Daily Times

Attainment of peace is one of the biggest issues of the world. Global peace will remain threatened and disturbed unless discrimination on the basis of creed, vested interests and ethnicity comes to an end. Humanity may never breath easy unless it learns to be fair.

Some say that global peace is impossible due to forces of good and evil. This is not true. Evil always makes endeavours to overwhelm the good, and the latter tries to not allow the former to prevail. Making conscious efforts to remove reasons for supremacy of evil may strengthen the good. Such attempts must be supported collectively without divisions because everyone irrespective of caste and creed wishes for peace. Efforts of all countries are required to make the world an abode of peace and love where mankind always smiles and lives in harmony.

The Wolrd War I started in 1914 and lasted for five years. After the war, a need was felt to have an organisation that could play a role for facilitating peace and security in the world. Thus, the League of Nations came into existence in 1919. Unfortunately, it failed to protect the world and prevent the World War II (1939-1945).

A majority of the United Nations members opposed the US move to shift its US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

The World War II ended after the US dropped atomic bombs on August 6 and August 9, 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. Peace again became a hot subject for debate among the powerful and the weak.

The League of Nations in 1945 was replaced by the United Nations. The UN Charter was signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. It was assumed that peace would be the top agenda of the global body. By default, however, the United Nations emerged as handicapped when five countries were given status of permanent members of the Security Council with veto power.

Chapter V of the UN Charter deals with the constitution of the Security Council. Article 23 of the Charter states: “The Security Council shall consist of 15 Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council.” Article 27 provides: “Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members.” Article 47 says: “The Military Staff Committee shall consist of the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives.”

These articles clearly give superiority to five permanent members. The people of five countries prevail over the rest of the global population. Unless the five members concur no resolution can be passed notwithstanding its importance for mankind.

Furthermore, these countries are divided into camps. They join hands on the basis of selfish interests. It does not matter how mankind suffers because of their policies that endanger global peace. They make their interests the global priority.

A majority of United Nations members opposed the US move of shifting its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but their opposition was ignored. In the backdrop of unfolding of the Soviet Union, 9/11 and each country’s bid to strengthen its economy and secure its interests, the world is under a process of transformation. What shape the world will get is unknown, but what is certain is that a few countries may lose their sovereignty.

Change in Europe seems certain. Terrorist attacks in New Zealand and the increasing schism between the white and the non-white in the ‘civilised’ part of the world have raised an alarm. Efforts of the New Zealand premier against the attacks in the two mosques in Christchurch are laudable, but the situation demands collective measures to thwart the occurrence of such acts in future.

The world as a whole cannot afford a discriminating approach towards global peace. If this continues, peace in the entire world may just remain a dream.

The writer is a freelancer