Toward the end of the Second World War, the need for an international organization that would promote peace and prosperity in the world was apparent. In April 1945, a conference was held in San Francisco attended by representatives of 51 countries. They prepared a draft of what was called the Charter of the United Nations. The final text was approved by 50 of the 51 original founding countries. The UN Charter entered into force with the ratification of the Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council at the first session of the General Assembly held in London on October 24, 1945. This is considered the official date of the beginning of the United Nations. The Five Permanent Members approved were China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The preamble to the UN Charter was also approved. The preamble was written by Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, the prime minister of South Africa and member of the British War Cabinet during WW I and WW II. The preamble calls for fundamental human rights and dignity for all people, for social progress, tolerance, and freedom, and to live peacefully with one’s neighbors. It was the first international document calling for human rights. The irony was that in the years that Smuts was prime minister of South Africa, the majority Black population of his country were denied almost everything that he advocated for in the preamble to the charter.
The UN Charter sets out the overall framework of the way in which the UN operates. It establishes six main organs of the UN. They are the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council. The charter mandates its members to seek peace and security, to uphold international law, and to promote universal respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights without distinction to race, sex, language, or religion.
The United Nations currently has 193 members. The Security Council is formed by the Five Permanent Members and an additional 10 member countries on a rotating basis of two-year terms. Each of the Five Permanent Members has veto rights. The Security Council is the main body, charged with ensuring international peace and security in the world. It can impose international sanctions and authorize military action. Changes to the UN Charter and the admission of new members to the UN requires approval. The Security Council is the only UN body that has the authority to issue resolutions that are binding on all UN members.
Freedom House was founded in October 1941 in Washington. Its aim is to promote democracy and freedom in the world. It has a vast network of skilled people who conduct detailed research into more than 200 countries, as well as territories that are not considered countries. The reports published by Freedom House are considered credible, and are used by academics and governments. Countries are graded into three broad categories: Free, Partly Free, and Not Free. These categories are determined by the gradings for political rights based on 10 sections of four points each, totaling 40 points. The grading of civil liberties is based on 15 sections of four points each, totaling 60 points. The higher the score, the “freer” the country. Switzerland currently obtained the highest grade, with 96 points out of a maximum of 100. Syria has the lowest grade, with only one point.
Let’s now look at how Freedom House has graded the Five Permanent Members of the Security Council. Only three of the five are graded as Free. The United Kingdom has the highest grade of 91, followed by France with 89, and the United States with 83. The other two members – Russia and China – are both categorized in the lowest category of Not Free, with grades of 13 and nine, respectively.
What this means is that two countries that are themselves Not Free have the right to individually veto any Security Council resolution that they object to. Russia has consistently vetoed all Security Council resolutions against Syria, as it considers it in Russia’s interest to do so. The results have been catastrophic. President Bashar al-Assad has used all means, including the use of chemical weapons against his own people, in order to remain in power. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed, and millions have become refugees that have flooded into Turkey and other countries.
The Security Council is completely paralyzed in the case of the war between Russia and Ukraine, as any resolution condemning Russia is immediately vetoed.
Iran is selling more than a million barrels of oil a day to China, and it is supplying suicide drones to Russia to use against Ukraine. Both China and Russia are in a position to veto any UN Security Council resolution that criticizes Iran. Iran has received a “get out of jail free card” in terms of the UN Security Council resolutions courtesy of China and Russia. Iran is using this immunity to spread its Islamic fundamentalist ideology across the world.
The Security Council needs to approve any application for membership in the United Nations. China has used its veto power on the Security Council to block Taiwan from becoming a member of the UN. Taiwan has the 20th-largest economy in the world and has a population of over 23 million people. Freedom House rating for Taiwan is 94. This is one of the highest ratings of freedom in the world. It is higher than any of the five countries that have veto powers on the Security Council itself. The fact that China with a Freedom House rating of nine can block Taiwan, with a Freedom House rating of 94, from becoming a member of the UN clearly shows the absurdity of what goes on at the United Nations.
