Effectiveness and Legitimacy of the UN - Coursework Example

Effectiveness and Legitimacy of the UN By Introduction The United Nations is an international organization that was founded in the year 1945 just after the WWII had ended, and aimed at serving as a replacement to the League of Nations that was at that time failing. The United Nations has different goals that it aims to achieve and these specifically include ensuring peace, economic and social development of countries. Overall, the United Nations serves to develop and enforce laws and policies that apply to different countries of the world. Since founding in 1945, the United Nations continue to serve an important role in the world, and can thus its operations can be considered to be necessary and relevant to the world today. However, a closer assessment of the operations of this organization shows that it is lacking effectiveness in the way it executes its mandate. So far, there have risen various debates around the globe on the effectiveness and legitimacy of the United Nations, which according to many critics, is poor. This essay critically evaluates the effectiveness and legitimacy of the United Nations and argues that generally, the United Nations is in need of amendments and change, especially the United Nations Security Council. This essay has three major parts: Introduction, Discussion and Conclusion. In the Discussion part a brief overview of the United Nations is provided, followed by an evaluation of the legitimacy and effectiveness of the United Nations based on how the organization and its respective divisions is structured and handles various issues that affect different countries of the world. Thus, there are different aspects that are addressed in the discussion. The first part provides an overview of the United Nations, including a brief history, mandate and structure of the organization. The second part evaluates the effectiveness and legitimacy of the United Nations based on the operations and mandate of the organization’s Security Council division. The third part provides an evaluation of the UN based on the mandate of the organization with regard to global terrorism. The next part makes an evaluation based on the organization’s performance on Health. The final parts evaluate the organization based on its performance on environmental issues and humanitarian rights and peacekeeping operations. Finally, the conclusion part provides an overview and summary of the argument. The United Nations: An Overview Founded in 1945, the United Nations continues to serve its purpose in the present times. This organization currently has a total of 192 countries that are its members, and these comprise all sovereign states save for the Vatican. The United Nations has its Headquarters in New York City in the United States. There are several assemblies in the UN, including the General Assembly, which is the organization’s main body. The divisions of the UN include the Security Council and the International Court of Justice, and these are charged with different mandates. In addition, the UN has different agencies such as World Health Organization (WHO) among others that are highly specialized to address specific issues such as health, environment, among others. The source of funding for the UN is voluntary donations, which mostly come from its economically developed member countries (Dervis 2005). Health UN in general has shown tremendous efforts in promoting health and reducing abject poverty in developing nations. World Health Organization (WHO), which is the branch, mandated by UN to oversee global health issues has recorded significant success thus far. Indeed, some of the most notable milestones UN, through WHO, has achieved include eradication of diseases such as polio, measles, small pox, malaria among others (Nayyar 2002). WHO intervention programs have empowered developing nations to overcome such pandemics to manageable levels. However, on the other hand, WHO has continually failed to contain the perennial problem of hunger. It is overwhelmingly disturbing that millions of people are dying of hunger in many parts of developing nations under the eyes of WHO. As expected, individual states have the obligation to ensure food security to its citizens. However, when such states fail continually resulting to millions of deaths due to hunger and other poverty related issues, UN, has a big role to play. It can actually be argued that UN could be in a position to eradicate poverty in developing nations if it employed stringent control measures as it does when powerful countries such as U.S are involved. Peace Keeping UN has primarily been synonymous with peace keeping missions across the world. This mainly involves post-conflict recovery efforts and mechanisms to prevent the re-occurrence of war and conflict after five years of conclusion of a war in a country. Ideally, the UN is supposed to conduct its peace keeping missions without interfering with the domestic affairs of the host countries. This is to avoid clashes in ideologies and sustain ordered coexistence between different countries. While on peace keeping missions, it is inappropriate for the peacekeepers to side with a particular social or political organization in the host country, and it is also inappropriate to use force on the civilians in the host countries (Teslak 2000). These are some of the requirements of legitimacy during peacekeeping missions; failure by the UN to uphold these during its peacekeeping missions leads to the questioning of its legitimacy. The UN has continuously been involved in peacekeeping. However, there are different situations that have led to the questioning of its legitimacy as well as effectiveness in peacekeeping. For instance, in the early 1990’s, when there were atrocities in the form of war in different countries such as Rwanda and Bosnia, the UN assumed the norms of non-intervention to mean inaction and indifference to the suffering of people affected by the wars. The UN failed to undertake any effective measures but remained “neutral,” leading to a prolonged period of war, human suffering and many deaths. For legitimacy and effectiveness, the UN peacekeeping missions should learn that people and their safety come first in the promotion of peace. Security Council Division This is a division of the United Nations that is primarily concerned with the aspect of peace. Ideally, the Security Council is mandated to ensure that peace prevails between different nations of the world. This council have great