Ryan ChartrandThe United Nations was originally founded in 1945 with the intention to maintain and promote peace, human rights, justice, social progress and freedom. During the course of the Cold War, the United States effectively used the U.N. as a diplomatic tool against the Soviet Union to promote freedom and peace. However, today the U.N. does not promote the goals that the organization was founded upon. In fact, it does quite the opposite.
The U.N., like many organizations and certain groups of people, is plagued by the idea of “multiculturalism.” This ideology celebrates the differences among people and gives equal respect to all nations and cultures, regardless of their respective nature. In practice, it means treating all nations equally, even if the nation is unjust or immoral.
As an example of this, the U.N. gives the same status to Iran, Syria, or North Korea, which have oppressive, violent, and dictatorial regimes. These states and others like them were often elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCH). This commission often had members who had little or no respect for human rights at all. When a measure came up to censure North Korea, a state that routinely starves and executes its citizens, the measure was defeated by nations with equally dubious respect for human rights, like Cuba, Algeria, Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe. The commission has had members of the Arab bloc that practice the most brutal and fundamental forms of Sharia, and also has been chaired by Syria, Libya and Cuba.
Although the UNCH was replaced recently by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), this council suffers from the same problems as the UNCH. The United States opposed the creation of this commission for this reason, along with Israel, but was defeated. Since its creation, the UNHRC has spent most of its time condemning Israel for actions to defend its people, while blatantly ignoring the major humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Likewise, as a deliberative body, the U.N. has worked to protect dangerous regimes like Iran, which may be pursuing nuclear weapons, and has relentlessly criticized nations, like the United States, which promote freedom and democracy.
While not only giving a helping hand to oppressive regimes, the U.N. is also an inefficient bureaucracy wrapped in continuous scandal. Whether it’s U.N. troops that violated human rights in peace-keeping missions by committing wide-scale rape and sexual abuse or massive abuses in the Oil-for-Food scandal that directed money into the pockets of U.N. officials and into Saddam Hussein’s regime, the U.N. leadership has abused its power. (Hey, you can’t spell unethical without the U.N.) Currently, U.N. peacekeepers in the Congo stand accused of at least 150 major human rights violations. As for the Oil-for-Food scandal, it could be considered not only one of the largest financial frauds in modern history, but a fraud that may have contributed to the suffering of countless Iraqis. U.S. Senate investigations conclude an estimated $10 billion to $21.3 billion went unaccounted for. In a more recent scandal, the U.S. State Department believes that Kim Jong Il stole millions of dollars from the U.N.’s Development Program, while the U.N. attempted to cover it up.
Currently, the U.N. is incapable of taking actions that promote the principles it was founded upon. Americans realize this and a Gallup poll in 2006 showed that only 28 percent of Americans had a positive image of the U.N.’s job performance. To be sure, the U.N. was founded upon just principles; principles that should be followed by the United States. However, the U.N. as an organization is incapable of carrying out this mission. Instead, the United States should act with nations that have similar values. Perhaps with the creation of a league of free nations that excludes oppressive regimes, the Untied States could more effectively carry out a mission of freedom, justice and human rights.
Brian Eller is a materials engineering junior and Mustang Daily political columnist.