U.S Panel backs U.N. Reform

In the June 13 front page article of the New York Times entitled, “U.S. Panel's Report Criticizes U.N. and Proposes Overhaul,” correspondent Warran Hoge reports on a congressionally mandated panel’s recommendations for UN reform. The Gingrich/ Mitchell panel calls on “The United Nations...” (to) “…put in place corporate style oversight bodies and personnel standards to improve performance,” and “calls on the United Nations to create a rapid reaction capability from its member states' armed forces to prevent genocide, mass killing and sustained major human rights violations before they occur.”

The panel endorsed Mr. Annan's call for a new Human Rights Council. It said that its members be ‘ideally composed from democracies." It also urged “the creation of a new position of ambassadorial rank in the United States mission with the responsibility of helping to organize a caucus of democracies within the United Nations and of promoting the extension of democratic rights throughout the member states.”