From Newsgroup: alt.politics.org.un

B) Description of the model

I. Introduction

Global challenges and problems require global actions. The UN should be
the organization to manage them. To enable the UN to do so, three main obstacles are to overcome.

1. Insufficient financial resources:
Important tasks often are postponed or stopped due to lack of funds.
Money arrives, if ever, after lengthy donor conferences. When people
have already starved, the money will be wasted to money-grubbers.
Financing shall be improved by higher assessed contributions, incentives
to pay fully and in time (e.g. weighted voting rights), and integration
of non-state partners in a New Global Fund with enough capital to
support other bodies and advance money just in time when it's needed.

2. Difficult decision-making and lack of authority:
Most UN organs lack authority. The Charter must be revised to enable
essential organs to make binding decisions and to impose sanctions if necessary. Voting system must be changed to prevent abuse of authority.
A single person mustn't get too much power. In every system (included democracy) sometimes people not committed to public welfare gain power.
(Even Adolf Hitler came to power through a democratic election.)
Organs to which the Assembly doesn't want to grant authority should be
checked if they can be closed.
The Security Council, the only body with considerable authority at the
moment, has been designed in a way that decisions can be blocked or
watered down due to permanent members' right of veto. And political or financial pressure from strong and influential states on weak ones can
have the same effect, in the General Assembly as well. Therefore voting
rules should be changed to make it impossible to predict the result.
Nobody who wants to prevent or get through a decision shall know whom he
must put under pressure. This can be achieved by voting rights weighted
by a random factor. Such rules shall be introduced in every UN bodies.

3. Corruption:
Corruption seems to be a big problem in the UN (Sanjuan 2006: Die
UN-Gang). When more money comes, the problem will become even bigger.
Fighting corruption is essential. Therefore decisions shall be made by
several persons together, with voting rights fluctuating by a random
factor.

If reforms cannot be carried out, a new attractive organization should
be founded to compete with and gradually substitute the UN.


II. Membership, responsibility and decision-making in important organs
to reform

Unable to decide, which of the numerous UN bodies should be kept,
reformed or shut down, I content myself to make some suggestions
regarding selected organs which could make further reforms possible.


1. General Assembly

Membership:
Every present member may remain. A minimum population defined by the
General Assembly (e.g.: 1 Million inhabitants) shall be required for new members. Several states below this limit shall be allowed to get joined membership, given they exceed the limit together. Ethnic groups having
neither a state of their own nor equal civil rights in their host
countries shall be able to become members, provided they can name representatives supported by a majority and independent from other
members. A state or ethnic group which is under control of another one
and cannot make decisions shall not become a member. The General
Assembly shall decide about the admission to membership.

Voting and responsibility:
The General Assembly shall have the right to decide binding resolutions
and to impose sanctions. This shall apply to subjects handled by the
Security Council, too. In case of inconsistency with a decision of the Security Council, the most up to date decision shall be valid until the conflict is solved by a mediation committee or in a common session of GA
and SC.

The current principle one state one vote seems to be improper regarded
extreme different size of members. Moreover it's an incentive to
splitting states. Most of all the principle involves the danger that
rich and powerful members influence the vote putting pressure or
offering benefits to weak and tiny members. On the other hand heavy
weighting of population would lead to dominance of a few big countries
and could motivate dictators to increase their power by promoting insane population growth. Therefore voting rights shall be weighted by
population to a very moderate extent.

Voting rights shall depend on fulfilling obligations, particularly
paying contributions and observing resolutions. In addition each
member's voting right shall fluctuate by a random factor to decrease the influence of buying or extorting votes.

So the following procedure of weighting votes is proposed:

First: Every year voting rights are calculated for each member according
to a formula like this:

Voting right = cubic_root(Pop) * PaymentQuota * Compliance

with:
Pop = Population
PaymentQuota = Paid contributions divided by assessed contributions
[3 recent years]
Compliance = Degree of commitment to UN resolutions
[normally = 1,
may be decreased to 0 in steps of 0,1 by decision of Security Council due to severe violations]

Second: After voting each member draws a random number to multiply with
the voting right:

Weighted Voting right = Voting right * Random[range]

with:
Random = random number drawn after voting
range = defined range of random numbers

