Daily Times

The United Nations will be celebrating its 75th Anniversary on 24th October 2020. The world leaders during the UN 75 Leaders Summit in September 2020 will be discussing a UN transformational agenda prepared in a plethora of reports and recommendations by eminent diplomats and experts. I will try to cover the contours of the emerging multipolar world and the challenges UN faces in accomplishing its primary functions as given in the preamble of the UN Charter which reads “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life time has brought untold sorrow to mankind ,and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity , and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedoms”.

Despite the fact that the objectives of the UN are lofty, the obstacles are formidable, and international relations most complex and uncertain in a world which has been in flux since the end of Bipolar world, yet the United Nations is the only hope as an institution for providing an overarching global governance architecture

These lofty objectives were set for the United Nations, established on the ruins of the devastating Second World War, costing billions of dollars in material losses and the tragic death of about 20 million army personnel and civilians on all sides of the conflict. The UN was conceived and formed by the victors of the Second World War which included the USA, theUK, Russia, France, and China (represented by the pro-west Republic of China till 1971). The United Nations from its inception has been a western centric institution. Since its founding the world has seen its prominent members launching military campaigns, including the Krean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1960-1953), the Gulf War (1991), the invasion of Iraq (2003), invasion of Afghanistan 2001, and invasion of Libya in March 2011. The world also witnessed several other conflicts amongst nation states, which included Arab-Isreali wars (1947-1949),1973 Isreali invasion of Lebanon in 1982, India-China war in 1962, Pakistan-India wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, and the second Congo War 1998-2003 (the war included Angola, Namibia, Chad, Sudan, and Zimbabwe-backed Kabila’s rebels, while troops from Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda supported anti-Kabila rebels by 2008). The war caused 5.2 million deaths making it the deadliest war since world war two. The western-inspired so-called Arab Spring has ignited Syrian Civil War which continues to rage. The Darfur conflict in Sudan resulted in the killing of 300,000 people and displacement of over three million.

There is almost consensus amongst neutral observers and analysts that unfortunately the UN failed to prevent these wars and armed conflicts, and more serious failure is that some of these wars were given fig leaf legal cover by the UN security council which had the responsibility as per its Charter, “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. As of today, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Kashmir continue to bleed, while the armies of three nuclear states, India, China and Pakistan, are arrayed against each other eyeball to eyeball. The UN role of conflict prevention has not to be seen in any of these bloody conflicts. What is that UN can do differently in 2020 and beyond, and how UN can play a more effective role in conflict prevention. The issue lies fundamentally in the undemocratic governance structure of the UN Security Council. First ,the UN Security Council has to be democratised not by way of adding other additional permanent members with veto power, but by increasing the number of non-permanent members, and creating a system of voting by weightage by all the members including the permanent members. Also there is a need to mute the Veto power where a particular permanent member has a political agenda in waging a war, or not allowing the blood letting.

Second, in order to bring political authority to the UN Resolutions in the General Assembly and subsequently in the Security Council, an idea has been mooted in a report to establish a UN Parliamentary Assembly, the UN Parliamentary Assembly could bring together Parliamentarians from National Legislatures and Regional Parliaments. These parliamentarians to be part of the UN Parliamentary Assembly may not necessarily be nominated by the respective Governments, but will compose of Volunteer Parliamentarians who wish to contribute to the work of the UN and the nominations to the UNPA should reflect the full political spectrum of each member state . The UN PA may hold one Session in Person , this could be hosted on the basis of Regional Rotation by member states , one month before the GA Session , while they will work on line for the rest of the year. Pakistan Should support this proposal for its intrinsic importance .

The second important objectives for the establishment of the UN as given in the preamble is to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity, and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.

The UN has done fairly well on the question of human rights, and gender equality. It has formed a credible watchdog – The United Nations Council – which was initially called United Nations Commission on Human Rights now based in Geneva includes member states and observer states, and non-government organizations.

The rise of the autocratic nationalists leaders all around the world has had an adverse impact on the overall Human Rights situation in the world. The rights of the minorities, marginalized groups, immigrants, and refugees have come under threat by the nationalist and ultra nationalist leaders, pushing their exclusive domestic agenda to consolidate their political constituencies to perpetuate in power. The process of globalization and the notion of an inclusive world order is being targeted by some nationalist leaders of the Western Democratic world, which in turn emboldens other authoritarian regimes to violate fundamental Human Rights and Rights of Minorities with impunity, the glaring examples are Benjamin Nathanyaho of Israel and Narendra Modi of India. Pakistan should support the proposal for the establishment of Regional Courts for Protection of Human Rights,Transnational and Environmental Crimes.

The last but not the least is the United Nations “Jewel in the Crown”, the Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection. The universal recognition of Millennium Development Goals is a single major achievement of the UN as an Global Institution. It also goes to the credit of the UN to have successfully conceived and concluded some strategic and ground breaking agreements ,and protocols on environmental protections which include Kyoto Protocol, The Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna and Convention on Biological Diversity .

The civil society has played a key role in the creation of some very important Global Governance Agreements and Protocols ,which include Mine Ban Treaty 1997 , spearheaded by a coalition of six NGOs and led by Noble Laureate Jody Williams, creation of International Criminal Court and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The civil society should continue to be engaged for bringing about ‘Global Governance Innovations and Renewal.

Despite the fact that the objectives of the UN are lofty, the obstacles are formidable, and international relations most complex and uncertain in a world which has been in flux since the end of Bipolar world, yet the United Nations is the only hope as an institution for providing an overarching global governance architecture.

The writer is former Ambassador of Pakistan to Vietnam