Sir, – Isn’t it time we got real? The UN is unfit for purpose not by accident but by design! Here we have an organisation consisting of 193 states that can be paralysed by any one permanent member of the security council – France, China, Russia, the US or the UK – simply by exercising their veto.
For years, if anyone even looked like they were even thinking of criticising Israel, the US exercised a veto. Now we have the US and Russia vetoing each other. It’s like a game of poker. We’ll see your veto and raise you by two vetoes. The problem is they are gambling with lives.
Can nothing be done? – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CASSERLY,
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
Bishopstown,
Cork.
Sir, – Maintaining hope and faith in humanity is hard enough these days. But the ineffectiveness of the UN in recent times has sent a chill down my spine. Russian vetoes (against sending Syria’s crimes to the international court), political manoeuvring to marginalise the UN special envoy, obstruction of all efforts regarding chemical weapons – the last few nails have been hammered into the UN’s coffin. These are dark times.
In its founding charter, the United Nations declares that it will strive 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.
Countries that regularly commit human rights abuses (eg poor women’s rights, persecution of religious minorities, little or no free press) are violating this charter. Why are they allowed to remain as members of the UN?
The UN is not fit for purpose. As a start, it should get rid of the veto, a political device being used by bully states to the detriment of the most vulnerable in the world – the very people the UN is supposed to be protecting. – Yours, etc,
ALISON HACKETT,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.