United Nations: 60 Years of Failure

United Nations anniversary: 60 Years of Failure

HIT BY corruption scandals and accused of failing to prevent
genocidal wars, the United Nations (UN) has little to celebrate on its
60th anniversary.
PAULA MITCHELL explains the role and history of this deeply flawed
institution.

What is the UN?

The UN brings together 191 countries in allegedly shared aims: ‘to
maintain international security, to develop friendly relations between
nations, to co-operate in solving problems and promote human rights’.

In June 1945 representatives of 50 countries met to draw up a United
Nations charter. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October
1945, with 51 member states.

The major powers wanted a controlled form of international
co-operation in order to ensure their world dominance, while at the same
time avoiding the scale of destruction of property, wealth and lives
brought about by world wars.

The ill-starred forerunner of the UN was the League of Nations,
established in 1919, which failed to prevent World War Two.

Is the UN independent?

Many people, including those on the left such as Tony Benn, see the
UN as an independent body rising above the interests of different
nations. Some raised, for example, a UN intervention as an alternative
to US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although, in the early years, the UN forums were dominated by the
‘cold war’ clash of interests between the Soviet Union and the United
States, from its inception the UN has been a tool of imperialism. The
right to own, trade and dispose of property (ie capital) freely is
actually enshrined in the charter on human rights.

Capitalism was restored in the Soviet Union 15 years ago and China is
now increasingly a capitalist system.

The UN is now dominated by the only world superpower, the United
States, and thus also by the interests of the multinational companies
that it represents. The US will use the UN where useful and ignore it
where necessary. Where the UN frustrates the US, for example voting
against war in Iraq, they simply circumvent it.

Peace-keeping

There have been more wars in the world since the founding of the UN
than ever in previous history. Most parts of the world have been riven
by war – Africa, the Middle East, Asia and even Europe (former
Yugoslavia).

The UN’s weakness is illustrated by the fact that it has passed more
than 50 resolutions against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory
and yet the US veto on the security council means they are never acted
on. Secretary-general Kofi Annan was awarded the Nobel peace prize just
before 9/11. Since then, the UN has failed to prevent war on Afghanistan
and Iraq.

The UN is currently engaged in 15 peace-keeping operations around the
world. But it is famous for disastrous operations, such as in Rwanda and
the former Yugoslavia, where thousands were slaughtered while UN
peace-keeping troops stood by.

Human rights

A commitment to human rights was essential following the atrocities
of World War Two. The Declaration on human rights (1948) enshrines the
right to life, liberty, and freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and
expression, and so on. It forbids torture and inhuman or degrading
treatment. It upholds the “inherent right of all people to enjoy and
utilise fully and freely their natural wealth and resources.”

Yet half the world’s 6 billion population are poor, and over one
billion live on less than $1 a day. There are around 15 million refugees
and a further 20 million “displaced persons” (refugees within their own
country). Freedom of movement is denied the hundreds of thousands of
people deported from countries all over the world.

According to The Independent, there is barely any part of the world
where there is not extreme abuse of human rights, from mistreatment by
the police to extra-judicial executions.

US torture and inhuman treatment at Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay have
been exposed. Recently it has been shown how the CIA kidnaps ‘terrorist’
suspects and sends them to countries like Syria and Egypt to be
tortured. And yet the US simply refuses to agree to an International
Court and so avoids any action against it.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959), like many other
pious UN ‘declarations’, stands against the abuse and exploitation of
children and for resources to be devoted to the education and welfare.

Yet 80% of the world’s refugees and displaced people are women and
children. There are 300,000 child prostitutes in the US alone – the
richest country in the world. There are around 300,000 child soldiers, a
third of whom are in Africa.

Humanitarian assistance

The UN claims that humanitarian relief is one of its major functions.
Just this year shows what a sham that is!

A new UN emergency fund was established this summer to respond to
natural disasters. A total was envisaged of £280 million a year. But
just days after this fund was agreed, 1,000s were killed or made
homeless by the failures of the US government to prepare for or respond
to Hurricane Katrina. This new approach has now been put to the test in
the earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir, where the death toll is higher
than necessary because of the appalling rescue and relief effort. Only
£90 million has been pledged of the £320 million the UN says is needed.

Why this failure?

Essentially the UN is a capitalist institution. No matter the
protestations of the smaller powers who try to assert their authority,
the success or failure of the UN depends on the interests of the major
imperialist powers and the greedy multinational companies they
represent.

This is shown by the weaknesses of overtly benevolent organisations
such as the World Health Organisation, part of the UN, whose programmes
include the provision of essential drugs. It has failed to fight the
profit-seeking greed of the multinational drug companies when it comes
to providing drugs to the 40 million people in the world living with HIV
and AIDS.

The UN’s ‘autonomous organisations’ also include the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), both of which are directly
responsible for a third of the debts of the world’s poorest countries,
and insist on economic programmes which have led to large-scale
privatisation, slashing of public spending and the enforced opening up
of markets to multinational vultures.

And the UN is not immune from the methods of capitalism’s underbelly
as the recent scandal involving the UNs Oil-for-Food Programme to Iraq
shows. More than 2,200 companies were involved in the programme who
illegally paid $1.8 billion to Saddam Hussein’s regime in kickbacks. Now
there are new allegations of malpractice in the awarding of UN contracts
relating to the company Compass.

60th anniversary summit

In September, leaders of 150 countries took part in a summit to mark
60 years. The summit was originally called to measure progress on the
‘millennium goals’, the pledges made five years ago to tackle world
poverty. But instead the main issues were the so-called war on terror
and the rejection of attempts by smaller powers to expand membership of
the UN security council.

The leaders of India and South Africa called for reform of the UN
Security Council to address “the gross imbalance of power”. South
African president Thabo Mbeki criticised “rich and powerful nations” for
blocking reform. But therein lies the rub. The “rich and powerful
nations” – essentially the US backed up by Britain and the rest – have
no intention of losing their grip.

Voices were raised in protest at the failures on such fundamental
issues as world poverty, nuclear weapons and the environment. But in
fact goals on all these issues were watered down. It was only after hard
lobbying that the US agreed that the millennium development goals would
even be mentioned in the final declaration.

Nonetheless, the UN proclaims that it is “working to make the world a
better place”. Kofi Annan calls for reform of the UN and says: “The
lives of millions and the hopes of billions rest upon leaders’ pledges
to fight poverty, disease and inequality”.

But these hopes won’t be addressed by reforming the UN. Capitalist
interests inevitably mean the exploitation of billions for the profits
of the few. The breakdown of ‘friendly relations’ and their replacement
by trade wars or real wars is equally inevitable in the pursuit of
profit, power and prestige.

The “lives of millions and the hopes of billions” can only ever
really be solved when those millions and billions take their destinies
into their own hands.

Socialists are in favour of international co-operation – the sharing
of resources, technology and expertise on a scale inconceivable under
this present system. This is impossible unless the world’s wealth and
resources are owned and controlled democratically by the majority in
society.

On that basis we can truly unite nations in the pursuit of security,
freedom and the full enjoyment life for all.