UNITED NATIONS 75TH ANNIVERSARY: CRITICAL ANALYSIS

“The new millennium presents the most appropriate time to review the history of United Nations(UN) institution, its successes and failures, and expectations for its future.” Opinions may differ about the successes and failure of the United Nations as an instrument for world peace and security. But everyone will agree that it has played a crucial role in the economic and social advancement of the people. United Nation’s efforts in the early Cold War era concentrated on the relationships between nations and the issues of war and peace. The UN has confronted with the challenges arising from global interdependence and social and economic inequalities. These new realities served to broaden the scope of UN activities and chart the future course of its global involvements. With the end of the Cold War, international concerns expanded to include the increasing economic competition between developed countries, problems of development, environmental degradation, population growth, and the threat of nuclear proliferation, the violation of human rights, and political fragmentation or civil wars within national boundaries. It is the UN that is called upon to confront these new challenges and to develop solutions. Some, concerned with a potential loss of national autonomy, prefer unilateral to multilateral action. But, because of its mandated principles, many believe that the UN is the only actor capable of tackling such daunting problems, although they are aware of the UN’s inadequacies in putting its principles into action. Thus in the above framework, what should be the role of the United Nations in this new global order? How must the UN be reformed to confront its new challenges? What support should the United States provide for the UN, an institution where it holds significant power? and what lessons have we learned, as an international community, to guide the UN into our future? These are the questions we seek to answer through discussions and debates with United Nations. The focus of the discussions and debates with United Nations are hope that we have for the future, peace, prosperity and a fairer more just world. It was these hopes, which led to the establishment of the United Nations following the Second War to devastate the world in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, we also discuss the topic of hope amidst the despair of the death and destruction due to a COVID-19 pandemic and the questioning of the relevance of the UN.

The Iraq war represents the failure to resolve an international problem through multilateral channels. For the critics of the United Nations, it  represents a failure of that organization. In fact, the UN has been buried many times by critics, but it has survived. It has survived because there would does need a multilateral forum and a framework of international rules to create an order and assist security. Whatever difficulty the UN has in trying to manage divided international opinion over the use of force against Iraq, it is the belief that the UN will be found once more to be essential in managing the post-conflict situation in Iraq. It will be essential firstly in  addressing Iraq’s humanitarian needs. While the UN may have been side-lined by countries opting for unilateral action against Iraq, it is somewhat ironic that it may be called upon to pick up the pieces after the conflict. A range of UN agencies – the World Food  Programme, UNICEF, the UN High Commission for Refugees and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) needs to spring into action to alleviate hardship and suffering of the civilian population. Those challenging the relevance of the UN, also, of course, ignore the critical role it plays in wider areas of  development, human rights, refugees and the environment. 

The United Nations have involved  in Afghanistan for more than fifty years. It works through its  agencies like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), and many more  agencies. Besides it, it also has  been functioning with  international community/organizations. The  United Nations took much more  interest in peacekeeping process  in the 1990s. In this time, the  Taliban came to power in  Afghanistan after the civil war.  The Taliban and Al Qaeda are  famous in Afghanistan for threatening its development and  reconstruction process for  peacebuilding. In the Cold War  era, America was funding these terrorist groups for countering the  Soviet army. After the withdrawal of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR),  the capital  was reduced by the U.S. for these  terrorist groups. They were not  getting any financial support from  outside countries. In 2001, the  terrorist attacked in the United  States. This attack made a threat  to Western nations. These  countries came to close and  supported by any means of  sources in America. In 2001, the  America attacked Afghanistan for  combating insurgency groups. It was support for removing the  Taliban from power. After the fall  of the Taliban in 2001, the global  associations/group attempted the monstrous endeavours to help the  Afghan Government in recreating,  advancement, peacebuilding and  the social improvement  circumstance. The United States  started many programs in  Afghanistan in which the  UNAMA and UNDP play a vital  role in these fields of  reconstruction, development, and  peacebuilding. The UNDP  provided a channel and secured  transparent financial and  management oversight for funds  from a range of donors to the  fragile country because their  institutions are weak and  insufficient management capacity.  The UNDP has been dynamic in  the majority of the key fields  identified with the usage of the  Bonn Agreement understanding.  It ultimately upheld the more  great United Nation Security Council command. The extensive  recuperation and recreation  exertion in Afghanistan are  enormous and muddled. It’s due to a joint effort with the Afghan  government includes U.N. offices,  reciprocal contributors, universal  associations, and neighbourhood   and worldwide non-legislative  associations(NGOs). The related  guide projects in the United States  and its European partners  concentrate on an expansive scope  of exercises, from fortifying the  focal and nearby administrations of Afghanistan and its security  strengths to advancing non military personnel reproduction,  diminishing corruption, and helping with decisions. The scope  and geographic achieve the  UNDP’s program in Afghanistan  severely constrained by security  concerns. The approach of UNDP  had all the earmarks of  constructing less in light of an  orderly examination of the  contention and a technique  tending to the necessary  components of long haul  peacebuilding, and to a greater  extent, an administration introduction drove by the requests  of the global group and later, the  between time Afghan approves. Be that as it may, UNDP has given broad support to the UNAMA in the significant zones of state building. The United Nations accomplish through the international community in Afghanistan for reconstructing peace-building process has have little success in achieving sustainable peace. 

