Is the UN broken? An insider speaks out.
There’s a quiet despair brewing in the halls of the United Nations, a rare disillusionment, impossible to ignore. This 80-year old institution — established to maintain international peace and security, and to promote human rights and sustainable development — is on shaky ground.
For those who’ve dedicated their lives to its mission, the current political climate, coupled with what some see as internal decay and decades of complicated external influences by member states, has brought the institution to a breaking point. I recently spoke with a senior UN leader, a veteran of peace missions and humanitarian efforts across the globe, who, speaking anonymously due to institutional gag orders, laid bare this crisis of conscience.
“I cannot say this out loud. At least not with my own name. But we whisper it to each other on the inside. These days, that is all we talk about, our inability to resolve the most pressing issue of how to prevent wars and protect peace in the current environment of impunity.…”
Meanwhile, the United Nations is undertaking major reform. The UN80 Initiative — branded as a system-wide push to create efficiency, streamline operations, sharpen impact, and reaffirm the UN’s relevance in face of a rapidly changing world — seems only to radically undermine the UN’s essential work, particularly in crucial areas like gender equality and human rights.
These reforms are being driven both by US budget cuts and the continuous delayed payments by member states. As progressive funding retreats, a vacuum emerges, rapidly being filled by well-resourced counter-movements and the private sector. Organizations pushing anti-rights agendas are fully funded and flourishing. All this while lives are on the line, and nascent democracies face grave perils, with women and girls particularly vulnerable as vital services vanish.
Beyond politics, our insider paints a picture of a hollowed-out bureaucracy. “The UN is becoming a show business. It does not want liberal or principled people working as staff anymore. It is a bureaucracy with a lot of incompetent people backed by governments who want things their way. They want less people with experience.” She laments the suppression of creativity and dissent: “They want to get rid of any staff who don’t follow orders or bring different opinions or ask difficult questions. No passion, commitment, innovation anymore. It is becoming very hollow and weak.”
My source continues:
“Yes there is a recognition that reform is needed to address some of the systemic challenges such as increased number of mandates and complexities leading to overlaps, inefficiencies, fragmentation, duplication, and increased costs for the UN system. The current geopolitical shifts and substantial reductions in foreign aid budgets are challenging the legitimacy and effectiveness of the UN.”
Compounding this external paralysis is an unseen war on equality unfolding from within, driven by strategic budget cuts and political agendas. A deliberate dismantling of inclusive approaches and a direct assault on gender equality and human rights are underway. The very things the UN claims to uphold.
“Claims for cost-cutting are a masquerade,” she said, “a chopping block for human rights protections — with women’s rights programming the first to go.”
“What we’re seeing,” my source explained, “is a weaponization of gender.” She elaborated: “What will happen to women’s grassroots groups in crisis-affected countries? They will close. Women will suffer. What will happen to maternal healthcare, protection from gender-based violence, and other lifesaving work for women and girls? Using food and humanitarian aid to target and kill civilians or even dictating the way humanitarian aid should be delivered or withholding humanitarian aid is a manipulation to win a war victory.”
Women in crisis zones — already fighting for their own survival — will now be forced to do even more with even less. To fight to survive in a climate that is denying them everything.
Even claims of gender parity are questioned: “Don’t be fooled. There is no gender parity — even if they say we have women in leadership. All the secretarial work is mostly done by women. We are reinforcing gender stereotypes. Meaning, women are in the feminized sectors. And when it comes to professional jobs, there are notably less women and more men. Yes, the UN shows its gender parity statistics. But they are deliberately vague.”
But for her, and for many within the UN, it is the case of Palestine that has exposed this hypocrisy.
“Palestine has broken the UN,” she stated unequivocally. Her view is built from decades of experience and extends well beyond policy disagreements. The recent actions of one agency, UNFPA, signing an agreement with Israel — the perpetrator of genocide — struck a raw nerve, exposing what she describes as a severe lack of moral compass. “Everyone I know within UNFPA or affiliated with the agency — and even other agencies — was disgusted and furious. Everyone.”
She shared the sentiment of many deeply committed staff: “The damage is already done. The agreement was signed, no matter what those on the inside — and outside — said. A senior leader wrote an apology letter to the Arab States regional office — as if it makes any difference. It is dangerous. No moral compass whatsoever. My decades in this institution feel like they were for nothing.”
This isn’t an isolated incident. It is a symptom of a larger, systemic incapacitation within the UN, especially evident in its failure to prevent future wars and maintain international peace and security — the very foundation of its 1945 Charter. The issue reaches the very top — to the Security Council’s perpetual paralysis, systematically undermining the UN’s core mission and causing the institution to crumble from within.
“The veto system used by the Security Council is irresponsible,” she explains. “It lacks accountability to stop wars and to ensure peace and to protect civilians among the five permanent members. It is not fit for purpose in the current environment with institutionalized discrimination in action. The double standards are clear. And the lack of implementation of UN Security Council resolutions over the last 60 years. There’s evidence for this everywhere.”
“It is our shameful inaction, our impotence, on Palestine that cannot be denied. It’s everywhere. The voices in defiance are very few.”
Look at UNICEF global spokesperson James Elder. Look at UN special rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese. These voices rise above the others because they are among the lone voices speaking out in defiance. Look at Dr. Michael J. Ryan of the WHO. A vocal critic of the humanitarian in crisis, Dr. Ryan called for urgent action and was suddenly dropped from the agency’s executive team.
“It’s hard to not see the pattern here,” she tells me. “Anyone who stands up for Gaza is quickly punished. And the rest have been silenced — perhaps to save their jobs, perhaps because they are not truly committed to the very causes they claim to serve. It’s hard to be optimistic in this climate.”
“We cannot deliver on our mandate. And the UN is not protecting us even when we try to do so. There’s a double standard here too. Look at the staggering number of UNRWA staff killed in Gaza. That is simply another of the many reasons why it is unacceptable and criminal to accept funding from a member state that committed such crimes and has the blood of our colleagues on its hands.”
With the silencing of Palestinian dissent, the failure to support peace and security, and the war on women’s equality, it’s worth asking: Is the UN still fit for purpose? As our source concluded: “This is devastating to the extreme. Sickening. What are they thinking? That this will bring back US funding? I feel so bad to have spent these decades working for the UN.”
I share her pain. I also dedicated decades to the institution — and the values I believed it to uphold. Today I have a hard time believing in any of this. And yet, I still do believe in global governance. In an institution that exists above nation states in support of peace and globalism. An institution that is truly democratic — without a veto — owned by the Global Majority. Equality and justice — for everyone.
“We are selling our souls, handing victory to those who oppose freedom,” my source explained. “We have let people down — the people who are counting on us to protect them. It is time to urgently reevaluate this institution’s capacity to uphold the very human rights values it was founded to protect. People’s lives are at stake — and the blood we spill will be on our conscience forever.”
Her words are sobering — and a stark reminder of what is at stake.
