CSS & PMS Solved Essay | The United Nations’ Success and Failure
Rafia Qureshi, a Sir Syed Kazim Ali student, has attempted the CSS & PMS Solved Essay “The Success and Failure of United Nations with Respect to Its Obligations” 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-An overview of the United Nations
3-Purpose of the formation of the United Nations
4-Obligations of the United Nations
5-Failures of the United Nations in fulfilling its obligations
- ✓Inefficiency in settling long-standing disputes
- Evidence: Prevalence of the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan showing the failure of the UN in settling a decades-long dispute
- ✓Violation of International humanitarian law by states
- Evidence: Israel violating international humanitarian law during the current Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza
- ✓Lack of collective action to resolve inter-state conflicts
- Evidence: The UNSC’s inability to take collective action to end the Russia-Ukraine war showing the UN’s ineffectiveness in resolving inter-state conflicts
- ✓Inability to achieve sustainable development
- Evidence: The lack of progress by UN member-states in reducing carbon emissions after the Paris Agreement of 2015 revealing the UN’s failure to meet climate goals
6-Success of the United Nations in fulfilling its obligations
- ✓Decolonization leading to the protection of human rights
- Evidence: The UN’s efforts towards decolonization after WWII showing the success of the UN in protecting the nation’s right to self-determination
- ✓Promotion of arms control maintaining peace and security in the world
- Evidence: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 as a result of resolutions on disarmament by UNGA leading to arms control and maintaining international peace and security
- ✓Resolution of conflicts through peacekeeping missions preventing war
- Evidence: UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia during its civil war resolving conflict and supporting post-conflict stability
- ✓Provision of humanitarian and relief assistance helping millions of people
- Evidence: The UN as per its data, assisting and protecting 71.4 million people fleeing war, famine, and prosecution
7-Ways to overcome the failure of the United Nations and enhance its effectiveness
- ✓To enact reforms in the United Nations Security Council
- ✓To improve transparency and accountability
8-Critical Analysis
9-Conclusion
The United Nations is a leading and significant global organization advancing political, social, and economic cooperation among countries. It has been established to preserve peace in the world by creating friendly relations among nations, encouraging international cooperation in solving global issues and promoting and encouraging respect for human rights. In this regard, the organization has some obligations, which include maintaining international peace and stability, protecting human rights, supporting sustainable development, and upholding international law. However, carrying out the responsibilities has shown both success and failure. It has failed in settling some long-standing disputes, preventing the violation of international humanitarian law, taking collective action to resolve inter-state conflicts, and achieving sustainable development. Looking at the brighter side, decolonization following the Second World War, promotion of arms control, resolution of conflicts through successful peacekeeping missions, and provision of humanitarian and relief assistance to millions of people come within some notable successes of the UN. Some measures need to be taken to ensure the organization’s success in meeting its responsibilities. The most important among them is enacting reforms in the United Nations Security Council and improving accountability and transparency in the UN. This essay discusses the successes and failures of the UN with respect to its obligations and suggests ways to overcome its failures and enhance its effectiveness.
Giving an overview of the United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established in 1945 with the primary goal of fostering global peace. The UN’s primary goal is to foster global peace, a mission that emerged in response to the aftermath of the Second World War and its impact on worldwide stability. With 193 member states, the organization is led by the Secretary-General, a key figure who serves as a representative and advocate for its members. The UN’s headquarters is in New York, with regional offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Its structure comprises six main organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council. Additionally, the UN system includes funds, programs, specialized agencies, and other organizations, all of which collaborate under the guidance of the UN Charter. This founding document outlines the organization’s principles, and the UN, in upholding its charter, promotes international cooperation among nations to uphold global peace.
The purpose of forming the United Nations is to foster global peace by mitigating international tensions, preventing large-scale conflicts, and safeguarding human rights. Succeeding the League of Nations, which was formed in 1920 after the First World War to foster cooperation among states and avert another major conflict, the United Nations was created in 1945 with enhanced commitments and mechanisms to avert the reoccurrence of a world war. In its Article 1, the UN Charter outlines four primary purposes of the United Nations. First, the UN is dedicated to maintaining international peace and security. Second, it endeavours to cultivate amicable relations between its members based on the principles of equal rights and self-determination of nations. Third, the UN seeks to promote global collaboration in addressing economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian issues and to advance and uphold human rights. Finally, the UN serves as a focal point for coordinating the efforts of nations to achieve these objectives.
