to merge the environment-related centres (2014)
 Security Issues
– Signing of SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism
(1987) and its additional Protocol
– SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances
– Cooperation on Drug Law enforcement
– SAARC Police matters, home ministers’ meeting
 Agriculture

– All countries have high dependence upon agriculture

– Food security
– SAARC Food Bank (each country required to keep storage)
– SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka

– Technical Committee on this subject

 Other Issues
Education
• South Asian University

• SAARC Chairs and Fellowships

• SAARC Human Resources Development Centre, Islamabad

• Technical Committee on Human Resources Development

Tourism
• Technical Committee on Tourism

• Tourism ministers’ meeting

• Circuit tourism
 Other issues
Social Development
• Social Charter
• SAARC Conventions (trafficking, child rights protection)

• Social window of the SDF activated

People-to-people contacts
• Visa exemption regime (restricted to a few categories)
 SAARC Problems..
• Restrictive Charter Provisions

– Decision by consensus only

– Exclusion on bilateral and contentious issues
• No tangible benefits to people
• Unrealistic goals and targets

• Proliferation of meetings and organizations

• Expanding rather than deepening cooperation
 SAARC problems
• Little integration, intra-regional trade only 5%
• Least connected (fragmented networks)- poor air
connectivity
• Mistrust/ rivalries

• Postponements- 18 summits in 29 years

• Obsession with dealing things bilaterally
 SAARC Problems

• Asymmetry among members (India 80% of GDP)

• India-centric region

• Slow progress in core economic cooperation- e.g.

SAFTA- sensitive lists, rules of origin, non-tariff barriers
• Non-implementation/ ineffective decisions
 SAARC problems..
• Proliferation of meetings and organizations
• Inability to utilize available funding
• Government-centric (MOFA-centric) organization

• Focus on ceremonial and formal proceedings

• Weak cooperation with other regional and inter-
governmental organizations
• Non-realization of cost of non-cooperation
 SAARC problems..
• Inability to utilize available funds (e.g. SDF)
• Peripheral issues excluding key matters/ failure to take up
hardcore economic issues
• Unclear role for observers

• Little connectivity and cooperation with other regions

• Crowding out of regional organizations (e.g. SAARC and
BIMSTEC have same 5 countries as members)
 SAARC Problems

• Weak institutional development

– Secretary-General not mentioned in the Charter
– Does not have a strong mandate
– Directors loyal to the sending governments on rotations

– Lack of permanent professional staff

– Proliferation of institutional mechanism
 SAARC Positive Sides

• Good network of institutions

• Accumulated experience of working together
• Acquaintance and camaraderie among officials
• produced Brilliants reports with excellent ideas, though
hardly implemented
 SAARC: Road ahead..

• Starting political dialogue- economic cooperation cannot

progress without that
• Expanding informal discussion on political issues
• Revisit the restrictive Charter provisions
• Focus on core economic issues/ not soft ones

• Regional projects with SAARC identity

 SAARC: Road ahead
• SAFTA implementation- reducing sensitive lists, rules of origin hurdles,
benefitting from special treatment to LDCs
• Eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers
• Finalize key agreements under negotiations
– Trade in Services-
– Investment agreement
– Regional transport agreement
• Start negotiations on new regional agreements
– Regional power trading agreement
– Establishment of Regional Energy Grid
– Regional Transit Agreement
 SAARC road ahead…

• Clarify role for observers/ Dialogue Partners

• Plan of Action for implementation
• Implementation of studies and reports
– Group of Eminent Persons
– SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study
– SAARC Poverty Commission reports
– SAARC Social Charter
 SAARC: Road ahead

• Expanding informal discussion on political issues

• Implement a roadmap towards South Asia Economic Union
• Make SAARC more businesslike and results-oriented,
• Learning from other regional blocs (ASEAN, EU)- negative as
well as positive experiences
– ASEAN discusses defense and security- internal matter
(e.g. Myanmar), bilateral (e.g. Thai-Cambodia border),
and regional security issues (e.g. South China Sea)
– EU- monetary union without financial structure
 SAARC: Road Ahead
• Start Sub-regional cooperation – specific projects in three
sub regions
– Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh (transport, transit,
transmission, gas pipelines, railways etc)
– Afghanistan-India-Pakistan (transit, transport, oil
pipelines
– Maldives, India, Sri Lanka (navigation, fisheries)
 SAARC: Some suggestions
• Learning from other regional blocs (ASEAN, EU)- negative as
well as positive experiences
– ASEAN discusses defense and security- internal matter
(e.g. Myanmar), bilateral (e.g. Thai-Cambodia border),
and regional security issues (e.g. South China Sea)
– EU- monetary union without financial structure
• Broaden inter-regional cooperation and connectivity

• Engage the Track Two and adopt ideas from the “People’s
SAARC”
 SAARC Some suggestions..

• Strengthen the institutional mechanism

– Clarify the mandate of the Secretary-General
– Appoint a Deputy Secretary General
– Appoint Directors professionally on a permanent basis
and on geographical quota
– Introduce the system of SAARC Permanent
Representatives
– Establish informal groups of SAARC Ambassadors in
regional hubs
– Review institutional mechanism- merge or scrap some
regional organizations
 SAARC : Some suggestions
• Plan of Action for implementation for each agenda item or
decision make (accountability for implementation, who,
when, what and how)
• Clarify role for observers and upgrade them to dialogue
Partners
Evolving Possible positive principles
– Sincerity and fair play of all players;
– Necessity of value addition to the bilateral efforts from the
collective efforts for economic integration;
– Mutuality of benefits and creation of win-win formulae;

– Direct benefit to the people;

– Popular support (near consensus) to policies adopted;
– Sincere implementation of pledged policies and
programmes.
 New Opportunities
•Transformative opportunity

•Nepal as chair of SAARC/ BIMSTEC, also SG, Secretariat

•Rising strategic importance of South Asia;

•high growth rate/ propelled by India and China

•Improvements in Indo-Pak economic relations, MFN

•“Demographic dividend” (high percentage of youth);

•Soft power (civilization, Diaspora);

•Strong regional diplomacy : a new phenomenon

•India’s “neighbourhood first policy”: Modi factor

 Q&A

Thank You