Negative Utilitarian Priorities
B.Contestabile First version 2005 Last version 2024
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. UN Priorities
3. International Peace and Security
4. Sustainable Development and Climate Action
5. Humanitarian Aid
6. Human Rights
7. International Law
8. Conclusion
Appendix: Quality Control of NGOs
Starting point
Effective altruism traditionally ranked the most effective charities in terms of lives saved or lives improved per dollar. It was by its nature biased towards charities whose outcomes are easily measurable, like health-based interventions. But recently it is broadening its scope. It sometimes considers the avoidance or reduction of suffering as the prime goal and applies complex assessments to set priorities.
This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion about ethical priorities. The term “negative utilitarian” refers to a moderate version of negative utilitarianism. It considers both happiness and suffering, but weights suffering more than happiness. The ethical priority increases with the level of suffering as in prioritarianism.
Type of problem
Which actions have the highest negative utilitarian priority?
Where should a negative utilitarian participate or invest?
Method
1. The permanent UN work areas are taken as a basis for defining ethical priorities, because they represent the result of intense discussions among a considerable number of experts. The UNO experts are supposed to represent the majority of the world population.
2. The UN activities are briefly described. Then the negative utilitarian priorities are pointed out for each area.
The ranking of investments cannot be based on a calculus. The system is too complex, and the activities depend on each other. Since there is no way to quantify variables, the priorities are presented in the form of theses.
Result
Following a collection of theses, ordered by the permanent work areas of the UNO:
1. Peace and security: The most urgent action is a reform of the UN Security Council, so that the Responsibility to Protect and treaties for arms control cannot be undermined by veto rights. The NGO Working Group on the Security Council could play an important role in this reform.
2. Sustainable development: The UN activities in this area promote economic growth. For that reason, a stabilization of the world population is only indirectly addressed by emphasizing sustainability. For negative utilitarians, however, a reduction of the world population is no taboo, as long as the shrinking process does not durably worsen the (weighted) average life satisfaction. With regard to reducing suffering, family planning has the best cost-/benefit ratio in the long term.
3. Humanitarian aid: The humanitarian aid in natural catastrophes, wars, famines, epidemics, and other emergencies has the best cost-/benefit ratio in the short term.
4. Human rights: In negative utilitarianism the ethical priority increases with the level of suffering. Human rights avoid some of the worst kinds of suffering and should therefore get a higher share of the UN's budget. A special concern is the eradication of torture, the right to palliative care, and the legalization of voluntary euthanasia. From a different perspective one could also prioritize the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, because without these rights, ethical priorities cannot even be discussed.
5. International law: The fight against corruption and the enforcement of a global rule of law are more efficient than additional investments in development.
Starting point
Effective altruism traditionally ranked the most effective charities in terms of lives saved or lives improved per dollar. It was by its nature biased towards charities whose outcomes are easily measurable, like health-based interventions. But recently it is broadening its scope. It sometimes considers the avoidance or reduction of suffering as the prime goal and applies complex assessments to set priorities.
This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion about ethical priorities. The term “negative utilitarian” refers to a moderate version of negative utilitarianism. It considers both happiness and suffering, but weights suffering more than happiness. The ethical priority increases with the level of suffering as in prioritarianism.
Type of problem
Which actions have the highest negative utilitarian priority?
Where should a negative utilitarian participate or invest?
Method
1. The permanent UN work areas are taken as a basis for defining ethical priorities, because they represent the result of intense discussions among a considerable number of experts. The UNO experts are supposed to represent the majority of the world population.
2. The UN activities are briefly described. Then the negative utilitarian priorities are pointed out for each area.
The ranking of investments cannot be based on a calculus. The system is too complex and the activities depend on each other. Since there is no way to quantify variables, the priorities are presented in the form of theses.
The main bodies of the United Nations are the following:
- General Assembly
- Security Council
- Economic and Social Council
- International Court of Justice
- Secretariat
For details see [DGC].
The UN charter describes four areas that are the pillars of the UN:
- Peace and Security
- Development
- Human Rights
- The Rule of Law
The fifth area, Humanitarian Aid assists the pillar areas. Forms of aid that have both humanitarian and development components are called humanitarian assistance. The following table shows examples of the relation between work areas and responsible UN bodies. The detailed structure of the organization is highly complex; see [DGC].
|
Work area
|
Responsible UN body |
|
Peace and Security
|
- Security Council - General Assembly, Disarmament Commission
|
|
Development
|
Economic and Social Council. Functional Commissions are: - Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice - Population and Development - Science and Technology - Social Development etc. |
|
Humanitarian Aid
|
Secretariat, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
|
|
Human Rights
|
- Secretariat, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - General Assembly, Human Rights Council
|
|
The Rule of Law
|
- International Court of Justice - General Assembly, International Law Commission
|
The table below depicts 4 (out of 5) UN work areas and connects them to the chapters in this paper.
