The United Nations turns 70 on Saturday. Its founders, rebuilding the world from the ruins of World War II, had lofty and probably unreasonable expectations for what it could accomplish.
President Harry Truman said it was “designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.” Ralph Bunche, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was involved in the U.N.’s creation declared that it represented “our one great hope for a peaceful and free world.”
If only that were so.
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Today, the U.N. is too corrupt and badly managed to do much good in many areas of its operations, and in others doing real harm. Its nearly obsessive determination to condemn Israel while letting several of the world’s most loathsome and murderous tyrannies pass judgment on human rights would be farcical were it not such a disgrace, a malignant cancer in the conduct of international relations.
The U.N. is, in theory, an institution that can do much good, but it must return to its founding principles and focus on its mission of maintaining international peace and security and promoting actual human rights rather than those trumped up to suit the prejudices and strategic agendas of its most cynical members.
According to Gallup, the share of Americans who believe the U.N. is doing a good job has declined, from 58 percent in 2002 to 35 percent last February. At the same time, nearly two-thirds want the U.N. to take a leading role in world affairs. This yearning for what the U.N. should be doing, combined with the clear understanding that it is failing to do it, cries out for redress and the reform of the world body.
The U.N. does much good work feeding, vaccinating and providing clean water to hundreds of millions of people. It also provides valuable aid to refugees and the victims of natural disasters. But, deeply regrettably, that good work is overshadowed by general mismanagement and ineffectiveness, most prominently seen in its failed peacekeeping missions in Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan and its current paralysis over Syria.
Corruption has also long been the lifeblood of the institution. There have been many high-profile examples, such as the “oil-for-food” scandal in Iraq and systemic sexual abuse in the Congo. These have done much to erode the U.N.’s moral authority.
The corruption is most evident in the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is populated by several of the world’s worst violators of human rights. It’s reflexive condemnation of Israel, which has become its defining feature, is ironic, given that Israel is the Middle East’s only true democracy and much the most respectable state in the region from a human rights perspective.
Fixing this broken institution won’t be easy, but it’s worth reforming. Washington should take a leading role in changing it for the better, and it has a right to demand changes, given that it pays a quarter of the U.N.’s bills whilst being only one of 193 members.
Reforms should start with increasing transparency and accountability. It should include an independent watchdog group to monitor the organization and to audit its finances regularly. American taxpayers should know where their billions are going.
