On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations organization, it is essential to look back on a few things like: the circumstances under which the UN is born, whether UN has lived up to its founding principles or not and challenges faced by the UN in contemporary era. UN, in its journey, has faced many crises and threat to its existence. In spite of these challenges, UN is moving ahead with great zeal to rise to the humanitarian crises across the globe. Humanitarian crises are the result of the irresponsible policy making and decision making of the elite or the rich countries. I would like to highlight the plight of vulnerable sections of society like children, women, ethnic minorities and indigenous people throughout the world facing civil wars, religious persecutions, hunger and deprivation, lack of basic amenities as well as loss of habitats and livelihood. Lack of basic infrastructural facilities in under developed and developing countries, conflict for resources, and exploitation of resources by the rich and developed countries, are apparently leading these vulnerable sections to hunger, malnourishment, prone to epidemics and pandemics leading to the worst refugee crises in the last two decades. Plight of refugees is a blot on humanity. To avoid further deterioration of these crises, the UN must try to reach sustainable development goals by 2030. However, among other issues three important issues has been discussed in this article:
UN WOMEN
UN Women is the United Nations entity formed in 2011 by merging earlier agencies related to the UN dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. This entity was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women works with governments and civil society for achieving gender equality and designs laws, policies, programmes and services necessary for achieving goals. It works globally to visualize the Sustainable Development Goals as a reality for women and girls. Women participation is focused through four strategies like women leadership and participation, women empowerment through education, employment and financial autonomy, life free of all kinds of violence and their contribution in having a sustainable future. The Commission on the status of women founded in 1947 is the principal global intergovernmental body and exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment. Through this commission, conventions on women rights related to political rights, civil rights and economic rights were drafted. A major step towards consolidation of UN’s stand on women rights is the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) in 1979. 1975 was designated as International Women’s year, followed by the 1976-1985 UN Decade for women. Landmark in the efforts of the commission came with the Beijing Declaration and call for Platform of Action in 1995. Thus, UN women chart out its agenda for gender equality across all the sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030.
UN CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns which threaten food security, rising sea levels, catastrophic floods, at unprecedented levels. To reduce the impacts, one has to concentrate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; these occur naturally and are essential for human survival and other living beings. With acceleration of industrialization, deforestation, and large scale agriculture, burning of fossil fuels emission of greenhouse gases have increased leading to global rise in temperatures. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up to assess climate changes. According to this, there is considerable damage to Earth’s ecosystems, planetary climatic system, destruction to Amazon rainforests and the Arctic Tundra, alarming retreat of mountainous glaciers and effect in downstream water supply which will have repercussions transcending to future generations. To tackle these changes, UN has few legal instruments like United Nations Framework on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol (binding member nations to reduce emissions) in 1995, Paris conference in 2015 (to check global warming), and 2019 Climate Action Summit focused on areas like heavy industry, nature based solutions, cities, energy, resilience and climate finance. Climate Action is one of the sustainable development goals 2030. In 2007, the Nobel Peace prize was awarded jointly to former USA’s vice- president Al Gore and IPCC for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man- made climate change, and to lay foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract that change.
UN WORLD Food Programme
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition by 2030, there is a struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty by 2030. For its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to better conditions for peace in conflict areas, for preventing the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace prize 2020. WFP’s efforts focus on emergency relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations. During emergencies, this UN programme provides food assistance to the victims of war, civil conflict, drought, and natural disasters. It focuses on nutrition, especially for women and children, implementing school meals, buying food from closer areas to help sustain local economies. WFP meets people’s food needs through cash based transfers. It also provides air services as part of its humanitarian programme. WFP is funded by voluntary donations and it works closely with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
With the changing world, the role of the UN has also been changing; it has not forgotten the basic principles upon which it was established. The UNDP is the yardstick not just to measure and ascertain the direction of the world but also the intentions of the UN. The UN is a symbol of the collective spirit of the world. The issues related to Climate change, Women and Food programs are complex yet important as they pose a big challenge to the very character of the UN organization.
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr Aniruddha Babar, Nisha Dahiya and Meren. For feedback or comments please email: dot@tetsocollege.org
