And with it Annan saw only two possible futures for the institution he was in charge of, if it stayed unreformed: either 1. With that word humanitarian taking on extra weight, as civilian populations not only bore the brunt of this shifting violence, but – more so than ever before – actually became the primary targets of it in places like Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Guatemala, Timor, Bosnia, Cambodia, Burundi, the Congo, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, China, Algeria, Angola, North Korea, Syria, Georgia, Yemen, Kurdistan, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Egypt, Eretria, Mali, Chechnya, Kuwait, Bahrain, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Kenya…….Īll that human suffering exposed something about the United Nations, something that the Cold War years had papered over. Instead the world saw a sudden rise in civil war, mass atrocities, and humanitarian crises. A time where, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of Cold War conflicts, a peace dividend appeared close at hand: a long overdue and hard earned period of fortune and safety. The 1990’s were supposed to be the comfortable, retirement years of the United Nations – with the children moved-out, the house paid-off, and plenty of time on their hands to soak-in the sun and enjoy a lengthy vacation or two. He was glancing back on recent horrors, and forward to the downfall of his institution.

And during his Millennium Report to the General Assembly, he emptied his struggling voice onto the international stage: “ If the conscience of humanity… cannot find in the United Nations its greatest tribune, there is a grave danger that it will look elsewhere for peace and justice.”

Twenty years earlier, then-Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was in a difficult and despondent mood. They then removed Russia from the Human Rights Council. Just how, and why, Russia managed to be elected (in 2020) to such a body, with such a name – and what this did to embolden the Russian regime – is a story for another day, but the more alarming question is where this leaves the United Nations now. In the opening days of the conflict in Ukraine the United Nations produced a condemning motion of the General Assembly. The sight of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres walking solemnly through the bombed-out suburbs of Kyiv: inspecting the rubble, listening to stories of massacre, and shaking his fist at accountability for the “ evil” acts.

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