CSS & PMS Solved Essay | The UN: A Force for Good or a Flawed Institution
Hamda Faisal, a Sir Syed Kazim Ali student, has attempted the CSS & PMS Solved Essay “The UN: A Force for Good or a Flawed Institution? Examining Successes and Failures in a Complex World” on the given pattern, which Sir Syed Kazim Ali teaches his students. Sir Syed Kazim Ali has been Pakistan’s top English writing and CSS, PMS essay and precis coach with the highest success rate of his students. The essay is uploaded to help other competitive aspirants learn and practice essay writing techniques and patterns to qualify for the essay paper.
Outline
1-Introduction
2-Understanding the United Nations and its structure
3-The reasons behind the creation of the United Nations
4-The obligations of the United Nations
- ✓Maintaining international peace and security
- ✓Guiding social and economic development
- ✓Protecting human rights and international laws
5-Failures of the United Nations to fulfil its obligations
- ✓Unable to prevent genocide
- Case in point: Despite passing resolutions and aid, the UN failing to prevent the genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass exodus of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar
- ✓Selective interference in conflicts
- Case in point: The UN greenlighting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to enter Libya under the controversial Responsibility to Protect (R2P) protocol
- ✓Inability to resolve prolonged aggressions
- Case in point: The UN being unable to resolve the Israeli-Palestine conflict for the past seventy years
- ✓Involvement of peacekeeping forces in crimes
- Case in point: The UN Peacekeeping forces in Congo being accused of sexually abusing minors, according to a report by the International Peace Institute
6-Successes of the United Nations to fulfil its obligations
- ✓Administration of newly independent nations
- Case in point: The UN facilitating East Timor to build the state structure after gaining independence
- ✓Negotiations and ceasefire between warring groups
- Case in point: The UN implementing Peace Agreement and overseeing the electoral process in Mozambique
- ✓Campaigns for ending violence against women
- Case in point: The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women funding Nigeria and leading projects to address violence against marginalized women, including female genital mutilation (FGM)
- ✓Mitigation of environmental and climate challenges
- Case in point: The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) developing numerous plans to resettle and rebuild Haiti after the disastrous earthquake of 2010
7-Recommendations
- ✓To remove biases in the decision-making of the key assemblies
- ✓To keep up with the complexity of issues of changing times
8-Critical analysis
9-Conclusion
The United Nations (UN), an intergovernmental organization, plays a significant role in influencing world affairs and setting standards and norms of conduct. It is obligated to maintain international peace and security, resolve conflicts before they escalate into devastating wars, and promote fundamental human rights and justice. In its seventy-year-old history, the UN has faced both successes and failures. As for its failures to fulfil its obligations, the organization has been unable to prevent genocide and resolve prolonged conflicts. Moreover, it has also been infamous for its selective interference in issues and its forces’ involvement in crimes. However, despite its failures, the organization has accomplished many of its aims. Its successes include facilitating the administration of newly independent nations, overseeing ceasefires between warring groups, and funding human rights campaigns. Moreover, the UN peacekeeping forces exhibit several successful missions. Simply put, it is vital to recognize the organization’s successes and failures and recommend practical solutions to overcome its shortcomings. The essay aims to critically examine the successes and failures of the United Nations in realizing its obligations.
Before delving into the United Nations’ achievements and setbacks, it’s essential to grasp the organization’s structure. The United Nations Charter delineates the organization’s purposes and principles, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) steers its conduct and proceedings. The UN is a web of interconnected entities, each with a specific role. It boasts five principal organs, each with distinct functions. The General Assembly and the Security Council, two of these organs, are home to the five permanent members (P5) with veto powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and France. In addition, it houses fifteen specialized agencies, the UN peacekeeping operations, UN funds and programmes, and UN development plans. This intricate network underscores the UN’s highly decentralized nature.
In addition, expounding the reasons behind the organization’s creation is vital. It has risen out of the failure of the League of Nations, an international organization made after World War I that failed to prevent the onset of World War II. The main objectives for creating the UN include establishing relations on the principles of equal rights, coordinating and cooperating to resolve international issues, and fostering conditions where justice and peace can prevail. The organization is based on the principles of an integrated and interconnected world. Indeed, it has been built on faith in fundamental human rights, respect for treaties and international laws, and hope for social and economic progress for better living standards.