The fifth work area is International Law (The Rule of Law). It binds the other four together (chapter 7).
|
International peace and security (chapter 3) |
Sustainable Development and Climate Action (chapter 4) |
|
Human rights (chapter 6) . |
Humanitarian aid (chapter 5) . |
Which of the UN work areas has the highest priority? The priority of an activity can be measured by the resources assigned to it. For that reason, we have a quick look at the UN budgets:
The regular UN budget
A major part of the regular budget is assigned to peace and security. In addition there is a separate peacekeeping budget, about two times the regular budget:
- For 2022, the regular budget totals $3.1 billion.
- The UN peacekeeping budget totals $6.4 billion, which seems to be a lot of money, but comprises just over 0.3 percent of annual global military spending.
See [Better World Campaign]
The UN regular budget should finance all activities mandated by the General Assembly and its subsidiary organs. Human rights are charter responsibilities, recognized as one of the pillars of the UN system. Yet, the UN regular budget allocates to human rights only a tiny percentage of the resources:
- About 51.7% of the UN regular budget is directed to the three pillars peace and security, development and human rights.
- Human rights get just over 3% (US$116.4 million in 2020)
The UN Human Rights relies heavily on voluntary contributions (https://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us/funding-and-budget)
The budget for international law, which is considered to be a pillar as well, is smaller than the one for human rights [General Assembly].
System-wide activities
The UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets are approved by the UN General Assembly. For other activities there are multilateral mechanisms of financing, as depicted below:
If we consider the resources which are assigned system-wide, then development has a clear first priority. Peace operations have second priority, whereas human rights and international law disappear within the global agenda [ECOSOC, 7]. The 19% for peace operations seem to be a lot, but we must consider that the original goal of the UN was to avoid wars. The work areas human rights and international law are clearly underfunded compared to development.
|
Activity 2018 |
B$ |
% |
|
Peace operations |
9.8 |
19 |
|
Development |
36.4 |
71 |
|
Global agenda |
5.1 |
10 |
|
Total |
51.3 |
100 |
The influence of NGOs
Since negative utilitarianism is a movement and not a government, it must try to influence decision-makers by means of NGOs and lobbying. Information on the cooperation of NGOs with the United Nations can be found on the internet, using the following keywords:
- United Nations Research Guide: NGOs & UN Reform, Northwestern University
- NGOs are Guardians of the Reform of the International System, United Nations
- Non-Governmental Organizations, Berkeley Library
- NGOs Working with the United Nations Everywhere, United Nations
- UN System and Civil Society, UNECE
Also see [Alger] [Paul]. The quality of NGOs can be controlled by means of charity navigators, see Appendix.
In the following the UN activities are briefly described. Then the negative utilitarian priorities are pointed out for each area. In negative utilitarianism the ethical priority increases with the level of suffering. For that reason, we assess the UN agenda according to whether it reduces the worst cases of suffering.
3. International Peace and Security
Assessments
1. The Global Peace Index measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness.
2. The Global Militarization Index depicts the relative weight and importance of the military apparatus of one state in relation to its society as a whole.
3. The Fragile States Index assesses states' vulnerability to conflict or collapse.
4. The List of ongoing armed conflicts identifies the death toll associated with each conflict.
UN activities
The United Nations was created in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN accomplishes this by working to prevent conflict, helping parties in conflict make peace, deploying peacekeepers, and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold.
1. The United Nations Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. It takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from economic sanctions to international military action. The Council also establishes UN Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions.
2. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. Through regular meetings, the General Assembly provides a forum for Member States to express their views to the entire membership and find consensus on difficult issues. It makes recommendations in the form of General Assembly resolutions. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority, but other questions are decided by simple majority.
(www.un.org, Maintain International Peace and Security)
For an overview of weapons that are regulated by International Humanitarian Law (IHL) see ICRC Weapons and ICRC Treaties and Customary Law. For all other treaties see Arms reduction treaties.
Criticism
Concerning the United Nations Security Council:
- Scholar Sudhir Chella Rajan argued in 2006 that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, who are all nuclear powers, have created an exclusive nuclear club that predominantly addresses the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent members, for example, protecting the oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991 but poorly protecting resource-poor Rwandans in 1994 [Rajan].
