The United Nations has lost its relevance; need its reorganisation.
By Dr.R.D.Mishra
Director,
Greater Noida Productivity Council
Frm Director & Head, National Productivity Council, GOI
rdmishra1234@gmail.com
The United Nations (U.N.) is a global diplomatic and political organization dedicated to International peace and stability. The U.N. was officially established on April 25, 1945 following the horrific events of Second World War, when international leaders proposed creating a new global organization to maintain peace and avoid the abuses of war in the same manner as after First World War leaders proposed the formation of “League of Nations.” Which failed in its objectives? The U.N. initially had just 51 member states; today, the organization, which is headquartered in New York City, has 193 members in which Five Countries having permanent membership in General assembly having VETO power and ten Countries as non-permanent members elected for a period of two years.
According to the document, the United Nations’ four main purposes are to:
(1) To maintain international peace and security.
(2) To develop friendly relations among nations on the basis of equality and the principle of self-determination.
(3) To foster worldwide cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems.
(4) To prevent war from happening, restoring security, protecting people and advancing human development and social progress.
At present the UN has in total 15 plus specialized agencies that carry out various functions on behalf of the UN.
This year 2020 The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary. to this end, a major global debate on the “On the role of International cooperation in building the future we all desire” is launched. Now if we analyse the performance & achievements of UN and its specialised agencies we get more failures than achievements to its credit, which are as such;
1. The very foundation of United Nations with the election of Five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation,(Russia) the United Kingdom, and the United States, and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly (with end of term year): Belgium (2020) Dominican Republic (2020) Estonia (2021) was defective in the sense, out of 15 members in General assembly, why 5 Nations were given VETO power, which has been often misused by members in blocking the interest of other counties and defeating the very objectives of maintaining world peace. Most glaring example is the use of VETO power against India by China, even in the case of declaring international terrorist person like dreaded terrorist Masood Azhar. Why there were no criteria of adding countries in the list of Permanent members over a passage of time on the basis of Countries having Population or Democracy? It is more that 75 years only 10 non permanent members keep on changing that too far a period of TWO years. Why over a passage of time when the whole world has changes, UN did not change; therefore UN in this form is irrelevant in the present day context. Other major failures are Combodia violence during 1975-79, Rawanda Civil war during 1994 in which 5-10 million people died, Kashmir dispute during 1948, still unresolved, abuse of power by nations, etc the list is long. UN has utterly failed in maintaining peace World over, for which it was mandated. Why UN has failed to convey extraordinary meeting of Nations in the case of COVID-19, Pandemic, which according to President US Mr Donald Trumph is Chines Virus.
2. World Health Organisation (WHO) has failed to stop spread of Current Pandemic of COVID-19, which has taken a toll of more than 4 million precious lives World over and more than 20 millions are sufferings apart from bringing untold miseries and weaking of the economy of more than 180 Nations in the World. That is why, USA has preferred to opt out of WHO membership may be other countries will also follow suit. It is suspected that Dr. T.A. Ghebreyesus present Director General was in the knowledge of spread of COVID -19 in China, during Sept-October 2019 but did not bell the alarm, in fact he was dancing at the tune of China before it became too late and the whole World became victim and still suffering. Also in the case of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, WHO was accused of overplaying the danger to member states, which bought a billion doses of vaccines that lay unused, thus wasting billions of dollars? Ebola crisis is another example, the epidemic killed more than 11 000 people and caused an economic loss of more than $2.8 billion for the West African countries.etc If WHO is not able to stop these Pandemic or Epidemic, so there is no use of WHO.
3. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) mandate is to drastically cut the number of deaths by hunger round the world; the situation is the same as a decade ago. World agricultural output has never been so high, yet hunger is still an urgent global problem. Paradoxical though it may seem, by failing to feed the needy, models of intensive farming have already shown just how risky they are.
4. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons: Another inter related agency of UN, has failed to stop proliferation of Chemical weapons in the World. Rich and developed Nations are increasing their budget in this regard and UN has failed to persuade them to stop the race. In fact World is sitting on the heap of Chemical Weapons.
Human Right Commission(HRC) Although HRC is not a inter related agency of UN, but some responsibility in this regard is there as at many occasion UN general assembly has discussed on the Issue, if there is any violation of Human Right is there in Israel, India, and other democratic countries, but never ever any discussion took place in of gross violation of Chinese government’s drive to detain a million or more members of largely Uighur Muslim minority groups in indoctrination camps which is the gross violation of their Human Rights. Now for the first time “National Awaking Movement” along with other association in China has filed a petition in The International Crime Court, The Hague for justice, but I am sure PRC will not care for any decision, as it happened when in 1915 Philippine filed a suit against encroachment of China in South China Sea, The International Court of Justice, in 2016, The Hague delivered a sweeping rebuke on China’s behaviour in the South China Sea, including its construction of artificial islands, and found that its expansive claim to sovereignty over the waters had no legal basis. Then China did not respect the decision instead warned of a military escalation in response to what they denounced as a US ploy to thwart China’s rise. Why not UN intervened and called for meeting in General assembly to discuss the issue, because the VETO power of China.
The author is of the opinion that UN has failed to achieve its objective as it has become the centre of exploitation by rich nations, and this is the right time UN should either reconstitute itself or dissolve as it has failed to serve its purpose. If reconstituted then following points may be worth considering;
1. No VETO power clause.
2. Only democratically elected Government/Country can apply for membership.
3. Total no’s of Permanent membership in the General assembly be 15, subject to review after 20 years each.
4. Total no’s of non-Permanent should be 25, to be elected for every three years in rotation.
5. Population criterion of Country for permanent membership should also be basis.
6. All past International disputes should be resolved amicably
7. No country will believe in the policy of expansionism, if any country does so deterrent economic sanction clause should be imposed including expulsion from UN membership.
Finally we need to have a World consensus on the issue of UN reorganisation for the better implementation for creating a World order “Where each country has a fair chance of to be heard and maintain International Peace and Security for the continuance of mankind and follow the principal of LIVE AND LET LIVE HAPPILY and there should not be any escalation of War and development should be the priority.
So the present UN structure should either be scrapped, or reconstituted a fresh, looking at the present Situation which is the demand of time.
This is the personal opinion of the writer
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