power and can make decisions which all other members must adhere to and support. The UN Security Council is made up of fifteen member nations, five of which are permanent members and the remaining ten are temporary members. The permanent members of the UN Security Council include the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France (Bianchi 2007) For various reasons, the UN Security council has been largely faced by a lack of legitimacy and effectiveness since its inception. Although the UN Security Council is an important division of the UN and its ideal mandate is relevant, the operations of this council continue to reflect a high level of ineffectiveness, in addition to its structure that portrays great illegitimacy. It is for this reason that it becomes critical for reforms and amendments to be effected in the UN Security Council in order for the council to experience legitimacy and a higher level of effectiveness in executing its mandate (Cronin, B and Hurd 2008). There are different scenarios in the past and in the recent times that point out the ineffectiveness of this council in performing its mandate. The legitimacy of the UN Security Council is highly questionable because its membership fails to include other major countries of the world, and its membership structure of permanent members does not consider regional balance. In addition, ineffectiveness in the UN Security Council is evident in the way the council lacks transparency in its decision-making and the failure of the council to address major international crises on which the interests of the different members of the council differ. The legitimacy and effectiveness of the UN is also put to question because of a past scenario of corruption involving the UN Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq during the Iraq War of 2003. This instance of corruption reflects a misuse of UN programs as well as lack of transparency and accountability in the administration of the council. To date, the council is yet to come out clear and accountable for this corruption case (Morris, J & Wheeler 2007). Indeed, UN has been present in virtually almost all places affected by human conflict especially war. Whereas UN has generally been effective in arbitrating and helping quench small wars, the large organization has failed considerably when scales of war are high (Hultman, Kathman & Shannon 2014). For instance, the way in which UN handled the conflicts of Second World War left a lot to be desired. Whereas it can be argued that the strong states participating in World War II were uncontrollable by any organizations, the scenario provided a clear example of the level in which UN can have influence. However, what comes out disturbingly though is the UN’s Security Council inability to prevent conflicts before they escalate to uncontrollable magnitude (Hultman, Kathman & Shannon 2014). It has indeed been repeatedly argued that there can be no global prefect with powers to contain powerful states especially when such states come into conflict with one another. A more recent example of a failed mandate by the UN is the way in which the trusted organization handled the Rwandan genocide. Whereas Rwanda was a member to the UN, the decade of internal war and genocide was orchestrated under the eyes of UN. Indeed, UN was present in Rwanda at the time of the long standing conflict. However, the conflict escalated slowly with time to become one of the worlds’ worst genocide resulting to death of hundreds of thousands of people (Diehl, Reifschneider, & Hensel 1996). It could be true that Rwanda did not have stable political structures to enable UN to function in full capacity but nevertheless, it is the obligation of UN to act and save such situations even when political structures of a state have failed. It is worth noting, however, that UN has also recorded significant results in restoring peace in political turmoil in some countries. For instance, UN was significantly successful in the way it handled Korea’s case. Such success can nonetheless be attributed to the support UN enjoyed from U.S, U.K, as well as other European states (Teslak2000). Human Rights The United Nations Human Rights Council is the UN agency mandated with the development, protection and promotion of human rights. Although this UN council has been in existence since the year 2006, it has failed to execute its mandate effectively. In its first year, the HRC did not address the various human rights issues that were at hand. For instance, starting from the period of 2006, there were ongoing killings and displacements of civilians in Darfur area of the African country of Sudan. It was therefore, inappropriate for a council that claims to protect human rights to do nothing about such a high level of violation of human rights (Freedman 2014). This therefore, shows how ineffective the UN has been at protecting and promoting human rights in the world. There has also been politicization of human rights that the HRC has contributed to. There has been concerned that the HRC focuses its attention in censoring Israel and ignores the other major human rights violation occurring in other world countries (Freedman 2014). For instance, by the year 2007, there were only 12 HRC resolutions that focused on individual countries. However, out of these resolutions, nine were censures of Israel while the remaining three were resolutions for Sudan, which in this case were not condemnatory. The council failed to focus on other human rights violations that were at that time happening in Cuba, North Korea, China, and Belarus, among others. The council equally failed to censure the government of Sudan for its participation in the killings in the Darfur area (Chesterman 2006). This also puts to question the effectiveness of the UN in handling human rights issues. The legitimacy of the HRC formed in 2006 also comes under sharp scrutiny based on the composition of its members. The criteria for membership to the HRC had no major merits that are based on the performance of a country as far as human rights is concerned. For this reason, the HRC council members can be from any country, irrespective of whether the country has poor records of human rights protection and promotion (Anton and Shelton 2011). This aspect of the HRC membership saw notorious human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Algeria, Pakistan, China, Iran and Russia run for election. In the end, despite their poor performance in terms of human rights protection and