- In his 2009 speech, Muammar Gaddafi criticized the Security Council's veto powers and the wars, where the permanent members of the Security Council are engaged in.
- The UN Charter gives all three powers of the legislative, executive and judiciary branches to the Security Council [Creery].
- The Security Council has been criticized for failure in resolving many conflicts, including Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Syria, Kosovo, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, reflecting the wider short-comings of the UN. For example; at the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key heavily criticized the UN's inaction on Syria, more than two years after the Syrian civil war began [Gower].
Proposals to reform the Security Council began with the conference that wrote the UN Charter and have continued to the present day. As British historian Paul Kennedy writes, "Everyone agrees that the present structure is flawed. But consensus on how to fix it remains out of reach."
(United Nations Security Council, Wikipedia)
Some permanent members want exclusive control over peace and security issues, even though the Security Council is the most failing principal organ of the United Nations (NGO Press Conference on UN Reform).
Currently the Responsibility to Protect is nothing but a declaration of intent.
On Tuesday, 26 April 2022, the UN General Assembly decided to automatically meet within 10 days, if the veto is used in the Security Council by one of its five permanent members. The resolution came in the wake of Russia’s use of the veto in the Council, the day after it invaded Ukraine (news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1116982).
Negative utilitarian priorities
Arms control is relatively inefficient, as long as the UN Security Council is blocked by veto rights. Not only because the key states ignore the bans [ICAN] [Ottawa Treaty] [Bosold 2008] but also because new weapons are created at a faster rate than old ones are banned. Currently there are immense investments in fully autonomous weapons and AI-supported warfare. The UN regular budget and the UN peacekeeping budget together comprise less than one percent of annual global military spending, see [Better World Campaign].
The priority to be enforced is therefore clearly a reform of the UN Charter, in particular a Security Council reform and a democratic reform, including the separation of powers. For information about the Security Council reform see [Fassbender] [Gordon] [Winther] [Jetschke].
What is the role of NGOs in such a reform?
The NGO Working Group on the Security Council is an influential forum at the United Nations. When it was founded in 1995, no one imagined that an NGO body could have regular interaction with Council members at the highest level. But the Working Group proved that the unexpected can happen, even in the high-stakes world of international policy. The Working Group today organizes dialogue meetings between a group of about thirty major NGOs and individual Council ambassadors, as well as top-level UN official and other key players in the international security world [Paul].
Example: The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has a Consultative Status with several UN organizations and agencies. It advocates, among others, for the abolition of the Security Council veto (WILPF, Wikipedia).
- For a list of peacebuilding NGOs see Peacebuilding and Peace Organizations.
- For a list of organizations that promote a global reduction in arms see Arms Control Organizations.
4. Sustainable Development and Climate Action
Assessments
- The most important traditional indicator is the GDP; see List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita.
- Economic growth is assessed in the List of countries by real GDP growth rate.
- The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that measures and tracks hunger globally as well as by region and by country.
- The Social Progress Index was developed based on extensive discussions with stakeholders around the world about what has been missed when policymakers focus on GDP to the exclusion of social performance.
- The Human Development Index (HDI) published by the United Nations Development Program combines the standard of living with life expectancy, adult literacy rate and the gross enrollment ratio.
- Traditional economic indicators (like GDP) don’t account for the exploitation of natural resources and therefore allow consumption at the cost of future generations. A recently proposed alternative for GDP is the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI).
UN activities
The most urgent global problem – besides the prevention of (nuclear) war – is probably sustainability. The shortage of resources caused by global warming could trigger extreme poverty, social conflicts, mass migration etc. The UNO launched its sustainable development agenda in 2015:
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a proposed set of 17 goals relating to future international development. They are to replace the Millennium Development Goals once they expire at the end of 2015.
Responsible for the implementation is the United Nations Development Group, a collection of UN agencies and programs, including the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The progress being made towards the 17 goals can be controlled on the website https://sdg-tracker.org
Picture from https://ourworldindata.org
A major obstacle in achieving above goals is the continuing growth of the world population and its increasing life expectancy.
- Some studies and commentary link population growth with climate change (…). A July 2017 study published in Environmental Research Letters argued that the most significant way individuals could mitigate their own carbon footprint is to have fewer children, followed by living without a vehicle, forgoing air travel, and adopting a plant-based diet (Wikipedia, Overpopulation).
- If scientists do manage to lengthen the duration of the human life, some new issues will occur. We will need to reduce the human population [Gaucher].
- Continued population growth is also considered by some to be an animal rights issue, as more human activity means the destruction of animal habitats and more killing of animals (Wikipedia, Overpopulation).
