Why is the United Nations so ineffective?

The General Assembly is the only UN organ wherein all member states have equal representation. All 193 Member States of the United Nations are represented in this forum.  

The General Assembly monitors the performance of UN Peacekeeping through its Special committee on Peacekeeping Operations. The membership of this Committee is about 34 participants split between full members and observers. The full members are mostly past or current contributors to peacekeeping operations. It appears to mainly be a monitoring body providing policy recommendations through its annual Report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. A review of recent reports raises some issues associated with UN peacekeeping such as “a clear sense of a widening gap between what is being asked of UN peace operations today and what they are able to deliver”. Eradicating sexual exploitation and abuse and placing victims’ rights and dignity at the centre of these efforts are also mentioned, along with the impact of Covid 19. The review does not provide a hard-hitting analysis of why the UN peacekeeping efforts have been a failure. It may be the reasons why the United Nations is accused of being a talk fest.

The Security Council has five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly. More than 50 United Nations Member States have never been Members of the Security Council. The UN Security Council determines when and where a UN peace operation should be deployed. It has 15 members, and each member has one vote. Under the Charter of the United Nations, all member states are obligated to comply with Council decisions. The UNSC is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on member states. It is generally viewed as the apex of the UN system.

ECOSOC is responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields. It links the many agencies of the United Nations, such as The World Bank, The IMF, The World Health Organisation, and The International Labour Organisation.

The Trusteeship Council was established to help ensure that trust territories were administered in the best interests of their inhabitants and of international peace and security. They are former colonies of the great powers, established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.

The International Court of Justice, known as the World Court, is the main judicial organ of the UN and is located in the Hague,

The United Nations Secretariat is the UN's executive arm. The UN's chief administrative officer is the Secretary-General, currently Portuguese politician António Guterres, who began his first five year-term on 1 January 2017 and was re-elected on 8 June 2021. The secretary-general oversees the UN Secretariat, which functions as the United Nations’ executive office and handles operations, including research, translation, and media relations. The UN Secretariat has a staff of more than thirty-six thousand. This is part of the problem. The current secretary general is seen almost daily on television giving a talk on the seriousness of the current world problem. He also has a huge organisation below him

Suggestions for reform of the United Nations peacekeeping

One suggested possibility for reform is that each country member of the United Nations should contribute proportionally in terms of national income to a military force or equivalent money to United Nations peacekeeping. Thus the UN would have its own policing force, instead of relying on countries for volunteer troops.

A second suggestion is to abolish the veto power. The United Nations has five nations that can veto any resolution that UN members agreed upon. The countries with this veto power are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. These countries have this power because they were the founding countries of the United Nations that wrote the rules for the UN after World War 2.

Gregory Barrow, Director of the World Food Programme in London supports ending the veto power. The presidency of the Security Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the Member States. Each President holds office for one calendar month. Australia held the first presidency of the UNSC.

Dame Margaret Anstee, former UN Under-Secretary-General has suggested that while the final selection of the Secretary-General will always be political, she would establish a selection process to ensure that all candidates for Secretary General have the requisite qualifications and experience and the term of office be limited to one period. To be selected as Secretary-General, a candidate must receive the votes of at least nine members of the United Nations Security Council, with no vetoes from permanent members.