Thursday, November 4, 2010

Time to shut down the UN?

This summer the civilized world has anxiously followed the case of Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to be murdered by stoning on trumped up charges. Public pressure conducted by different NGO:s in July postponed the murder, but the last days we've been reached by information that her murder may once again be imminent. To participate in the online information campaign, please go here.


At the same time Fox News informs us (those of you who feel skeptical of Fox reporting can check up the original UN ECOSOC document here and search for Iran) that Iran has been elected into, and given 4 seats in, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a Human Rights organization tasked with - you guessed it - worldwide improvement of the situation and status of women. If you so wish, a feminist organization. Now which part of stoning women or harassing them in the streets for being "immodest" does the UN organization perceive as feminist? The devil knows.

The UN was from a realpolitical perspective constructed to broker the public part of the terror balance created by The Yalta Conference and the outcome of WWII and it's rise to superpower status of the USA and the Soviet Union. It would also help with the dismantling of an outdated colonial system and it's more disastrous consequences, particularly in Africa. From an idealistic viewpoint it was also created to make this world a better place, although the value of having the most tyrannic dictatorships sign The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is questionable, even more so when it was fairly clear from the outset that both The US and The Soviets would support their own tyrannical states as they saw fit.

However, the bipolar terror balance is long since replaced by a monopolar world, where the US hegemon is slowly loosing in relative power to the ascending powers of China, Russia and India, most obviously in economical terms, but also militarily. And the UN has failed to find itself a new role, possibly with the exception of The Security Council, but then again, The Security Council is by no way a democratic institution, and could easily be lifted out of the UN framework.

At the same time, it's very obvious that The General Assembly, The UNHSCR and now the UNCSW, is becoming a propaganda tool and publicity stunts arena for Theocratic Fascists, Tyrants and Political Charlatans. The UNHSCR currently contains the following Human Rights loving regimes: Saudi Arabia, Libya, Turkey and China. We are basically seeing a development where UN member countries with the worst Human Rights records imaginable are trying to set the agenda (usually that everything is Israel's fault) within the UN:s human rights organizations. It would seem then that any idealistic reasons for keeping this massive machine going is deeply flawed. An hence the question arises: Is it time to dismantle The United Nations?

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