A New World Order is Urgently Needed to Strengthen Human Rights!
The urgent need for the reform of the UN has once again been demonstrated in the latest UN General Assembly resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Despite the resolution being voted by 124 member countries and only 14 countries voted against while 43 abstained, Israel is still under no legal and practical obligation to end the occupation. This is simply because UN General Assembly resolutions are not binding on member states.
This fact defies all tenets of democracy and good governance and undermines the very foundation of an association. A cardinal democratic principle is that the voice of the majority prevails. Hence, whether it is a country or an association of persons, countries or entities, the supreme decision-making body is the general membership or congress of members. Thus, in the case of the UN, this apex body should be the General Assembly.
But it is obvious that the UN has been structured differently such that actual power is removed away from the general membership and handed over to a tiny single body, the Security Council as the chief decision-making outfit. This would not have been problematic if the Security Council itself was democratically constituted and upholds the values of human rights in its decision-making functions. But this is not the case.
Rather the victors of WWII dominated by Western Powers constituted themselves as the Permanent Members within the Security Council and then vested real power in themselves: the US, UK, France, Russia and China. In the UN Charter, Articles 10 to 12 effectively made the General Assembly a powerless and an insignificant entity whose decisions are only considered as recommendations to member states or to the Security Council. Both members and the Council are under no legal obligation to respect and uphold such resolution. Instead, Article 25 and several other articles purposefully gave real power and importance to the Security Council over everyone else.
It is for this reason that this latest UN General Assembly resolution on Israel to end the occupation is meaningless, even if it is considered positive because it has spoken to truth and justice and upholds human rights. The fact that it has no effect as evidenced by Israel's rejection of it demonstrates that the time has come to restructure the international system.
Apart from the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice is similarly powerless and ineffective even if it makes relevant, practical and factual decisions. This is because ICJ decisions or advisory opinions are also unenforceable as it relies on the goodwill of member states to comply and enforce it. Consequently, the ICJ has made several decisions such as the 2004 Wall Decision and the July 2024 decision against Israeli occupation but both of which have been totally ignored by Israel and aided and abetted by the US, UK and the EU. Clearly, the US, UK and EU have the capacity to enforce these decisions but do not only flatly refuse to do so but also object to these decisions.?
In light of history and experience, it is already long overdue that the UN Charter needs an urgent review. A new UN has to be created and situated on the foundations, processes and objectives of democracy and good governance. In this new system, real power should be handed over to the General Assembly. When the majority of the General Membership decides, such a decision should stand and become binding on all members.
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Further, the Security Council must be mandated to accept and enforce the decisions of the General Assembly. In this regard, the Security Council needs to be also democratized such that veto power is totally abolished because it is undemocratic and discriminatory. Rather members in the Security Council should have one vote each and decisions should be based on voting. There should be no permanent members in the Security Council.
There is need for an international system that creates tangible obligations on member states to effectively protect human rights and enforce decisions. This means the current instruments, processes and mechanisms need a thorough assessment as to their efficacy in the defense and protection of human rights. Despite the plethora of international human rights instruments, mechanisms and conferences, what is uncontrovertibly obvious is that the situation of human rights and peace within and between nations around the world is in shambles.
The conditions and circumstances that gave birth to the UN in 1945 cannot remain sacrosanct in 2024. For example, at the time of its formation, only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent nations on the African continent. Across the Global South, many more countries were also not independent as they were colonies of the Global North countries. The countries of the Global South did not cause the first and second world wars, nor are they beneficiaries of these wars. It was these wars, which emerged out of the slavery and colonial projects of the Global North and gave birth to the current international system. This system is unfair, undemocratic, and exclusionary that maintains the vestiges of the past and its injustices in favour of the Global North against the interests of the Global South.
Therefore, the existing international system should be dismantled and reconstructed on the foundations of a civilized modern world in line with the values and standards of democracy, human rights and justice. As it remains, the current international system only allows powerful countries such as Western nations, Russia and China to continue to ravage the world as they unfairly exploit global resources, threaten global peace and undermine human rights across the globe. The current situation in Palestine, Ukraine and Taiwan exposes the belligerence and the anti-human rights stance of the West, Russia and China respectively. ?It is a system that tacitly holds that, apart from the Western nations, Russia and China the rest of mankind are no people. Insignificant.
Politicians, intellectuals and activists in the Global South must raise their voices and stand up in objection to the current international system to demand its dismantling. A new international system is required which does not give undue power and unfair influence to any single or group of countries. Rather the new system should be truly human rights and democracy-based. In this regard, conscientious politicians, intellectuals and activists in Western nations, Russia and China should also join these progressive voices in the Global South to demand a new world order.