Who Watches the U.N.?

By Boaz Fox ‘23

The United Nations (U.N.) has failed.
The U.N. is an intergovernmental organization founded shortly after the end of World War II to promote peace and security to all countries of the world through international cooperation. So far, it has failed to do so. 

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Its failure to achieve its core mission starts with an inherently flawed structure. The organization was founded to give all nations a voice. However, only five, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the victorious countries of World War II, hold immense influence as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. With this power, any single one of these nations can veto any resolution and prevent successful compromise. 
    One of the stated roles of the U.N. is to maintain international and equitable security; however, the sheer power of the five permanent members prevents any opportunity to actually achieve these goals. 
Russia, a nation known for its human rights abuses, has repeatedly vetoed resolutions that counteract its goals. For example, Russia has shot down motions calling for sanctions against them for their militaristic actions during the Syrian Civil War and condemnation for their invasion of the Crimean Peninsula. Russia, including its time on the Security Council as the USSR, has used its veto more than any other nation, over 140 times. 
No country should be able to reject an international effort to stop their crimes, and keeping veto power will only allow those nations to get away with more illegal activities.
    With nearly all the U.N’s power vested in these five nations, the organization has become a tool used expressly for the benefit of those in power, and not for the world at large. The five permanent members’ political bias is particularly apparent in interventions in resource-rich countries like Kuwait, while poorer and less profitable countries like Rwanda are ignored. 
    In the few times where interventions actually occur, the interventionists either do little or actively harm those they aim to protect. During the Bosnian War, U.N. peacekeeping forces were sent to establish a safe area for Bosnian civilians. However, the U.N. charter for the peacekeepers had given them so few weapons and refused to allow for airstrikes, making them unable to defend the so-called ‘safe’ area. The Serbian military massacred thousands of civilians in an act of genocide, despite the United Nations’ attempt at a safeguard. 

Another issue plaguing U.N. intervention forces is their lawlessness. In 2015, the U.N. disclosed figures showing thousands of cases of forced sex with U.N. workers in exchange for humanitarian aid. Just two years later, an Associated Press investigation revealed that over 100 U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti ran a child prostitution ring. None of these criminals were ever punished as the U.N. reigns supreme over international affairs. 
    Other investigations have found similar crime rings in other territories with U.N. peacekeepers, like Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia and Kosovo. A 1996 U.N. study found that rates of child prostitution skyrocket wherever peacekeepers arrive. The few U.N. workers who do get punished face extremely minor consequences, such as being barred from future deployments or repatriation.
    This appalling injustice occurs because the U.N. operates on what the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations calls “functional immunity” for about as long as the organization has existed. The immunity was originally created to let peacekeepers, diplomats and observers do their jobs without fear of retribution from the countries they are operating in, as it establishes the U.N. as above national laws. However, it also unintentionally functions to protect rapists and corrupt officials. Rape, prostitution and corruption can all be reported, but perpetrators can not and will not be brought to justice in the country where they committed their crimes.
Moreover, U.N. officials are tasked with investigating instead of third-party investigators, further complicating matters. As demonstrated with Russia’s vetoes of resolutions regarding their actions, accused parties should not be their own prosecutors. 
Negligence among peacekeepers causes additional harm. During the 2010s, Haiti was faced with a massive cholera outbreak, the first major eruption of the disease in the modern era. By the end of the outbreak in early 2019, an estimated 800,000 Haitians were infected. When evidence began to point to U.N. soldiers from Nepal as the source of contamination, the U.N. claimed diplomatic immunity and refused to compensate those sickened and killed. Eventually, when the evidence against the U.N. had piled up, the U.N. admitted responsibility and promised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on aiding those hurt. More than ten years after the outbreak began, only a small fraction of the money has been paid. 
The United Nations has long held itself as a forum for international diplomacy, a bastion of world reconciliation and a necessary peacekeeping body. But its failures to manage its administration, achieve its goals worldwide and keep its forces responsible call into question its usefulness on the global stage.