The UN tasked with maintaining international peace is repeatedly failing to ensure world peace. UN Security Council is the UN’s most powerful political body. The UN Charter, Article 2(4) enunciates: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
In Article 2(7), it limits the authority of international organisations and member states to intervene in “matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.” In the early 1980s, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was asked for its opinion on America’s involvement in regime change in Nicaragua. The ICJ, deciding the case against the US, seminally lay down the principle of non-intervention in state processes as critical to state sovereignty. Essentially, the court concluded that sovereign states shall not intervene in each other’s internal affairs, including “the choice of a political, economic, social and cultural system, and the formulation of foreign policy”.
The 79th UN session organized the ‘Summit of the Future’ (Sep 22-23) in its New York headquarters, attended by more than 130 heads of state and government. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed UN’s inability to stop wars, decrying the impunity enjoyed by states that violate international law and citing the Gaza and Ukraine wars in particular. Without naming them, he was clearly pointing the finger at Russia and the US, two permanent members of the UN Security Council that have repeatedly used their veto power to stop the organization from taking decisive action to stop these two wars. UN Secretary said that the summit is crucial because "the challenges we face are moving much faster than our ability to solve them." Earlier UN Chief on April 28, 2022, had said on the Ukraine war; “The UN Security Council has "failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war."
A group of more than 200 former senior UN officials have written to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warning him that unless he does more personally to take a lead in trying to mediate a peace inUkraineor risk future of the UN. UN Chief Guterres while in Ukraine said that let me be very clear that the UN Security Council had failed to prevent or end the war in Ukraine. This was "a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger.” Reflects his frustration of not able to do anything concrete!
Voices on UN's failure to address conflicts
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was the first head of state to speak. He too lamented the lack of global action, saying that the UN is paralyzed, with challenges piling up and world leaders “going around in circles,” citing Gaza and Ukraine as prime examples of this paralysis.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that the UN had become dysfunctional and ineffective in fulfilling its founding mission. He argued that international peace and security were too important to be left in the hands of "five privileged countries," reiterating his long-held view that "the world is bigger than five." Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also emphasised this point in his speech at the Summit of the Future.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that the United Nations is facing an unprecedented crisis, one that threatens its legitimacy and undermines global trust in its moral authority.Even the UN is under attack, both literally and figuratively, with its sky-blue flag “powerless” to protect civilians from Israeli military bombardment. It is no surprise that both inside and outside this Hall, trust in the UN’s cornerstone principles and ideals is crumbling.” This, he argued, is because many perceive that some nations operate above international law, global justice is swayed by power and human rights are selectively applied.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the necessity of reform of the UN, stating that humanity’s success lies not in warfare but in collective efforts for global peace.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticised the Security Council's current structure as "outdated and exclusionary," calling for the inclusion of African nations and other underrepresented groups in decision-making.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong emphasised that reforms should address the needs of all nations, rather than simply increasing the power of a select few.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Indonesian Foreign Minister expressed similar views. Calls for reform extended beyond the Security Council to other international institutions.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky while addressing UN Security Council asked, "Are you ready to close the UN?" he asked. "Do you think that the time of international law is gone? If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately."
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at a separate event in France, described the current international system as "Incomplete and Unfair," noting that many populous countries remain underrepresented.
US President Biden: “International System is Working”
The US President Joe Biden gave a different picture, asserting that the international system is working and that the US in particular is holding it together. Biden was probably the only leader who stated that the international system is working.
In other high-level gatherings held in New York these days, such as the “Summit of the Future,” participants agree that the UN system is broken and in need of reform, or even an overhaul. US President Biden asserted that “We Defended the UN Charter,” while Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself expressed that “it has been broken into too many pieces.”
UN Pact for the Future
The Pact for the Future, however, did provide guidelines for action in areas such as peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, as well as the transformation of global governance. This is not just a document; it is a vow to the future and a promise to future generations. The Pact for the Future, adopted by the Summit, sets out 56 pledges to action aimed at "laying the foundations for a sustainable, just, and peaceful global order - for all peoples and nations." There are a lot of promise and therefore may be considered too ambitious in view of the manner the UN has failed to live up to the global aspirations of Peace.
‘The Pact for the Future’ or the UN in present form can only work with a strong working UN body with priority to increase the permanent security members to the UN Security Council to 9 and power of Veto be decided on majority Veto and not based on single veto as being followed. Need of the hour at this critical juncture is how to empower the UN.