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In the midst of the chaos prevailing in the world, and the increasing intensity of wars and heinous crimes, an important question arises about the role of the United Nations in light of the United States’ dominance over the international organization and its inability to put an end to the genocide crimes in Gaza. Since its founding in 1945, the United Nations has faced many challenges in achieving its goals, the most important of which are maintaining international peace and security, enhancing international cooperation, and protecting human rights. But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the United States emerged as the only superpower, which marginalized the role of the United Nations and made it a tool in the hands of the United States to impose its vision on the world.
In this article, we will discuss whether the United Nations has lost its justification for existence in light of the dominance of the United States, and providing full cover for the crimes of the Israeli occupation. We will highlight the challenges facing the international organization, and the possibility of reforming it in order to become more effective in achieving its goals.
Who is hindering UN reform?
In the summer of 1945, the founding nations of the United Nations pledged to make the world a better place. Was the United Nations able to achieve this goal? Cooperation between countries is a basic principle for the founding of the United Nations. Has the United Nations devoted itself to being a guardian of international peace and security, a guardian of human rights, and a protector of international law? In this sense, was the United Nations able to put an end to the crimes of genocide against the residents of the Gaza Strip?
The role of the United Nations diminished after the collapse of bipolarity with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the United States of America’s reliance on its own methods to control the new international situation, so that American influence became clear through America’s ability to impose its vision on the international region in a manner consistent with the unilateral American desire. In dominating the world.
Repeated United Nations General Assembly meetings did not lead to meaningful solutions to end the ongoing conflicts and open wars on more than one front. Because the world needs international institutions to maintain international stability, this calls for reform of the United Nations. However, this reform, in turn, requires reforming the dysfunctional global system, from a system based on unipolarity to a multipolar system.
Former diplomats and officials in the United Nations Secretariat propose restructuring the Security Council by allowing a larger number of countries to join it, in addition to reforming the membership and voting system.
But if the United States of America is the leading global power and the main financier of the United Nations system – (22% of the general budget of the United Nations, and 27% of peacekeeping missions) – can there be reforms that are outside its control, or that conflict with its interests?
Some analysts believe that those who believe that America wants to abolish the United Nations and its associated international organizations are very wrong, which is what a large number of analysts and writers have said. The survival of the United Nations and international organizations is primarily an American interest, as long as America’s great power allows it to bypass these organizations whenever it wants, and return to them when it needs it.
The United States of America obstructs the implementation of international humanitarian law:
There is an integrated legal system related to activating the rules of international responsibility against the state that commits international crimes, and this applies to the case of the Israeli occupation par excellence, which has committed and is committing various types of known international crimes, from aggression accompanied by occupation and annexation, to a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Rules. The organization undertook a state of belligerent occupation, reaching the point of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinian citizens in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip.
Despite this, none of the forms of accountability and punishment have been implemented against Israel, despite everything it has committed and is committing so far. This is mainly due to Israel enjoying an American protection umbrella that protects it from being subject to the rules of international law and frees it from adhering to the principles and values of international legitimacy. The American veto and political, economic, and military support have always not only constituted protection for it from the application of the rules of international responsibility against it, but also an incentive towards committing more international crimes, and encouragement to adhere to its position of refusing to implement United Nations resolutions. It is a policy that raises the problem of holding the United States of America itself accountable for not assuming its responsibilities as a permanent member of the Security Council, and for not adhering to what is stated in the United Nations Charter regarding deterring the aggressor and not assisting him.
The American reluctance to impose international humanitarian law is a deceptive maneuver. Under the pretext of its complexity in the negotiations and the obstacles that could lead to delay or failure of the peace process, it is this inaction that actually led to the death of the peace process, and allowed Israel, the occupying power, to impose facts that are difficult to overcome when there are serious negotiations.
The position of the United States in the United Nations regarding the Palestinian issue is based on many factors, including: The ideological factor, and the size of the economic and military interests between the two parties, is based on the size of the financial contribution to the United Nations budget, which amounts to 22% of the total contributions of other countries.
The United Nations General Assembly issued a number of resolutions (especially in 1999) – after Israel did not respect its international obligations towards the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories (examining the final solution points) – calling for a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to be held to discuss measures to force Israel to To implement the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The question of whether Israel is violating the Convention or not, and whether the Convention applies to the occupied Palestinian territories, has previously been settled, and the sole purpose of the conference is to decide on application. However, under pressure from the United States and Israel, which boycotted the conference at the time, the conference was postponed 15 minutes after it was held without taking any measures to implement the agreement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The United States took advantage of the lack of open armed conflict on the ground, and the excuse of “giving peace a chance.” To justify this blatant politicization of international humanitarian law, which constituted a great frustration for global civil society at the time.
