Manama: Timely reform is urgently needed if the United Nations is to respond to realities of the 21st century, the president of the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations has said.
"However, to attain real progress, reform must be fully driven and defined by the member states," Nasser Abdul Aziz Al Nasser, a Qatari national, said at a lecture at the University of Oxford on "Global challenges and the role of the UN at the dawn of the 21st century."
Al Nasser said that the UN General Assembly will remain an essential forum to address universal economic, political and technological changes. But, he stressed the need for the international organisation to make urgent reforms to be able to deal more effectively with the new global challenges, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
"The United Nations must implement urgent reforms to be able to effectively deal with new challenges," he said.
Urgent reforms in the Security Council were particularly important.
"The legitimacy of the United Nations mission will be undermined in the absence of an efficient, inclusive and representative Security Council," he warned.
The UN General Assembly President said that other international organisations would also need to implement reforms to reflect the changes in political realities in the past years.
