With a crisis raging in the African Congo, the then-UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld set off in 1961 to broker a ceasefire with Moise Tshombe, the leader of the secessionist State of Katanga. Yet Hammarskjöld tragically died after the DC-6 carrying him to the talks crashed in Northern Rhodesia, or what is now Zambia. Although peace in the Congo escaped him, the Swedish economist is widely considered the best diplomat to ever hold the office.
Of the 11 million Uighur Muslims living in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, up to two million of them, including ethnic Uzbeks and Kazakhs have been detained inside camps, while those remaining on the outside facing a crackdown for a number of years. Human rights organizations and many foreign governments have described the many human rights abuses inflicted on the Uighur people as genocide.
The Indo-Pacific region has seen a rise in political instability in recent years. The Trump administration and China have been at loggerheads, through the WHO, in formulating a global approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19. The region has experienced a rise in human rights violations, evidenced by the bitter treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar, China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, and authoritarian crackdowns in Thailand and Cambodia.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Jan 11 that he would be seeking a second five-year term. Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, campaigned for the position in 2016 with an agenda focused on UN reform, as well as positioned himself as someone who could bring consensus to persistent global challenges such as climate change and the forced displacement of people from around the globe.
The United Nations may be flawed and it may have a diversity problem in some agencies, but it can’t be called racist. François Soudan’s article on racism on 2 November argues that the United Nations system is built to preserve the “subspecies” of white males. Racism does exist within the United Nations system. It’s hard to deny this given the allegations detailed in Foreign Policy in October. However, it is important to put this in the context of the progress that has been made within the UN system on issues of equality, race, and gender.
Africa’s relationship with the United Nations began in 1960, when 15 African countries gained independence and 17 became UN member states. In an effort to remove the stain of Western colonialism, the UN embarked on an effort to assist newly independent African states in their right to sovereignty and self-determination.
On September 21, the United Nations will celebrate its 75th birthday. Founded in 1945 after 50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the UN Charter, it was conceived as an international institution that would “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Since then, it has evolved into an organisation of great size and complexity that confronts a wide array of challenges. However, legitimate criticism and lingering questions remain about its future. Is it still relevant? Is it still fit for purpose? Is it still necessary?