Accordingly, examining the UN’s obligations is pertinent to understanding its successes and failures. The organization is committed to maintaining international peace and security, taking effective measures to prevent, remove, and suppress threats. This includes passing resolutions and taking reactive measures. The UN’s proactive approach to peacekeeping is a key aspect of its role. It also guides nations towards economic and social development and solves international problems in various spheres. Lastly, the UN and its member states are bound to promote and protect the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR) and the international laws in its charter.
After gaining an overview of the United Nations, discussing the organization’s failures is vital. Once believed to be the end of all human conflicts and atrocities, the UN has failed time and time again to fulfil its obligations. Indeed, it has failed to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing of various persecuted groups around the globe. Despite passing and ratifying the Genocide Convention to identify, prevent, and punish the groups involved in this atrocity, the UN has been unable to take substantial actions in this regard. For instance, the Rohingya Crisis is a glaring example of this failure, where the Muslim ethnic group faced the persecution of Myanmar’s Rakhine State and fled across the border into Bangladesh. Even after passing resolutions and providing humanitarian aid in the situation, the organization was unable to stop the Myanmar state from carrying out its atrocities on the Rohingya Muslims because of the weakness of its structural apparatus. Thus, it has failed to carry out its most significant obligations of stopping the violation of human rights to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing and maintain peace in the international world.
Further, the UN’s policy of selective interference in the many conflicts has exposed the inequalities embedded in its structure. Even though the organization’s charter prevents it from intervening in the domestic affairs of a country, it has taken the liberty of selectively participating in specific conflicts to serve the interests of its major stakeholders. In particular, implementing the UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P) protocol in Libya is recognized as a conspicuous selective action of the organization. During the mission, the initial aim of protecting the protestors from the state’s violence morphed into a complete regime change. Moreover, the R2P in Libya has been more harmful than good, as the country still struggles with political and economic instability. Therefore, the selective interference of the organization in conflicts neglects its principle of equality of states in respect and sovereignty, thereby failing to keep its obligations.
Apart from the above failures, the organization has also shown an inability to resolve prolonged aggressions. The longevity of a crisis adds layers of complexity and influencing factors to it; the more one waits to take action against aggression, the more complicated the situation gets. Take, for instance, the state of Palestine issue. The Israeli nation has been waging wars and systematic oppression on the Palestinian Occupied Territories for almost as long as the UN has existed. Still, the UN remain unable to take any vital action other than reactionary measures of providing aid and repatriating refugees because of the veto power embedded in Israel’s allies. Hence, the organization has failed to maintain international peace and security, as it cannot intervene in prolonged aggression and conflicts.
Lastly, the organization has been unable to keep its peacekeeping forces from committing crimes and violating human rights in disaster-torn areas. The UN peacekeeping force carries out the organization’s resolutions and actions to better its enforcement mechanism and, ultimately, fulfil its obligations. It comprises volunteers from the member nations and is dispatched under necessary missions to carry out targeted goals. However, over the years, many scandals have emerged, with these soldiers dabbling in criminal activities and violating human rights during the mission. For instance, in the Blue Helmets Sex Scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, peacekeeping soldiers were accused of sexually abusing minors, according to a report by the International Peace Institute. That is the enforcement forces committed crimes against the people of Congo instead of protecting them from violence and combating crimes. Therefore, the UN has enabled the violation of human rights in certain cases, not the promotion and protection of these rights, highlighting its failure to keep its obligations.
Although the United Nations has failed to meet its obligations and carry out its responsibilities to its apex in some cases, it has successfully fulfilled its obligations in many more. Moving down the ladder to the organization’s successes, it is significant to highlight particular circumstances. First, the organization has successfully administrated several newly independent nations by establishing transitional authority missions. It has helped countries that recently gained independence from a colony or emerged from civil wars by properly establishing their state apparatus and providing security and aid. For instance, the United Nations Transitional Administrator in East Timor (UNTAET) has done vital work in administrating and empowering all legislative and judicial structures for a democratic and independent state of East Timor. Moreover, it has provided security and humanitarian assistance and developed the civil and social services of the country to recover from the aftereffects of violence that erupted after elections and in gaining independence. Thus, the organization has succeeded in helping states achieve whole independence and sovereignty.