The range should be defined by the General Assembly on the
recommendation of experts. In the Assembly a broader range (compared to
the Security Council) should be chosen to enable sufficient fluctuations despite big number of members.
preliminary proposed values:
lower limit = 0.2
upper limit = 5.0

Decisions on not binding resolutions shall be made by simple majority of weighted votes.
Binding resolutions and sanctions shall be made by a two-thirds majority
of weighted votes.
When decisions are made on resolutions on military conflicts or crime
against humanity, members involved in the conflict (directly or
supporting) shall have no right to vote.
The election of members of the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies shall need two-thirds of weighted votes.
Admission of new members shall need two-thirds of weighted votes.
Expulsion of members shall need a majority of both two-thirds of
weighted votes and two-thirds of votes without weighting by random-factor.
The General Assembly shall be authorized to amend or revise the Charter
by a majority of both two-thirds of weighted votes and two-thirds of
votes without weighting by random-factor.


2. Security Council

Membership:
The Security Council should be enlarged moderately to, say, 24 members,
12 of them permanent, to both include a great part of the world and stay
able to act fast.

The non-permanent members shall be elected by the General Assembly. The Assembly shall elect deputies, too, which shall decide on military
conflicts or crime against humanity, as members involved (directly or supporting) shall have no right to vote.

Voting rules:
The right of veto (according article 27,3 in the Charter votes of the permanent members must concur), by which important decisions can be
blocked or watered down, shall be abolished. Instead voting rights shall
be weighted with regard to the members' importance and paying habits
according to a formula like this:

Voting right = ImportanceFactor * PaymentQuota

with:
ImportanceFactor = to be defined by the General Assembly for each member
[proposed preliminary values:
= 1 for non-permanent membership
= 2 for new permanent members
= 3 for the five current permanent members]
PaymentQuota = Paid contributions divided by assessed contributions
[3 recent years]

After voting each member draws a random number to multiply with the
voting right:

Weighted Voting right = Voting right * Random[range]

with:
Random = random number drawn after voting
range = defined range of random numbers

The range should be defined by the General Assembly on the
recommendation of experts. In the Security Council a narrower range
(compared to the General Assembly) should be chosen to prevent too high fluctuations due to small number of members.
preliminary proposed values:
lower limit = 0.5
upper limit = 2.0

The Security Council shall have the right to send PTF (Permanent Task
Force) to any place in the world to secure peace and to prevent or stop
crime against humanity, even against the will of a state.
When a decision, e.g. a resolution on sanctions against a state, is detrimental to other countries, compensations should be paid, if
possible. This shall not apply in case of lost profits from selling
weapons.


3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

The Economic and Social Council shall get additional responsibilities.
In cooperation with UNEP the Economic and Social Council shall be
concerned with environmental question, too. ECOSOC shall be authorized
to make binding decisions. It shall define regulations and standards
and, if necessary, impose sanctions to stop economic or social
exploitation, severe violation of fair competition or damage to the environment or biodiversity. If necessary, ECOSOC shall invoke the International Court of Justice to settle disputes and propose
compensations.

Petitions: ECOSOC shall be concerned with petitions. Citizens shall be
allowed to bring petitions to an ECOSOC committee. When a petition is supported by a great number of people from many countries (a quorum
shall be defined by the Council, say, at least each 0.1 % of the
inhabitants of at least 10 % member states), ECOSOC shall discuss the
subject and, if reasonable, make decisions or, if necessary, invoke the Security Council or the General Assembly.

Membership:
Members are elected by the General Assembly. Eligible shall be states
only which have their assessed contributions completely paid and have
not been bankrupt within previous 5 years. This should prevent states
with poor budget management from abusing the ECOSOC to fill their
pockets on cost of other states.

Voting:
Each member has one vote.
After voting each vote is multiplied by a random factor:

Weighted Voting right = Voting right * Random[range]

with:
Random = random number drawn after voting
range = defined range of random numbers

The range should be defined by the General Assembly on the
recommendation of experts. It should be narrower than in the Security
Council and wider than in the General Assembly, so that the random
factor is effective without causing too high fluctuations.
preliminary proposed values:
lower limit = 0.3
upper limit = 3.0


4. International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice shall decide not only on complaints
and disputes between states. The Court should have authority to punish
states, companies, organizations and private persons breaking
international law. Judges shall be elected by the General Assembly and Security Council with regard to the rules for staff in paragraph V (see below).


5. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Because of growing environmental problems UNEP shall be provided with
more staff and financial resources and shall have greater responsibility.
UNEP shall define environmental standards which entitle states to impose duties on goods from countries not observing the rules. (If this
contradicts WTO regulations, WTO must be reformed as well.)
UNEP shall be authorized to call in PTF (Permanent Task Force, see
paragraph III) to take actions against severe environmental crimes or
breaking international treaties such as CITES.


6. World Health Organization (WHO)

Supply of financial resources to the WHO shall be improved to reduce dependence on donors that sometimes have interests of their own and to
ensure that drugs and vaccines considered essential can be supplied at reasonable prices all over the world. WHO shall be able to get hold of licences and production facilities, if necessary.


III. New institutions to be founded

1. GRIPRO (Global Risk Identification, Prevention and Response Office)

A new UN organ preliminarily called GRIPRO (Global Risk Identification, Prevention and Response Office) shall be founded which is determined to
early identify, prevent and fight global risks.
GRIPRO shall be installed by the General Assembly and shall report to
the Assembly as well. However, GRIPRO shall be authorized to make short
term decisions of its own. On GRIPRO's recommendation the General
Assembly determines, which threats are to be considered of vital
importance and have to be fought by GRIPRO (e.g. weapons of mass
destruction, pathogens as biological weapons, terrorism, climate change, refugees, cosmic impact).
GRIPRO shall be managed in charge of a board of directors working
together. The directors should come from different fields. All bodies of
the UN may propose candidates. The General Assembly shall elect
(according to the rules in chapter V, see below) 12 directors who shall
serve up to 12 years. They shall be committed to the welfare of all
humankind, not to their home countries or the organization by which they
have been nominated. If a director breaches his duty severely, he can be fired.
In the first period the board of directors shall be unchanged for four
years, if possible. After that, every year one board member shall be
replaced by a new elected one. Re-election shall not be allowed, so that directors' decisions will not be influenced by re-election prospects.
Retired directors shall be offered an unlimited contract to work
unlimited with GIPRO as experts and advisers of the new directors. So
they need not look for a future job while serving as directors and their knowledge and experience can be useful.

GRIPRO shall be involved in prevention against disasters as well as
relief and search for new places for people from areas which have become inhabitable.

Decision making:
The board of director shall make decision on important topics together.
Each member has one vote.

After voting each vote is multiplied by a random factor:

Weighted Voting right = Voting right * Random[range]

with:
Random = random number drawn after voting
range = defined range of random numbers

The range should be defined by the General Assembly on the
recommendation of experts. It should be narrow, so that the random
factor will not cause too high fluctuations.
preliminary proposed values:
lower limit = 0.7
upper limit = 1.5

GRIPRO should be given authority to make binding decisions and impose sanctions, even against non-member states, as threats may be existential
to all humankind.
As a reform of the UN which grants such an extent of responsibility to
GRIPRO will no be implemented within short time, as a first step GRIPRO
should not make binding decisions, but call in the Security Council or
the General Assembly to decide.

GRIPRO must be able to gather information and data needed to complete
its tasks. GRIPRO shall be allowed to send observers to any country.
Staff from GRIPRO shall have diplomatic immunity in their host country; however, they shall be under the jurisdiction of the Internal UN-Court
of Justice (see below in chapter 4). Host countries can call the
Internal UN Court to charge persons who abuse their mission to do
illegal activities. (This shall apply not only to GIPRO, but to any UN
staff.)

GRIPRO shall call PTF (Permanent Task Force, see below in chapter 5) to
tackle urgent threats, e.g. to counter terrorism. Later the Security
Council shall approve enduring missions, if necessary. When measures
cause hardships to innocent persons or public or private entities, compensations shall be offered as far as possible.


2. NGF: New Global Fund

A new independent organisation related to the UN, preliminarily called
New Global Fund, shall be founded with the intention to make the UN and
their bodies and projects financially more flexible and capable of
acting and to keep a reserve to be used in case of global emergency.

