UN risks fading into irrelevance without urgent reform

If international rules are applied selectively, they cease to be rules

- NALEDI RAMONTJA

IN A WORLD increasingly shaped by war, geopolitical rivalries, and military interventions, a difficult question keeps coming up: ‘what happens when the very nations entrusted with upholding international peace are the ones breaking it?’

This question isn’t just rhetorical; it cuts to the heart of global governance, and directly challenges the credibility of the United Nations, especially its most powerful body, the Security Council. Take Russia as an example. In 2014, it annexed Crimea. Then, in 2022, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, openly violating the UN Charter’s prohibition against the use of force. The war has left thousands dead, millions displaced, and Europe facing its gravest security crisis since World War II. And yet, despite global condemnation, Russia's permanent seat on the UN Security Council has shielded it from accountability.

Meanwhile, the United States has conducted repeated airstrikes in Syria, Yemen, and Iran, justifying them as acts of self-defense, counterterrorism, or in support of its allies, particularly Israel.

But these actions were carried out without UN authorisation, raising serious questions about international legality. Whether one views them as necessary or excessive, they still reflect the same troubling reality that permanent members of the Security Council can act militarily outside the UN framework with little to no consequences at the UN level.

One of the most striking examples of the UN trying to assert moral accountability came in April 2022, when Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) following its invasion of Ukraine and reports of atrocities committed by its forces.