Next, the United Nations has observed ceasefires between warring and at-odds groups. One of the organization’s obligations is establishing international peace and security, and effective ceasefires are a manifestation of that. For instance, through the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), the UN has implemented a Peace Agreement between the civil war groups and helped conduct free and fair elections. In this way, the organization has helped put an end to the violence that erupted when Portugal ceased its control over the region and established long-lasting peace in Mozambique. Hence, the organization has maintained international peace by ceasefires among opposing groups and ushering in regional stability.
In addition to the above achievements, the organization has successfully funded women and gender rights campaigns. The development of social and economic indicators is another obligation of the organization. The organization provides humanitarian assistance to many at-risk groups through its specialized agencies. For instance, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women funds Circuit Pointe, Nigeria’s women’s rights organization. The organization has led projects to address violence and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) against marginalized women in the region since 2022. It has led to an awareness of the inequalities women face and a subsequent decrease in devastating reports. Therefore, the organization has succeeded in fulfilling its aim of promoting human rights and equal treatment through funding numerous global campaigns and initiatives.
Last but not least, the United Nations has been mitigating environmental and climate challenges, mostly from natural disasters and climate change. The organization’s specialized agency, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), takes climate action to realize the goal of social development, as climate plays a significant part in human survival. As an illustration, the UNEP has helped to rehabilitate and rebuild Haiti after the disastrous earthquake of 2010. After receiving a formal invitation from the country’s President, the UNEP ran numerous plans under the Haiti Grand Sud programme and established short-term and medium-to-long-term goals. Therefore, the UN has been actively fulfilling its obligation to guide and finance nations towards social development by addressing environmental and climate challenges.
In a robust analysis, the influence of the United Nations in shaping world events is undeniable. Undoubtedly, it has intervened in several international affairs and successfully carried nations towards relative peace and stability. However, at the same time, there are numerous illustrations of its failure, where either it has not taken necessary measures due to gridlock in the General Assembly and the Security Council, or it needs to examine the actions of its forces properly. Nevertheless, despite its selective ineffectiveness, the UN remains the largest and most significant intergovernmental organization.
Despite significant shortcomings, the organization has fulfilled many of its duties. As a result, it must implement forward-thinking strategies to maintain its relevance in the twenty-first century and continue pursuing its objective of assisting nations. Indeed, incorporating specific changes can substantially improve the organization’s operational efficiency and relevance in global affairs.
First, the United Nations is grappling with significant structural issues impeding its effectiveness. To break free from the cycle of passive and reactionary measures, the organization must address the biases in the decision-making processes of its key assemblies, the General Assembly and the Security Council. The ineffectiveness of these bodies was starkly evident during the Cold War when the veto power of the warring factions rendered the UN largely powerless. It was unable to prevent the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Therefore, the UN must seriously consider alternative decision-making structures that reduce the influence of the permanent five members, thereby addressing the root cause of its inefficiency.
Furthermore, the UN must improve its structure, procedure, and laws to keep up with the complexity of issues brought on by technological advancement, weapons, and artificial intelligence. As such, the 5th Generation Warfare, cyberattacks and viruses, and artificial intelligence profiling have become characteristic twenty-first-century threats to peace and security. The organization formed in the mid-twentieth century needs to adapt to the needs of the changing world if it does not want to face the irrelevancy of the Cold War Era again. It can implement new provisions to readily combat and prosecute these infringements on human life and rights and the sovereignty of modern nation-states.
In conclusion, the United Nations (UN) continues to be a cornerstone of international diplomacy and humanitarian endeavors, with a significant impact on global affairs. Despite substantial flaws, such as its failures to prevent genocide, halt ethnic cleansing, and resolve long-standing disputes, the UN has had several remarkable triumphs. These include governing newly independent countries, supervising cease-fires, sponsoring human rights campaigns, and tackling environmental issues through programs. To remain relevant and effective in the twenty-first century, the UN should have to address structural biases in its decision-making processes, particularly those of the General Assembly and Security Council, and adapt to modern threats, such as technological advancements, cyberattacks, and artificial intelligence. By implementing forward-thinking policies and embracing required reforms, the UN may improve operational efficiency while still fulfilling its purpose of promoting global peace, security, and prosperity. This balanced approach recognizes the UN’s accomplishments while acknowledging the need for continuous progress to meet today’s complex problems.
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