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P), the global commitment adopted at the 2005 United Nations World Summit had been central to the international discourse on how to respond to mass atrocity crimes in Syria. Despite the acrimonious debate surrounding the UN Security Council-mandated intervention in Libya in 2011, individual states, regional organizations and UN agencies have struggled to find ways and means of upholding their responsibility to protect the people of Syria. Public censure of atrocities committed by both government forces and armed opposition groups, as well as bilateral sanctions, investigations by the UN Human Rights Council and a Joint Monitoring Mission deployed during the failed 2012 ceasefire, stand as examples of international efforts to confront atrocities in Syria. But it has not been enough. The Responsibility to Protect is an international norm, but it does not possess independent agency. The failure to end atrocities and protect civilians in Syria is not a failure of R2P, but of the imperfect actors and institutions charged of the Syrian government to stop killing its own people. As since responsibility rests with the one body entrusted and mandated by the 193 members of the United Nations with the maintenance of international peace and security – the United Nations Security Council. Despite resolutions that led to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile and improved access to the 12.2 million suffering Syrian civilians who remain in desperate need of humanitarian  assistance, political divisions and partisan interests within the Security Council have been an insurmountable obstacle. In particular, Russia and China had  on four separate occasions  employed their vetoes to block action in response to mass atrocity crimes in Syria, including a May 2014 draft resolution that would have referred the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court. As this paper shows, each veto strengthened impunity and encouraged the expansion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

