Give the UN to me… I’ll fix it!
I wouldn’t want to run the UN. But let’s pretend for a second that I was in charge. I know exactly what I’d do.
Firstly, let’s remind ourselves of what the United Nations is for, and why it was created. The UN was founded in 1945 by 51 countries after World War II. This international organization now has 193 member states who sit together to maintain international peace and security and promote human rights, sustainable development, and international law. Or at least they try.
The UN’s main bodies include the General Assembly, where all member states sit, and the Security Council, whose role it is to maintain peace and security. There’s also the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, and the Secretary-General. And shockingly, there has never been a woman Secretary General — but that’s a rant for another time.
I don’t want to bore you all, but it’s also important to know how this business is set up. So here comes more detail…
The Security Council has 15 members. The five permanent members — China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States — have veto power, and the other ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, with a focus on equitable geographical distribution. This is an outdated system set up decades ago with no bearing on our present reality. The world can not — should not! — be run only by these five. It is institutionalized discrimination.
Onward.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the official legal thing, but there’s also the International Criminal Court (ICC). Quick view of the difference is that the ICC is legally independent of the UN, though it is endorsed by the General Assembly. It was created in 2002 in response to the UN’s insufficient responses to atrocities such as the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Read that again: Insufficient response… Genocide… Ethnic cleansing.
The ICC prosecutes individual war-crime-makers, while the ICJ deals with disputes between countries. The ICC is limited to the Rome Statute and its four core crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Guess who is not a member of the ICC? That’s right — Israel. And the US, China, India, and Russia. Hmmm…
And then there’s the Genocide Convention, because way back in the day (1948), we decided that killing each other off was a bad idea. Have we done it since? Yes. Are we doing it now? Hell yes.
This thing was created in response to the atrocities of World War II, including the Holocaust. OK, cool. What’s genocide? We’ve had LOTS of conversations about that this year, haven’t we? In a nutshell, it is the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting conditions with the intent of physical destruction, and so on. If none of this is sounding familiar, you’ve been living in a cave with wolves.
Granted, it would be preferable, as wolves are a lot nicer, but here we are.
As of June 2024, there are 153 state parties to the convention. Israel is a party to the Genocide Convention — although you wouldn’t think so. Same goes for the US.
These days, the United Nations has not been very “united.” That’s because Israel has behaved like a little brat. One of their most comical performances took place in the General Assembly where, upon learning that Palestine would gain rights as a UN member, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan pulled out a teeny tiny shredder and proceeded to shred the UN Charter in front of the Assembly. Yes.
A few months later, during a UN General Assembly speech in September 2024, Netanyahu called the UN an “antisemitic swamp,” and an “anti-Israel flat earth society.” He banned UNRWA from Palestine for being “anti-Israel” — while UNRWA is one of Palestine’s last remaining streams of aid and a lifeline for millions.
And Israel continues to cry “self-defense” and “antisemitism” the minute anyone calls them out on their abuses because they — in the words of Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Majed Bamya spoken to the UN Security Council — Israel seems to have the “right to kill,” while we only have the “right to die.”
It’s obvious — Israel is violating its UN membership in many ways. Firstly — genocide. Yeah, that’s illegal. And for decades before that, the occupation of Palestinian Territories is a violation of international law. And the abuse of Palestinians (yes, before October 7) is pure assholery. That includes the disproportionate use of force and disproportionate civilian casualties. Just look at the list of children — even babies — murdered by Israel.
Need more violations? Don’t worry, there are many!
Israel continues to restrict Palestinian rights on movement, access to resources, employment, political participation — and their right to simply exist. This is a violation of human rights, and human rights are a cornerstone of the UN. (See above if you forgot.) The treatment of Palestinian refugees and restrictions on their right of return are violations of international law as well. And there are also UN Resolutions that Israel gleefully ignores.
So, if I were to run the UN, I’d do the very obvious: Kick Israel out. Goodbye!
OK, onward. The US needs some reigning in as well. They’ve behaved like a tyrannical bully, using and abusing their veto 49 times to block resolutions that reign in Israel, their unruly pet. So for that reason alone, the US needs to be suspended. Reprimanded. Grounded. It’s time to behave!
