As the United Nations clocks 70 after the historic signing of the San Francisco Charter, humanity reflects on the forces that made the creation of the world body expedient, and fears that social crises in member countries all tend to reassemble same old forces that led to world wars, writes Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO.
Last month, precisely June 26, the United Nations Secretariat observed the 70th anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Treaty of 1945 after the end of World War 2. The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon announced that starting from August this year, the secretariat would embark on series of events till next year, to mark the anniversary.
One of such events was the presentation of one world multilingual essay competition sponsored by the UN Academic Impact (UNAI), for university students to share their views on sustainable development agenda in a language other than their own. In the essay contest, students are asked to participate in any of the six UN official languages that is not their mother tongue. Seventy students will be chosen to come to the UN and present their ideas of how they perceive the United Nations General Assembly.
The symbolism of students’ essay writing seems a fitting imagery of UN’s campaign for a united world where basic rights of individuals and states are guaranteed under the rule of law.
Birth of UN
The World War 2 led Britain, United States and USSR to begin the original declaration signed by 26 nations in January 1942 as a formal act of opposition against Germany, Italy and Japan, known as the axis powers. The summit was attended by some 50 nations. From the declaration, UN replaced the League of Nations. It has a principal organ known as the Security Council of 15 members, out of which five (Britain, U.S.A., France, China and USSR now Russia) are permanent members with unreserved veto powers over resolutions of the General Assembly. It has powers to declare peace and war as well as legalise or annul international laws.
According to diverse opinions, UN has served largely the purpose for its emergence: prevention of another world war, of the type that claimed millions of lives and involved many alliances. Yet to others, it has not achieved peace; rather it has made itself an instrument by same big powers that fought the world wars to advance their individual causes whenever their interest is at stake.
A forum of international scholars called International Debate Education Association, carpeting the world body for inability to stop many wars that wracked the world since the end of the world wars, stated in a recent article that: “UN was set up for the express purpose of preventing global wars, yet it has done absolutely nothing to prevent them.
“UN has served merely as a forum for countries to abuse each other rather than resolve disputes peacefully.”
It cited the case of Iraq in 2003 where UN resolutions, it alleged, were misused.
An expert in international relations, writing under the aegis of the famous Global Policy Forum, Professor John Tinsel, insists: “Largely, the United Nations has achieved its original intentions.”
It was the view of the U.S. professor that: “UN has succeeded in preventing the type of wars that annihilated much of mankind during the first and second world wars. Series of conventions and protocols have over the past three decades reduced the stockpile of nuclear arsenals by the victorious powers. The period of cold war marked one of Washington’s pragmatic forages in international affairs, and it helped reduce the potential for the former axis powers to re-launch aggression to the world.”
Since 1945, the UN has ratified landmark treaties and conventions such as the Bill of Rights. It has also marked days for global observance of mankind’s most troubling issues, as a means of keeping those issues alive in public discourse and policy mainstreams. Such include: International Human Rights Day, World Malaria Day, International Day of the Child and International Women’s Day (to remind autocratic nations and gender-bias authorities of the need to empower women and recognise their roles in society). There are countless such memorable days on issues of mankind’s well-being and safety today.
Other milestones
Notwithstanding the bashing the world body receives regularly from countries finding it difficult to disengage religion from statecraft, the world body has been able to contain the escalation of sundry regional conflicts around the world from metamorphosing into continental alliances.
Dr. Arthur Mbanefo, one time Nigerian representative to the UN, says: “The UN has been able to contain regional conflicts from snowballing out of control, unlike what would have been the case 50 or 60 years ago. This is because there is the consciousness to promote prosperity in preference to conflicts arising from territorial expansion, which was the remote cause of the first and second world wars. A greater percentage of the populace, after seeing the benefit of pluralism that is democracy, open governance, diminishing dictatorships in many countries, and the obvious beauty of democracy and economic liberalisation.
“Though the concepts of pluralism and free market are still causing problem in some developing and developed countries of the world, the problems are not as profound as to threaten global peace as was the case in the 1940s.”
He supposes that nations today are more concerned about how to catch up in development and mitigate geo-influences from the rich nations.
“I think that is the major pre-occupation now than wars and territorial expansion,” he added.
According to him, most of the conflicts today have their root in economics rather than mere territorial acquisition which triggered the world wars of 1918 and 1932.
Other milestones the UN could boast about as it marks its founding day include the paradigm shift towards economic well-being of member nations, which its successive scribes have been able to construct.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda has become a development template of many member nations in ensuring that dividends of governance reach more and more people. By UN mandate, every country has MDGs office to ensure inclusive development policies that cater for all classes.
A development economist, Dr. Godwin Nzeaka, described MDG as “a policy designed with bias for those outside the pull of economic levers brought about by globalisation and transnationalism who are disadvantaged from development matrix. Federal state/counties and local government areas have MDGs offices.
Currently, the UN system is promoting development in various parts of the world, making an average annual commitment of about $10 billion. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is involved in at least 170 countries as development partners in multi-faceted sectors of these sovereign economies, more than three quarters of such involvements in Africa and Asia. It currently supports some 5,000 projects around the world. World Bank, UN’s chief finance institution, has $133 billion commitment in member nations’ economies, while the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) commits an average of $800 million annually in diverse member nations’ problems such HIV/AIDS, immunisation, malaria combat and education.
The body is also actively involved in peace-keeping operations globally.
Challenges
It is clear that the UN may not have totally succeeded in creating the perfect world order it dreamed about, though terrorism in many parts of the world and the spectre of sectarian nuisances which wear a dual confounding toga as misguided liberation project, and simultaneously as a murderous misogyny tend to tar its noble efforts and intentions.
But certainly, it has a roadmap for it, judging by the agenda its current Secretary-General has pursued in the last nine years. Under Ki-moon, attention of rich nations has been drawn to the problems of poorer nations. Such global problems, which are not within the financial bite of more than half UN membership in developing and under-developed nations have been quietly thrown towards the table of the rich nations: environmental reclamation, multinational building of coalition forces against terrorism and the pre-emptive strategies of ameliorating global warming are some of the landmark people-centred initiatives the UN has accomplished.
Anyhow it is viewed, UN has more than fulfilled and justified its existence, at least as a supreme parliament for everyone to come forward and shout without fear of molestation.