By Lubna Abdel-Aziz On reading a news item last week, I was quite dumbstruck by its vanity and triviality. I could have roared with laughter had I not felt the flow of hot tears streaming down my cheeks. On April 9 the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) hailed the first ever law recognizing children's rights launched today in Southern Sudan. Lauding the legislation as a major milestone in creating a "protective environment in which children can enjoy the rights to health, education, and other basic services..." Mr. Peter Crowly, Director of Operations in Southern Sudan went on and on about creating a society "in which children can grow and develop to their full potential." I felt overcome by hopelessness. What about those other children, those neighbours up north in Darfur, their fathers, their mothers, their starvation, their persecution? How can we find joy in that? Is discrimination now part of UN policy? It is not as though the UN had successfully defended humankind everywhere. Does it need a mirror to take a good look at itself? Maybe it needs an honest historian to list its many failings, blunders and stumbles. Has it stopped to consider the children of other nations of its 192 members? What about the violations against the children of Palestine? What does it think of all the resolutions in their favour that were either blatantly ignored by Israel, or casually and carelessly vetoed by the United States? It has pushed the Arab states to extremes with ominous results. While claiming the protection of all human rights, it shamelessly protects some and ignores others. Israel has always been on top of the favored list. Whatever happened to all the promises of the UN Charter (1945)? Following the horrors of WWII, the UN was conceived to protect the sovereignty of all nations and to ensure the rights of all peoples - all - so that such crimes could never recur. What about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) hailed as an extraordinary document -- "a sacred text," "an international Magna Carta," the "lingua franca of global moral thought?" The recognition of the inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family was a solemn promise of justice and peace, and an answer to the prayers of a war-torn world. That was clear, inclusive of all peoples, yet it was in that same year, 1948, that this august body agreed to the establishment of the state of Israel, displacing the Palestinian people, leaving them in a state of sorrow and despair. The breezy winds of hope rapidly gave way to the howling winds of melancholy. Was the UN created only as a result of the holocaust horrors, in order to protect the Jews and establish a Jewish state? Exhibit A - the State of Israel - perhaps the only real success in its 64 year history. How often has Israel failed in its obligation under the UN's resolution, international law and humane principles, and got away with it. What happened to Iraq when it violated UN Security Council resolutions? Even condemnations from member states, finds the US rushing to the rescue to veto and veto again and again, leaving Israel to bully and plunder as it pleases. Yet, so jubilant was the UN with its raison d'etre and all its accomplishments, it decided in 1989 to render the same services to children that it did to their parents. UNICEF's principles, lofty and noble, aim to protect "The Rights of the Child." With 54 articles in the Convention on the rights of the child, they ensure health care, education, social, civil, and legal rights. Benefits have been provided over the years to the hungry, sick, the downtrodden, the persecuted in some parts of the third world, notably their concentrated efforts for the prevention and cure of AIDS. But the exploitation of thousands of children in Asia, India, Africa, and South America in child labor, with low wages and intolerable conditions continues. What about the organ trade, child prostitution, castration -- what is UNICEF doing about them? Powerless against so many injustices and human rights violations, we often wonder what the UN is good for! Western nations still dictate the rules, with or without the UN. This struggle for a new world order, resorts to the re- establishment of the same old world where the mighty rule, and the weak suffer. It is a UN for the elite, and elitism has never gone out of style,. The sorry story of the UN's history is evident in all the wars, conflicts, genocide and crimes that have taken place since its founding. So maybe after all, it is a laughing matter to see the children of Southern Sudan so well protected, while the children of northern Sudan, of Palestine, Kosovo, Iraq, Somalia, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Chile, Rwanda, the Congo, India, China......suffer immeasurably as they watch the UN give itself a pat on the back. Is the UN a hypocritically, discriminatory, corrupt organization with its own likes and dislikes, seething with injustice and inequality? If it is, the world is paying dearly for its existence. The UN's budget exceeds $20 billion a year, which amounts to about $3 for each one of us, each one of the world's inhabitants. Do you think the children of Palestine should be paying towards maintaining the UN? Would you not rather send $3 to a child anywhere? In all fairness, one has to acknowledge the work of UNICEF which is voluntarily funded by member governments and is not part of UN expenditure. However, its services have been in the fields of health, education, and food supplies, can well be rendered by a greater Red Cross or Red Crescent shich. The Saddam oil-for-food scandal, makes it another defunct, corrupt, out of control, big government, for which there is no cure and no escape. It deserves neither oral nor floral tributes which it keeps handing itself. Does the fault really lie with the UN or within us? Could it be that as a race, human or otherwise, we are simply incapable of living together harmoniously. Must brother kill brother in order to survive? Is all this talk of brotherhood, justice, equality and compassion mere wishes, which we are helplessly and hopelessly incapable of achieving! The voice of passion often speaks louder than the voice of humanity. Still, the question remains, do we or do we not need the UN? Is it not one step taken in goodwill for the benefit of mankind? How many more decades do we need in order to take a second step? Do we have any faith in the UN? No! Should we be unhappy we have the UN? No! It is better than nothing -- but not by much! Out of the crooked timber of humanity, No straight thing can ever be made -- Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)
