Ministry of Empty Promises

Ban Ki Moon tells us how he’ll make the United Nations relevant again:

“I pledge my best efforts to help the Iraqi people in their quest for a more stable and prosperous Iraq,” he said.

“On North Korea, I will try my best to facilitate the smooth process of the six-party process, and encourage in any way I can the work for a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

He said he wanted to see substantive progress on the Millennium Development Goals, hoping for action this year in order to meet the target date of 2015.

Fighting climate change and combating AIDS, avian flu and other global health challenges are also his priorities, Ban said.

Human rights form the third pillar to U.N.’s work, he said, and the Human Rights Council must ensure that “it delivers on its promise, and shines a spotlight on the darkest places in the world.”

The U.N. also must take first steps on “Responsibility to Protect,” a new concept in which U.N. members promise to act collectively and promptly at the first signs of genocide, ethnic cleansing or other crimes against humanity.

“The time has come to build consensus among member states about how we can operationalize that will. I pledge my best efforts to this end,” said Ban.

Pretty bland stuff, and exceedingly unlikely, but he does sound less awful than Kofi Annan, so far.  If Ban wonders what to do next, someone has done the work that U.N. wouldn’t and shown him the way forward.