Sermon for October 29, 2017, First Unitarian Church of Alton, Illinois

 

THE UN:  WHAT IT HAS AND HASN'T DONE

Ronald Glossop

 

 I.  Introduction:  I want to begin this presentation with a bit of historical perspective.

   A.  The basic structure of our world's political organization has remained the same since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years War.  That war began as a violent conflict mainly between Catholics and Protestants but ended as a war with commitments to kings and countries.  The basic concept was the unlimited sovereignty of kings to do whatever they wanted to do without limit within their own nation-state.

   B.  The competition among the European nation-states led to territorial conquests in the Americas, Asia, and Africa in the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries.  Wars then gradually became more & more destructive as the result of the industrial revolution & the new machines and weapons it produced.  Another change during that period was the creation of democratic governments in some countries where sovereignty was transferred from king to the people and their elected representatives, but national sovereignty was still unlimited.

   C.  The first international organizations, called "functional organizations," were dedicated to particular regional tasks such as managing transportation on the Rhine and Danube Rivers or managing international communication by telegraph.  They were created in the 19th century.

   D.  In the 20th century came general international organizations aiming to deal with any kind of international problem.  The first was the League of Nations created in 1919 after World War I.  It met in Geneva, Switzerland.  One of its main purposes was to avoid another world war, but it failed. World War II occurred in less than 20 years.

   E.  Then the United Nations was created in 1945 just before the end of World War II.  Its main purpose was to "maintain international peace and security," but it was also to advance "respect for the principle of equal rights & self-determination of peoples" and to "achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinctions as to race, sex, language, or religion."

   F.  I think that we could say that the 20th century marked a new internationalism in the world community.  Now in the 21st century our world is becoming a new global community that requires the United Nations to make some adjustments.

 

II.  What is the UN and what has it accomplished?

   A.  The UN is an association of national governments formed in 1945.  As already noted, a main goal was to prevent World War III.  So far it has done that, but the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 was a close call.  There also were some other incidents where we were lucky.

   B.  The UN has maintained its existence for 72 years--much longer than many countries-- and it has expanded its membership from 51 countries to 193.  Many of these new members are countries that were colonies when the UN was formed; all of them are younger than the UN.  One of the UN's accomplishments is validating the independent status of these former colonies.  

   C.  The UN keeps leaders of national governments talking to one another even as it carries on many tasks such as authorizing the independence of former colonies, organizing peacekeeping forces when wars end, protecting human rights, practicing democratic skills, directing attention to global problems such as global warming, supervising humanitarian assistance for refugees & others, and keeping all kinds of records about what is happening throughout the world.  The UN currently has 17 sustainable development goals approved by the General Assembly.  They include ending poverty and hunger plus advancing health and education & gender equality and protecting the environment.

   D.  One of the two main bodies of the UN is the General Assembly where each of the 193 member nation-states has one vote regardless of its population or size or wealth.  It decides on what happens within the UN, but on all other matters only makes suggestions.  The other main body is the Security Council.  It has only 15 member states.  Ten of them are elected by the General Assembly for 2-year terms, but five of them are permanent members--China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.  Each of these five permanent members who were the Big Five on the winning side in World War II also has a veto power, that is, they can by themselves stop any proposal they don't like even if the other 14 favor it.  As a result, in many conflict situations the Security Council is completely immobilized.

   E.  The head person at the UN is the Secretary-General whose term is for five years but who is often reelected.  The UN Security Council must first nominate someone and then the General Assembly must approve.  Antonio Guterres of Portugal became the 9th UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2017, replacing Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea who served 10 years.  Guterres had been Prime Minister of Portugal and then head of the UN agency for refugees for 10 years.

   F.  The UN system includes two judicial bodies, the International Court of Justice or World Court to deal with disputes between national governments and the International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals who have been responsible for committing international crimes such as genocide or war crimes or crimes against humanity.

   G.  The UN system also includes many international functional organizations focused on specific problems such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.N. Educational, Scientific, & Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF),  & many others.

  H.  The UN also oversees and coordinates the work of many international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) such as the Red Cross/Crescent, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, the World Service Authority, and our own UU UN Office.

   I.  Whoever thinks that the UN system does nothing is not well informed. The media is partly responsible for that ignorance.  We should take the initiative and get informed about the UN.

   J.  If there were a world government, the many international organizations that are now part of the UN system would become departments of the world government.

 

II.  What has the UN not done, and why?

   A.  A main thing that the UN has not done is to end wars and arms races and the readiness to use violence to resolve conflicts.  In the end conflicts between nations and groups are still resolved by force and superior military power.  In such a situation, no big nation or group can afford to lose a war, so each must always be prepared for war.  The UN has not changed that.

   B.  In democratic countries we have learned to manage conflict between individuals and groups by using discussion and voting and courts and other democratic devices that provide an alternative nonviolent way of dealing with political conflicts and social problems.   

   C.  We should be able to do the same within all countries and all regions of the Earth and ultimately for the whole global community.  It won't be easy and it will take a lot of time, but it can be done.  We need to think in terms of what has happened during the long history of humanity, not just what has happened within our own limited knowledge and experience.

   D.  To accomplish this goal at the global level, among other things ultimately the UN must transform itself from a confederation to a federation just as many nations such as the USA and Switzerland and Brazil and Germany have previously done and as some geographical regions such as Europe and Africa are doing now.  As we see manifested in the current UN Security Council confederations require either complete unanimity or possible resort to violence while federations are based on majority rule concerning those issues relevant to the whole bigger community while simultaneously preserving local autonomy concerning local issues.

 

III.  What should we do?  Think for yourself and support what seems best to you.  As for me, I am a democratic world federalist as I have been since debating this issue in high school.  I have supported the UN as a step in the right direction, but it is still far from the democratic world federation that the world community needs.