President Rodrigo Duterte harshly criticized the United Nations after it demanded an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organization. The UN human rights experts last week urged Duterte to stop the extra-judicial executions and slayings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency by promising a drug free Philippines. Speaking of the UN, Duterte retorted, “I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert,” urging it to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.Dealing with the drug users and protecting human rights are two aspects of one problem. His dealing with drug dealers safeguards human rights. The UN human rights expert failed to understand that the Philippine Constitution and laws clearly stipulate that citizens enjoy freedom of speech, assembly, and belief, and they are protected while exercising these rights, but Philippine law also stipulates that when citizens are enjoying their rights of freedom, they must not harm society or the rights of other citizens. Freedom cannot undermine Philippine public security, safety, order, health, or morality.
No matter what international pundits think about the President’s comments, he is definitely right, and no one wants to be a part of ineffective club or useless club like the UN. The question is what has the United Nations done for the world or for the Philippines? The real mission and purpose of the UN is to establish peace and security, to prevent wars, and to protect human dignity, but the United Nations has done none of these.
There are a myriad of problems with the UN. With its corruption and human rights violations to its ineffective, sluggish, and unsuccessful efforts to stop civil wars, crises, and conflicts, the UN has only five privileged countries on its Security Council. That division’s decisions are important, but our world is bigger than five countries, so what is the point of being part of a useless and wasteful club that has no substance but to produce empty statements and be the puppet of superpowers? Undoubtedly, a person has human rights simply because he or she is a human being. Every one has the right to life, liberty, and pursuits of happiness, and these rights are inalienable, so that no one can take them away or deny them to anyone. If drugs kill, then selling drugs should be considered a human rights violation itself and rectified. Furthermore, if in that rectitude corruption is prevented, so that the money that is supposed to be invested in roads, schools, hospitals, and the social welfare of the country but ends up being used for personal interests, then that act of eradicating the source of corruption simultaneously addresses societal ills. As a result of that rectitude or of eliminating those who do harm and engage in corruption, the 30 million Filipino who live under poverty and have their rights violated daily can be full citizens of the Philippines enjoying the benefits that the Constitution and laws guarantee.
Because the UN does not practice what it preaches, many countries are starting to turn their back on the organization including President Duterte. Examples of the UN’s ineptness are plentiful. In 1994, the UN peacekeepers failed to prevent the genocide of millions of Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1995, under the UN’s watch, thousands of Muslims were murdered in Srebrenica, Bosnia; in 2000, the UN peacekeepers were involved in a sexual abuse scandal where peace keepers stood accused of hundreds of accounts of human rights violations and crimes, including rape and forced prostitution. The UN has a serious track record of sexual offences wherever its peacekeepers go. They have extravagant, special custom-made SUV cars for roaming around and doing nothing. The UN’s Oil for Food program in Iraq was supposed to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, but millions of dollars of oil money funded kickbacks on humanitarian goods to Former Secretary Kofi Anan’s family and to companies that had other connections with the UN.
The worse aspect is that the UN created a Human Rights Council to address rights-related conflicts, but most of the countries filling the seats on that council are well known human rights violators, such as China, Cuba, Russia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. The UN is in no way compatible with universal justice or the principles of equality and human rights. Furthermore, in the cases of the occupation of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the occupation of Georgia, the occupation of Crimea by Russia, the occupation of Syria, and the war in Yemen, the UN has also virtually ignored everything that has happened. They have turned a blind eye to the Kurds who live in Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, to the Sarajevo massacre, to the tortured Muslims in Myanmar, to the minorities in China, to Libya’s peace efforts after Gadhafi’s terrorism, and to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Seemingly, the only concern of the UN is that criminals in the Philippines should be treated nicely.
The questions are why should the President take the UN’s comment seriously or accept criticism from them? The UN’s evaluation of the Duterte administration’s human rights record lacks credence when those doing the lecturing were serial human rights abusers themselves. The UN also demanded that Duterte be held accountable for killing so many drug users. But the problem is that the UN may be the most unaccountable, useless, unfettered bureaucracy on the planet considering its stealing money from the Oil for Food program or from the Afghanistan reconstruction funds, being charged with sex abuse, or forcing women and children to become sex slave. It is easy to see how President Duterte or any self -respecting world leader would disregard the UN’s comment.. In truth, the Philippines support the international justice, equality, rule of law, but a look at all the UN ‘s failings makes it hard to blame Duterte. Filipinos should continue to support their President for taking a principled stand.
The UN has failed to resolve the world’s largest refugee crisis. The pictures of five-year old Omran Daqneesh with his dazed and bloodied face was seen on the TV shows that claimed that if you stay in Syria, your fate is going to be like Omran Daqneesh’s, but if you decide to leave Syria, your fate would be like that of Alan Kurdi. Another shocking image, the drowned Syrian boy, shows the plight of refugees who decide to leave the war in Syria and provides a clear example of the failure of the UN Security Council. The refugee crisis demonstrates that the only thing countries care about is who can dominate the new Middle East politics, but all the while they neglect the Syrian people.
The conflict started five years ago when mass protests accused Syrian President Assad of not being democratic and asked him to resign, and now the absence of UN intervention has left a mess behind with 470,000 Syrians dead and 1 in 11 killed or injured, but nothing is happened to those who make decisions in New York’s UN headquarters. It is impossible for them to pass a resolution through the Council because it can be vetoed by any one of the permanent members, which consist of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France
The United Nations is already a useless and wasteful club that cannot function well; yet, pulling out of the UN will be even more ineffectual. The United Nations is a product of its member states, and yet their hands are tied when it comes to making quick, decisive decisions to maintain peace and security. They have no power to enforce it. History shows that a system that is left to the sole initiative of the permanent members of the Security Council is bound to remain gridlocked as a result of competing geopolitical interests, rather than moving forward in the interest of human rights, peace, and security. The United Nations is supposed to represents all the nations of the world, but instead, it serves to justify the interests of powerful countries on legal grounds. Those who are on the Security Council care little for human rights, violations, or peace and security but a lot about their national interests. Without exhibiting more leadership and responsibility and less posturing and pandering, the UN cannot expect to be taken seriously as anyone who loves his or her country will recognize. It would do well to avert its own demise rather than demanding that Duterte cease his war on criminals.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