The New Global Fund shall build a stock of money, from which it can
offer loans or subsidies to UN organs up to a defined portion of the
stock. So organizations can respond fast and flexible to challenges
without wasting time searching for funds.

The NGF shall be connected to the UN; however, it shall be managed independently, so that private persons can take share.

The NGF shall not manage or substitute the UN budget. It shall
substitute neither the Central Emergency Response Fund nor the
International Fund for Agricultural Development. It can, however
subsidize them or help to overcome short term financial shortages. As a
long term prospective, the New Global Fund could decide to provide funds
to states or private organizations and so substitute IMF and Word Bank.

The NGF shall provide funds to organs only which are committed to fight corruption. Otherwise the money could promote criminal networks and so
cause harm rather than benefit (see: Chayes, Sarah 2017: When Corruption
is the Operating System).

Membership:
The Global Fund is open to anyone (state, organization, company,
association or private person) to become a member by buying at least one share, provided it is independent from any other member. Preliminary
share price shall be 1 Billion US $; share price can be changed by the founding members. NGOs which cannot afford this sum of money, may
develop models to pool money from their members and friends in order to
become a member altogether. The UNO and its organs can become member,
though they are not independent from other members. All other entities
shall be checked for independence from other members by an expert
committee before being allowed to become members buying share(s).
Previous members decide on admission to membership.

At any time additional shares can be bought from the New Global Fund.
The prospective buyer makes a bid and the assembly of members decides to accept the price or not. Shares can be sold back to the fund at any time
as well, provided enough money is available. The prospective seller
proposes the price and the assembly votes on it. The seller may vote
with voting rights from the shares he will hold after the sale only.

Financing:
The New Global Fund shall work with its own capital only. It mustn't
take out loans. The New Global Fund gets capital stocks from members
buying shares. Moreover the fund can gain income from donations and from capital (interest from loans and profits from investment).

Decision making:
Voting rights shall depend on shares; however, to a very limited degree (square root of shares) in order to prevent dominance or even takeover
by big investors. To prevent a big investor from avoiding the square
root effect by splitting into multiple membership and so gaining more influence, members must be independent from each other (see above: Membership).

Voting right = square_root(Shares)

with: Shares = number of shares

After voting each vote is multiplied by a random factor:

Weighted Voting right = Voting right * Random[range]

with:
Random = random number drawn after voting
range = defined range of random numbers

The range should be defined by the founding members on the
recommendation of experts. It should be narrow, so that the random
factor will not cause too high fluctuations. Definition could be
problematic because of variable number of members and shares.

preliminary proposed values:
lower limit = 0.7
upper limit = 1.5

Additional rule: No weighted vote shall exceed a defined maximum, say,
25 %.

Decisions on the admission of new members, on buying or selling shares
and on offering loans or subsidies up to a defined portion of the funds capital, say 5 %, shall be made by simple majority of weighted votes.
Payments above this limit shall require a two-thirds majority of
weighted votes. Payments which would bring the stock of capital below a defined limit of, say, 50 % shall only be possible in case of global
emergency declared by UN Secretary-General or Security Council. This
rule shall safeguard that funds will not have been spent yet, as an
extreme case (such as nuclear war, outbreak of a super virus, or cosmic impact) might happen.

Founding members shall decide on these rules. Changing the rules shall
require a two-thirds majority of members' votes both with and without weighting by random factor.


3. Internal UN-Police

A new organ, provisionally called Internal UN-Police, shall be founded.
The Internal UN-Police shall protect UN staff and offices from attacks;
and they shall prevent and investigate misconduct and crime committed by
UN staff. They shall report to the Secretary-General. They shall perform
tasks set by the Internal UN-Court of Justice (see below), too. The
Internal UN-Police shall ask local police for support, when useful.


