CSS & PMS Solved Essay | The UN’s Successes and Failures Concerning its Obligations
Dua Batool, a Sir Syed Kazim Ali student, has attempted the CSS & PMS Solved Essay “What are the Successes and Failures of the UN Concerning 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-Understanding the United Nations (UN): its origin and purpose
3-An overview of the obligations of the United Nations (UN)
4-Failures of the United Nations (UN)
- ✓Limitations in preventing genocidal atrocities
- Case in point: failure in halting the Rwandan genocide of 1994
- ✓Shortcomings in mitigating climate change
- Case in point: Ineffectiveness in implementing the Paris Agreement of 2015
- ✓Inadequacy in alleviating global poverty
- Case in point: Persistent poverty levels in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
- ✓Insufficiencies in health emergency management and pandemic response
- Case in point: Delayed response during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2016.
5-Success of the United Nations (UN)
- ✓Resolving conflicts and maintaining peace
- Case in point: UN’s role in the end of Indo -Pak war of 1971
- ✓Providing humanitarian aid and conducting relief operations
- Case in point: UN’s historical contribution in providing humanitarian assistance during the Syrian refugee crisis
- ✓Promoting and advocating quality education
- Case in point: The Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) launched by the UN in 2012
- ✓Empowering women and supporting gender equality
- Case in point: The UN Women, a specialised agency, founded in 2010
6-Potential steps for strengthening the United Nations (UN)
- ✓Promoting sustainable financing and resource management
- ✓Increasing operational efficiency and responsiveness
- ✓Enhancing transparency and integrity in all operations
7-Conclusion
The United Nations (UN) serves as a cornerstone for promoting regional and international cooperation, which is crucial for creating a safer and more prosperous world. It brings nations together to address global challenges, vital in promoting peace, justice, and sustainable development. While the organization has succeeded in maintaining International peace, mediating conflicts, providing humanitarian aid, advocating quality education, empowering women, and supporting gender equality, it has also faced challenges. These include failure in preventing genocide, addressing climate change, reducing poverty, and handling health emergencies and global pandemics. Despite these failures, there is potential for strengthening the organization and enhancing the effectiveness of its mission for global betterment by stable funding, resource mobilization, enhancement of operational efficiency, and transparency in all operations, making it a pivotal force in tackling global challenges. This essay presents the successes and failures of the UN following its obligations and potential measures to strengthen it for collective global betterment.
Before understanding the obligations of the United Nations (UN), it is essential to analyze its origin and purpose. The organization was established after World War II on October 24, 1945. Comprising 193 member states, the UN is dedicated to preventing conflicts and promoting peace and cooperation globally. Its foundation can be traced back to the San Francisco Conference, where representatives from 50 countries collaborated to establish the organization. The UN operates through various entities, including the General Assembly, the UN Secretariat, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and specialized agencies like the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Headquartered in New York City, United States, the UN is currently led by Secretary-General António Guterres, who assumed office on January 1, 2017. The UN addresses critical issues such as human rights, sustainable development, health, and environmental protection as a platform for international dialogue. It plays a pivotal role in diplomacy, conflict resolution, and global governance. Additionally, the UN undertakes peacekeeping missions, coordinates humanitarian aid, and establishes future global goals.
Stepping towards the obligations, the United Nations plays a crucial role in fostering global peace and security. It endeavours to prevent conflicts and facilitate the resolution of disputes between nations through mediation and peacekeeping missions. Moreover, the organization is dedicated to upholding universal human rights and promoting equality on a global scale. As Ralph Bunche, an esteemed American political scientist and diplomat and the first African American Nobel Peace Prize laureate, aptly stated, “The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world.” This underscores the organization’s significant contribution to advancing sustainable development, with the goals of eradicating poverty, safeguarding the environment, maintaining international peace and security, and promoting global economic and social progress. These efforts underscore the organization’s unwavering commitment to fostering collaboration among nations and addressing complex global challenges for the betterment of humanity worldwide.
Despite its well-defined obligations, the UN has encountered significant failures in certain domains. Although the UN’s mandate includes maintaining international peace and security, it has failed to prevent genocidal atrocities. The organization’s inability to stop genocide has often been hindered by the complexities of international politics, where conflicting national interests and disagreements have led to long debates and ineffective actions. For example, the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 serves as a stark example in which, despite receiving clear warnings and urgent appeals for assistance, the UN Security Council hesitated and failed to authorize swift and decisive action. This delay resulted in a catastrophic loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, underscoring the UN’s challenges in responding promptly to genocidal threats amidst the complexities of international diplomacy and differing national interests. This demonstrated the organization’s inability to swiftly mobilize an effective response to prevent mass atrocities. In a nutshell, the United Nations has often fallen short in preventing genocidal atrocities despite its fundamental mission to uphold global peace and security.
In addition, the organization has faced hurdles in its efforts to tackle climate change due to conflicting national interests and political discord. One notable case of this is the Paris Agreement, led by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which faced significant challenges since its inception as the commitments made by countries, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), were not strong enough to achieve the target to limit global warming to well below 2°C, focused on countries voluntarily setting and updating their own climate targets through NDCs and does not have legally binding enforcement mechanisms. Hence, it was not enough to adequately address the urgent threat of climate change, underscoring the UN’s struggles in effectively addressing the global climate crisis. In short, the organization has encountered substantial challenges in confronting climate change.
