Does Anyone Else Think The UN Needs Major Reform?

[Eternal_Vigilance]

I've always had an idealistic view of the United Nations. From my time in Model UN in high school, I always viewed the organization as a tool to serve the many problems facing the international community. But in all honesty, the UN has major flaws that impede its ability to effectively operate and address the problems of genocide, drug trafficking, global terrorism, child prostiution, poverty, among others.

The organization itself is incredibly bureaucratic and operates with an incredibly meager budget. Its peacekeeping forces are often outgunned and outmatched in many of its foreign deployments. The General Assembly passes many resolutions that rarely have any influence on the problem its trying to address. The Security Council is even worse. It is an elite "members-only" club where the five dominant permanent members (the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France) effectively control the council. Their veto powers often hamstring and obstruct the Council's ability to act efficiently and expediently to an emerging crisis. (i.e. Sudan)

I believe in international cooperation and using a multilateral approach to address the global issues that face all the peoples of the world today. Regional organizations such as NATO and the EU hold more respect and esteem than the entire UN does. The UN needs to rebuild its image as an organization that can actually deliver on its promises. With that said however, until the UN implements major reforms, I believe the organization's effectiveness and viability is greatly impeded if not completely eliminated.

SO DUers, what reforms or changes (if any) do you think the United Nations must make in order for it to be more effective and viable on the global stage?

[AntiFascist]

1. Move the headquarters to Geneva....

or somewhere more neutral. If things continue the way they are, the U.S. will undoubtedly become less relevant.

[theorist]

2. I think you make a lot of lofty claims without supporting them.

Especially these:

The organization itself is incredibly bureaucratic and operates with an incredibly meager budget. Its peacekeeping forces are often outgunned and outmatched in many of its foreign deployments. The General Assembly passes many resolutions that rarely have any influence on the problem its trying to address.


Noam Chomsky makes a case in Hegemony or Survival that the problem with the UN is the United States. An American foreign policy bent on control of the world's markets with the UN being a major tool toward this end is the major cause of anti-American sentiment in the world. All of these claims are supported by impeccable research. I'd say, get to work.

[Eternal_Vigilance]

5. The UN is so weak because it was intentionally designed that way

In the 1948 Charter, the United Nations was deliberately made to be weak. Individual member states feared that such a supranational organization might threaten their sovereignty. The issue of national sovereignty is at the crux of why the UN is so ineffective. Individual countries seek to retain their own autonomy and not be subject to a larger organization.

Indeed, the United States has proven to be a damper on UN operations. Senate Republicans have constantly fought to withold paying American dues to the organization unless it makes immediate reforms. The US provides well over two-thirds of the UN operating budget. When Washinton decides to withold its funding, UN operations worldwide take a severe hit.

As a result, the United Nations remains an underfunded, an underpowered, unrespected lifeless debating society, where smaller (usually poorer Third World ) nations have little say in anything except for parliamentary procedure, while the Big Five (i.e. America, Russian Federation, China, France, and the United Kingdom)control the UN agenda to suit their own national interests.

At the heart of the issue is how to make the UN stronger and more relevant without dissolving the individual sovereignty of its member-states. A simple solution is not easy, however it starts by making the Security Council more inclusive to other nations, abolishing any veto power for any nation, and allowing the UN the necessary resources to follow up on its humanitarian and peacekeeping initiatives.

[sangh0]

7. You state the point, but you don't really address it.

You correctly note that the UN is weak because that's what it members, who are concerned about their own sovereignity, want it to be. Then, you just move on to a reprise of the "what can we do to strengthen the UN" with other "glittering generalities" like "making the Security Council more inclusive"

The SC is not inclusive because if it was organized in some other way, the more powerful member nations would quit, making the UN a joke.

Just take your example of eliminating the veto. Is there really any chance of that happening in the forseeable future? Basically, you're proposing that the UN be made an international law enforcement agency, with the power to police sovereign nations. That's just not about to happen.

The member nations are not going to cede any power to any other nation, organization, or individual unless they have an overwhelmingly compelling reason to do so. It's extremely rare for a power to relinquish some of it's power voluntarily. It's not reasonable to think that it might happen. Therefore, any call for suggestions for improvement for the UN, when it seems clear that the world situation makes it impossible to make those changes, can be nothing more than an exercise in criticism, at a time when the UN is getting more than it's share from those who object to any organization that might disagree with the Bush* administration.

[sweetheart]

3. Form a peoples chamber, HQ'd in south africa

Create a chamber of 1 representative for every 10 million people on
the earth, (rounding up per country), and put that chamber in
johannisburg. Then alter the charter to make the UN bicameral
just like the US government... and the new chamber would effectively
be the house of commons/house of representatives.

[whosinpower]

4. #1 change

Abolish ALL the veto powers in the security council.

Majority votes rule period. There should be no veto powers available to ANY nation.

[Bridget Burke]

6. Let's get the USA straightened out first.

We need to get rid of our unelected idiot-boy president & reverse the foreign policies that have made our own country one of the major threats to world peace. Let's renew our commitment to human rights while we're at it. Prisoner torture & heckler handcuffing have tarnished our reputation sddin that area.

Once we've started to repair the damage her & ensured we're all paid up with the UN, reforming that body can be discussed. Perhaps somebody else will listen to us by that point.

[Senior citizen]

9. Amen to that!

First we put our own house in order.


:yourock: :hi: :hug:

[Cleita]

8. I think it needs a sovereign territory to exist in like the Vatican.

Something about having the UN headquartered in the USA right now doesn't seem right. I don't know exactly where this should be though.