President Barack Obama claimed that the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, contained “snapback sanctions” that would be applied if Iran did not keep to the agreement. What the agreement actually contains is a clause that in the event that Iran violated the agreement, Iran could then be referred back to the Security Council to reimpose the sanctions that previously existed. As both China and Russia have the right to veto any such resolution, it is obvious that snapback sanctions are nonexistent. The world is now faced with Iran that is close to a nuclear breakout, with no possibility of any Security Council resolution or action to prevent this from happening. Obama knew exactly what he was doing in agreeing to the Iran nuclear deal.
The United States, with one exception, has vetoed dozens of anti-Israel resolutions in the Security Council. The one exception occurred in December 2016, one month before president Obama left office. He refused to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution calls for “Israel to end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, and for all settlement construction to cease.”
The resolution actually reflects Obama’s views as stated in his first foreign policy speech in Cairo in 2009. In the speech, he called for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim world. He also stated that the suffering of the Palestinians was intolerable, and that the establishment of Israeli settlements was a major obstacle in achieving a two-state solution. He stated: “America will not turn its back on Palestinian aspirations for dignity and a state of their own.” Resolution 2334 passed 14-0 in favor, with the United States abstaining.
The UN General Assembly can only pass non-binding recommendations. Of the 193 countries that are members of the United Nations, only 83 are graded as Free by Freedom House. The other 110 countries that are the majority are either graded as Not Free or Partly Free. The situation is a reflection of the chaotic state of the world. The representatives of dictators, military rulers, religious fundamentalist ideologists, self-proclaimed monarchies, hereditary family rulers, tyrants, thugs, and other despicable people who rule their countries by imprisoning, torturing, and killing anyone who opposes their rule are the people voting in the UN General Assembly. The remarkable thing about these representatives is that they all have the freedoms at the United Nations that they deny to millions of their own citizens. They live in luxury in New York or Geneva at the expense of their citizens. They will use every means that they possess to remain in power.
Freedom in the Middle East
Let us now look at the Middle East. Of the 22 Arab countries in the region, Freedom House has graded 17 as Not Free and five as Partly Free. Yemen, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria have the lowest grades, with all them scoring 10 or less. Iran is only slightly better with a grading of 11. The Arab world is a mixture of extremes of super rich oil-exporting countries and undeveloped or failed states. Whether they are rich or poor, not a single Arab country is rated as Free by Freedom House.
The Arab League includes Palestine and Camaros as members and excludes Iran, as it is Persian. Freedom House grades 16 of the 22 members of the Arab League as Not Free and six as Partly Free. Although Arab League decisions are mostly irrelevant, several members of the Arab League are also members of OPEC. The decisions made by OPEC affect the supply and price of oil and are important in maintaining economic stability in the world.
Israel, with a score of 74, is the only country in the Middle East that is rated as Free by Freedom House. This brings us to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR).
The General Assembly elects by secret ballot 47 countries that form UNHCR. The election is based on an equitable geographical distribution according to five regions in the world. They are selected for three-year terms. The headquarters of UNHCR is in Geneva. At present, 17 countries of UNHCR are graded as Free; 17 are Partly Free; and 13 are Not Free. Among the Not Free members are some of the worst civil rights offenders on Earth, such as Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan. The majority of countries on UNHCR are themselves involved in human rights abuses. Among the member countries rated Free are South Africa and Belgium. Both have accused Israel of committing genocide and are clearly biased against the Jewish state. What Ripley’s would call “unbelievable but true” is that the only free country in the Middle East receives more condemnations from UNHCR than all the other countries in the world combined. The reports produced by UNHCR on Israel are not credible in any sense of the word. They belong in the dustbin of history.
