Liberals: U.N. is useless
The foreign policy spokesman of the governing Liberal Party questions the relevance of the United Nations. 

September 3, 2009
Politiken
Original source: http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/article780753.ece

The Danish Liberal Party s Foreign Policy Spokesman Søren Pind says the United Nations is an organiation that hasn t done very much for the world and makes things worse when it gets involved. 

 The United Nations is is an organisaiton that hasn t done much good here on earth. In fact things have normally only got worse with an active secretary-general –  so I m glad that we have a less active one,  Pind tells Jyllands-Posten. 

Pind says that the organisation includes so many dictators and undemocratic countries that it will never become a meaningful forum in taking workable decisions about world conflicts. 

 All of the members of the U.N. have signed the U.N. Treaty –  but all of the dictatorships violate them every day,  says Pind who suggests a League of Democracies instead. 

Norway

Pind s statements come in the wake of a damning, confidential report from the Norwegian U.N. ambassador recently which delivered a hefty broadside at Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon . 

 At a time when the United Nations and the need for multilateral solutions to global crises is greater than ever, Ban and the United Nations are conspicuous in their absence,  said Norway s Ambassador Mona Juhl. 

No alternative

Denmark s Foreign Minister per Stig Møller (Cons.) agrees that the United Nations, in several situations, has been unable to deliver satisfactory solutions, but says there is no alternative to the organisation. 

 There is no alternative to the United Nations. It is the only global organisation with full legitimacy and a broad mandate. So it s natural that the U.N. is central to Danish foreign policy –  also as a framework for dialogue with countries with whom one does not agree,  Stig Møller tells Jyllands-Posten. 


Edited by Julian Isherwood