The elephant in the security council

Dear Madam,

I'm confused by David Adams article in todays Irish Times (19/6/05). He affirms the inadequacies of the UN, in all it's veto protectionism glory. But does his piece place universal blame, or simply lay the deficiencies of the UN at the feet of communists, i.e. do we get away scot free?

The list of resolutions vetoed by western governements includes "Opposing the acquisition of territory by force" 1989, "Opposition to nuclear testing" (1987, 2 resolutions), "Safeguards rights of developing countries in multinational trade negotiations" (1979), "Demands that Israel desist from human rights violations" (1979), "Concerns negotiations on disarmament and cessation of the nuclear arms race" (1979) "Calls for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua" (1987, 2 resolutions) and "Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon" (1987).

Whatever the evils conducted by unaccountable dictators around the world, if our own glorified bastions of liberty cannot uphold the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and if we continue to allow them not to, what are our grounds for criticism?

Yours etc...

1. http://www.houstonjusticenotwar.org/

Response to:

Woeful record of the UN

When the second World War ended in 1945 and the full, horrifying scale of Nazi depravity became evident, they said it would never be allowed happen again, writes David Adams.

The victorious allies even established the United Nations to try and ensure that it didn't.

It seems perverse in the extreme, now, to think that two of the principal signatories to the UN charter were China and the Soviet Union.

In fact, along with the United Kingdom and the United States, they helped draft the original proposals on which the charter is based.

In hindsight, it was a bit like inviting Dr Harold Shipman to help draw up a code of practice for care of the elderly. At the time, "Uncle Joe" Stalin was well on his way to murdering tens of millions of his fellow citizens. Mao Tse-tung was only four years away from grabbing absolute power in China; allowing him and his cohorts to begin paving the road to their own utopia with millions of Chinese corpses.

continued... The Irish Times