Eighty Years Later: The UN Has Lost Its Way

Eighty years ago, the United Nations was founded in San Francisco with a clear mission: to prevent another devastating global conflict. Its early charter emphasized preserving peace, fostering cooperation among sovereign states, and resolving disputes peacefully. However, the organization has since drifted from these core principles.

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The world had just emerged from the most devastating war in history, and the purpose of the new organization was to prevent such a disaster from happening again.

The UN has undergone a significant expansion of bodies, special rapporteurs, agencies, programs, and permanent bureaucracies. This growth in structure has coincided with an broadening of its objectives and a distancing from its original aims. Today, the UN appears to be venturing into dictating how societies should be organized.

This shift is evident in the language used by some UN officials. For instance, the special rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, attributes global health issues to extractive capitalism, colonialism, resource plunder, racism, and patriarchy. While individuals have the right to hold such views, it is concerning that this vocabulary has become the common language for a substantial part of the international bureaucracy.

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Today, it seeks to guide how societies should be organized.

A similar trend is observed in the UN-mandated report "The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth (2026)." This report proposes measures like global wealth taxes, limits on wealth accumulation, and "democratic" planning of the world economy. An organization established to facilitate coexistence between states is now hosting proposals that advocate for a worldwide redistribution of economic and political power. Such ambitious agendas inherently demand a greater concentration of authority, and history warns that concentrated power rarely remains confined to its initial objectives.

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The concern is that this vocabulary has become the lingua franca of a good part of the international bureaucracy.

Originally conceived within a Westphalian framework of sovereign and legally equal nations, international law was meant to foster coexistence and prevent war. The UN was not intended to design the world's political and economic architecture. Over decades, a new conception has emerged where the "international community," rather than the sovereign state, becomes the primary subject. International experts are formulating global agendas, and human rights are expanding.

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An organization conceived to facilitate coexistence between states ends up hosting proposals that imply a global redistribution of economic and political power.