UN under Fire
The UN is turning 80, and today it is under attack from all sides, also from within:
- Putin and Xi openly want a new world order without those pesky fundamental rights.
- Trump refuses to be constrained and is withdrawing funding from the UN.
- Jew-haters within the UN are delegitimizing it by instrumentalizing the UN and agitating constantly against Israel.
- Netanyahu's government is ignoring its decisions.
- Terrorists are infiltrating its organizations.
- And hardly anyone mentions how many more wars there were before the founding of the UN.
But the UN Charter is an achievement worth preserving. Its preamble is the heart of international policy for a better world:
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, 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,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.
It’s been 80 years now. I hope these aims will prevail against the attacks from inside and outside so my children or their children will have a chance to live in the better world the UN Charter was built to create.