Over the years, there have been numerous initiatives to reform the UN. These range from summits of heads of state, to panels of experts, to the reform efforts by UN Secretary Generals. This page follows and critically analyses the actions of these reform initiatives and monitors subsequent progress.
Millennium Summit and its Follow-Up
High-Level Panels
Secretary Generals have in the past appointed High Level Panels to promote new thinking and to jump-start UN reform action by governments. This page gives background information on these panels and their work.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Reform Agenda - 2007 to 2008
Secretary General Kofi Annan's Reform Agenda - 1997 to 2006
In 1997 and 2002 Secretary General Kofi Annnan announced his plans to reform the United Nations. His reforms brought some modern management into the UN's bureaucracy, but critics charge that the reforms also made the UN more conservative and less democratic, by shaping it to a neoliberal, security-driven US agenda.
Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's Reform Agenda - 1992 to 1996
In 1992 Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali introduced his UN reform ideas which included a reorganization of the Secretariat. Boutros Ghali also made important reform proposals in the areas of peacekeeping and was most thorough in his approach to UN finance.
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar's Reform Agenda - 1982 to 1991
Secretary General Kurt Waldheim's Reform Agenda - 1972 to 1981
Secretary General U Thant's Reform Agenda - 1961 to 1971
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld's Reform Agenda - 1953 to 1961
Secretary General Trygve Lie's Reform Agenda - 1946 to 1952
General Assembly Working Groups on Reform
Other Initiatives