No other organization is able to confront the plethora of cross-border challenges: global diseases including HIV/AIDS, avian influenza viruses, swine influenza viruses, canine influenza viruses, equine influenza viruses, etc. Influenza and best known diseases – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), COVID-19, Mad Cow, malaria and TB  – in the past & recent century, climate change,  environmental degradation, refugee issues, people smuggling, human right, poverty and hunger. It is how it responds to these cross-border challenges. The UN system continues to the international norms by which every member state should abide. In today’s globalizing world, no member state, no matter how powerful it is, can disengage from multilateralism entirely. The UN remains a relevant organisation  and will continue to have a central role to play in the 21st century. Notwithstanding media criticism of the United Nations, what seems  to be forgotten is that the  organisation is only as strong as  the will of its member states. The  United Nations system relies on  the collective will of all its  members. It is these member states  that set its priorities. The UN cannot act without their consent.  It falls therefore upon us all to make the UN relevant in today’s world. In this regard, the United Nations and its members are very aware of the shortcomings of the  organisation. For the UN to meet its potential it needs to reform. It  needs to better prioritise its work  to meet the needs of member  states. This was the essence of the  Secretary General’s second term  reform initiative, which seeks to  strengthen the organisation to  better respond to the priorities  established in the Millennium  Declaration and to meet the needs  of Member States. The United  Nations is not a perfect  organisation, but it remains true  that any nation-state can achieve  far less in isolation than it can  working collectively with other  states under UN auspices. The  Secretary-General envisaged his role as an intermediary and a person who manages peace institutions and also brought about new techniques to the process of  peacekeeping.  The UN elucidated  what human rights is for the international community. It  played an important part in the  decolonisation process by giving  formal recognitions to the newly  independent and formed  countries, and also by aiding them  in their economic and social  development. The UN also played  a huge role in the formation of  international law. By conducting  many international conferences,  the UN progressed towards  building an international consensus on major global  problems such as population,  environment, women’s status,  development, human rights and  such other basic concerns. The  UN specialised agencies steered  major normative and regulatory  arrangements in their respective  fields of activities and also gave  humanitarian aid in many crisis-riddled parts of the globe. More  recently, in spite of many  limitations on resources and  manpower, the UN has somehow  responded to a considerable rise  in the demand for peacekeeping  forces and other emergency  operations in the world. However,  in spite of the reasonably good  record of the UN, it is the organisation’s drawbacks that  receive the highest attention.  Many members have remarked  about the UN’s disappointing  performance but without  acknowledging the fact that the  organisation can only be as effective as the governments’  allowance of it. No doubt the UN  has deficiencies, but it is generally  made a scapegoat of the pitfalls of  the member states. Today,  safeguarding human security in its  broadest sense mandates a fresh  approach both by the UN and the governments. In the context of enhancing the capacity of the UN to tackle emergencies, there is a  need to clarify and rethink its use  of military force. Also, the UN response to many problems like  resource exhaustion, population  explosion, environmental  degradation and migration is yet  to be completely articulated.  Many grave social problems such  as women’s position, unemployment of youth, cultural  diversity, education and  technology impact are being  addressed only now. The UN has  not as yet been able to deal  effectively with such global economic issues as currency  instability, indebtedness,  protectionism, and inequitable  commercial relations. It the  Organization is to realize its potential in the world of the  twenty-first century. It’s members  must recognize and resolve a  paradox caused by the altered  condition of the world. The  association of sovereign states set  up seventy five years ago to “save succeeding generations from the  scourge of war” is now expected to function as the public service sector of a world community that  does not exist as a political entity.  In virtually all of its activities,  from peacekeeping to  development, from human rights  to environmental accords, the  United Nations is being asked to play a larger role and to assume fresh responsibilities at a time  when governments are increasingly anxious to reduce their financial contributions, and  increasingly reluctant to provide the necessary political, military  and material support.  Governments will only give the  needed support if they see the  United Nations as essential for  advancing their interests in an  effective and appropriate manner.  Grappling with their current  concerns, governments can not be expected to invest in totally new formulas of international organization or world  government. The Independent  Working Group on the Future of  the United Nations was convened  by the Ford Foundation in late  1993 at the request of former Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali  to reassess the role, mission, and  function of the United Nations.  The Working Group’s Report,  The United Nations in Its Second  Half – century was presented to  the Secretary-General and  released to the public in 1995.  The working group was chaired  by Moeen Qureshi, former Prime  Minister of Pakistan, and Richard  von Weiszacker, former President  of Germany. Throughout these  Report, it has been repeatedly stressed the need for the Member  States to provide the leadership,  common will and purpose which  are necessary to create a more  effective United Nations as it  enters its next fifty years. The  future United Nations System  Change will not come easily. A  great gulf often exists between  what is ideal and what is politically possible. For now, the key to progress is to understand  the paradox which confronts the  UN, and to work more effectively  through existing mechanisms or,  where further change is necessary,  to improve those mechanisms. The UN’s galaxy of organizations  must be made to operate as an  integrated system within the framework of agreed policies. Its activities, including peacekeeping,  development and social programs,  must complement each other. Its  work has to gain a greater  understanding among the private and nongovernmental sectors, the  public and the media. These goals  are reachable. Indeed, they must be reached soon, if the United Nations is the fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the  world whom it was set up to serve. What might a successful UN system look like some decades hence, when our children and  grandchildren confront these global challenges? Such a vision need not imply a total transformation of today’s world. 

Copyrights ©️ 
OBSERVERTIMES GLOBAL NEWSNETWORK PRIVATE LIMITED reserves the rights to all content contained within its official website: www.observertimes.in / Online Magazine/ Publications

Related posts

Leave a Comment