- The UNO addressed the importance of population policy already in 1994, at the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, i.e. considerably earlier than the sustainable development agenda.
- At the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in 2019 some 1300 clear, concrete commitments were made to advance the goals of the ICPD. These commitments are decisive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies, access to birth control, campaigns against child marriage, campaigns for woman’s empowerment etc. (United Nations Population Fund, Wikipedia)
In 2020, UNFPA's expenses totaled $1.28 billion [Congressional Research Service, 3], which seems to be a lot of money, but comprises just over 3.5% of the expenses for development activities (chapter 2).
Criticism and reply
The Copenhagen Consensus, a think tank initialized by Bjorn Lomborg, criticizes the UN development strategy on the following grounds:
- The forces of the market should be used to improve economic, technological, and social development.
- The UNO does not focus on a manageable number of targets and indicators.
- The UNO targets do not consider the relation between cost and benefit.
Defenders of the Sustainable Development Goals argue that their greatest virtue lies in getting countries involved in any development scheme underpinned by proper reporting and peer review. Economic purity must sometimes be sacrificed to secure broad agreement on a set of global goals. Mr Lomborg’s work is “very naive”, says Jeffrey Sachs, another economist with strong views about what works in international development (The Economics of Optimism, The Economist, Jan 24th, 2015).
The Copenhagen Consensus judges activities in terms of their contribution to the GDP. The advantage of the GDP consists in being a measurable criterion. Most of the proposed activities can easily be linked to an increase of the GDP, whereas the effect of political interventions is hard to calculate. The Copenhagen Consensus discards political in favor of economic priorities. The method dictates the result.
Negative utilitarian priorities
Should development aid be reinforced relative to other priorities? Within the United Nation’s system-wide activities, development gets more than 70% of the resources (see chapter 2). Why do these resources not solve the problem of extreme poverty? The reason is that development aid often goes with increased corruption, and adverse political effects such as postponements of necessary economic and democratic reforms. It makes therefore more sense to reinforce the fight against corruption and bad governance (chapter 7).
From a negative utilitarian point of view the best investment – within the UN development budget – is probably family planning. The different priorities have to do with the different valuation of economic growth. The UN approach and the Copenhagen Consensus both emphasize the importance of economic growth. The Copenhagen Consensus applies the utility maximization of welfare economics, and the system-wide UN activities promote growth through development aid. For that reason, a stabilization of the world population is only indirectly addressed by emphasizing sustainability. It is assumed that (in a sustainable environment) global welfare is positive. Negative utilitarianism, in contrast, questions the sign of global welfare (see Is There a Predominance of Suffering?). A reduction of the world population is no taboo, as long as the shrinking process does not durably worsen the (weighted) average welfare.
There are numerous NGOs that engage for family planning, partly in cooperation with the UNFPA:
- List of organizations campaigning for population stabilization
- List of population concern organizations.
- An organization which aims at smaller populations is Negative Population Growth.
- The Birthstrike Movement (https://birthstrikemovement.org) refuses to procreate until humanity has resolved its social, environmental, and economic issues.
- Family planning can also be promoted indirectly, through better access to education for women [Hooper, 40].
Family planning is confronted with opposition from religious circles. Conservative US governments, for example, tend to cut off all UNFPA funding (e.g. the Trump administration in April 2017). Many people must withstand societal pressure, if they prefer to have fewer children or remain childless [Thornley]. For organizations which facilitate remaining childless see www.vhemt.org/nonparents.htm.
In the future, family planning will change its character. It will be confronted with Nietzschean actors who advocate genetic engineering, transhumanism and (sentient) artificial intelligence.
Definition
Humanitarian aid is designed to save lives and alleviate suffering during and in the immediate aftermath of emergencies, whereas development aid responds to ongoing structural issues, particularly systemic poverty, that may hinder economic, institutional and social development in any given society (…). Both humanitarian and development aid are related, and different forms of aid often have both humanitarian and development components (Humanitarian Coalition).
Forms of aid that have both humanitarian and development components are called humanitarian assistance.
UN activities
1. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN Secretariat is responsible for coordinating responses to emergencies. It does this through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, whose members include the UN system entities most responsible for providing emergency relief. A coordinated, system-wide approach to humanitarian relief is essential in providing assistance quickly and efficiently to those in need. OCHA’s mandate stems from General Assembly resolution 46/182 of December 1991, which states: "The leadership role of the Secretary-General is critical and must be strengthened to ensure better preparation for, as well as rapid and coherent response to, natural disasters and other emergencies. This should be achieved through coordinated support for prevention and preparedness measures and the optimal utilization of, inter alia, an inter-agency standing committee, consolidated appeals, a central emergency revolving fund and a register of stand-by capacities."
2. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), managed by OCHA, is one of the fastest and most effective ways to support rapid humanitarian response for people affected by natural disasters and armed conflict. CERF receives voluntary contributions year-round to provide immediate funding for life-saving humanitarian action anywhere in the world.
(UN Deliver Humanitarian Aid)
Criticism
It has been criticized that the ICRC’s humanitarian aid depends too much on the financing states [Rieff 2002] and that it sometimes inadvertently prolongs a civil war [Narang 2014, 3]. However, most of the criticism relates to cases, where humanitarian aid is transformed into long-term development aid; see Corruption in development aid and Short History of Welfare Economics, chapter 4.3.
Negative utilitarian priorities
The humanitarian aid in natural catastrophes, wars, famines, epidemics, and other emergencies is a negative utilitarian priority. Numerous NGOs are working in the area of humanitarian aid, partly in cooperation with the UN; see Humanitarian aid organizations.
There are currently (2022) about 80 armed conflicts, and about half of them have to be classified as wars, see List of ongoing armed conflicts. Many of these wars get little attention in the media; they are a kind of “forgotten” wars. Due to the circumstances, it is often difficult to get access to the victims. Two organizations that have proven effective in such cases are the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Médecins sans frontières (MSF).
Political neutrality is the best strategy to reach the victims of armed conflicts [Jean]. In order to demonstrate independence to the parties at war, MSF strives to obtain its funding from private individuals and not from governments. The ICRC obtains funding from governments, but it has a long tradition of neutrality. For a long time, ICRC neutrality was identified with Swiss neutrality. Both organizations are also active in transforming humanitarian aid into development aid and realizing the human right to basic medical care.
Assessments
- The Democracy index measures pluralism, civil liberties and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes each country into one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.
- Freedom indices rank countries as being free, partly free, or unfree, using various measures of freedom.
- The Human rights and rule of law index uses index points from the Fund for Peace.
- The Democracy Ranking combines the indicators political liberty, legal security, and social justice.
- The Human Freedom Index measures human freedom in terms of personal, civil, and economic freedom, freedom understood as the absence of coercive constraint.
- The World Press Freedom Index reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations, and netizens have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom.
UN activities
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights lay down the principles that brought human rights into the realm of international law. Since then, the Organization has diligently protected human rights through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities (UN Protect Human Rights)
How does the UN promote and protect human rights? Mainly responsible are
- The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
- The Human Rights Council, which was established in 2006 and meets in Geneva,
(UN Protect Human Rights).
What legal instruments help the UN protect human rights?
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two Covenants
- The international human rights law is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. It is primarily made up of treaties between sovereign states and customary international law.
- Democracy, based on the rule of law, is ultimately a means to achieve international peace and security, economic and social progress and development, and respect for human rights – the three pillars of the United Nations mission as set forth in the UN Charter. At the 2005 World Summit, all the world’s governments reaffirmed “that democracy is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems and their full participation in all aspects of their lives”.
(UN Protect Human Rights)
Criticism
The precise meaning of the term right is controversial and is the subject of continued philosophical debate. While there is consensus that human rights encompasses a wide variety of rights (…) there is disagreement about which of these particular rights should be included within the general framework of human rights; some thinkers suggest that human rights should be a minimum requirement to avoid the worst-case abuses, while others see it as a higher standard (Human Rights, Wikipedia).
The unprincipled proliferation of human right claims in international documents (e.g. the right to periodic holidays with pay, stated in article 24 of the Universal Declaration) explains why Rawls began to pursue more austere approaches (Human Rights and Duties of Assistance, Aachen University).
John Rawls focused on civil and political rights, i.e. on the promotion of democracy and the protection of minorities [Rawls], whereas China tries to subordinate these rights to economic welfare. China is accused of changing the interpretation of human rights and manipulating other member states of the council to conceal its human rights violations [NZZ, 24 Jan]. The criticism of Iran's chairmanship of the UN Human Rights Council 2023 was a sign of the Council's credibility crisis [NZZ, 18 Jan]. The Council is increasingly perceived as a forum in which states with poor human rights records support each other.
Concerning the legitimation and criticism of
- democracy see democracy and [Brennan]
- free speech see freespeechdebate.com and [Ash].