According to the United Nations (UN) charter, the organization assumes five primary functions aimed at upholding global peace. The foremost responsibility of the UN is to ensure international peace and security, which is predominantly carried out by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This entails facilitating pacific dispute resolution, undertaking preventive diplomacy, and engaging in peacekeeping operations. Additionally, the UN is entrusted with upholding human rights and with the authority to intervene in cases of violations in accordance with international humanitarian law. Within the social and economic sphere, the UN is mandated to promote sustainable development worldwide. Moreover, the UN is tasked with providing humanitarian assistance in times of need, emergencies, or conflicts. Lastly, the United Nations is responsible for upholding international law, primarily overseen by the General Assembly, the Security Council, and importantly, by its judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Unfortunately, the UN has failed to fulfil some of its obligations, making it ineffective in achieving peace. First, the unsettled long-standing disputes threatening peace in some regions show the UN’s failure to resolve disputes peacefully to maintain peace and security. To illustrate, the Kashmir issue, the seven decades-long conflict between India and Pakistan, remains unsettled despite the UN resolutions. The Indo-Pak war of 1947 over the Kashmir issue resulted in UNSC resolution 47, which called for a ceasefire and holding of a plebiscite under the UN’s supervision. Later, another resolution was passed, but the UN failed to enforce its resolutions, with no plebiscite in the region. As a result, the issue has remained a source of increased tension between both states, leading to three wars between them and, ultimately, affecting regional peace, which shows the UN’s failure to maintain peace.
Another failure of the UN is the violation of international humanitarian law by warring parties in some major conflicts around the world. This failure leaves the UN’s obligation of upholding international law unfulfilled. The current Israel-Hamas conflict depicts the violation of international humanitarian law, mainly by Israel, as seen in its attacks on civilians in Gaza in its efforts to eliminate Hamas, a Palestinian armed group. The Geneva Convention of 1949 on international humanitarian law prohibits such actions and makes the UN responsible for punishing the states or parties which commit war crimes by violating these prohibitions. However, the UN has failed to punish Israel for carrying out these crimes and creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Moreover, it has not implemented a ceasefire or stopped Israel from attacking civilians and committing war crimes. The ICJ has also remained ineffective in punishing those who violate international law, thus leading to a lack of fulfilment of the UN’s responsibility to uphold international law.
Furthermore, the UN has also remained unsuccessful in resolving inter-state conflicts, which shows its failure to take collective action to remove threats to international peace and security. In the present scenario, the Russia-Ukraine war, which started in February 2022, shows the ineffectiveness of the UN. Russia, being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has blocked every effort of the UN to intervene and mediate the conflict, ensure peacekeeping in Ukraine, or protect its territorial integrity. As a consequence, this major inter-state conflict has been left unresolved, and it has affected international peace to a great extent by leading to strained relations between major powers, mainly the US and Russia. So, this war displays the UNSC’s failure to take effective collective measures to prevent world peace threats.
In addition to these failures, the UN has failed to achieve sustainable development. Despite ambitious sustainable development goals in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world sees slow progress in sustainable development. The lack of progress countries show in reducing carbon emissions after agreeing to limit global warming to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement 2015 reveals the UN’s failure to meet climate goals. In this regard, the UN has carried out multiple efforts; the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the annual Conference of Parties (COP), being held to discuss the countries’ progress concerning climate goals, have been unfruitful. Countries, particularly high carbon emitters, show unwillingness to reduce carbon emissions despite frequent occurrences of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, and heavy rainfalls, which leave severe consequences. Thus, the UN has failed to make the countries cooperate to take effective climate action, leading to its failure to support sustainable development.
Despite these failures of the UN in fulfilling some of its obligations, it has achieved some notable successes. Among these successes of the UN, one of the significant achievements is the protection of human rights through decolonization. The UN human rights framework involves every nation’s right to sovereignty and self-determination. So, after the Second World War and the creation of the UN, all nations under colonial domination were decolonized, protecting their right to sovereignty and self-determination. Multiple resolutions passed by the UNGA on decolonization, including the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, resulted in this success. Therefore, by playing a major role in decolonization efforts, the UN successfully fulfilled its responsibility of protecting human rights while promoting respect among countries.