And, I’d abolish the veto. No more permanent members. We need a Security Council that reflects the Global Majority, not one run by the world’s brutes and bullies. Time to abolish the Broligarchy.
What’s more, the US is headed for yet another Trump term, and Trump is no fan of the UN. For starters, he rejects globalism, which is kind of the point. In his address at the UN General Assembly in 2019, he said: “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots… Globalism exerted a religious pull over past leaders, causing them to ignore their own national interests.” And he criticized the Global Compact on Migration Plan, saying that the UN Human Rights Council is a grave embarrassment… “shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends… ” The US then withdrew from the Human Rights Council.
To top it all off, if Biden was in bed with Israel, Trump is even more so, saying: “Fanatics have long used hatred of Israel to distract from their own failures.” In the same speech, Trump talked about Iran, arguing that: “Iran’s citizens deserve a government that cares about reducing poverty, ending corruption, and increasing jobs — not stealing their money to fund a massacre abroad and at home.” Ironic, considering this is exactly what the US needs to do, rather than steal taxpayer money to fund a massacre against Palestinians — and now Lebanese.
And we know how he feels about immigrants, about peacekeeping, about climate controls, about global health. Or at least we can imagine.
So, global peace is not his thing. War certainly is. In his first round, he gleefully announced that the US spent over two and a half trillion dollars to completely “rebuild its great military.” Also without signing the UN Arms Trade Treaty, the US has power over the trade of its weapons, meaning it can keep fueling a genocide without any snags.
The ICC has been a major battleground, given its role in condemning Israel’s genocide in Palestine — that the US conveniently ignores. And now that the long-overdue arrest warrants are out for Netanyahu and his henchman, the US will do whatever they can to not comply. Meaning, the US and Israel will be further isolated as the genocidal maniacs they have become.
And it doesn’t end there. Let’s talk about abortion. Recall Trump’s reinstatement of the Republican-enforced Global Gag Rule is a US government policy restricting federal funding to non-governmental organizations providing abortion services, counseling, or referrals. In short, anything that allows a woman the right to decide what to do with her body and her life. We saw this detrimental ruling take center stage when Trump stripped the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency working to advance family planning worldwide, of $32.5 million in US funding, in his last term.
And Trump’s anti-choice stance in the US was a cornerstone of his campaign. Enter Handmaid’s Tale. Trump’s Project 2025 text says that “all health-care programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: abortion and euthanasia are not health care.” Meaning, our bodies now fully belong to the government.
So, let’s recap. Reform Security Council. Abolish veto. Create democratic system owned by the Global Majority. Israel out. US punished — or perhaps even out. It’s time to clean up shop. If you don’t support peace and globalism, you don’t belong in the UN. The end.
Let’s not forget: UN headquarters is located in the nation’s financial epicenter, NYC. And it is a micro-economy — renting buildings, renting apartments, fueling food and other services, and doing its part to keep the wheels of this city spinning.
As of 2022, UN Headquarters in New York employed 6,500 people. That’s a lot of people who sleep, eat, move around, do stuff. Cutting that off would be one way to hurt Trump where it matters — money.
And, relocating the UN to a Global Majority country would mean many wonderful things. Firstly, the UN would finally be a reflection of those in the Global Majority. And, people from all over the world could finally access high-level events — where decisions about their lives have been made without them — and claim their rightful place at the decision-making table. Meaning, we’d be breaking the monopoly of the passport-privileged. Meaning, the UN could finally be more representative and inclusive. One big win.
OK, cool. What else? If I ran the UN, I’d streamline some of the agencies. We’ve got too many — at least 15 — and they’re doing too many similar things. It’s really time for “one UN,” as we like to say. The system must “Deliver as One” at the country level — with one leader, one program, one budget, and, where appropriate, one office. Our agency branding and turf wars are a distraction from the real point of our existence. Because no one cares which agency does the work, as long as individuals and communities get the support they need — and deserve.
Oh and everyone everywhere across the system from the bottom to the tippy-top has to work on women’s rights and equality because nothing is going to work if we keep leaving half of the population behind. So let’s at least fix this One Thing.
There’s much more… this is just Week One!
And finally, I’d make sure the next Secretary General was a woman.
Because… duh.
Because… do I have to say this?!
Because… it’s about time.
No, it’s long overdue.