Negative utilitarian priorities
Are human rights a consequence of the negative utilitarian goal or are human rights threatened by negative utilitarianism? Philosophers who are concerned about the totalitarian potential of negative utilitarianism define human rights as a side constraint of any attempt to improve the state of affairs. Such an anti-totalitarian, suffering-focused ethics corresponds to a political party or movement within a democratic system.
There are numerous NGOs that work in the area of human rights, partly in cooperation with the OHCHR and the ECOSOC. For a comprehensive list see Human rights organizations.
In negative utilitarianism the ethical priority increases with the level of suffering. Human rights avoid some of the worst kinds of suffering and should therefore get a higher share of the UN's budget. A special negative utilitarian concern are the following rights:
- The right not to be tortured. Examples: World Organization against Torture, Association for the Prevention of Torture [Stover](UN Convention)
- The right to palliative care. Examples: Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org/topic/health/palliative-care), OPIS (www.preventsuffering.org).
- The right to die: The corresponding societies are locally organized, see World Federation Right to Die Societies (https://wfrtds.org)
The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press are negative utilitarian priorities because without these rights, ethical priorities cannot even be discussed. Following some NGO’s which specialize in this area: Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN International, Reporters without Borders, Free Press Unlimited, International Press Institute. On a side note: This paper extensively refers to Wikipedia articles. As of April 2019, however, all versions of Wikipedia are blocked in Mainland China under the Great Firewall.
Definition
International law defines the legal responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other, and their treatment of individuals within State boundaries (www.un.org Uphold International Law).
International law differs from state-based domestic legal systems in that it operates largely through consent, since there is no universally accepted authority to enforce it upon sovereign states. States may choose to not abide by international law and even to breach a treaty. But such violations, particularly of peremptory norms, can be met with coercive action ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to war (International Law, Wikipedia)
The General Assembly, composed of representatives from each UN Member State, is the main deliberative body on matters relating to international law. The Legal (Sixth) Committee assists the work of the General Assembly by providing advice on substantive legal matters.
Assessments
- The World Justice Rule of Law Index shows the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice.
- The Government effectiveness index is an index elaborated by the World Bank Group which measures the quality of public services, civil service, policy formulation, policy implementation and credibility of a government's commitment to raise these qualities or keeping them high.
- The Corruption perceptions index is an index which ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.
- The Global Corruption Barometer is the largest survey in the world tracking public opinion on corruption.
- The AML index assesses money laundering risks around the world (https://index.baselgovernance.org)
UN activities
The United Nations was created in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with the central mission to maintain international peace and security. The UN Charter, a treaty that forms the legal basis of the United Nations, sets out principles for peaceful coexistence and collective security. Following some important laws and courts of justice serving this mission:
1. Settling disputes between states
The principal judicial organ of the United Nations is the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This main body of the UN settles legal disputes submitted to it by States in accordance with international law. It also gives advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it from authorized UN organs and specialized agencies. The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of nine years by the General Assembly and the Security Council (www.un.org Uphold International Law).
2. Preventing genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Responsible are
- a variety of international courts and tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, for Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon etc.
- the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), a Subsidiary Organ of the Security Council.
- the International Criminal Court (ICC)
- the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)
(www.un.org Uphold International Law)
In 2005 a global consensus on the prevention of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing has been reached, defined in the United Nations Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The authority to use force rests solely with the United Nations Security Council and is considered a measure of last resort.
The R2P is not a law, nor a legally binding framework. The crimes that it seeks to prevent are defined in international law, such as the Genocide Convention, the Geneva Conventions and additional protocols and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but R2P itself is not a legal framework (www.una.org.uk, Understanding the R2P). The transformation of the R2P into a law is probably not possible without a reform of the UN Charter (see chapter 3).
3. The international humanitarian law, also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war. It can be seen as a special case of the international human rights law, applied to situations of armed conflicts. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) plays a significant role in the promotion and implementation of this law. While it is not a UN body, it works closely with the United Nations on these matters. NGOs that commit to the enforcement of international humanitarian law are Trial International and Civitas Maxima.
There are laws and courts of justice for all four work areas mentioned in chapter 2. The idea of an international rule of law binds them together. A cross-cutting issue that affects all areas of the United Nations’ work is the fight against corruption. The primary anti-corruption instrument of the UN is the Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). The UNCAC works closely together with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] and promotes standards to the International Law Commission [CAC, 4].
The International Law Commission promotes the progressive development of international law and its codification. The long-term goal is to establish a minimal legal standard for activities between and within states (www.legal.un.org/ilc).
