The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held its high-level week September 23-27, 2024, ending formal debates on Monday. The world leaders gathered for the annual High-Level General Debate under the theme: “Leaving no one behind: Acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations”.
Comprising of 193 Member States, the General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. It provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of international issues, including peace and security.
This year, each of the 134 Member States represented by 87 Heads of State, two Vice Presidents, 1 Crown Prince, 28 Heads of Government, three Deputy Prime Ministers and 13 Ministers spoke. Nigeria was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
At its best, the UN operated in an international order built on balancing sovereign equality with great-power politics towards maintaining international peace, which protects human rights while delivering aid and other humanitarian assistance to needy areas.
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But things are not the way they used to be. By the way it operates, the UN is being hampered by the five veto-wielding members of its Security Council (P-5) – U.S., Russia, China, UK and France. Through this, they have limited UN’s involvement in their areas of interests, rendering it impotent, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Middle East’s Palestinian issues and the Israel-Hamas/Hezbollah wars as example.
From its founding in 1945, the General Assembly had served as platform for world leaders to meet and discuss pressing causes of the day. It no longer is. It is such that Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins said the UN is “Losing credibility. It is unable to stop war, it is unable to end famine, it is unable to stop conflicts, it is unable to manage migration.”
Indeed, the UN is losing grip to regional groupings including BRICS, the group of five leading emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which early this year expanded to 10 countries; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a political and economic union of 10 states in Southeast Asia; and the European Union (EU).
Now, the UN’s ability to carry out its mission as envisaged has been so severely constrained such that many of its agencies are now facing funding shortages, thereby curtailing the execution of their mandates. Largely, it has become an inefficient talking shop as multilateralism, which used to be the rule, is under severe strain, being replaced with unipolarism. In the absence of the uniting force, its legitimacy has been weakened as competition replaced cooperation in global affairs.
With the widening partisan divide in the international community, the UN has been unable to effectively enforce mandates, after all, it is only as effective as member states allow.
Yet, the UN has played a very stabilising role in global affairs, despite its shortcomings. Under it, over 181 million people in 72 countries receive humanitarian aid today. Its agencies also provide 45 per cent of the world’s children with vaccines, saving millions of lives each year from preventable diseases. Its 11 peacekeeping missions deployed around the world, protecting civilians and helping to consolidate peace.
The UN continues to play a key role in the fight against racism, xenophobia, homophobia and all forms of hate speech.
Obviously, the UN is losing relevance, which must never be allowed to continue. The world needs the UN now more than ever, especially as authoritarianism is giving way to democracy and inclusiveness; with the brutal wars in Ukraine and the Middle East (Gaza and Hezbollah) where it has been largely absent, the environmental catastrophes, terrorism, drug menace, and a world where there is so much enmity.
We at Daily Trust believe that efforts must be made to ensure that the global body does not fade into obscurity. Therefore, this is time for introspection and reinvention of the UN. It must once again take its place and make bold moves in the world’s troubled spots. Otherwise, it would soon become a clean-up haven for mess around the world. The UN must move away from this present position where no one pays attention to its statements anymore. After all, it used to be the body with acclaimed unity of purpose that the world listens to, and countries used to line up to be counted whenever it took a stand.
We also urge an immediate process of reform for the UN, which will strengthen and reposition its development system as it pursues simplified processes. This should see it working towards creating a more efficient organisation where its peace and security operations are programmed to meet modern day challenges, where its resolutions are respected and enforced.
We urge the international community to work towards making the UN more transparent and accountable, where its effectiveness will impact its programmes on food security, on maternal health, on climate, peace and security.
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