By Lindsay Kline
The United Nations is an ineffective institution failing to meet its mandate to ““maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations and promote social progress, better living standards and human rights.” In an increasingly globalized world, the U.N. is finding itself irrelevant due to numerous failures and discrepancies within the institution itself. While the rest of the world continues to move forward into the 21st century, the U.N. is being left behind due to dated mandates and methods of dealing with conflict. Reformation is needed to essentially recreate the institution established to police the world so that their resources and mandate can find relevance in the post 9/11 world we inhabit.
After the Cold War, the United Nations gained recognition from the international community that gave it precedence in dealings of war and peace. But much has changed since the early 1990’s: we are now in need of an institution that will intervene in intrastate conflicts rather than conflicts between states. The events in countries such as Rwanda, Darfur, the Congo and Somalia exemplify how the UN had failed to maintain peace and securityin countries dealing with internal conflicts such as genocide. Chapter eight of the charter addresses regional arrangements and takes a non-partisan position in dealing with conflict within countries. Given the nature of conflicts prevalent today, this aspect of the charter should be amended to allow intervention. Otherwise, the international community will continually find itself saying “Never Again!”
An examination of more recent conflicts such as in Georgia in 2008 provides evidence that U.N. mandates have become outdated in their ability to problem solve. The United Nations Observer Mission over Georgia (UNOMIG) was dissolved in 2009 due to the Security Council refusing to adopt an extending mandate in the region. As stated by Alexander Lomaia, the Georgian representative to the U.N, “the Russian Federation’s rejection of the mission was not an isolated act, but part of a larger strategy…to roll back the international presence in Georgia.” The U.N. peacekeeping forces left Georgia on June 15, 2009 in a state of hostility. Conflict remains between the South Ossetia and Georgian-Abkhaz regions that have led to a deteriorating ceasefire, hundreds of displaced people and a “precarious situation” as stated by the U.N.’s department of Public Information.
There’s also the problem of membership within the UN. The Security Council has five permanent members with ten rotating members; all are responsible for ensuring the prompt action of the UN by means of delegating authority to the General Assembly. There are problems that come with this: the permanent five members are the post-Cold War super powers that would not settle for anything less than a special status. Why does this status need to continue into 2010 when there are other superpowers entering the world stage such as Brazil, China and India? Furthermore, the veto power given to the permanent five directly contradicts the goal of equality that the U.N. strives for. The situation presented by the power of the veto causes conflict between the U.N. and great powers, as well as between the great powers themselves. For example, the United States and Soviet Union veto showdown in the Cold War left both countries using their veto power just for the sake of having it, thus, leading to a time where no progress was made.
Issues regarding U.N. membership and its effectiveness have materialized into measures being taken by the institution itself to reform. In 2008, Ban Ki-Moon stated, “Every day we are reminded of the need for a strengthened United Nations…I am determined to breathe new life and inject renewed confidence into a strengthened United Nations firmly anchored in the twenty-first century, and which is effective, efficient, coherent and accountable.” While progress has been made in terms of U.N. transparency and the revamping of finances there are problems all over the world requiring attention. For this reason, the UN remains an ineffective institution unable to address issues of today due to the irrelevance of its very mandate. The glimmer of hope, however, is that they are not ignorant of their inability to make a difference, thus providing the global community with optimism that reformation will once again make them a relevant institution able to make a difference in the 21st century.
No comments:
Post a Comment