4. Internal UN-Court of Justice

A new organ, peliminarily called Internal UN-Court of Justice shall
settle disputes within the UN and judge UN staff and bodies violating
rules or committing crime. All UN staff and organs shall be under the jurisdiction of the Internal UN-Court of Justice.
The Court shall act when it is called in by another organ or when it
learns of severe break of rules.
The Court shall judge according to a 'UN Penal Code' and a 'UN Official
Duty Code' which are to be designed by the Secretariat (OIOS and/or OLA)
on behalf of the Secretary-General and the General Assembly.
The Internal UN-Court of Justice shall not be subordinate to another
organ, the Court can judge anybody. Court staff violating rules shall be judged and punished by the Court, particularly in case of corruption.
All UN staff shall be committed to report severe break of rules or
criminal activities (particularly corruption and abuse of power) to the
Court. All staff shall have the right to notify the Court about
colleagues not doing their jobs. Every country shall have the right to
notify the Court about UN staff committing crime. The Court shall check evidence and decide on punishment. There shall be a second instance to
appeal to.
The Court shall be supported by the UN Secretariat which shall host a
court in its offices, if possible.

Judges shall be named by the UN Secretariat and elected by the General Assembly in accordance with the rules in chapter V (see below). They
shall serve until retirement age, provided they have obeyed the rules.


5. PTF (Permanent Task Force)

Military and police troops shall form a permanent available Task Force
under control of the Security Council. The Permanent Task Force (PTF)
shall secure peace and fight terrorism, crime against humanity, illegal
arms and drugs trade, severe environmental crime and other severe
crimes. PTF shall be sent to wherever they are needed. They shall have
the right to arrest persons and bring them to justice and to seize
equipment, particularly weapons, which may be used to better equip PTF
or police following a court decision.


6. Cyber Security Programme

A new Cyber Security Programme subordinate to the Secretary-General
shall be founded to improve cyber security within the UN as well as in
the word wide web. The Cyber Security Programme shall search and publish security leaks and try to close them. It shall support the police clear
up crime.


IV. Financials

To fulfil growing functions and tasks the UN needs sufficient financial resources. Higher contributions shall increase revenues, economising
shall decrease expenditure. And a New Global Fund (see chapter III,2)
shall be founded to hold financial stocks and release them when needed
as loans or subsidies.

1. Increased revenues from contributions

Members have to pay contributions to the UN. In the current system
assessed contributions depend mainly on GDP and they are relatively low compared to voluntary contributions to individual organs or missions. Therefore there is not always enough money available to take necessary
actions in time. So it would be better to increase assessed
contribution, particularly from countries causing global costs by bad behaviour. I propose to include factors such as military expenditure,
emission of greenhouse gases etc. into the assessment.

Contributions shall be assessed by a formula like this:

Contribution [$] = (Pop * fPop + GDP * fGDP + MiB * fMiB + EFP * fEFP +
Risk * fRisk)

with:
Pop = Population
fPop = weighting factor, e.g.: 1 US $
GDP = Gross domestic product [$]
fGDP = weighting factor, e.g.: 0.001
MiB = Military budget [$]
fMiB = weighting factor, e.g.: 0.01
EFP = Environmental Footprint: Estimated costs [$] of environmental
damage caused by the country (CO2-emissions, production of nuclear
waste, deforestation, consumption of resources, trade with endangered
species etc.)
fEFP = weighting factor, e.g.: 0.005
Risk = Estimated costs [$] from other damages and risks caused by the
country (e.g. possession of weapons of mass destruction, production
and/or trade with arms, drugs, human beings)
fRisk = weighting factor, e.g.: 0.005

Parameter values shall be gathered by GRIPRO from up to date estimations
of experts. Appropriate values of weighting factors are to be proposed
by GRIPRO and confirmed by the General Assembly.

Moreover additional contributions to big missions shall be assessed to countries causing damages: Countries which have delivered weapons shall
pay for peacekeeping and relief missions and supplying refugees. And
countries emitting high amounts of greenhouse gases shall contribute to disaster, famine and refugee relief from storm, inundation and drought.


2. Economizing

Organizations or departments shall be shut down, when they are no more
useful, or put together, when it makes sense. This shall save money and improve efficiency.

Fighting corruption shall save money, too. The more revenue, the more important this will be.


3. New Global Fund

see chapter III,2


V. Personnel

To make an organization work properly, good staff is essential.

