Critical Analysis of the United Nations Organization
The United Nations Organization (UNO) officially came into existence in October 1945 after the Second World War. It was formed to replace the League of Nations, which had proved incapable of restraining aggressive dictators like Hitler and Mussolini. In setting up the UNO, the great powers tried to eliminate some of the weaknesses, which had handicapped the league. The UN charter was drawn up in San Francisco in 1945, and was based on proposals made at an earlier meeting between the USSR USA China and Britain held at Dumbarton Oaks (USA) in 1944
The aims of the UN are to
• Preserve peace and eliminate war
• Remove cause of conflict by encouraging economic social educational scientific and cultural progress throughout the world especially in the under developed countries
• Safeguarding the rights of all individual human being and the right of peoples and nations
In October 1995, the UN celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. However, it was still nowhere near achieving its basic aims: the world was still full of economic and social problems and acts of aggressions and war continues. The UN’s failure was caused to some extent by weakness in its system
The lack of a permanent UN army
This means that it difficult to prevail upon powerful states to accept its decisions if they choose to put self-interest first. If persuasion and pressure of world opinion fail ,the UN has to rely on member nations to provide troops to enable it to enforce decision. For example, the USSRR was able to ignore the UN’s demands for withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungary (1956) and Afghanistan (1980). UN involvement in Somalia (1992-5) and Bosnia (1992-5) showed the impossibility of the UN being able to stop a war when the warring parties were not ready to stop fighting.
When should the UN be involved?
There is a problem about exactly when the UN should become involved during the course of a dispute. Sometimes it hangs back too long, so the problem becomes more difficult to solve;
The aims of the UN are to
• Preserve peace and eliminate war
• Remove cause of conflict by encouraging economic social educational scientific and cultural progress throughout the world especially in the under developed countries
• Safeguarding the rights of all individual human being and the right of peoples and nations
In October 1995, the UN celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. However, it was still nowhere near achieving its basic aims: the world was still full of economic and social problems and acts of aggressions and war continues. The UN’s failure was caused to some extent by weakness in its system
The lack of a permanent UN army
This means that it difficult to prevail upon powerful states to accept its decisions if they choose to put self-interest first. If persuasion and pressure of world opinion fail ,the UN has to rely on member nations to provide troops to enable it to enforce decision. For example, the USSRR was able to ignore the UN’s demands for withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungary (1956) and Afghanistan (1980). UN involvement in Somalia (1992-5) and Bosnia (1992-5) showed the impossibility of the UN being able to stop a war when the warring parties were not ready to stop fighting.
When should the UN be involved?
There is a problem about exactly when the UN should become involved during the course of a dispute. Sometimes it hangs back too long, so the problem becomes more difficult to solve;