The UN’s annual ‘carnival’

What is happening in New York right now is the UN’s 68^th annual ‘carnival’ held every year, in September, with world leaders assembling on the pretext of attending the UN General Assembly’s annual session. For nearly two weeks, at this time of the year, the ‘Big Apple’ as the New Yorkers like to fondly call their city, is paralysed with extraordinary traffic ‘gridlocks’ and security ‘nightmares’. It also becomes a global ‘gala’ event with a lot of fun and frolic in the name of the world’s poor and global peace.

The United Nations is the centre stage of this carnival where the world’s rulers of all sorts including kings, sheikhs, sultans, emirs, khalifas, princes, crown princes, democrats, autocrats and dictators assemble in a gala ‘funfair’ mood trying to take a break from the worries of their routine life back home. Their programme normally kicks off with a breakfast hosted by the UN secretary general at the UN Headquarters, with a lavish ‘global’ menu. A series of luncheons, receptions, banquets and a proforma ritual called ‘bilaterals’ then keep them busy with each other.

Six to seven course dinners are hosted for them in top-class seven-star hotels of the city, in the name of the world’s poor and hungry. The only real UN-related official engagement of world leaders is the ‘general debate’ in which each participating leader delivers a prepared 10-15 minutes long written statement from the podium of the General Assembly. The ‘eloquent’ statements so made are only a rehash of the ‘words of wisdom’ that world leaders have been showering upon humanity for years, on issues of global importance, with little relevance to their own countries. And this cycle of global carnivals goes on religiously every year.

“They come, they speak, and they leave.” This is the sum total of the UNGA’s session every year. The event marked by lot of activity in the name of peace and development comes and goes without changing anything in our turbulent world, but for the world’s leaders from across the globe, it is an opportunity to get together in the ‘capital’ of the world, New York, bringing its normally pulsating life to a chaotic standstill. In their resounding statements, we hear lot of good things about our future in terms of peace and prosperity, and about mankind’s freedom from all evils and menaces. They also keep reaffirming their resolve to reshape the UN in conformity with the realities of the changed world.

But once they return to their respective countries, they forget their promises and commitments. Neither the world nor the UN shows any change for the better. Neither is different from what it has been since the Second World War. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The Iron Curtain is no longer there, but the ‘poverty curtain’ continues to cut across the face of this earth dividing humanity between two unequal halves — one embarrassingly rich and the other desperately poor. Global peace remains as elusive as ever. The world remains afflicted with endemic conflict and abuse of power.

What aggravates this bleak scenario is the growing inability of the international community to respond to these challenges. The events of the last decade or so have immeasurably shaken the international system, which is no longer governed by the rule of law and basic norms of inter-state relations. Might, always considered wrong, has never been claimed so right. There is no global balance of power, nor consensus on major peace and security issues or on how to address them. The complacent world has never been so indifferent and so chaotic.

The post-9/11 world has seen unprecedented erosion in the role, authority and credibility of the UN, which is no longer the sole meaningful arbiter on issues of global importance. Washington, not New York, is the focus of world attention for actual decision-making on major global issues. The UN was meant to provide a moral edifice in the reordering of the global system, which was to be based on justice and equity and governed by rules, laws, values and cooperation. It has prevented no war and resolved no major dispute. Palestine and Kashmir, the world’s two longest-outstanding major disputes, are a glaring example of its helplessness.

Functionally, today’s UN is no more than a debating forum, annually producing voluminous and repetitive resolutions without any follow-up action. The UN system is not only the world’s largest consumer of paper but also its largest producer of waste paper. No wonder it is dubbed as the ‘dustbin of history’. Ironically, the UN Security Council, responsible under the Charter for maintenance of international peace and security, is also left with no role in preventing conflicts or resolving disputes. Its deliberations are conducted in a theatrical manner through stage-managed debates and choreographed scenarios.

The vested overriding interests of the more influential and more powerful players limit the Security Council’s role in conflict prevention and dispute resolution. There is no transparency in its proceedings. Open meetings of the Security Council are merely a farce, a managed talk show in which member states are heard, not listened to. Its decisions on critical issues are made either in Washington or reached behind the closed doors among the Big Five in the anterooms of the Council’s chamber.

One thing must be clear. Business as usual will not do. Global carnivals, no matter how well motivated, will bring neither peace nor development, nor will they eliminate or reduce conflict, poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy from the world. What is needed is an attitudinal change on the part of the UN member-states, which instead of squandering their resources and energies in ‘gala sessions’ or ‘special summits’ indulging in meaningless and ritualistic debates and churning out voluminous repetitive documents, must take decisive steps to restore the UN’s role and relevance as an effective instrument of international legality.

If the UN of the 21^st Century has to be prevented from meeting the fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations, its structure and culture will have to be adapted to the realities and challenges of today’s changed world. This would require restoration of the primacy of the General Assembly as the UN’s chief policymaking organ and restructuring of the Security Council to make it more representative and more effective. The UN must shed its vestiges of power and privilege, the remnants of World War II realpolitik. The democratic principle of sovereign equality must now be the basis of its strength and participatory character.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th,  2013.

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