When considering the alternatives to American global leadership, the United
Nations is often offered as a desirable alternative. Inevitably, however, the UN embodies
the flaws of the nations that make it up.
The
UN has proved unable or unwilling to authorise efforts to prevent genocide and ethnic
cleansing
The UN
structure requires such a broad consensus before authorising action as to make
international intervention almost impossible. The UN requires for the authorisation of
force a majority of members on its security council, and the unanimous agreement of the
UN Security Council’s five permanent members – two of which, China and
Russia, have well-documented shortcomings when it comes to human rights and democracy. UN
ethics inevitably descend to the principles of the lowest common denominator. This has
the practical effect of preventing UN authorisation for international intervention in
even the most pressing cases. In the case of Kosovo, the UN Security Council attempted
(and failed) to block intervention by America and British forces. China and Russia used
their seats on the UN Security Council to veto sanctions against Robert Mugabe.[1] Efforts to act on Burma and end the ongoing
genocide in Darfur through the UN are being prevented in the Security Council by China.
Whenever the United States does not act, the United Nations proves unable to do
so.
The
UN has no armed forces of its own and no money of its own
The
global leadership of particular nation states cannot simply be replaced by the United
Nations, as the UN is entirely dependent upon nation states. UN ‘blue
helmets’ can only be sent as peacekeepers with the authorisation of the UN Security
Council, with the peacekeepers themselves contributed by national governments. The UN
budget comes entirely from national governments, with over 40% coming from the top two
contributors, America and Japan. America pays 22% of the UN’s annual
budget.[2] The
world’s leading nations, coalitions of the willing, regional alliances and
strategic alliances such as NATO have all proved their ability to confront problems of
global security. The UN has none of the required means at its disposal to do the
same.
The
UN cannot be counted on to promote international peace and security
The UN
Security Council itself is composed of a mix of democracies and dictatorships. This
faustian bargain struck in the aftermath of the Second World War was a moral compromise
that has crippled effective action against dictators ever since. Because Russia, for
example, is a permanent member of the Security Council, she can always veto any UN
resolution passed in response to Russian aggression, as with Georgia in 2008.
The
UN has a long record of failure on human rights
In
2005 the UN Secretary General acknowledged of its Human Rights Commission: “[T]he
Commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United
Nations system as a whole … piecemeal reforms will not be enough”.[3] The Human Rights Council replaced the
Commission in 2006, but bizarrely, no amount of abuse of human rights is a barrier to
membership, meaning such documented human rights abusers as Algeria, China, Cuba, Egypt
and Saudi Arabia have been elected to the Council.[4] As a result, the Council in its first year passed no
resolutions against 19 of the world’s twenty worst human rights abusers, as
identified by Freedom House, but passed 12 against Israel.[5]
United Nations conferences have a history of being hijacked by extremist
groups and
dictators with radical agendas alien to most of the democratic
world
In
1975, the UN General Assembly voted for Resolution 3379. This resolution, introduced by
the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, declared Zionism - the belief that Israel has a right to
exist as a Jewish state - to be a form of racism.[6] At the 2001 Durban Conference – aimed at
combating racism and xenophobia – this message was repeated, with further
demands including reparations for slavery and the abolition of sections of the United
States constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech.[7]
United Nations staff have consistently struggled to prove their
value
UN
officials, from accountants to computer analysts, earn salaries approximately double the
norm, entirely tax-free. Further perks include monthly rent subsidies of “up to
$3,800” and annual education grants of “up to $12,675 per
child”.[8]
United Nations personnel and their families are also exempt from parking laws and fines
owing to diplomatic immunity, and in a five year period accumulated over 150,000 unpaid
parking tickets, worth more than $18 million, in New York alone.[9] Despite these generous benefits, UN
Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali admitted that “perhaps half the UN work
force does nothing useful”.[10]
Corruption by UN officials has undermined its most serious
responsibilities
The
Financial Times found that "as much as a third of the money raised by the UN for its
tsunami response was being swallowed up by salaries and administrative overheads", while
the equivalent figure for Oxfam's relief efforts was a tenth.[11] The UN Oil-For-Food programme was
manipulated by Saddam Hussein to ensure billions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks went
personally to him. The UN administered the programme and apparently did nothing to
prevent its abuse. When the scandal was uncovered and an inquiry began, the Chief of
Staff to the UN Secretary General spent months shredding thousands of U.N. documents
relating to the Oil for Food programme, ensuring the evidence would not be there for a
full investigation.[12]
United Nations peacekeepers and officials have been guilty of sexual abuse of the
most vulnerable people in four continents
Nations affected include Congo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Guinea, Liberia, Bosnia,
Kosovo, Haiti, the Ivory Coast and Cambodia.[13] In response to the latter allegations, the
UN’s top official in Cambodia initially responded: “Boys will be
boys”,[14]
although the UN eventually adopted a zero tolerance policy on sexual abuse by
peacekeepers.[15] Since
then, however, more UN peacekeepers in Southern Sudan are alleged to have raped girls as
young as 12.[16]
As
a forum, the UN offers members opportunities to evade accountability and
scrutiny
Many
meetings take place in private and without any official record being taken of statements
made and decisions taken. There is no Hansard for most meetings, and NGOs and independent
observers can be excluded. Bureaucrats and ambassadors who in a democratic assembly would
be subject to the normal pressures of openness and accountability can avoid them through
the United Nations.
