The United Nations has abjectly failed the people of Zimbabwe. It has completely failed to stand for human rights against tyranny. In doing so, the UN has once again drawn into question its value as a global institution. It has become quite clear that the UN does not exist to protect human right or for a higher moral purpose. Anybody who thinks otherwise is clearly whistling in the wind. The unfolding tragedy in Zimbabwe was the latest great test for the UN and it is a test that it has comprehensively failed.
The Charter of the United Nations saw the body as reaffirming “faith in fundamental human right, in the dignity and worth of the human person.” The human devastation in Zimbabwe is as stark an example as can be expected of a terrible abuse of human rights. Mugabe has turned the bread basket of Africa into a country where the average male life expectancy is 37 and female life expectancy is 34. He has deliberately brought famine on to areas of Zimbabwe not loyal to his tyranny by withholding grain. 3000 opposition supporters have been arrested and imprisoned; many others have been brutally tortured; and over 100 have been killed since the first round of elections. According to Amnesty International, most of those killed have been tortured to death. Sadly, the United Nations Security Council does not think that this abuse of human rights merits even the mildest of international sanctions. Russia and China have handed a huge publicity coup to Mugabe and provided a further blow to the dwindling hopes of the long oppressed Zimbabwean people.
Of course, this is not the first time that the UN has completely failed to act against horrific human rights abuses. It stood idly by while the terrible genocide in Rwanda occurred. For the majority of the Yugoslavian war, the UN did nothing to prevent ethnic cleansing and abuse of human rights. The United Nations has done too little too late to address the horrific situation in Darfur. In all cases, the myth of the UN as a body prepared to stand up for human rights has been exposed as a sham. In each case, countries such as Russia and China have put realpolitik and national self interest well above any notion of human rights or international moral standards. It is difficult to think of any reason that this behaviour will change in the years to come.
Some people across the political spectrum remain naively attached to the United Nations as an instrument for progress. Plenty on the liberal left seem to use the United Nations as an article of faith, almost oblivious to its near total inability to act as a force for good in recent years. As progressive Conservatives, defence of human rights should be a central part of our creed. Whether the United Nations can play a key role in this defence of human rights remains very much open to question.
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