国际英语新闻：At debate, world leaders reflect over "marginalized" UN

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- World leaders, remaining engaged in an annual UN debate here, are pondering over the risk of the 65-year-old organization being "marginalized" in a world constantly threatened by global crises.

"There is a danger that the United Nations could be marginalized as other actors emerge on the international scene," said UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss in explaining his choice for the theme of this year's general debate -- "reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in global governance."

"The United Nations has been criticized for not being effective or efficient enough," Deiss told the assembly's 192 member states.

Until Sunday, over 100 heads of state or government have taken the podium at the UN Headquarters in New York to delve into wide- ranging issues including climate change, the financial and economic crisis, the food and energy crisis, as well as their challenges to sustainable development.

But, the leaders echoed each other with the same call -- to reform the international multilateral system, with the United Nations at its core, to make it more responsive, representative and efficient in the face of global challenges today.

Since its establishment on the ruins after two deadliest conflicts in human history, the United Nations, with its unique legitimacy and universality, has been regarded as the centrality of global multilateral governance, which member states would turn to in time of crisis.

Decades of experience has proved the relevance and indispensable role of the United Nations in maintaining peace and security and promoting prosperity and welfare of the populations, as it has been the case with the most recent natural disasters in Haiti and Pakistan.

Despite all merits, however, people are beginning to question its effectiveness in fulfilling its duties, especially when they witnessed the breakout of the Iraq war, slow anti-poverty progress, the worst global financial and economic crisis in decades, failure at Copenhagen climate talks and stalled negotiations over trade and disarmament.

For all the criticisms, as analysts point out, the United Nations is not a lone entity, but is made up of 192 members who are in fact behind all the negotiations and endeavors that either failed or succeeded. The UN is the easy scapegoat to blame when something goes wrong, they say.

Ian Bancroft, an expert on Balkan issues, told Xinhua that in the post-cold-war era, the United States and some other permanent members of the UN Security Council have tended to marginalize the UN in favor of the so-called "coalitions of the willing."