70th Anniversary of UN Charter
The Need to Reform and Renew the
United Nations
- Dougal MacDonald -
Source: The Marxist Leninist
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmlw2015/W45028.HTM#7 Event at the United Nations in New York marking the 70th anniversary |
of the signing of the UN Charter.
The Charter of the United Nations is the organization's foundational treaty. It was signed by 50 of the UN's original members in San Francisco on June 26, 1945, six weeks after Nazi Germany surrendered at the end of the Second World War. The Charter entered into force on October 24, 1945, the official date of the UN's formation, after being ratified by the original five permanent members of the Security Council -- the Republic of China (replaced by the People's Republic of China on October 25, 1971), France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States -- and a majority of the other signatories. All UN members are duty-bound to uphold the 111 articles of the UN Charter. Further, Article 103 of the UN Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations.
The Preamble to the Charter states four main general aims:
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.[1]
Article One of the Charter clearly states the United Nations' four main purposes:
- To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
- To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
- To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
- To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Finally, the first four principles of the UN are clearly stated at the beginning of Article 2:
- The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
- All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
- All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
- All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
While stating in words their allegiance to the articles of the UN Charter, the U.S. imperialists and their allies take every opportunity to defy the Charter in deeds. They routinely violate national sovereignty, continuously humiliate or commit open aggression against other countries, and refuse to be held to account for their misdeeds which threaten all of humanity. This situation underscores the need to reform and renew the UN. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter, it is important to again stress the pressing need for the UN and its bodies to enshrine and uphold the equality and sovereignty of all nations and for all nations big and small to uphold the norms and laws of international relations so as to ensure international peace. This must be done not just by using empty words but in actual deeds.
One of the most critical needs is to reform the UN Security Council. Two fundamental principles of international relations are that all nations have equal standing and that the right to sovereignty of all nations must be upheld. These hard-won principles were paid for by the blood of millions in World War II and stand diametrically opposed to the imperialist dictate that "Might Makes Right." Upholding these principles is the duty of all nations to ensure that never again will the world be subject to a global war. The United Nations Charter espouses these principles but they are contradicted in practice by the anachronistic composition of the Security Council which is entrusted with the crucial issue of maintaining peace. Under Chapter VII of the Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to "maintain or restore international peace and security," ranging from economic and/or other sanctions not involving the use of armed force to international military action.
Five big powers remain the permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. This is not only totally unrepresentative of the majority of the 198 countries which make up the UN today but these big powers have a veto on all matters that come before the Security Council. Although "power of veto" is not explicitly mentioned in the Charter, Article 27 states that "substantive" decisions require "the concurring votes of the permanent members." The permanent members, of course, vote according to their own national interests, not the interests of the world's people which are sacrificed as a matter of course. Since 1972, the U.S. has used its veto power more than any other permanent member. The Security Council usurps the decision-making process, rendering the decisions of the General Assembly ineffective. The renewal of the Security Council arrangements is needed to make the UN democratic and effective as an instrument to maintain world peace and stop its use to justify the bullying and aggression of the U.S. and its NATO allies and partners, which is causing havoc in the world today.
The Harper dictatorship continues to take a very arrogant stand towards the UN Charter. Harper addressed the United Nations in 2010, a second time since 2006, then showed his contempt by refusing to do so again until 2014. Harper's 2014 speech spewed platitudes, then focused almost solely on financial commitments to child and maternal health in order to deliberately divert attention from other important global conflicts and crises. This again underscores that Canada is making no positive contributions on the major questions of war and peace and the vital need for UN reform, especially of the Security Council. In fact, Canada has given itself the role of champion of war and aggression to settle disputes between nations, all in the name of Canadian values and an approach to foreign policy which is actually based on no principle at all. There are many current examples of this, including continuing aggression in Afghanistan, unqualified support for Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people, bombing of Libya, bombing of Syria, demonizing of Iran, and now the training of Nazi troops in Ukraine. On November 21, 2014, the Harper dictatorship joined the United States and Ukraine as the only three countries to vote against the annual United Nations' anti-Nazi resolution, the third time Canada has voted against this resolution.
The Harper dictatorship has also shown again and again that it does not believe that UN principles and decisions apply at all to Harper's own policies within Canada. Harper has ignored recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council for a national investigation into missing and murdered Aboriginal women, not to mention international concerns from the UN Committee Against Torture about Canada's involvement in facilitating torture internationally. In October 2014, Canada was the only UN country to register objections over a landmark UN document re-establishing the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples. On July 6-8, the United Nations reviewed Canada's human rights record for the first time since 2006, including in regard to blatant political defunding of charities and the passing of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 (Bill C-51), a bill providing expanded powers to the RCMP and CSIS, which legitimizes black ops against the Canadian people and further criminalizes dissent.
Whether at the United Nations or in other international and national fora, the Harper dictatorship uses its usurpation of state power to issue the most backward and pro-imperialist drivel, as if this represents the sentiments of Canadians. Nothing could be further from the truth. The values espoused by the Harper government to justify foreign aggression and interference in the internal affairs of other countries are alien to Canadians and alien to the UN Charter. Canadians want their country to be a genuine force for peace in the world, not a servile appendage of U.S. imperialism. The actions of the Harper government and the prime minister's diversionary 2014 speech to the United Nations again underscore the need for Canadians to fight for an anti-war government that opposes warmongering internationally and contributes to sorting out problems on a peaceful basis, an anti-war government that upholds the UN Charter not just in empty words but in actual deeds.
Note
1. For the full text of the United Nations Charter, click here.
