Much ado about the UNGA
New York was jammed; the average driving speed around midtown Manhattan is 6.9 miles per hour. As world leaders from 193 member states gathered for the 71st United Nations General Assembly the question on many minds was what is this all in aid of?
In San Francisco in June 1945 the UN Charter was signed, its first statement being: “we the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.” Regretfully, over 70 decades later, conflict remains an ever-present threat to global peace and security.
In the current climate, the single most haunting example of the international community’s failure to ensure global peace is the protracted war in Syria. Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian crisis of modern times. Over half of the country’s pre-war population have been killed or forced to flee their homes. Neighboring countries are at capacity, as those left behind in Syria struggle to stay alive.
In addition, 2016 has seen unprecedented numbers of refugees leaving the region risking bitter winters and hot summers to cross illegally into Europe. The effect of what was a domestic conflict between a belligerent President and his long-suffering people, has transformed into an international crisis of the most urgent kind.
The Syrian case is a potent example of how the United Nations General Assembly and the international community have broadly failed to avert suffering
Zaid M. Belbagi
The war in Syria is of course not the only crisis of our time, as of last year there are as many as 60 million refugees worldwide, accounting for the largest level of human suffering since the Second World War. However, the Syrian case is a potent example of how the UNGA and the international community broadly have failed to avert suffering.
President Obama mentioned in his final address at UNGA that humanity “had never been more prosperous”, however it is thus glaringly obvious that such wealth should and can be used to avert humanitarian suffering. The richest 20 percent of humanity control over 80 percent of global income, this continuing trend should be a worrying one for an organization that was established to avert human suffering.
Unsolved challenges
It was a year ago around UNGA that Russia began its air campaign in Syria. The gathering of nations this September, amidst no sign of Russian involvement waning, is a stark illustration of how the major challenges of our time have been left unsolved.
Furthermore, the Russian and US wrangling over Syria has highlighted how the UNGA is and remains very much at the ransom of the Security Council. As President Obama mentioned, this has led to a state of affairs somewhat similar to the imperial power plays of previous instances in international history.
Though commitments have and will be made during UNGA, instability and global insecurity highlight serious issues with regard to its efficacy and durability.
Annan’s warning of 2005 that UNGA focused too heavily on consensus resulting in resolutions that reflect “the lowest common denominator of widely different opinions,” remains very much the case. There is no doubt that UNGA must be reformed so as to become better equipped to face global challenges. These could include assessing long-standing arguments with regards to its composition and powers, as well as focusing more closely on how to better implement resolutions.
Amidst global chaos, this year the sense of paralysis was all too clear. Reform must take place to ensure that the UNGA is “the chief deliberative policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations.”
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Zaid M. Belbagi is a government communications expert with experience in providing strategic advice in the Gulf. Belbagi is a graduate of the Oxford University Foreign Service Programme (OUFSP), having earned a Masters degree in diplomatic studies from St. Antony’s College, Oxford. A commentator on Gulf affairs, he is a fellow at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and formerly a visiting scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS). He regularly appears on TV.