The stated aims of the United Nations are to prevent war, to safeguard human rights, to provide a mechanism for international law, and to promote social and economic progress, improve living standards and fight diseases.[3] It gives the opportunity for countries to balance global interdependence and national interests when addressing international problems. Toward these ends it ratified a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.[4]
Successes in security issues
A large share of UN expenditures addresses the core UN mission of peace and security. The peacekeeping budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year is approximately $5 billion (compared to approximately $1.5 billion for the UN core budget over the same period), with some 70,000 troops deployed in 17 missions around the world. The Human Security Report 2005,[22] produced by the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia with support from several governments and foundations, documented a dramatic, but largely unrecognized, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War. Statistics include:
a 40% drop in violent conflict;
an 80% drop in the most deadly conflicts; and
an 80% drop in genocide and politicide.
The report, published by Oxford University Press, argued that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the post–Cold War decline in armed conflict, though the report indicated the evidence for this contention is mostly circumstantial.
The report singles out several specific investments that have paid off:[23]
A sixfold increase in the number of UN missions mounted to prevent wars, from 1990 to 2002.
A fourfold increase in efforts to stop existing conflicts, from 1990 to 2002.
A sevenfold increase in the number of ‘Friends of the Secretary-General’, ‘Contact Groups’ and other government-initiated mechanisms to support peacemaking and peace-building missions, from 1990 to 2003.
An elevenfold increase in the number of economic sanctions against regimes around the world, from 1989 to 2001.
A fourfold increase in the number of UN peacekeeping operations, from 1987 to 1999.
These efforts were both more numerous and, on average, substantially larger and more complex than those of the Cold War era.
In the area of Peacekeeping, successes include:
The US Government Accountability Office concluded that UN Peacekeeping is eight times less expensive than funding a U.S. force.[24]
A 2005 RAND Corp study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It also compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the U.S., and found that of eight UN cases, seven are at peace, whereas of eight U.S. cases, four are at peace, and four are not or not-yet-at peace.[25]
Failures in security issues
In many cases UN members have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Iraq is said to have broken 17 Security Council resolutions dating back to June 28, 1991 as well as trying to bypass the UN economic sanctions. For nearly a decade, Israel delayed implementing resolutions calling for the dismantling of Jewish communities in "occupied territories". Such failures stem from the UN's intergovernmental nature — in many respects it is an association of 192 member states who must reach consensus, not an independent organization. Even when actions are mandated by the 15-member Security Council, the Secretariat is rarely given the full resources needed to carry out the mandates.
Other serious security failures include:
Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of security council members to approve any military action.[26]
Failure by MONUC (UNSC Resolution 1291) to effectively intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 1998-2002, and in carrying out and distributing humanitarian aid.
Failure to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre: despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 Dutch peacekeepers to protect it, the peacekeeping force were not authorised by member nations to use force.
Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in Somalia; the food was instead usually seized by local warlords. A U.S./UN attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
Failure to implement the provisions of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 calling for disarmament of Lebanese paramilitary groups such as Fatah and Hezbollah.
Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. In December 2004, during the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, at least 68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia and more than 150 other allegations have been uncovered by UN investigators, all perpetrated by UN peacekeepers, specifically ones from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. Peacekeepers from three of those nations are also accused of obstructing the investigation.[27] Also, a French UN logistics expert in Congo was charged of rape and child pornography in the same month.[28]The BBC reported that young girls were abducted and raped by UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince.[29] Similar accusations have been made in Liberia[30] and in Sudan.[31]
What i found in wiki...
