Day 32 – Q 4. Comment upon the efforts of the United Nations (UN) in peace keeping post Word War II.
4. Comment upon the efforts of the United Nations (UN) in peace keeping post Word War II.
द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के बाद शांति में संयुक्त राष्ट्र के प्रयासों पर टिप्पणी करें।
Introduction:
The United Nations was established in 1945 “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and one of its main purposes is to maintain international peace and security.
The Charter of the United Nations gives the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Body:
Security Council to fulfil its responsibility has made following efforts
- Peacekeeping:
- UN peacekeeping operations are deployed to support the implementation of inter-state ceasefires or peace agreements. Example: first peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), set up in 1945 to monitor an Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
- Today’s multidimensional peacekeeping operations facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law.
- Peacebuilding:
- The United Nations established the Peacebuilding Commission in 2005 to better anticipate and respond to the challenges of peacebuilding to reduce a country’s risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities for conflict management, and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development.
- The United Nations uses the political tools of preventive diplomacy and mediation to help nations prevent and resolve conflicts peacefully.
- Since the 1990s, many conflicts have been brought to an end either through UN mediation or the action of third parties acting with UN support. Recent examples include Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, the north-south conflict in the Sudan and Nepal. Currently channelizing efforts to bring peace in war torn Afghanistan.
- Disarmament:
- In a world that is heavily militarised sustaining peace calls for disarmament.
- Thus there is need for reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons, destroying chemical weapons and strengthening the prohibition against biological weapons, to halting the proliferation of landmines, small arms and light weapons.
- These efforts are supported by a number of key UN instruments. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the most universal of all multilateral disarmament treaties, came into force in 1970. The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997, the Biological Weapons Convention in 1975. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted in 1996, however it has not yet entered into force. The 1997 Mine-Ban Convention came into force in 1999.
- IAEA experts work to verify that safeguarded nuclear material is used only for peaceful purposes. To date, the Agency has safeguards agreements with more than 180 States.
- Counter terrorism:
- Countering the scourge of terrorism is in the interest of all nations and the issue has been on the agenda of the United Nations for decades.
- Member States of the United Nations have agreed to a global strategy to counter terrorism in September 2006 common strategic and operational framework to fight terrorism.
- Fourteen global agreements have been negotiated under UN auspices, including treaties against hostage-taking, aircraft hijacking, terrorist bombings, terrorism financing and nuclear terrorism.
- Organized crime:
- Transnational organized crime takes many forms from trafficking in drugs, firearms and even people to money laundering and corruption. Today organized crime has diversified, gone global and reached macro-economic proportions, so that it constitutes a threat to peace and security.
- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Organized Crime Convention) and the three supplementary Protocols -on Trafficking in Persons, Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking of Firearms.
- The Council may also decide on sanctions, such as trade embargoes, to enforce its decisions. Example: sanctions on Russia when it annexed crimea.
UNSC issues: western tilt, lack of funds, Human rights violations in peace keeping missions.
Conclusion:
Though it had mixed success and shortcomings, still UN provides platform for countries to come together on important global issues. Hence need of the hour is structural and functional reforms of UNSC to meet the challenges of 21st century.
Best answer: Rj Upu
