Plan for U.N. reform gets diluted 

By Nick Wadhams 
September 14, 2005 
Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-un14.html

NEW YORK -- The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a watered-down document on poverty, human rights, terrorism and reform for world leaders to approve at a U.N. summit, shedding many of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's most ambitious goals after weeks of bitter debate. 
The compromise 35-page document is supposed to launch a major reform of the United Nations itself and galvanize efforts to ease global poverty. But to reach a consensus, most of the text's details were gutted in favor of abstract language. 
A definition of terrorism and details on how to replace the discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights will not be included. U.S.-led efforts to overhaul U.N. management have been diluted, while nuclear nonproliferation isn't mentioned at all. 
Diplomats called the document a breakthrough after so much debate. Several were pleased with the creation of a peacebuilding commission and a long section on development. 
'Steps forward' 
The compromise came after weeks of debate stretched into several days of marathon negotiation. Some diplomats had feared negotiations would continue into the summit of world leaders that begins today. 
The outgoing president of the General Assembly, Gabon's Jean Ping, presented the compromise Tuesday in hopes of bridging the deepest divides and moving away from bitter line-by-line negotiations that had bogged down the debate. 
It would be wrong to claim more than is realistic and accurate about what these reforms are, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. They represent steps forward, but this is not the alpha and the omega, and we never thought it would be. 
Though Annan said he was pleased, the document was a step backward for him. When he had unveiled his proposals, Annan had urged world leaders to expand the size of the Security Council, come up with a definition of terrorism and accept that they have a responsibility to protect those being killed, which requires collective action. 
And last week, a committee investigating the U.N. oil-for-food program had called for wide-ranging management reforms. 
But efforts to expand the council were abandoned because of longtime national differences. Responsibility to protect was whittled down to nations' obligations to protect their own citizens. 
I think we tried to have a full plate and we were unable to eat so much in a single gulp, Costa Rica's U.N. Ambassador Bruno Stagno said earlier Tuesday. AP