The Great Game

It is a human right to control one's own destiny. Part of that right is the right to participate in the choosing of our representatives. I ask you then, when was the last time you voted for a Secretary-General of the United Nations? I believe that we, humans, must elect our highest representative, and I intend to describe how it can be done in a matter of a few short years.

A little background first, the secretary-general is currently chosen by the general assembly of the UN based on the recommendation of the security council. To this date the security council has always recommended a single person and the general assembly has always chosen this individual. The UN charter is ambiguous on this topic, saying that the security council recommends, the general assembly accepts the recommendation, and then chooses. By my reading this means the security council recommendation is automatically nominated for the position but the general assembly is free to choose as it sees fit.

How do we get past the security council and its five vetos? I don't think anyone imagines that America, China or France is willing to sit there and watch ordinary people choose the head of the UN. The answer is we don't. We ignore the irredeemable security council and focus on the general assembly. At this time there are 192 countries in the general assembly each with one vote. To elect a secretary-general we need 97 countries to support the popular choice. These can be any 97 countries (Tuvalu is worth the same as China and will be a lot easier to convince). What is needed a bloc of countries to decide to share an election, that is hold one election across the entire bloc, and then vote as a bloc to support the person chosen by this election. For example, Canada, Grenada and Turkey decide to participate in this election. Then one election is held where one vote in Canada equals one vote in Grenada equals one vote in Turkey. The person elected is now backed in the general assembly by three votes.

In this next paragraph I am going to talk about the steps we as individuals can take to get this to happen. First we need to tell people, and once we have told people then we need to tell some more. Keep pushing this idea. We have a strong message, “You have the right to vote for the UN Secretary-General.” Second, we need to demand this of our leaders. Letters to our members of parliament work as do calls, and stamping to the their offices in person are also effect. It is their job to listen to you, make them do their job. Third we need to connect to others that agree with us. Our voices are stronger united then alone. Let us roar so load that the earth trembles and another piece of liberty is won for every human on this planet.

# posted by Jacob @ 9/15/2006 07:27:00 p.m.