Criticism
- Criticism of International Law
- Criticism of the United Nations
- Criticism of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Negative utilitarian priorities
The ideal of an international rule of law has a huge potential for reducing suffering. Take the work area Sustainable Development and Climate Action as an example. The fight against corruption and bad governance is probably more efficient than additional investments in development. Arguments for this presumption can be found in Corruption in development aid. Work in the non-governmental sector has been seminal in bringing the issue onto the global agenda. It was pioneering work by the Soros Foundations and Transparency International that forced larger institutions such as the World Bank to follow in their footsteps [CASIN]. Following some NGOs that engage in this area:
- Global Integrity, Quality of Government Institute, Basel Institute on Governance fight corruption and criticize the quality of governance, not only in oligarchic, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, but also in defective democracies.
- Global Witness investigates the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses.
Finally, there is also an abuse of power by humans towards other sentient beings. Empathy leads to complex discussions how to weigh and balance human and non-human interests and how to extend the notion of justice to all sentient beings [VanDeVeer] [Garner]. For a comparison of human and animal suffering see [Hobbhan]. Animal welfare has a very low priority in the UN agenda although the suffering of livestock and research animals is immense. Examples of NGOs that engage for animal welfare are Animal Charity Evaluators and The Sentience Institute.
Following a collection of theses, ordered by the permanent work areas of the UNO:
1. Peace and security: The most urgent action is a reform of the UN Security Council, so that the Responsibility to Protect and treaties for arms control cannot be undermined by veto rights. The NGO Working Group on the Security Council could play an important role in this reform.
2. Sustainable development: The UN activities in this area promote economic growth. For that reason, a stabilization of the world population is only indirectly addressed by emphasizing sustainability. For negative utilitarians, however, a reduction of the world population is no taboo, as long as the shrinking process does not durably worsen the (weighted) average life satisfaction. With regard to reducing suffering, family planning has the best cost-/benefit ratio in the long term.
3. Humanitarian aid: The humanitarian aid in natural catastrophes, wars, famines, epidemics, and other emergencies has the best cost-/benefit ratio in the short term.
4. Human rights: In negative utilitarianism the ethical priority increases with the level of suffering. Human rights avoid some of the worst kinds of suffering and should therefore get a higher share of the UN's budget. A special concern is the eradication of torture, the right to palliative care, and the legalization of voluntary euthanasia. From a different perspective one could also prioritize the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, because without these rights, ethical priorities cannot even be discussed.
5. International law: The fight against corruption and the enforcement of a global rule of law are more efficient than additional investments in development.
1. Alger Chadwick (2002), The Emerging Role of NGOs in the UN System, Global Governance 8, 93-117
2. Ash Timothy Garton (2016), Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World, Yale University Press
3. Better World Campaign (2022), The UN Budget, available from https:/betterworldcampaign.org
4. Bosold David (2008), Heiße Luft: Warum das Streubombenverbot von Dublin kein Erfolg ist, DGAP Standpunkt
5. Bostrom, Nick (2005), A history of transhumanist thought, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol.14, Issue 1
6. Brennan Jason (2016), Against Democracy, Princeton University Press
7. CAC (2015), Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, Vienna, 1-5 June
8. CASIN, Center for Applied Studies in International Negotiations (2007), Global Anti-Corruption Efforts: The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations
9. Congressional Research Service (2021), The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA): Background and U.S. Funding
10. Copenhagen Consensus (2015), Post 2015 Consensus
11. Creery, Janet (2004). Read the fine print first, Peace Magazine, Jan–Feb 1994: 20
12. Deni, John R. (2007). Alliance Management and Maintenance: Restructuring NATO for the 21st Century. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing
13. DGC (2021), The United Nations System, available from www.un.org/en/pdfs/un_system-chart.pdf
14. ECOSOC (2020), Economic and Social Council of the General Assembly, Report of the Secretary General
15. Fassbender Bardo (2003), All Illusions Shattered? Looking Back on a Decade of Failed Attempts to Reform the UN Security Council, Max Plank UNYB7
16. Garner Robert (2013), A Theory of Justice for Animals, Oxford University Press, New York
17. Gaucher, Renaud (2021), How to Optimize the Relationship Between Public Spending and Happiness, International Journal of Community Well-Being, Springer
18. General Assembly of the UN (2022), Proposed Program Plan and Budget, Administrative and Budgetary Committee (Fifth Committee)
19. Gordon Nora (2014), Pathways to Security Council Reform, New York University
