Comment 1360

By adrian (registered) | Posted October 11, 2006 at 08:15:54

It's not the UN's fault. The best the UN itself can do is diplomatically attempt to influence countries, but it has no power to actually do anything on its own. All the power rests with the security council, and since the security council's five permament members are the same five nuclear-armed nations I listed above, enforcement of this treaty is highly unlikely.

I hear where you're coming from with your frustration though. It's the same frustration billions of people feel across the globe about how the UN works. If the United Nations were to be truly democratic and representative, there would be a different sort of security council, where the people on it wielded a voting power that was commensurate with the population in their countries. E.g. India, with a huge population, would get a huge say - after all, isn't democracy about what the people want, and shouldn't the UN be about what the world's people want, not just the world's rich and powerful people?

Alternatively, the General Assembly, where all nations have a vote, could play the role that the security council does now.

Given the current arrangements, however, these scenarios are highly unlikely.

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