Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
through the establishment of cartels, had acquired the capacity to control the prices of their products. Ultimately the crisis led to an extended slowdown in economic growth-again, chiefly in Europe and Japan. Perhaps most importantly, there was evidence that developing countries were using this opportunity to try to modify the balance of economic power in the world in their favour and to practice a form of economic nationalism that could seriously hinder the development of global capitalism. The above-mentioned documents on the establishment of a new world economic order emphasize the right of every State to regulate and control foreign investment and the activities of transnational corporations within its borders. Recognition is also given to the right of each State to choose its political, social and economic systems; nationalizations and expropriations are considered permissible within this context. Other controversial provisions of these texts relate to science and technology transfer and research cooperation. Full disarmament is also envisaged, as is cooperation in environmental protection. The Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States was adopted by the General Assembly in December 1974 by 120 votes to 6, with 10 abstentions. In March 1975, the Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization adopted the Lima Declaration and Plan of Action on Industrial Development and Cooperation. In this Declaration, it was stated that the share of developing countries in total world industrial production "should be increased to the maximum possible extent and as far as possible to at least 25 per cent of total world industrial production by the year 2000, while making every endeavor to ensure that the industrial growth so achieved is distributed among developing countries as evenly as possible."18Irrespective of its substantive merits, this target was immediately taken by commentators of the Western world as clear evidence of the irresponsibility of activist developing countries and of their supporters in the secretariats of international organizations. It was both ridiculed as an unattainable objective and denounced as an attempt to place the world economy and its market forces within the straightjacket of world planners and technocrats.
4.3 A new consensus: the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals It was arguably at this point that the most powerful developed countries decided to effectively neutralize the role of the United Nations and its specialized agencies as forums for debate and for important decisions regarding the functioning of the world economy. From the mid-1970s onward, these countries relied increasingly on the better-controlled Bretton Woods institutions, strengthening their role and influence in global economic development, and pressed for the reform of the United Nations, which was formally initiated at the end of 1986 and is still very much on the international agenda. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc at the end of the 1980s.