News Analysis: UN faces new opportunities to promote world peace, development in 2016

As the clock ticked into the new year, the United Nations faces new opportunities to promote peace and development in the world -- to bring an early end to the Syria conflict, to kick off the implementation of a blueprint for global sustainable development, and to select a new UN chief.

Seemingly unrelated, the three major efforts can jointly make the United Nations more relevant and powerful as today's globe is confronting armed conflicts, environmental degradation, inequality, poverty, terrorism and other challenges, experts say.

As a famous saying goes, tomorrow is just another day. In a sense, it is also true to the world body: in the new year it has to move forward on the basis of what has been achieved by its 193 members in the past year, which marked the 70th birthday of the United Nations and the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World's Anti-Fascist War.

Every day the United Nations maintains peace in troubled places, feeds the hungry, shelters refugees, vaccinates children against polio and other deadly diseases and promotes international cooperation for development.

SYRIA CONFLICT

The Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, has made the Middle East country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people, according to UN figures.

The Syrian crisis led to a massive movement of refugees, part of at least 59.5 million people who have fled their homes -- more refugees and displaced persons than at any time since the end of the Second World War.

To defuse this long-standing crisis in Syria, the UN Security Council on Dec. 18 unanimously adopted a resolution to endorse an international roadmap for a Syrian-led political transition in the country, where more than 250,000 people reportedly have been killed since March 2011.

The latest UN document envisions the formation of a unity government and urged the launch of the Syria peace talks in early January, stressing that "the Syrian people will decide the future of Syria."

The new resolution gives the world body an enhanced role in shepherding the opposing sides in Syria to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for a ceasefire, a new constitution and elections, all under UN auspices.

As part of the efforts to carry out the resolution, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, set Jan. 25 as "the target date" to begin talks in Geneva between the parties aimed at ending the Syria conflict.

The resolution is not easy to come by, and it is not easy to bring the warring parties in Syria to the negotiating table only about a month after the 15-nation UN Security Council approved the resolution. The current challenge is how to define negotiation partners and terrorist groups in so many Syrian appositions.

Geneva has been the venue for two previous rounds of the UN-mediated Syria peace talks between representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, but the talks have failed to yield any significant results.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

This year also marks the beginning of the global efforts to carry out the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world.

An ambitious plan covering all UN member states, rich or poor, the SDGs are composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years. They also aim to build on the work of the historic Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of 2015.

With the approval of SDGs by world leaders in September, the UN chief voiced his hope to see extreme poverty to be removed across the world for the first time in the history of human beings.

"The Millennium Development Goals made poverty history for hundreds of millions of people," Ban said in his address at the opening of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in September. "Now we are poised to continue the job while reaching higher, broader and deeper."

The non-binding goals succeed the MDGs adopted by world leaders 15 years ago. Only one of those has been achieved: halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, due primarily to economic growth in China.

The new goals include ensuring "healthy lives" and quality education for all, clean water, sanitation and reliable modern energy, as well as making cities safe, reducing inequality within and among countries, and promoting economic growth and good governance.

SELECTION OF A NEW UN CHIEF

This year will also witness the selection of a new secretary-general for the world body to replace the incumbent chief Ban Ki-moon, whose term will end at the end of 2016.

Although the possible candidates are not expected to fully emerge until July, the selection process kicked off here in mid-December, with a new try for change -- the first step toward removing secrecy around the selection process.

The 193 member states of the United Nations will for the first time be included "totally" in the selection of the next UN secretary-general, the president of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, said on Dec. 15, pledging to make the process as transparent and inclusive as possible.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Lykketoft highlighted a joint letter with the President of the Security Council that was sent out to all UN Member States earlier in the day and which, he said, officially "starts" the process of soliciting candidates leading to the selection and appointment of the next UN chief.

Countries or groups of countries can submit candidates for the post and Lykketoft said a country's candidate doesn't have to be one of its citizens.

According to the UN Charter, the secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly following the recommendation of the Security Council. The next secretary-general will assume the post in January 2017 and will serve a five-year term, which can be renewed by member states for an additional five years.

A citizen of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, would not be eligible.

"Until (today), the selection process of the secretary-general has been very secretive and involving mostly -- or only -- the permanent five members of the Security Council," he said.

The move was taken in response to many countries' demands that the successor to Ban be chosen with some measure of transparency. The selection of the UN secretary-general has essentially been determined by the five permanent Security Council members behind closed doors.

In this year, countries will have the chance to openly interview candidates and the list of candidates will be shared regularly with all 193 UN member states.

However, the new reform drive does not affect the heart of the selection process, where the 15-nation Security Council meets in private and then submits its candidate for General Assembly approval. Inside the council, the five veto-wielding permanent members have the most say.

Although the 193-member General Assembly can reject the council's candidate, it has never done so.

Moreover, some countries call for a female to be at the helm of the world body starting in 2017.

The General Assembly president said that so far he has received two formal nominations for the next UN secretary-general: Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia, a former General Assembly president, and Croatia's foreign minister, Vesna Pusic, a woman.

With demands growing from peacekeeping to humanitarian assistance to health, the United Nations today is being called upon to do more than ever before, even as the resources to do these jobs grow proportionately more scarce.

These are challenges for the global organization. However, challenges co-exist with new opportunities. With good chances before the world, it is incumbent for the international community to take action now, with the United Nations playing the central role in all these global efforts. Enditem