Fragmentation threatens the future of the UN in its General Assembly

The UN and its founding idea of ​​making the world a better place is found in the International Intensive Care and Respiratory Care Unit.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
19 September 2022 Monday 19:30
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Fragmentation threatens the future of the UN in its General Assembly

The UN and its founding idea of ​​making the world a better place is found in the International Intensive Care and Respiratory Care Unit.

The dysfunctionality of the United Nations Organization (UN), from which the General Assembly begins today, has been denounced for years, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine seven months ago – the biggest military clash in Europe since the Second World War – has highlighted its inability to resolve conflicts, which is what it was created for.

The policy of irreconcilable blocs is intensifying and there is even fear of the possible use of "strategic weapons", a euphemism to hide the fear that causes the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in his desperation, to reach for the atomic bomb. "The geostrategic gaps are the widest since at least the cold war," says António Guterres, UN Secretary General. "They are paralyzing the global response to the dramatic challenges we face," insists the Portuguese leader.

This division is certified in the Security Council, the organization's decision-making body. The veto power of five great powers – three from the capitalist bloc (United States, France and the United Kingdom) and two from the non-capitalist (Russia and China) – makes any resolution unfeasible, whether in Ukraine, Syria or Palestine.

"The United Nations goes beyond the Security Council," Guterres replies to defend himself against accusations of inefficiency of the institution. “By far, the UN is the main provider of humanitarian aid. Its agencies are everywhere where there is conflict or natural disasters, regardless of the dangers. It is more necessary than ever,” he insists.

The high-level days of the assembly, in which leaders from all countries will deliver their speeches, "the summit of blah, blah, blah", as some call it, comes at one of the worst moments in memory. It is "the perfect storm", according to the Secretary General's own definition, due to war, hunger, energy shortages and rising prices.

The world is irremediably confronted, divided not only into ideological blocs, but also by the rampant social and economic distance between the rich north and a south increasingly impoverished by lack of energy and food, and punished by climate change, that forces them to move and change their lifestyle. All this entails mistrust of the attitude of the West. as Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, points out.

The countries of the south fear that the conflict in Ukraine, and its economic consequences, will serve to make those of the north forget about the objectives of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The lack of aid has already led some to encourage the use of fossil fuels, which only further poison the planet.

This is the first general meeting in three years to be held in person at the UN headquarters in New York. However, it maintains certain curiosities. The president of the United States, as host, will not be the second to speak, after Brazil, which maintains the honor of always being the country that opens, as happened in the first assembly. Joe Biden will take part on Wednesday, after landing in Washington on Monday, on his way back from Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in London.

That same day another exception is expected. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been granted the opportunity to intervene from his country via video despite protests from the Kremlin.

Replaced by their foreign ministers, neither Putin nor the Chinese president Xi Jinping will attend a General Assembly in which three serious crises are combined – the effects of the war in Europe, the tailspin of the covid and the growing impact of global warming, already undeniable – which presents Guterres with a challenge that perhaps no other secretary-general has faced before.

“Our world is ravaged by war, wracked by climate chaos, scarred by hate and shamed by poverty, hunger and inequality,” he diagnosed.

At all times he remembers the signing of the grain pact that has allowed cereal to be exported from Ukraine, although some think that he came late to that agreement, but he warns that something similar must be achieved with fertilizers or famine will spread, as it has already started in the horn of Africa, starting next year.

"This year's general debate must give hope and help overcome the divisions that are impacting the world," Guterres pleads. He regrets, however, that the impunity for the invasion of Ukraine, promoted by the Security Council, causes more countries to act more aggressively, in a veiled allusion to China and Taiwan.

"The solidarity provided for in the United Nations charter is being devoured by acid nationalism and self-interest," Guterres warns.