Moving further, another major success of the UN has been the promotion of arms control. Within the UN’s obligation to maintain international peace and security comes its function of promoting arms control and encouraging disarmament among states. For this, UNGA passed the resolution, and discussions were held in the UNSC, which resulted in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968. The NPT is hailed as a success of the UN for its contribution in restricting the US and USSR during the Cold War to modernizing their arsenal or increasing it, ensuring peace and security in the long run. Furthermore, the NPT, followed by other disarmament treaties, has prevented the escalation of nuclear weapons in the world to a larger extent. In short, the UN has successfully carried out its duty of preserving peace through its efforts to hinder armament.
Likewise, the UN has also achieved success in some of its peacekeeping missions, another function carried out with respect to its obligation of preserving peace. The UN conducts peacekeeping missions in the conflict zones by sending UN peacekeeping forces there to resolve conflict and ensure post-conflict stability. For instance, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) that started in 2003 at the onset of the Liberian civil war resulted in successful disarmament in the country. After ending the war, the mission also facilitated peaceful elections and focused on providing security and extending civilian authority in the country. So, through peacekeeping operations to prevent and resolve conflicts, the UN has helped the world achieve peace.
Apart from these successes, the UN has also successfully met its responsibility of delivering humanitarian aid in emergencies and conflicts. The continuous humanitarian and relief efforts are undertaken by the UN specialized agencies, programmes, and funds, including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Program (WFP), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). According to UN data, it assists and protects 71.4 million people fleeing war, famine, and prosecution. Moreover, it provides food assistance to 91.4 million people and supplies vaccines to 45 per cent of the world’s children. Thus, the organization helps millions through this material assistance, successfully fulfilling its commitments towards delivering humanitarian aid.
After exploring the UN’s successes and failures in fulfilling its obligations, it is crucial to suggest ways the organization can overcome its failures and improve its performance. First, there is a need to enact reforms in the United Nations Security Council. The UNSC has the power to enforce decisions after adopting resolutions, but the power imbalance within it and the interests of its five permanent members (P5) hinder the adoption of resolutions and their enforcement. So, the most crucial reform is abolishing or limiting the veto power held by P5 to prevent its misuse by them. Furthermore, decision-making should be done through a simple majority. In this regard, expanding permanent and non-permanent members and increasing representation of the countries from the Global South, including Asia, Africa, and Latin America, would ensure inclusive representation in decision-making. Therefore, introducing and implementing reforms in the UNSC can fulfil its ability to maintain peace and security, improving the UN’s performance.
Besides, there should be an improvement in the accountability and transparency of the UN. This would improve the organization’s working and performance. In this respect, mechanisms for auditing and oversight should be developed to ensure accountability, and a culture of transparency should be promoted, which can also help regain the trust and confidence of the UN. For this, an external oversight body independent of the UN bureaucracy should be created to oversee major UN operations, including UN peacekeeping and humanitarian programs. Further, UN finances and expenditures should be audited for transparency purposes to prevent wastage. Additionally, the UN individuals charged with criminal behaviour should be punished and stripped of their diplomatic immunity, as this would strengthen accountability. Ultimately, enhanced accountability and transparency in the UN’s work would make it a more effective organization.
To evaluate critically, with some notable successes, the UN has largely remained ineffective and has failed to completely fulfil its obligations. Although some progress has been made by it in achieving peace in the world, encouraging cooperation among them in its efforts towards maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, supporting sustainable development, and providing humanitarian assistance, it has remained unable to achieve them entirely due to some of its functional issues. Once the problems are reduced through some reforms, they would surely help the organization in honoring its commitments and improve its working and performance. Thus, in the world grappling with multiple challenges, the effectiveness and increased efficiency of the UN are highly needed to tackle them.
Overall, the United Nations has accomplished significant milestones in upholding world peace and nurturing global collaboration, but it has also faced substantial difficulties. The organization has made notable progress in areas like decolonization, arms control, successful peacekeeping efforts, and providing humanitarian aid. However, challenges, such as unresolved long-standing conflicts, violations of international humanitarian laws, failure to resolve state-to-state disputes, and slow advancements in sustainable development, have hindered its effectiveness. To overcome these shortcomings, it is crucial to introduce reforms within the United Nations Security Council to address power imbalances and improve decision-making processes. Furthermore, enhancing accountability and transparency within the UN’s functions is pivotal in regaining trust and ensuring the efficient utilization of resources. Thus, implementing these changes would enable the UN to better fulfil its obligations and adapt to the changing global landscape, ultimately improving its role in advancing peace, security, and human rights worldwide.
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