United Nations, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) When the sun rising over the East River splashed its rays on the UN’s glass tower on January 1, 2022 -- the world organisation was mired in the intractable problem of Ukraine invasion -- and when it set on this Sunday over the Hudson, another, Palestine, would have been added.
The polarisation of the Security Council is at the root of the UN’s inaction and, tellingly, its two final sessions of the year on Friday were on Ukraine and Palestine -- and apart from the volcanoes of rhetoric it could not even condemn the excesses of the parties in the Hamas-Israel conflict or the barrage of bombings by Russia.
Russia’s veto power prevents any action against its invasion of Ukraine and the US invokes its veto power to protect Israel from even calls for a ceasefire by the Council.
The General Assembly, on the other hand, called for Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine and, twice this year, demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, but it lacks the enforcement powers of the Council and the issues will fester in the New Year.
While the world's attention is riveted on the inaction on the inaction on these and other hotspots like Syria and Sudan, the UN is moving ahead in areas where the vetoes don't count.
At the Assembly’s request, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is convening a Summit of the Future in September for the heads of state and government to make a pact of “global solidarity for current and future generations” and “breathe new life into the multilateral system”.
Without a reform of the Council on the horizon or even a solution to the veto imbroglio possible, the summit is expected to help the UN move ahead on issues that the UN can act without the vetoes of the five permanent members of the Council.
The UN ventured into the arena of artificial intelligence (AI), preparing the world for its dangers to international security.
Guterres appointed a high-level advisory group to come up with suggestions for governance of AI and in two months it has produced an interim report laying the foundation for international action.
Guterres said, “The new initiative will foster a globally inclusive approach, drawing on the UN’s unique convening power as a universal and inclusive forum on critical challenges.”
The report will go before the Summit of the Future.
Foremost among what the UN was able to do this year is the Climate Summit in Dubai, where there was for the first time a commitment – at least on paper – to eventually stop the use of fossil fuels to fight global warming.
Even on Ukraine and Palestine, the UN has had some success off the battlefields.
In Ukraine, the UN brokered the Black Sea grain deal that allowed -- until Russia reneged -- ships to carry badly needed foodgrains from Ukraine to world markets to avert food shortages and hunger in many developing countries.
The UN pushed Israel to allow humanitarian supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel into Gaza to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, and Guterres personally went to the Egypt-Gaza Rafa crossing to draw the world’s attention to the crisis.
The UN already had 13,000 relief workers in Gaza running schools, medical facilities and food distribution programmes and more than 130 of them have been killed in Israeli attacks.
Something that sounds mundane, but with great impact is the UN’s rescue of a rusted, leaky oil tanker in the Red Sea off the Yemeni coast that threatened an environmental disaster and a threat to important global shipping lanes.
The UN crowd-funded the operation costing about $150 million to safely pump out the oil remaining in and safely move it.
About 80,000 peacekeepers are operating in 10 countries after ending missions in two this year with mandates to monitor the peace between warring countries or to protect unstable nations from being overrun by terrorists or armed dissident groups.
Around the world, 26 UN agencies and affiliated organisaiton are making everyday contributions in their fields ranging from food and agriculture to meteorology, from economic and social development to health, from postal services to telecommunications, and from labour to human rights.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Source: IANS
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