To understand and evaluate the effectiveness of the United Nations, one must understand the purposes the United Nations was designed for. The United Nations, an intergovernmental organization composed of six principal parts established to promote international peace and security, is an organization resembling a world government that creates and enforces international laws in order to solve threats, conflicts, and promote peace. However, due to flaws and limitations of the UN Charter and the Security Council, the United Nations may be quite ineffective in times. Even though the United Nations' main goal is to promote and maintain peace, and the fact that a third world war haven't happened yet might prove that point, the United Nations is in truth not very effective since problems such as veto power in the Security Council, state sovereignty over human rights, and the lack of power over domestic issues in nations are all capable of preventing actions from taken.
According to Chapter I of the UN Charter, there are three main purposes. First, the UN will try to maintain international peace and security by preventing and removing threats to the peace. Secondly, the UN will develop friendly relations between nations based on the principle of equality. Thirdly, economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian problems will be solved disregarding the difference in race, sex, language, or religion. To summarize these purposes, the United Nations was established to unite the nations together to achieve international peace by eliminating and resolving threats and conflicts.
Throughout the years since the creation of the United Nations, there had been cases of triumphs and failures, where conflicts were either resolved or unattended. The United Nations played a key role in attempting to create a nuclear free world by creating treaties that disarmed nations of nuclear weapons. Treaties such as the 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty' and the 'Partial Test Ban Treaty' helped with the progress. Even though such treaties exist, nuclear weapons are still in possessions of certain nations. Nevertheless, there had been no nuclear bomb explosion after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings. The United Nations has also been credited for ending regional conflicts of over 172 different settlements. However, these peace keeping missions were only possible when none of the 5 Permanent Members vetoed. This is where things rough.
First of all, when any 5 Permanent Members of the Security Council vetoes on a Security Council resolution, the resolution will be ineffective, which is what happens most of the time. Most of the time, Russia, China, and United States hold different stances on different conflicts, thus, to resolve the conflict by one way is pretty much achievable. Secondly, the United Nations focuses more on state sovereignty rather than human rights. They will not interfere with domestic issues, so if a government decides to enslave their citizens, the United Nations cannot interfere. For example, the United Nations failed to intervene in the Rwanda Genocide, where 800,000 Tutsis are killed by the Hutus within 100 days. Another example is the Darfur Genocide that took place in the 2000s, where 200,000 villagers were killed. If the United Nations interfered, the lives of tens of thousands of people will be spared.
Even though there had not been a Third World War, the United Nations watched tens and hundreds of people get slaughtered to death while they could have prevented it though that would mean disobeying the UN Charter. The United Nation's purpose is to establish national peace and when people are killed, it is not peace. This is why i believe that the United Nations is not very effective.
Bibliography:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26917419
http://unitingforpeace.com/resources/speeches/How%20effective%20is%20the%20UN.pdf
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/08/opinion/lopez-russia-sanctions-cold-war/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/55875/max-boot/paving-the-road-to-hell-the-failure-of-u-n-peacekeeping
According to Chapter I of the UN Charter, there are three main purposes. First, the UN will try to maintain international peace and security by preventing and removing threats to the peace. Secondly, the UN will develop friendly relations between nations based on the principle of equality. Thirdly, economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian problems will be solved disregarding the difference in race, sex, language, or religion. To summarize these purposes, the United Nations was established to unite the nations together to achieve international peace by eliminating and resolving threats and conflicts.
Throughout the years since the creation of the United Nations, there had been cases of triumphs and failures, where conflicts were either resolved or unattended. The United Nations played a key role in attempting to create a nuclear free world by creating treaties that disarmed nations of nuclear weapons. Treaties such as the 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty' and the 'Partial Test Ban Treaty' helped with the progress. Even though such treaties exist, nuclear weapons are still in possessions of certain nations. Nevertheless, there had been no nuclear bomb explosion after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings. The United Nations has also been credited for ending regional conflicts of over 172 different settlements. However, these peace keeping missions were only possible when none of the 5 Permanent Members vetoed. This is where things rough.
First of all, when any 5 Permanent Members of the Security Council vetoes on a Security Council resolution, the resolution will be ineffective, which is what happens most of the time. Most of the time, Russia, China, and United States hold different stances on different conflicts, thus, to resolve the conflict by one way is pretty much achievable. Secondly, the United Nations focuses more on state sovereignty rather than human rights. They will not interfere with domestic issues, so if a government decides to enslave their citizens, the United Nations cannot interfere. For example, the United Nations failed to intervene in the Rwanda Genocide, where 800,000 Tutsis are killed by the Hutus within 100 days. Another example is the Darfur Genocide that took place in the 2000s, where 200,000 villagers were killed. If the United Nations interfered, the lives of tens of thousands of people will be spared.
Even though there had not been a Third World War, the United Nations watched tens and hundreds of people get slaughtered to death while they could have prevented it though that would mean disobeying the UN Charter. The United Nation's purpose is to establish national peace and when people are killed, it is not peace. This is why i believe that the United Nations is not very effective.
Bibliography:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26917419
http://unitingforpeace.com/resources/speeches/How%20effective%20is%20the%20UN.pdf
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/08/opinion/lopez-russia-sanctions-cold-war/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/55875/max-boot/paving-the-road-to-hell-the-failure-of-u-n-peacekeeping