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Media Magelang - As the United Nations (U.N) enters its 76th anniversary, the organization has stood the test of time amid the growing challenges and problems.
On 24 October 1945, the United Nations was established two months before the end of World War II.
The organization’s first General Assembly was held on 10 January 1946 with then 51 original members attending it.
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The first General Assembly enacted its resolution calling for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the elimination of atomic energy as weapons of mass destruction.
The U.N biggest achievements
The world’s largest organization was set up to replace the League of Nations—set up in 1919—after it failed to prevent World War II.
Despite criticism that the U.N failed to stop the bloodshed in several places like Syria and Yemen, the organization has accomplished a lot, from ending famine to the introduction of peacekeeping role when Dag Hammarskjöld was the U.N Secretary-General.
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“The United Nations has accomplished a lot, in fact, during its existence, accomplishments that sometimes seem less remarkable than they are in part due to the idealism attached to the institution. It would be hard to not fall short of such lofty goals as universal peace!,” historian and author Sean T.Byrnes told Media Magelang in an emailed interview on 22 October.
He later added: “UN organizations have played a key role in humanitarian assistance across the world, both proactively (in attempting to wipe out diseases like Guinea Worm, for example) and in response to crises like war, famine and natural disasters. It recently negotiated a deal with the Taliban to bring COVID-19 vaccines to Afghanistan for example. “
Also, the presence of the United Nations Convention Law of the Seas (UNCLOS)—introduced in 1982—was considered one of the world institution’s major success stories as the law defines terms like exclusive economic zone (EEZ), new procedures for marine sources’ protection.
However, the UNCLOS does not protect oceans beyond any state’s control. In 2016, the international tribunal in The Hague rejected China’s claim over the South China Sea based on UNCLOS, triggering Beijing’s protest.
The U.N failures
Nothing’s flawless in the world, including the U.N. The failures of stopping genocides in Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica (1995 after the break-up of Yugoslavia) have raised questions over the role of the U.N peacekeeping operation in war-torn areas.
Then-U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed that the U.N failures to prevent mass killing in Rwanda and Srebrenica were due to the organization’s serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality.”
It is not easy to pinpoint the main cause of the organization’s failures given several factors—from the leadership to poor management and inefficiency.
The corruption implicating the oil-for-food program in Iraq and child sex abuse in Congo are among the U.N most embarrassing scandals.
Challenges and the need for reform
International law professor Dr Victor Emilion Corzo Aceves told Media Magelang in a Zoom interview on 23 October that the U.N is facing lots of challenges nowadays and the conflicting interests among the organization’s members—especially the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) complicates the effort for reform.
“The United Nations is facing a lot of challenges is going to be a very complex environment that we will be facing in the future. But we have to realize that it is not up to the organization, but it is up to the will of the founding members,” the expert who served as a seasoned diplomat at the Mexico Foreign Ministry stated.
The veto rights were initiated during the negotiation for the creation of the U.N involving the U.S, the U.K and then-Soviet Union at Dumbarton Oaks (August-October 1944) and Yalta (1945).
China joined later and the four countries’ leaders at that time agreed on a consensus principle.
Every year, the UN General Assembly elects five incoming out of ten UNSC non-permanent members that serve for two years.
Corzo praised the role of other non-permanent members of the UNSC such as Japan and Germany as well as India, stressing the importance of expanding the UNSC membership.
“However, I think it is impossible to remove veto powers despite the mounting criticism and several proposals. It is not easy for those five countries to lose such a privilege,” Corzo stated, adding that different interests of the five UNSC permanent members have often complicated the situation.
For example, Russia has several times vetoed the UNSC resolution addressing the decade-long Syria conflict to protect its closest ally, Bashar al-Assad.
Indonesia has been chosen as the UNSC non-permanent member four times. In the UNGA 2019, Indonesia and Germany passed a UNSC resolution that extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for a year until 2020.
"So that veto power obviously has a burden. This burden is that these states have their more vocal in the solution of transnational problems. Also, it's a recognition that those states are the ones with more power, like a hard power, and they have more influence in other countries," Corzo wrapped the interview.***
