Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
tions is a struggling actor. it must identify, promote and defend global values while also promoting tolerance, diversity and pluralism. In its normative role it must distinguish truly universal values, principles and rights from ideas and policy orientations that reflect specific interests, beliefs, convictions and prejudices. It must play a leading role within a network of international organizations that have different mandates and constituencies and in some cases more power. It must try to convince its most powerful members to respect the rules and culture of multilateralism. In recent years, faced with the dominant view among concerned parties that the activities of private economic and financial forces should not be subjected to international laws and regulations, the United Nations has endeavoured to convince these forces that it is in their best interest to voluntarily abide by certain universal principles. The United Nations has also offered more space, in both its normative and operational activities, to organizations of civil society in order to pave the way for the emergence of a global form of democracy. Tied in with the pursuit of global equity and democracy are proposals for various types of global taxes that would help finance global programmes, representing a concrete manifestation of world solidarity and redistribution. Above all, perhaps, the United Nations has been struggling to play an effective role in the identification, prevention, control and reduction of global inequalities and inequities, and to preserve the fundamental principle of the equality of sovereign nations in this rapidly changing world. Since the 1960s, United Nations efforts to reduce national inequities and inequalities have focused on what were originally called "underdeveloped" and later "developing" countries. Normative texts reflect an overt emphasis on universal coverage and universal intent. In times past, developed countries would report on any progress achieved in the implementation of international instruments they had ratified (in the domain of equity and equality, this would include the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). Texts such as the Copenhagen Declaration have had some impact in the more affluent countries, particularly with regard to the issues of social exclusion and poverty. However, in terms of international cooperation in the economic, social, cultural and humanitarian fields, the United Nations has concentrated almost exclusively on providing development assistance to the South. The funds and programmes directly linked to the Organization have as their mandate the channelling of resources and various forms of technical assistance to developing countries. Other international organizations, in particular the W O and the Bretton Woods institutions, strongly influence the national policies of a large number of developing countries through the norms and agreements they establish and through the advice and conditions attached to their loans and other forms of financial assistance. The direct contributions of the United Nations to the development and social progress of developing countries are conceptually and politically linked to the pursuit of international equity. Such support should gradually diminish and eventually disap-