A 16-member panel appointed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has prepared a report calling for major changes in the world body.
At this stage it is not clear what exactly the 101 recommendation in the report, which will be formally handed to Anna on Thursday in the UN, entail.
New Delhi has been calling for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including the Security Council.
The panel's chair, former Thailand prime minister Anand Panyarachun, says the 95-page report "puts forward a new vision of collective security, one that addresses all of the major threats to international peace and security felt around the world".
Lt General Satish Nambiar of India, who served as head of mission of UN forces in former Yugoslavia, was one of the members of the panel.
The report is important from India's point of view, diplomatic sources told rediff.com
The recommendations on 'Threats, Challenges and Change' are the results of a year of deliberations by the panel following its appointment in November 2003.
The report says far-reaching changes are necessary to boost the UN's ability to deal with future threats caused by poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, weapons of mass destruction and organised crime, among others.
The report affirms the right of the states to defend themselves, even pre-emptively when an attack is truly imminent, and says that in cases involving terrorists and WMD, the Security Council may have to act more proactively and more decisively than in the past.
The panel also endorses the idea of collective responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, ethnic cleansing and comparable atrocities, saying that the wider international community should intervene - acting preventively where possible - when countries are unwilling or unable to fulfil their responsibility towards their citizens.
The panel, however, says that if force is needed, it should be used only as a last resort after authorisation by the Security Council.
The report also calls for universal membership for the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights. Such a move will underscore the commitment of all members to the promotion of human rights, and may help focus attention back on substantive issues rather than indulging in politicking that currently engulfs the commission.
Another way to improve the UN, the panel says, is to carry out a one-time review and replacement of personnel, including through early retirement, to ensure that the UN secretariat is staffed with the right people to undertake the tasks at hand.
Also included in the recommendations are proposals to strengthen development efforts, public health capacity and the current nuclear non-proliferation regime, which the panel says is not as effective a constraint as it was previously because of the lack of compliance, threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a changing security environment and the diffusion of technology.
