United Nations | Why it should be abolished

United Nations

Why it should be abolished

"It is a shame that this Council continues to stand by rather than to stand up,"

The United Nations was to stand as a beacon of world peace and social progress, rising from the ashes of the second world war and the failed League of Nations. What has happened?

The United Nations is meant to protect civilian rights and maintain world peace through cooperation of the international community, but has instead become one of the most ineffective, slow and disappointing organisations in the world. The United Nations exists to promote economic and social growth, maintain peace and protect human rights yet recent events in Syria, Gaza, and the Ukraine suggest the UN is once again not doing it’s set out job. The UN not only fails to intervene in important conflicts to save civilian lives, but also fails to intervene successfully when it does. The UN actually has more negative consequences and effects by existing as it gives people a false sense of security about world cooperation.

The UN was founded after World War Two in the aim of maintaining peace by allowing countries to collaborate on issues so international affairs could be conducted more diplomatically than the political power plays before. It followed the unsuccessful League of Nations which had failed to prevent an aggressive Nazi Germany from war by using appeasement of Czechoslovakian land to be taken and aswell as allowing Anschluss. In it’s short lifespan, the League of Nations failed to prevent the invasion of Manchuria by Japan, the invasion of Ethiopia by Italy’s Benito Mussolini in which chemical weapons were used, and World War Two which led to the massive loss of life of 60,000,000 people. The structure of the LoN prevented action as all countries had to agree to the resolution for it to be passed. Additionally not all countries were invited to the LoN so its power and scope were limited. The United Nations tried to fix these power issues which prevented change. The structure of the UN was designed to correct the failures of the League of Nations. It was made up of representatives from all countries and resolutions didn’t have to be accepted by all to pass. A crucial mistake however was the UN Security Council which can veto any decision of the UN. Russia, America, China, France and Britain are all permanent members of the Security Council. This Security Council is the main reason the UN is so ineffective.

Recent events in Syria show the lack of power the UN actually has due to Security Council vetoing power. Russia is heavily associated with Syria and so the UN was unable to pass any resolutions due to Russia vetoing all decisions. This is significant because early intervention in the Syrian civil war could have prevented 200,000 deaths and over 5,000,000 refugees which is causing problems for the neighbouring countries of Syria such as Jordan and Lebanon as well as the UN who now have to care for these refugees in massive refugee camps. America was able to somewhat intervene in Syria through the form of drone strikes on military targets however this is the kind of actions the UN was trying to prevent by being the world’s policeman. The In exists to enable the international community to cooperate together rather than individual countries actions. The discovery of chemical weapons being used in Syria which is against international law could only be watched by the UN as Russia vetoed all decisions. Agreements with Syria were made to remove “declared” chemical weapons from their possession however they have since been used again. Not all chemical weapons were declared. The Security Council impedes progress of UN action through veto power which halts intervention.

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 details the gross inability of the United Nations to carry out its sworn duty to maintain peace and security. High tension between the Hutu mobs and Tutsi minorities resulted in the UN being warned of the imminent threat of genocide via a message sent by cable. The UN ignored this message and the genocide began. Furthermore, UN peacekeepers abandoned a school where thousands had flocked for security and many Tutsi were killed as a result. One million Rwandans were killed in the genocide due to the UN’s failure to successfully intervene. This equated to roughly 20% of their population. In this situation both human rights and peace were being infringed on yet the UN still refused to act and ignored despite there not being political conflict which would have prevented intervention.

Another example of United Nations ineffectiveness is Ukraine where war is killing many civilians. The United Nations is unable to intervene due to Russia vetoing power as Russia are set to gain from the pro-Russian separatists. This is even more evident in the recent crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 where 298 civilians were killed after a passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine presumably by Russian separatists. The UN also don’t have the power to go in and help investigate the crash as Russia would veto any resolutions as Russia don’t want to be linked to the separatists. You can not have the UN as a world policeman when you have corrupt cops using the rules of international laws to their own gain. The UN should be able to intervene in Ukraine and help, as these terrorists try to take control. All they can do is try and put weak sanctions on Russia in an effort to persuade them to not help pro-Russian separatists which barely hurts Russia.

Peacekeeping troops in war torn developing countries is one example the negative consequences of UN intervention. United Nations peacekeepers are meant to represent peace and safety yet there are reports from Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, Haiti, and Mozambique that revealed a shocking trend. Child prostitution rose rapidly in all areas. The UN did not condemn the peacekeepers as they feared public shaming would discourage nations from joining peace keeping forces. Peacekeepers have fathered an estimated 24,500 babies in Cambodia and 6,600 in Liberia. 100 Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti were expelled for sexually exploiting under-age girls. 7 billion annually is spent on peacekeeping by the UN yet this money is put to waste on peacekeepers who abuse the population they are meant to be protecting.

Another example of UN failure was the Bosnian genocide in which the UN failed to enforce its own set out beliefs of protecting human rights. The Bosnian genocide took place in the 1992-1995 in the Bosnian war where over 8,000 Bosniaks were killed despite UN intervention. The introduction of Dutch UN peacekeepers into the town of Srebrenica actually had more negative consequences than positive as the peacekeepers declared a safe zone for Bosniaks from the Serbs and then failed to protect the zone when the Serbs invaded resulting in the deaths of thousands of Bosniaks. Recently, a court case found the Dutch responsible for the deaths of at least 300 people but were likely responsible for the deaths of many more. This shows even when the UN intervene they fail to act responsibly and effectively, to do their job and protect civilians. This ineffectiveness when deployed could explain why the don’t intervene much, because they know even though their international forces are very powerful, soldiers don’t have the motivation to protect a country other than their own, even if it means loss of civilian life in the struggling county.

Some argue that the world has improved socially and economically since the creation of the United Nations. However, much of the international progress made since 1945 has not involved the UN at all. The Cold War and mutually assured destruction kept the peace between the great powers, while organisations such as the IMF, World Bank, GATT and the WTO have functioned independently of the UN in promoting greater growth.

If the UN is to continue to function it needs an urgent change in structure to abolish permanent members of the Security Council and replace with temporarily members which rotate. Going further to remove the Security Council would be more appropriate as then all countries in the UN have equal power and can all vote and determine the actions to world issues. Removing this Security Council would make Russia unable to stop the rest of the world intervening in Ukraine and Syria resulting in thousands of lives being saved. However doing this is easier said than done as big countries would alway feel entitled to be on the Security Council and if the council was made up of smaller countries they may listen even less to the UN and what it enforces. UN recommendations are often not enforced and when they are it is usually because bit countries such as America stand behind them as they can block imports and stop exports. Indeed New Zealand does not enforce many UN recommendations such as those regarding child labour working age in New Zealand. In many other countries you have to be 16 to work under UN regulations but this is likely not done in New Zealand because of our agricultural sector.  Removing the power of large countries could potentially make the UN more in effective as the whole world gets a say.

The UN is meant to be the world’s policeman, yet countries don’t listen to him, they veto his rules and he is unable to stop the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. While the UN has little actual power, the influence of the UN gives people a false sense of change in this world when international cooperation is still not happening on acceptable levels. The UN has made good strides on things such as water quality and african nations yet this is not its main job of protecting civilians. This false sense of progress is perhaps more damaging than not having cooperation as people become content with the worlds situation in the belief action is taking place which is effectively improving it. I wish that the UN could live up to the bold claims it was set out to do, but unfortunately just like the League of Nations, history is repeating itself.

Tim Armstrong