By David Oughton
Although the United Nations was created in 1945 with the goal of ending war and solving other global problems, in many cases the international organization has been unable to fulfill its mission. Since that time, wars have been fought, unscrupulous national leaders have done whatever they can get away with, and numerous global problems remain unresolved.
The reason for the spotty record of the world organization is that many organs of the United Nations are weak and, therefore, unable to cope adequately with the enormous job that lies before the international organization and the world. The solution is to transform these UN organs by drawing upon Article 109 of the UN Charter, which lays out the method for making changes in the UN system.
Here are some of the major structural problems of key UN organs that could be solved if enough people and countries were committed to making the United Nations strong and effective.
Currently, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) can only pass nonbinding resolutions addressing how national governments should behave. Even if a nation votes for a resolution, it is not required to follow it. The UNGA is not democratic because each of the current 193 countries has the same one vote, regardless of the size of its population. A few countries have over a billion people while some have only a few thousand. It is thus possible for a resolution in the UNGA to pass by a two-thirds majority that represents only eight percent of the world’s population. The 65 least populous countries with a combined population below one percent of the world’s population can block the passage of a substantive resolution in the UNGA. The solution is to use a system of weighted votes based on population and other factors so that the General Assembly can pass laws regarding violations of human rights, relations among nations, and other global problems.
The UN Security Council has often been ineffective because any one of the five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France) usually veto any resolution when it or one of its allies is involved in a dispute. Any permanent member can kill a peace resolution even if all of the other 14 members on the Security Council vote for it. The solution is to have regional memberships on the Security Council using weighted voting so that no one nation can veto a resolution.
The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) can only issue non-enforceable decisions. National leaders suffer no consequences for violating or for withdrawing from international treaties. Even though most nations abide by most of their treaties most of the time, national governments can violate or withdraw from treaties when they feel it is in their national interest without any concern for the common good. The solution is to give the ICJ the authority to require binding arbitration for disputes between nations or groups.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is based on a treaty that so far has been joined by only two-thirds of the world’s governments. The one-third of the countries that have not joined the ICC treaty include Russia, China, United States, and Israel. The jurisdiction of the ICC should become universal so that, in accordance with its charter, those individuals involved in genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression are prosecuted when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so.
The UN system must rely on dues from national governments, which are not always paid. The U.S. government, for example, owes almost $2.5 billion in back dues to the world organization. Furthermore, the UN system, including its many specialized agencies, must do its important work on an extremely small budget. Almost every state in the United States has a larger annual budget than the UN system. One way to provide adequate funding for the UN system would be to charge a user tax on nations, corporations, and individuals for international travel and for exploring and using the resources of the common areas of our planet that are not part of any national territory.
These proposals will only be implemented when enough people from many countries vote for leaders who support strengthening the United Nations. Until then, wars, hunger, climate chaos, human rights violations, and disease will continue to plague our planet.
David Oughton, who holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in Philosophies and Theologies of Peace and Justice, has taught courses about the world’s religions at Saint Louis University.