The importance of holding such a conference, if it is held, is that the states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have never met since 1949 to discuss the application of the Convention on the ground. More importantly, this conference was expected to provide the beginning of the application of binding mechanisms for the treaty in terms of the responsibility of all contracting parties to ensure that no signatory country violates the terms of that agreement.
The American reluctance to impose international humanitarian law is a deceptive maneuver. Under the pretext of its complexity in negotiations and the obstacles that could lead to delay or failure of the peace process, it is this inaction that actually led to the death of the peace process, and allowed Israel, the occupying power, to impose facts that are difficult to overcome when there are serious negotiations. The issue of the two-state solution is a stark example of this situation, as there is no longer a practical possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. Because of the cancer of settlement in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
The American position is a self-contradictory position. The United States had ratified the Geneva Convention in 1949, thereby declaring its submission to the Convention and its conviction of its binding, as the Convention requires signatory countries to respect it and ensure its respect.
But on the other hand, it strongly opposed all attempts by the United Nations to criticize Israel’s black human rights record, and also vetoed several draft Security Council resolutions demanding that Israel submit to international law. (Not the least of which is thwarting draft resolutions in the Security Council for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip)
The strange irony is also that the United States, the most powerful country in the world today, had agreed to Security Council Resolutions No. 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973 and Resolution 271 of 1969, which nullifies actions related to changing the status of Jerusalem, and calls on Israel to abide by the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the law. International. In contrast, the United States has used its veto power more than 114 times to protect Israel from UN Security Council resolutions, and has threatened dozens of times to use it against any condemnation of it, and if it fails, it will work to soften the tone of other resolutions issued by the United Nations.
It is important to say:
The United States of America is the largest economic and military power in the world, and it has interests that extend to all parts of the earth, and the ability to intervene in all parts of the world, and it possesses tools of influence that make it capable of implementing international law if it wanted to.
The Security Council is considered the most powerful arm of the United Nations. Its goals include maintaining international peace, resolving conflicts, and enforcing respect for international law. But the United States of America was – and still is – standing in the way of the UN Security Council taking many decisions that would strengthen the status of international law, in more than one place, including those related to the Palestinian issue.
The American states do not have the full opportunity to subjugate the United Nations General Assembly, which is the international parliament. Because the 193 members have an equal opportunity to vote, unlike the Security Council. But it is important to know that the General Assembly’s decisions do not carry a binding character, unlike what may be issued by the Security Council under Chapter Seven, positively or negatively. The United States’ withdrawal from international agreements and bodies (the Global Compact for Migration, the World Health Organization, UNESCO, the Paris Climate Agreement…) is considered a setback for international law and the path of the United Nations as a whole.
These American decisions undermine international efforts to make the world more stable, more cooperative, and more capable of facing the enormous challenges facing humanity, such as (climate, refugees, migrants, epidemics and infectious diseases…).
The withdrawal of the United States from the Human Rights Council, due to its criticism of the United States’ behavior on the issue of migrants, and because of Israel’s criticism of its black record on the issue of violating the rights of Palestinians, constitutes a setback for the international human rights system, for two important reasons:
- The first is that the United States is the most important country in the world
- Secondly: its withdrawal encourages more killing, displacement and wars. The United States’ signing of dozens of bilateral agreements to prevent its soldiers from being held accountable to international criminal justice undoubtedly encourages other countries to commit more genocide crimes, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It also undermines the efforts of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into crimes, and not Enabling it to exercise its jurisdiction.
There is also a state of frustration among the victims’ families. Classifying national liberation movements as terrorist organizations contradicts the rules of international law and encourages extremism and real terrorism. Although the General Assembly has issued several resolutions stipulating the right of national liberation movements “to use all necessary means for independence,” the United States classifies organizations or groups as terrorists based on political considerations.
The chaos that prevails in the world, due to the spread of wars and heinous crimes against humanity and the contribution of the United States to that, with its capabilities and influence in this field, and then providing full cover for the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians (including the collective rights represented by the right to self-determination and building an independent state Its capital is Al-Quds Al-Sharif), then the inability of the United Nations to impose its decisions, then bureaucracy, then the lack of fair representation of countries, especially in the Security Council.
The manifestations of inability and weakness of its various agencies regarding the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories are not hidden from anyone. Despite all this, it is quite objective to mention that the United Nations is still contributing to resolving some conflicts and there is cooperation in various fields, and it is still providing humanitarian aid to many needy people in many countries of the world.
However, despite these achievements, there are major goals that the United Nations body has not yet achieved, the most important of which is resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict (which is as old as the United Nations itself) on fair grounds based on the rules of international law, in a way that achieves the Palestinians their right to self-determination, and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees. To their homes and possessions. Is it too late to save the United Nations?
