the united nations success or failure

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose main objectives are stated to be; facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN delegates these responsibilities to various agencies which include 193 member states. The organization consists of six main bodies as well as several other prominent agencies. The success of the UN, measured given their main objectives, can be seen by many as a complete and utter failure in various instances. The main body which receives most blame for these failures would be the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), in charge of international peace and security. What seem to be countless cases of failure to provide humanitarian aid, failed peace keeping efforts, failure to prevent genocide, failure to implement provisions to Security Council resolutions, as well as many other highly publicized failures have plagued the UN’s reputation. Cases of such matters can hardly be used to defend the UN’s success in facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. Other bodies of the UN have also been put under scrutiny, most recently a controversy within The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Although the UN has also seen its successes, one could argue that there are clearly great weaknesses in the system of international organization which the UN presents.

Key arguments:

The powers of the UNSC are outlined by the United Nations Charter and are exercised through United Nations Security Council resolutions. Hans Köchler argues that “The UNSC contains an irreconcilable normative contradiction, namely between (a) the principle of the sovereign equality of Member States and (b) the privileged position of the five permanent members of the Security Council, expressed in the