Why the United Nations Matters

Does the United Nations (UN) flag deserve to fly over John Harvard? Today, honoring the fifty-first anniversary of the founding of the UN, it does. In organizing a celebration for United Nations Day, we recognized that many would wonder whether there is anything to celebrate. When the United Nations is mentioned these days, it is too often in a press report deriding it as an ineffectual bureaucracy or a commentary on its shortcomings in the field of peacekeeping. The cumulative effect of many such articles is an overwhelmingly negative view of the UN and even leads to questions regarding the necessity of its existence. Such harsh verdicts focus too heavily on its failures and ignore the very real achievements of the past 51 years.

The mainstream media often give the missteps and flaws of the United Nations a high profile. Such trends, however, should not dictate the bounds of objective analysis of the organization. The frequently unreported successes of the UN should also be remembered. It has been credited with the peaceful settlement of 172 regional conflicts since 1945. For every Bosnian quagmire or Somalian fiasco dominating headlines, there exist the examples of Cambodia's post-civil war transition to normalcy and South Africa's first universal election, both of which were coordinated by the UN. In fact, the UN has enabled free and fair elections in forty-five countries in the past 50 years.

Moreover, people too easily forget that the United Nations is more than a glass and steel Secretariat in New York City and blue helmets peppered around the globe. Under the umbrella of the UN, the World Health Organization has eradicated smallpox worldwide and spearheaded efforts in the inoculation of children against viral disease. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has regularly aided as many as 18 million displaced persons a year. UNICEF has campaigned for child welfare and education, other UN bodies have set up projects to champion women's rights in over 100 countries and brought safe drinking water to 1.3 billion people--the list goes on. In short, the UN has been instrumental in averting a great deal of human suffering in the past 51 years--a continuing achievement which should not go unrecognized.

Too many today fail to recognize the worthiness of the ideals of the United Nations, focusing only on its shortcomings. An application of the UN spirit in reforming its bureaucratic machinery is necessary, rather than the simplistic abandonment of the entire UN concept. Disheartening, beyond the imperfections of the UN, is the apparently widespread opinion that the UN is not an issue worth discussing.

Few would disagree, however, that the challenges facing us today are global, and will escape isolated attempts at resolution. The UN offers a needed framework in which the discussion of international issues may occur, and from which their resolutions may be launched. The UN has not irretrievably failed as many claim; it cannot as long as we continue to acknowledge its necessity and work towards its improvement. The celebration today is a recognition of the enduring importance and achievements of the United Nations. As Indian diplomat and noted author Shashi Tharoor once wrote, "Let's take care of the UN, it's the only one we've got."

Oddette Lienau '00 and Siddharth Mohandas '00 are members of the Woodbridge Society for International Students.