Reform of the United Nations

¶ … United Nations, the Unwanted Nobodies and this tells you much about its status in the world.

The UN has been implicated in a good deal of corruption and scandal. It has been said to be political, to be bigoted, to evidence cowardice and fail its responsibilities, to misappropriate its resources, and to misuse judgment. These have been only a few -- and the weakest -- of the accusations leveled against this not particularly effective institution.

The UN has failed, time and again, to intervene in major world crisis when it was most needed. Rather than stand their ground with Egypt for instance during the six-day war, it deserted the region, and it demonstrated this same behavior time and again during the African genocides. Similarly, too, the UN showed its ineffectiveness during the crisis with Iraq, becoming a puppet in the hands of France and Russia who tried to use it against the U.S.A.

In 2003, 60% of Americans polled believed that the United Nations is doing a "poor job" (americans-world.org .) That statistic has risen since then. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, disappeared as a result of symptoms similar to those that the UN is evidencing. If the UN wishes to continue and thrive, it needs to do a major turnaround. And to perpetrate that turnaround, it needs to reform.

The UN, it has been noted, is weak in six main areas. Consequently, it is these six areas that need to be reformed. These are:

1. International Security

The UN should pose an effective presence in deterring global threat and in increasing universal security. This includes deterring weapons of mass destruction. The UN has demonstrated a track record that indicates the reverse, withdrawing during times of danger in order to protect their own members.

Furthermore, consistent conflict and arguments within their organization have further fractured it and resulted in its ineffectiveness.

2. Needed: stance against terrorism

The UN should take an active stance against terrorism rather than leaving it up to the U.S. And other independent countries to look out for their own interests. The UN should actively prevent and inhibit terrorism by revising its charter to permit pre-emptive action against rogue nations and to actively ferret out and destroy terrorist movements.

At the moment, the right of member states to use force against terrorism is too narrowly drawn in the Charter. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter states: "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations...." (http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml)

This is too narrowly drawn since it avoids the instance of states preempting potential attacks and being on the defensive. Secondly, the Charter refuses to recognize the instance of threat being issued in another instance aiding that "against a Member of the United Nations." Force may have to be used in that case too, but the Charter does not address this.

3. U.S. Funding for the U.N.

Funding should be more equitably distributed amongst the UN nations. At the moment, the UN has arbitrarily distributed the level of funding that it has taxed certain nations with some paying more than others. This is right in terms of certain countries, but there are others who can afford to be pay more and they are being charged a minimal level. The U.S., too, is forced to contribute more than any other permanent member, whilst non-permanent members pay little.

4. U.N. Bureaucracy.

This is a mess and has virtually become a sinecure. It should be streamlined and made more effective. In 2006, it was estimated that the U.N. employed over 56,000 staff (The Heritage Found.) Most of these Staffa are underworked and overpaid and are housed all over. The various Secretaries General too engage in a power struggle at the cost of United Nations programs and operations that are mismanaged as a result. It has also been recorded that huge resources of money that have been pegged for particular causes have been misallocated and not reached their intended locations.

5. Human Rights

The UN should become more effective and truthful as well as less biased in its advancing human rights. Its subjectivity and biased reporting, as well as untruths and inability to intervene has made it and its subunits a mockery. UNRWA, for instance, that has exponential zed the number of Palestinian refugees and has been held majorly responsible for the Palestinian problem (Kushner, 2005) as well as the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) have brought the UN's name down into the mud. The UNCHR has not only been chaired by Libya (!) but also became notorious for its appeasement of brutal dictatorships in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Libya, Cuba, Syria, and Sudan are countries that sponsor terrorism. Nonetheless, the UN has placed each of them as members of the Commission on Human Rights.