VN Forum 2015-1/2: 70 jaar Verenigde Naties: door Nederlandse VN'ers belicht
DOOR: THEO VAN BOVEN
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Personal involvement as well as trends and developments over a period of more than 40 years
In my school years and during my student life in the fifties of the last century I developed a keen interest in
international affairs. And thus, after a year of studies in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship I had the
good chance of joining the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Department of International
Organizations. It was in those early years in the sixties to the mid-seventies that I was entrusted to deal with
certain issues relating to the United Nations in the Ministry itself, and to act as an advisor and delegate in a
variety of UN organs, most visibly as the Netherlands Representative in the UN Commission on Human
Rights. At that time I acted as a national civil servant. This was followed up by a second stage of my
professional life with the UN when I was appointed the UN Director of Human Rights and served for five
years as an UN staff member, based in Geneva. Thereafter, during some twenty years in academia, I held a
variety of UN functions in an independent expert capacity. The common thread in all those positions – as a
national delegate, an international civil servant, and an independent expert – was the promotion and
protection of human rights as a sensitive, complicated, and often controversial cause, already enshrined and
affirmed in the UN Charter.
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The United Nations at the age of 70
VN Forum 2015-1/2: 70 jaar Verenigde Naties: door Nederlandse VN'ers belicht
During those years we witnessed far-reaching technological developments in communications. We observed
and felt the effects of decolonization and the emergence of new powers beyond the Atlantic arena. The
ominous effects of the so-called war on terror after 9/11 had a major impact on human security through the
erosion of basic values and rights. Coping with the role of non-state actors, such as transnational
corporations, business enterprises, and private security agencies became a matter of increasing concern.
The dismantling of apartheid and the fall of the Berlin Wall gave new hope and inspiration but did not prevent
The recognition of gender perspectives came more emphatically to the forefront and in many ways civil
society managed to influence policies at domestic, regional, and international levels. More specifically in the
human rights area, there was a definite trend from exclusion to inclusion in standard setting, procedures,
and mechanisms, thus providing hope and redress to the vulnerable. This selection of trends and
developments, albeit mentioned in an arbitrary and subjective order, all had an effect on the agenda of the
United Nations.
A specific memorable personal recollection
While I have a strong recollection of a good number of special experiences in the UN, positive and negative,
the most striking event that took me by surprise, but that was not to everybody’s amazement, was the abrupt
notification early in February 1982 from the UN Secretary-General that my contract as UN Director of Human
Rights, after five years of service in that position, would not be renewed. In other words, I was dismissed.
This event was a personal tragedy for myself and my family and a deception for a number of colleagues and
collaborators. It received wide publicity after I announced this decision from UN Headquarters in a plenary
session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. My forced departure, what some called ironically
“the human rights czar”, drew wide public interest. I received numerous signs of solidarity from civil society
organizations, parliamentarians, and political leaders who in public statements and petitions expressed their
dissatisfaction and concerns about the decision of the UN Leadership. As a farewell present friends and
colleagues collected and edited the policy statements I delivered during my five years (1977-1982) as UN
Director of Human Rights. These were published in a book entitled “People Matter” (Meulenhoff, 1982).
More recently, in 2013, the same five years were visually recorded in a documentary with flashbacks in
Argentina and Chile (directed by Ethan Films and produced by Human Rights in the Picture). In retrospect
those five years constituted the most fascinating and rewarding episode in my professional life and I feel
vindicated that in later years, when the days of the Cold War had gone, the post of UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights was created. This mandate reflects in many respects the role I sought to play as a simple
Director of Human Rights.
United Nations: strengths and weaknesses
Any anniversary assessment on the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the United Nations may well recall
that the United Nations now surpasses by far the life-time of its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.
In the same vein it may be noted with satisfaction that Member States unexceptionally choose to remain
inside the Organization, in spite sentiments of discontent expressed in the ill-practice of withholding financial
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new forms of segregation and separation.
VN Forum 2015-1/2: 70 jaar Verenigde Naties: door Nederlandse VN'ers belicht
contributions. The strengths and in particular the weaknesses of the Organization are periodically reviewed
in an unfinished story of reform discussion and reform proposals. Most prominent in these reform
deliberations figures the composition and the functioning of the Security Council, notably the adverse effects
of the use of veto powers by permanent members of the Council. Various strengths and weaknesses can be
determined as inherent in the predominantly inter-state structure of the United Nations designed in the
aftermath of World War II. This poses the problem how to deal propitiously with non-state actors, having
regard for basic freedoms from want and fear. Such non-state actors may be classified as “hard” powers
three or four decades, adding to the legitimacy and credibility of the United Nations, is the increasing impact
of civil society as a broadly based “soft” but influential power movement rendering an extra dimension
beyond the predominantly inter-state structure of the United Nations.
Many remarkable developments can be traced back to initiatives and lobby campaigns by important sectors
of civil society.
Among such developments these should be mentioned: making human rights more inclusive and accessible
to the marginalized and the vulnerable, strengthening the rule of law and criminal justice, incorporating
gender criteria in governance and decision-making, outlawing the production and use of abhorrent and
indiscriminate weapons, devising means and methods of fact-finding and monitoring etc. etc. Thus, civil
society groups and movements, who have made great progress in organizing themselves and have
footholds in all continents, have become increasingly associated and involved with issues featuring on the
UN agenda. This trend, which combines elements of strength and weakness, deserves full support and
renders, as stated above, more legitimacy and credibility to the United Nations in the realization of its global
mission.
Prospects for the future
In order to remain within editorial limits I will only put forward a few expectations and prospects regarding the
future of the United Nations.
First, the United Nations will not develop into a World Federation but, as a part of an evolutionary process,
will gain legitimacy through the standards adopted with the aim of upholding peace and justice.
Second, the United Nations and its credibility will be enhanced by a higher degree of professional courage
and leadership with due respect for Article 100 of the UN Charter underscoring the genuine international
responsibilities of the Secretary-General and his/her staff.
Third, while the United Nations will remain the appropriate and competent institution and forum for bringing
forward, as the Earth Charter put it, “a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal
human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace”, regional arrangements in various parts of the world
will become more instrumental in implementing the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
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(militarily and financially) and “soft” powers (civil society). One highly significant trend stretching over the last
VN Forum 2015-1/2: 70 jaar Verenigde Naties: door Nederlandse VN'ers belicht
An anniversary wish; personal note in conclusion
I wish that the United Nations will soon after its 70th birthday see for the first time in
its history a woman being appointed to the post of Secretary-General.
Theo van Boven
Emeritus professor international law Maastricht University
Leiden University
Former Director Human Rights of the United Nations,
UN Special Rapporteur against Torture, Co-founder of the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights, Maastricht
University
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As a personal note I consider it a privilege to have been associated with the United
Nations during a large part of my life. I also consider it a learning and rewarding
experience to have been in a position of working together with persons, often close
colleagues, coming from different ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.