This year of 1985 marks the fortieth year of the United Nations. As a contribution to the discussions in the context of this event, we published earlier in the autumn an advance offprint of Marc Nerfin’s The Future of the United Nations System: Some Questions on the Occasion of an Anniversary’, the opening article of this issue of Development Dialogue. A considerable number of copies were distributed and it has already aroused great interest among the many non-governmental organizations concerned with the global issues of our time and within the United Nations System itself. Out of the five major issues raised by Marc Nerfin, particular attention has been paid to the question ‘Can the UN give voice to all social actors?’ and to the proposal for a three-Chamber UN: one Chamber representing the governments, or first system, another the economic power, or second system, and another the people and their associations, or third system.
Such an arrangement, which could make global decision-making accountable to the world’s citizens, is not easily achieved but merits careful consideration. Modest first steps could be the systematic inclusion of representatives from all three categories in the delegations to the UN General Assembly as well as in the delegations to different UN conferences.