The United Nations was constituted in 1945 with an objective to promote international peace, economic development, social progress and respect for international law. It was the successor to the failed League of Nations. It is the world's largest international body with 193 member nations but has only 5 permanent members of the security council.
In the last decade UN has failed to serve any of its desired objectives. In terms of International peace, we have seen attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan by the US. There has been civil wars in Libya, Syria and Somalia. While the tensions have been on the rise in Iran and North Korea. UN has played no major role in preventing these attacks. The mighty powers, like US and Israel, have largely had there way in world politics without any respect for the UN. In the past 60 years UN has also failed to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict and territorial disputes are prevalent all over the world. India has disputes with Pakistan and China, and China has its disputes with Japan and others in South China Sea.
In terms of social progress also the UN has failed to meet its objective. The world saw a major food crisis in 2008 when there was a steep rise in food prices and there is danger of another one looming large. Its ambitious Millennium Development Goal program is also set to fail with countries falling behind in meeting the stated goals. Acute poverty, lack of access to primary healthcare and public hygiene is still a problem for a large population of the world.
On the economic front, we have seen some of the worst economic crisis in the last decade. In face of the food crisis, many nations set up trade barriers. Free-Trade has been in talks in the Doha rounds for several years now but still we have seen no progress. The environment has also been badly hit in the last decade. It was the hottest decade in the world so far. The growth has not been sustainable. Several nations party to the first Kyoto Protocol have refused to ratify it to the extended timeline of 2020.
Although UN has failed in a lot of areas but it has also done some credible work. WHO has helped in AIDS awareness and polio reduction. UN has also succeeded in preventing any world-wars. It has brokered peace on many occasions in Libya, Syria and other sensitive parts of the world. The limited role played by UN is partly because of the limited powers provided to it. The developed nations have not fulfilled there commitment of providing 0.7% of there GNP towards poverty reduction. With more powers we could have a much influential and better world organisation.
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