Sub-Saharan Africa contains 1.2 billion people in 37 countries. The area has a vast amount of the world’s minerals and raw materials. The majority of these countries are underdeveloped. Millions of people in central Africa suffer from hunger, water diarrhea, cholera, and other life- threatening diseases. Without massive amounts of foreign aid and investment, they face a bleak future. Tribal wars, coupled with religious wars between Muslim and Christian communities, have resulted in millions of deaths. Millions have become refugees due to drought. UN relief organizations are deeply involved in providing humanitarian aid and life-saving supplies such as food, safe drinking water, and shelter to countries in Africa. All 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are members of the United Nations. Freedom House has rated five as Free, 13 as Partly Free, and 19 as Not Free. One thing that is common in all of these countries is the wealth of their rulers compared to the poverty of most of their citizens.
In 1987, the United States designated the Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) as a terrorist organization; and its leader, Yasser Arafat, was denied a visa to enter the US. The following year, the UN General Assembly voted to move its next meeting to Geneva in order to allow Arafat to address the meeting. On December 13, 1988, Arafat addressed the meeting. The delegates were cheering in the aisles. Two days later, a resolution was passed by more than 100 countries in which the UN General Assembly acknowledged the proclamation of the State of Palestine and the use of the designation “Palestine” as referring to the PLO in the UN. It also affirmed the need for sovereignty by the Palestinian people over their territory occupied in 1967 by Israel. The resolution is titled “43/177. Question of Palestine.”
Fast forward 38 years to September 2024. This time, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution demanding that within a year Israel must end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. A total of 124 countries voted for the resolution, 14 voted against, and 43 countries abstained. Everyone understood that the resolution is unenforceable. What it did demonstrate, however, is that the majority of countries in the world support a Palestinian state. The one entity that has never supported a two- state solution are the Palestinians themselves. They have rejected five offers of a Palestinian state existing next to Israel. What they want is a Palestinian state in place of Israel. Only the Security Council can approve the admission of a new member state to the UN, and this has not occurred.
What has occurred, since the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, is the repeated condemnations by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of virtually every action taken by Israel to defend itself. On numerous occasions, he has falsely accused Israel of starving people to death in Gaza, of deliberately killing thousands of innocent civilians, of committing crimes against humanity, of using disproportionate force, and of committing genocide. What he has not done even once is to call for a UN resolution that condemns the barbaric acts of savagery that Hamas unleashed on Israel on October 7. Since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, it has fired more than 27,000 rockets into Israel, without a single condemnation by the secretary-general. He has never condemned the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon for failing to prevent Hezbollah from storing thousands of rockets and military equipment in houses and tunnels south of the Litani River as required by UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Guterres seems to be living in the bygone era of the Spanish-Portuguese Inquisition when Jews were burned at the stake and their property confiscated. Those days are over. Antonio Guterres is totally biased and should be removed from the office of UN secretary-general.
What is evident from the above is that the Security Council is fundamentally flawed and cannot carry out its mandate to promote peace and security in the world. It is also apparent that the majority of countries in the General Assembly are not interested in promoting democracy or human rights. They are leading the world down a slippery slope of chaos and anarchy. UNHCR is ignoring human rights abuses in many countries and is issuing false reports about the one democratic country in the Middle East. UNIFIL peacekeeping forces in Lebanon have failed miserably in carrying out their mandate. When discussing the role of the UN, one cannot ignore the role that UNRWA has played in brainwashing the youth of Gaza into becoming terrorists and suicide bombers, nor the fact that UNRWA employees were directly involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. What is clear is that UNRWA is part of the problem, and not part of any solution for Gaza. On top of everything, the secretary-general himself has lost his moral compass and is not fit to carry out the duties of the position he holds.
It seems that the United Nations is destined to end up like the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis that crumbled due to the differences in languages and cultures of those who were trying to build it. It is time to take more notice of the reports of Freedom House in deciding how the world should be run. The budget of the United Nations for 2024 amounts to a whopping $3.59 billion. This money could definitely be used in a more efficient way to improve the world than the present United Nations seems capable of doing. It is time for the great minds of the world to create a new institution that can at a minimum distinguish between the forces of evil and those of enlightenment. The United Nations in its present form has reached its sell-by date.■
The writer was born in South Africa and is a certified accountant who lives in Ra’anana with his Israeli-born wife.