20. Gower Patrick (2013), Key compromises on UN Syria deal, 3 News NZ
21. Hobbhan Marius (2020), How much animal suffering is there?, available from
https://www.mariushobbhahn.com/2020-08-12-animal_suffering_human_consumption/
22. Hooper Rowan (2021), A trillion dollars to fix the world, New Scientist, 27 February, 38-43
23. Howgego Joshua (2019), How to do Good, New Scientist, 7 December, 42-46
24. Jean Francois (1993), Helfer im Kreuzfeuer, Verlag Dietz, Bonn, Germany
25. Jetschke Anja (2019), The Devil is in the Detail, The Positions of the BRICS Countries towards UN Security Council Reform and the Responsibility to Protect, Oxford Scholarship Online
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27. Narang Neil (2014), Assisting Uncertainty: How Humanitarian Aid can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War, International Studies Quarterly, 1–12
28. NZZ (2024, 18 Jan), Wegschauen mit System, Aburteilen mit Bedacht, p.3
29. NZZ (2024, 24 Jan), China will den Uno-Menschenrechtsrat austricksen, p.18
30. Paul James A. (2010), A Short History of the NGO Working Group, available from www.ngowgsc.org
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32. Rajan, Sudhir Chella (2006), Global Politics and Institutions, GTI Paper Series: Frontiers of a Great Transition
33. Rawls, John (1971), A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
34. Rieff David, Joanne J. Myers (2002), A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis, Carnegie Council
35. Stover Eric and Elena Nightingale (1985), The Breaking of Bodies and Minds, Freeman, New York
36. Thornley Davidia (ed.) (2022), Childfree across the disciplines, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey
37. UNODC (2009), Technical Guide to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Protection and Ethics Unit of UNICRI
38. VanDeVeer Donald (1994), Interspecific Justice, in The Environmental Ethics and Policy Book, edited by Donald VanDeVeer and Christine Pierce, Belmont, Wadsworth, 179-193
39. Weiss Thomas (2005), Overcoming the Security Council Reform Impasse, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
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Quality Control of Non-Governmental Organizations
Percentage spent on overhead
The traditional metrics for ranking charities is the percentage of the organization's budget that is spent on overhead, i.e. charity evaluators focus on the question how much of the contributed funds are used for the purpose claimed by the charity (Charity Assessment, Wikipedia).
Examples:
- Austria: Österreichisches Spendengütesiegel
- Germany: DZI
- Great Britain: Charity Clarity, UK Charity Rankings of YouGov
- Switzerland: ZEWO
- USA: BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, Great Nonprofits, GuideStar, ImpactMatters [Howgego, 45]
Cost effectiveness
More recently some evaluators have placed an emphasis on the cost effectiveness (or impact) of charities.
Examples:
- GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. It focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percentage of the organization's budget that is spent on overhead (GiveWell, Wikipedia).
- Giving What We Can conducts research to determine which charities it recommends for members and other people to support. It differs from other charity evaluators in terms of the importance given to metrics of charity performance. While evaluators such as Charity Navigator use the fraction of donations spent on program expenses versus administrative overhead as an important indicator, Giving What We Can solely focuses on the cost-effectiveness of the charity's work. It believes that the variance in cost-effectiveness of charities arises largely due to the variance in the nature of the causes that the charities operate in, and therefore makes evaluations across broad areas of work such as health, education, and emergency aid before comparing specific organizations. In practice, it recommends a selected few charities in the area of global health. Its work is therefore similar to that of GiveWell (Giving What We Can, Wikipedia)
The assumption that charitable activities are effective is not self-evident, see [Myths and Misconceptions About Charity].
Complex assessments
GiveWell has by its nature been biased towards charities whose outcomes are easily measurable, like health-based interventions. But it recently said it is aiming to begin investigating philanthropy where the outcomes are less easy to measure [Howgego, 44-45].
Also the following organizations are less biased towards charities whose outcomes are easily measurable:
- Giving Evidence (https://giving-evidence.com) [Howgego, 44]
- The Life You Can Save (https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org) [Howgego, 44]
- NGO Advisor (https://www.ngoadvisor.net) uses a journalistic approach to research and reporting
- Philanthropedia, a division of GuideStar. Rankings are based on a combination of in-depth surveys and conversations with experts, including academics, funders, grant makers, policy makers and consultants.
- The EA Center on Long-term Risk (https://longtermrisk.org) informs policy-makers about the risks of emerging technologies.
- The Open Philanthropy Project funds research on global catastrophic risks [Howgego, 45].
An organization for discussing ethical priorities is Algosphere Alliance (https://algosphere.org) a global network dedicated to the alleviation of suffering through collaboration and political mobilization. The decision process in Algosphere is democratic and decentralized.