promotion, Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, Cuba, Algeria and Russia were elected to the HRC by the general assembly of the UN. Later, these countries took advantage of their position in the HRC to prevent the scrutiny of their human rights practices and violations, even as the Freedom House declared them free. For legitimacy of the UN as far as its performance on human rights protection and promotion is concerned, there must be an effective criterion for electing council members to HRC. Failure to safeguard the environment The Kyoto Protocol is to date regarded as one of the most liberating steps towards securing an environmentally safe world. In the framework outlined by the protocol, UN was mandated with huge obligations to ensure global environment standards met or exceeded the minimum threshold. Indeed, UNEP has significantly marked its presence in almost all countries across the world. Environmental protection strategies have indeed been a large success in many nations. For instance, the issue of deforestation, global warming, and climate change tops the list of UNEP’s mandate. What lacks, however, is the failure of UN, through UNEP to enforce in equal measures the need to adhere to all the UN agreements such as the famous Kyoto Protocol, Rio Summit, as well as Montreal Protocol. For instance, the five permanent council members, which include U.S, U.K, China, Russian, and France, are often adversely mentioned when it comes to global pollution. A classic example is China, which has continually failed to reduce environmental pollution caused by the large number of factories in the country. This raises the need for a restructuring of UN to accommodate other member states into its permanent member council in an effort to reduce the ‘big boy’ command of the big five in issues related to environment. A different school of thought posits that UN, through UNEP has failed to meet most of its objectives because of a poor organizational structure and ambiguous roles and obligations. In so doing, UNEP is claimed to ‘bite more than it can chew’ in regard to balancing its roles with available resources. For instance, financial and goodwill support from able countries has dwindled with time partly because such nations want to contravene UNEP’s environmental policies for their own benefits. However, the overwhelming need for cutting global warming and other pressing environmental agendas continue to stretch the meagre budget. This has elicited the need for a restructuring of UN especially when it comes to financing vis-à-vis expenditure in its ever increasing obligations. There is overwhelming evidence echoing the frustration by countries hoping to be part of permanent member council. Brazil is arguably one of the countries that could, perhaps, represent the interests of developing nations at UN council. However, the expression of interest by Brazil to be accommodated in the council has thus far been an effort in futility (Abdenur 2014). Considering the permanent council is to a large extent composed of founder members, expecting huge benefits for new members and even non-members is expecting too much. Member states have over time articulated global resources and potentially beneficial avenues into their own benefits at the expense of other nations. For instance, the unbalanced global trade structures highlighted occasionally by Brazil serves to show how UN has failed repeatedly to provide a fair playground for all nations hence necessitating the need for a restructuring and a re-look into the responsibilities of member states in adhering to UN’s charter (Abdenur 2014). Conclusion This essay has shown that the UN is an important organization as it is ideally instituted to perform a mandate that promotes humanity and well-being of states. However, an evaluation of this organization based on its legitimacy and effectiveness shows that the UN has failed to execute its mandate with the required legitimacy and effectiveness in its operations. The various divisions of UN that deal with environment, peacekeeping, health, security and human rights have all been shown to have failed to perform their duties effectively. This therefore, points out the necessity of the UN undergoing reform and amendment, including its Security Council that has also failed in its operations. It is clear from this evaluation that the UN lacks legitimacy and effectiveness, and is also in dire need of accountability. Although undertaking reform at the UN may be a lengthy and tiring process, it worth it in the end, as this may hold significant benefits to the nations of the world. Works Cited Abdenur, A. E 2014 “Emerging powers as normative agents: Brazil and China within the UN development system”, Third World Quarterly 35 (10): 1876-1893. Anton, D. and Shelton, D 2011, “Environmental Protection and Human Rights,” Cambridge University Press, London. Bianchi, A 2007, “Assessing the Effectiveness of the UN Security Council’s Anti-terrorism Measures: The Quest for Legitimacy and Cohesion,” The European Journal of International Law, 17 (5): 881-919. doi: 10.1093/ejil/chl032 Chesterman, S 2006, “Reforming the United Nations: Legitimacy, Effectiveness and Power after Iraq,” Singapore Yearbook of International Law and Contributors, 10 SYBIL. 1-28. Cronin, B and Hurd, 1 2008, “The UN Security Council and Politics of International Authority,” Routledge, New York. Dervis, K 2005, “A Better Globalization: Legitimacy, Governance and Reform,” Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC. Diehl, P.F., Reifschneider, J. & Hensel, P.R 1996, "United Nations intervention and recurring conflict", International Organization,vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 683. Freedman, R 2014, “Failing to Protect: The UN and the Politicisation of Human Rights,” C Hurst & Co, New York. Hultman, L., Kathman, J. & Shannon, M 2014, "Beyond Keeping Peace: United Nations Effectiveness in the Midst of Fighting",The American Political Science Review, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 737-753. Measures: The Quest for Legitimacy and Cohesion,” The European Journal of International Law, 17 (5): 881-919. doi: 10.1093/ejil/chl032 Morris, J & Wheeler, N 2007, “The Security Council’s Crisis of Legitimacy and Use of Force,” International Politics, 44: 214-231. doi:10.1057 Nayyar, D 2002, “Governing Globalization,” Oxford University Press, New York. Teslak, C. 2000, "Why Peacekeeping Fails", Peacekeeping & International Relations, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 23. Read More