In addition, the UN has confronted formidable barriers in its mission to effectively reduce global poverty. It has continued to grapple with significant challenges in poverty alleviation. Persistent poverty rates in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia reflect systemic challenges in effectively combating poverty by the UN. The organization has struggled to tailor its strategies to suit the distinctive socio-economic and environmental landscapes of these regions, failing to effectively fulfil the diverse requirements of communities in these regions. This highlights the UN’s shortcomings in uplifting communities and promoting sustainable development in these vulnerable regions. Hence, the organization has faced significant difficulties in poverty alleviation globally.
Moreover, the UN has dealt with obstacles and failed to adequately deal with health emergencies and global pandemics and provide timely and effective responses to crises affecting the population worldwide, as exemplified by its response to the Ebola virus outbreak. During the Ebola crisis, particularly in West Africa, from 2014 to 2016, the UN struggled to coordinate a rapid and comprehensive response. Issues such as delayed mobilization of resources in delivering medical supplies and personnel and inadequate coordination among international agencies and local governments hampered efforts to contain the outbreak swiftly, resulting in significant loss of life and socio-economic disruption in the affected countries. This response highlighted shortcomings in providing timely and effective interventions in health emergencies. In brief, the UN has struggled with effectively managing health crises and global pandemics.
Moving ahead, there is no denying that the organization has successfully fulfilled its significant obligations in the face of numerous challenges. It plays a crucial role in peace-building and conflict mediation, using diplomatic efforts to encourage reconciliation and promote stability globally. One of the most prominent examples is the organization’s role in resolving the Indo-Pak conflict in 1971 by facilitating talks and securing a ceasefire between the nations. This reduced tensions prevented further escalation and paved the way for Bangladesh to gain independence. The organization’s diplomatic role in this conflict exemplifies its effectiveness in mediating disputes and promoting international peace. Conclusively, the UN has been instrumental in global peace-building and conflict mediation through diplomatic initiatives and operations.
Additionally, the organization has consistently played a pivotal role in providing essential humanitarian aid when needed across the globe. It has successfully addressed critical needs, such as ensuring food security, safeguarding refugees, and promoting child welfare. The organization’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis is a notable example of this success. Throughout this crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) played crucial roles in providing aid. They delivered food, water, shelter, educational opportunities, and protection to millions of displaced Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries. This example highlights the UN’s effectiveness in delivering human assistance and alleviating suffering. In short, proactive humanitarian initiatives of the UN on a global scale highlight its role in addressing agent humanitarian needs and crises worldwide.
Furthermore, the UN has several programs that promote and support education globally. These programs prioritize access to quality education for all, aiming to bridge gaps and foster sustainable development. A vital example of this is the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2012, primarily focused on the enrolment of every child in school and improvement in the quality of education worldwide. It gathered support from the government and funding, resulting in significant strides in improving education quality and demonstrating continued global efforts of the organization to ensure quality learning opportunities for all. So, the UN’s role is undeniable in promoting and advocating quality education for all globally.
Adding more to it, the organization has actively supported gender equality and the empowerment of women through several policies and programs designed to protect their legal rights and tackle discrimination. It has supported legal reforms and countries worldwide to promote women’s rights. A significant example is the establishment of The UN Women in 2010 to promote gender equality and women empowerment globally, leading to several positive outcomes, such as the UN women’s work in Costa Rica in advancing women’s political empowerment and promoting gender equality in governance by supporting electoral reforms, providing capacity-building programs, and conducting advocacy campaigns. This example shows the UN women’s significant contribution to women’s empowerment. In short, the organization has actively supported gender equality and women’s empowerment through various policies and initiatives.
Looking forward, there are areas for improvement and opportunities ahead that the UN should follow to enhance its influence and significance on the global stage, including advancing sustainable financing and resource management. This can enable the organization to strategically plan and implement long-term initiatives aimed at tackling poverty, mitigating climate change impacts, promoting peace, and addressing humanitarian crises effectively, enhancing the operational capabilities, and strengthening the UN’s mission to ensure a sustainable future for all, which can be achieved through stable funding and resource management. In summary, prioritizing stable funding and resource management can enable the organization to improve its missions worldwide.
Further, the UN can achieve tremendous success in its global mission by increasing its operational efficiency and responsiveness. This ensures quick, organized responses to emergencies, providing timely support to communities in need, saving lives, and reducing suffering, ultimately reinforcing its mandate to uphold international peace, security, and humanitarian aid. The organization can achieve this by increasing operational efficiency and responsiveness, ultimately playing a crucial role in creating a safer and more resilient global community and allowing the countries to work together more effectively in tackling challenging issues and advancing goals for sustainable development. Thus, enhancing operational efficiency and responsiveness enables the organization to uphold its mission more effectively.
Moreover, the UN must prioritize enhancing transparency and integrity in its operations to promote accountability and foster trust among member states and the global community. When operations are conducted transparently, it becomes easier to identify inefficiencies, address shortcomings, and allocate resources effectively, thereby maximizing the impact of UN initiatives. By placing a strong emphasis on transparency and integrity, the UN can effectively navigate complex global challenges and work towards achieving sustainable progress for all nations.
In essence, the United Nations plays a vital role in fostering global cooperation and addressing worldwide challenges. While the UN has made notable strides in peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, education advancement, and advocacy for gender parity, it has faced obstacles in preventing genocides, confronting climate change, alleviating poverty, and managing health crises. These difficulties highlight the complex nature of global politics and the limitations within the organization’s current framework. To enhance its effectiveness, the UN must prioritize consistent funding, efficient resource distribution, and operational transparency. By bolstering these areas, the organization can more adeptly respond to global emergencies, implement sustainable long-term initiatives, and uphold the trust of member nations and the international community, leading to a safer, more equitable, and sustainable world for future generations.
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