The
UN does some things well, whatever its overall shortcomings
Founded on the highest principles, it provides a regular forum for all
nations’ leaders to discuss and debate – a particular advantage for smaller
nations unable to afford embassies in every country in the world. UN peacekeepers have
been able to uphold some agreements between parties that would not have trusted the
troops of a single nation state to keep the peace neutrally. What the UN lacks is the
moral or material capacity to take on the responsibilities of global
leadership.
Related Links
UN Watch
Papers on the United
Nations, The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom
Eye on the UN
Further Reading
Delusions of Grandeur, Edited by Ted Galen Carpenter
Cultures
of Corruption: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets, Ray Fisman & Edward
Miguel, University of Southern California, 28 April 2006
The Decline and
Fall of the United Nations: Why the U.N. Has Failed and How It Can Be Reformed, Nile
Gardiner, Ph.D., 13 October, 2006
Senator McCain Makes the Case for
a League of Democracies, John McCain, May 2007
YouTube
Heritage in Focus: Why We
Should Be Suspicious of the UN
Proceedings of the UN Human
Rights Council - What is and is not admissible
Eye on The UN YouTube
clips
UN Watch YouTube
clips
[1] Zimbabwe sanctions vetoed at UN, BBC, 12 July 2008
[2] All about the United Nations Budget, UNA-UNA Fact Sheet, June 2006
[3] Secretary-General's Address to the Commission on Human Rights, Office of the United Nations Secretary-General, 7 April 2005 (quoted in Schaefer, below)
[4] The U.S. Is Right to Shun the U.N. Human Rights Council, Brett D. Schaefer, 2 May 2008
[5] The United Nations Human Rights Council: A Disastrous First Year, Brett D. Schaefer, 1 June 2007 (see also the table of countries elected to the Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Council, 2005-2007, and their ratings by Freedom House, in the table at http://www.heritage.org/Research/WorldwideFreedom/images/b2038_table1_lg.gif; Freedom House rankings are at The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies 2007, Freedom House
[6] Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly 3379. Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, United Nations, 10 November 1975
[7] Durban vs. America, John Fonte, 21 August 2001
[8] Cato Handbook for Congress 105th Congress, The United Nations, Stefan Halper, The Cato Institute
[9] Cultures of Corruption: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets, Ray Fisman & Edward Miguel, University of Southern California, 28 April 2006
[10] Cato Handbook for Congress, The Cato Institute, p.577
[11] Little Clarity on How Aid Gets Spent, Shawn Donnan, Financial Times, December 23, 2005, p.8, quoted in The Decline and Fall of the United Nations: Why the U.N. Has Failed and How It Can Be Reformed, Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., 13 October, 2006
[12] Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme, Second Interim Report, 29 March 2005 (quoted in Gardiner, above)
[13] Sex and the UN: when peacemakers become predators, The Independent, 11 January 2005; U.N. Faces More Accusations of Sexual Misconduct, Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 13 March 2005 (quoted in Gardiner and Groves, below); Peacekeepers ‘abusing children’, BBC, 27 May 2008
[14] U.N. Faces More Accusations of Sexual Misconduct, Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, 13 March 2005
[15] The United States Must Act to End Abuses by U.N. Peacekeepers, Nile Gardiner, Ph.D. and Steven Groves, 16 January 2007
[16] UN Staff Accused of Raping Children in Sudan, Kate Holt and Sarah Hughes, The Daily Telegraph, 4 January 2007