Applicants for a job shall be selected by qualification and not by home country or relationship to high ranking persons. A procedure like this
is proposed:

1. A committee shall be formed from all bodies related to the position.
2. Each committee member shall nominate up to three preferred applicants.
3. Scores derived from qualification (exams, experience, perhaps
aptitude test) shall be assigned to the applicants nominated in step 2.
4. Each committee member shall produce a subjective ranking list of the applicants nominated in step 2. Ranking numbers shall be multiplied by a random number. The results from every commission member shall be added
up to a score for each applicant.
5. If scores of three ore more applicants reach more than, say, 90 % of maximum score both in score tables form step 3 and step 4, lots shall be
drawn to find the winner. If not, the limit shall decrease in 5 % steps
until three or more applicants remain to draw lots. If the limit should
fall below a defined value, say 70 %, steps 3 to 5 shall be repeated.

High ranking staff shall be allowed to join a company they had to deal
with while serving the UN within recent, say, 5 years, no earlier than,
say, 5 years after retiring.


VI. Language and Communication

A new artificial language, which is so logical and easy, that it can be learned by average people from all nations within in a few weeks, shall
be official language of the UN and replace the current ones. This would
help to achieve equal participation of people with different origin. And
in the long term it would save time and money currently wasted for translation.

The new language shall be promoted and taught around the world. This
could help to reach international understanding.

In the future the UN shall spread publications and present themselves in
a global TV network and in the internet mainly in the new global
language and so save cost and reach people currently standing offside.

The UN shall set up a platform in the internet through which people from
all nations can exchange opinions and ideas using the global language,
and UN decision makers can grasp ideas from people. People using the
internet forum, however, shall not make decisions, because the crowd
might be incited to make evil demands. (In history there are examples
for that from the crucifixion of Jesus through pogroms against Jews to
hate campaigns against minorities nowadays.)


VII. Implementation

At first politicians must be convinced that a fundamental reform of the
UN is necessary and possible. In some countries there have been efforts
in this direction yet. This Global Challenges Prize (for which I had
created this draft) could have been been helpful; however, it doesn't
seem to have got enough attention. In democratic systems public events (particularly in election times) can set discussions in motion which
help to make citizens and politicians aware of the failure of the
current system (e.g. when some states do not play the rules). Warnings
of future risks, even those far more serious than present ones, usually
have only little effects. And in some countries public pressure will
achieve nothing. Nevertheless the good willing should take the
initiative and try to make other ones join through influencing and
convincing them. (Negative influence has often been effective, why
should positive influence not work as well?) Including UN staff in the campaign could be very helpful because of their international contacts.
The current Secretary-General seems to have a strong and fair
personality. If he is convinced, we can be hopeful that he can convince
other people. And if those convinced try to convince more people,
starting from a little piece of leaven the whole dough will rise.
Though enough states and leaders might be discontent with the current
state of the UN, there will be not enough in favour of all necessary
reforms. So you have to proceed step by step. Though money seems to rule
the world, we should not start with money. Pumping more money into the
current system would be wasteful, for it would promote corruption.
Effective fight against corruption needs organs able to decide and act.

At first we should reform decision making: Blocking of decisions by
single unwilling members must be prevented as well as influencing
decisions by bribery or extortion/coercion. Decision making procedures
in the Security Council and the General Assembly are necessary. That
requires a revision of the Charter, what will be difficult to achieve.
The permanent members will not want to loose their privileges. And there
might be some leaders, too, who do not want to miss their means to abuse
power and gain profits. And some will not dare to support reforms which
are rejected by their friends and allies. If it should proof to be
impossible to find the support of a majority which is required, the last resort could be a new organization, we could call it United World,
founded by good-willing countries, which could grow and substitute the
UN step by step. Maybe the willingness to make concession will rise
already, when a group of countries which bear a substantial part of the
UN budget threaten to do that.

The next step shall be measures to fight corruption on each level. This includes procedures for decisions on allocation of orders, hiring and promoting staff, as well as supervision and punishment for breaking
rules through a new UN jurisdiction. All staff, particularly decision
makers shall be obliged to report attempts to bribe or extort/coerce.

As certain risks and challenges are already so urgent, that we shall not
wait any longer, GRIPRO and the New Global Fund should be founded as
soon as possible, namely with appropriate decision making rules (see
chapter III). The NGF should start raising funds at once. However, it
should release funds to organs only which have already introduced proper decision making and measures to fight corruption.

Only if these measures have been implemented, it can make sense to
increase contributions and budget and to give additional responsibility
and authority to UN organs.

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2