Leader of the Free World?

^{Category: International Human Rights}

Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.

Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's minister for foreign relations and trade, seems destined to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general of the United Nations. Although there is a very real danger of reading too much into candidates' backgrounds, the transition between the seventh and eighth U.N. secretaries-general may mirror the realities of the U.N.'s diminishing role as a human rights watchdog in the post-9/11 world.

While Annan's background centered on the World Health Organization and peacekeeping operations in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Ban Ki-moon is best known for his work on nuclear nonproliferation. As the former head of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, who has been working to create a nuclear-free Korean peninsula for almost two decades, he is particularly well-regarded as one of those rare diplomats who has actually had some success in negotiating with the North Korean leadership.

Have external realities forced the United Nations into a role where its primary objective is not to secure human rights, but rather to focus its attention on containing the ambitions of its more reckless member-states? It is certainly difficult to impose human rights sanctions on Iran and North Korea when the specter of elective U.S. war, and/or regional nuclearization, looms overhead.

Zoom to:

• Profile of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with Links and About.com Interview (Keith Porter / Globalization Issues)