Annan promises change

last updated 8 January 2015

New York

Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week called for the most sweeping reform in the history of the United Nations. Annan said he would make the scandal-plagued U.N. more accountable by boosting the authority of an internal watchdog. He also wants to create a powerful new Human Rights Council; it would replace the Commission on Human Rights, which critics say is toothless because even countries that violate human rights have a say. “These are reforms that are within reach,” Annan said, “if we can garner the necessary political will.” Critics dismissed the announcement as a naked attempt to change the subject from an impending report on corruption in the U.N.’s oil-for-food program. Annan’s son, Kojo, worked for a company that held one of the program’s lucrative contracts.