Wednesday, June 22, 2011

United Nations' Dismal Record

The United Nations is on track to celebrate its 66th year of representing the best interests of the world, in promoting peace and harmony and human rights, protecting the liberty, health and aspirations of the very fractious world we live in. It is a noble calling, and one that was thought to be necessary to herald a new, enlightened world where the universal values that we place trust in would be recognized by all world leaders who would be prepared to champion them and bring value to their countries and their citizens.

The achievement of equality between men and women, the recognition of basic human rights and peoples' entitlement to all of the democratic freedoms that the socially advanced countries of the world have adopted; the respect of all religions with the freedom to practise one's own ideology and the expectation that hostility toward one another should be a lamentable burden of the past reflected in history's ghosts of blemished and shameful events that saddened and mortified civilized societies.

Something happened on the way to the forum of global enlightenment and the resolve to bring the world to tolerance and harmony. Human nature intervened. It quarrelled with the concept of universal verities. It insisted that not all other societies were worthy of equal consideration. That only their religion and their cultural values were genuine and worthwhile. And it became clear that they, with their histories brought into the present for constant replication, their xenophobic tribal proclivities and hostilities gave proof to the adage that a tiger doesn't change its stripes.

And nor does humankind. Distrust of the 'other', hubristic entitlement reflecting the glory of one's own heritage and culture, the demeaning of others, and violent settlements of disagreements through warfare was meant to continue, regardless of the most noble of intentions. The small contingent of civilly advanced societies with their democratic values were the minority whose vision gave birth to the League of Nations, then the United Nations which gradually absorbed additional countries for membership.

The majority membership of the United Nations is comprised now of non-democratic countries of the world, including those who declare themselves to be politically democratic but of a nature scarcely recognizable as such, led by tyrants and autocrats. And the failures of the United Nations have become too numerous to count in its inability to refrain from becoming as fractious as the natures of the nations represented. The aura of respect and deference that body now enjoys reflects a veneer of purpose that its actual accomplishments belie.

And nowhere is that failure more evident than the two areas where its work on behalf of peace and human rights have failed to produce meaningful approaches to solve the monumental issues of the day. Despite sanctions and reproaches and peace-keeping interventions the United Nations has been unable to forestall national and intra-country slaughters of immense proportions. The world has looked on as the United Nations metaphorically wrings it hands in despair over civil wars and despots who violate the human rights of their societies.

And because the greater proportion of the general membership is comprised of countries with emerging economies and emerging social systems that remain abusive and violent, they form political blocs within the United Nations with the power to render the influence of the minority democratic countries void. The insult to human intelligence that portrays itself as the UN's Human Rights Council regularly votes into membership some of the world's most abusive human-rights-defying countries of the world.

And because of the influence of the oil-wealthy Islamic bloc (Organization of the Islamic Conference), allied with the African bloc and supported by "cross-regional" groups comprised of Russia, Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, china, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Tajikistan, Iran and Egypt, one country is regularly singled out to receive censure, while those whose human-rights records are abysmal, are welcomed to sit on the Council.

By all indices relating to human rights and peaceful international relationships, the United Nations represents a sad failure of human fallibility triumphing over what we like to think of as humankind's better nature, the ability to evoke compassion and understanding and to extend to others the courtesy of acceptance through the virtue of collective trust.

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posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, June 22, 2011

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