September Challenges
This September is a crucial month for the United Nations system and the challenges it faces. On September 22-23 there will be held the “Summit of the Future” at which representatives at a high level (heads of government and foreign ministers) from many countries will be present. The Summit will be preceded by two days, September 20-21 of meetings in which the representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, and corporations involved in world trade can be present.
The working papers for the meetings do not present many new ideas. There is to be a final document called “Pact for the Future”. As with all texts which must be agreed to by nearly 200 States, the ideas are general and have usually been presented before.
Rather than a Pact for the Future, a Pact for Unfinished Business might be a more appropriate starting point. The Charter of the U.N. was written in the last months of World War Two, and its principle aim was to prevent future wars of the type still going on.
Today, we have armed conflicts in many parts of the world that would be easily recognized by those who directed World War Two.
The Russian Federation- Ukraine armed conflict grinds on with no end in sight on territory which had seen crucial battles of the Soviet-Nazi forces. The suffering of civilians is largely the same, and the U.N. plays little more role than the already-dead League of Nations in the 1939-1945 conflict.
The armed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians also grinds on with no end in sight. The International Humanitarian Laws refined in 1947 in light of the World War Two abuses are violated daily. U.N. resolutions have fallen on deaf ears. The only negotiations going on are carried out by national governments largely motivated by their own interests. Armed conflict in the Middle East could easily spread as events in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey remind us.
The armed conflicts in Africa have cultural roots less present in World War Two but fought with conventional weapons: the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and the Sahel states with the Islamic militias. There is also the armed conflict between two generals, formerly allied, in Sudan whose motivations are difficult to understand. However, the suffering of civilians is obvious.
The tensions in the Far East were present as the U.N. Charter was being written. The division of Korea into two states was being put into place during the last months of the Second World War and is still with us today. The armed conflict between Chinese Communist and Nationalist forces reflected today in Taiwan-Mainland China tensions had been suspended by the war with Japan but started up again quickly after Japan’s defeat. Tensions between India and Pakistan or armed conflict in Burma needed the end of European colonialism, but the techniques of war remain largely the same.
What is relatively new in today’s armed conflicts is the active military role of women. However, this may not be due to the provisions of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The “unfinished business” of war prevention outlined above does not take away from the record of useful activities undertaken by the U.N. system in the fields of health, education, human rights, labor and trade. However, war prevention was at the core of the aims of the U.N. Charter and in that respect, the record is one of failure. The Pact for the Future must set out clearly the next steps.
By: René Wadlow
