The following is a guest post by Carley Lee-Lampshire.
Senate Republicans voted against supporting the international United Nations treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which would update all previous policies to meet the regulations created by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The treaty would affect the estimated 650 million disabled people or about 10 percent of the world’s population.
In response to World War II, the United Nations was created “to employ its full resources, military or economic” in “the struggle for victory over Hitlerism”. It has since grown in size as a peacekeeping body and international forum. As it expands the U.N. may encroach upon U.S. sovereignty. “I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK.
Right wing party members point to other contributing factors which could lead to a United Nations with too much power. Described in the article, The Corrupt, Authoritarian UN, by Dick Morris, each U.N. member has one vote at its disposal no matter what its size. This means that numerous small dictatorships can outvote the large democracies. Although the seven members of the Security Council can veto any resolution, critics see this as an unfair system.
Other complaints focus on the fraud and corruption discovered throughout the U.N.’s programs. One example of this occurred in 2005 when an investigation concluded that the former head of the United Nations’ oil-for-food program in Iraq took kickbacks to help an oil company win contracts. Protesters see little accountability within the U.N. and accuse it of being unproductive and inefficient.
Those in favor of the U.N. point out it has provided relief to millions and has made the world more stable.Supporters go further by saying that relief has come indirectly from groups created by the United Nations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright explains, “If you have ever traveled on an international airline or shipping line, or placed a phone call overseas, or received mail from outside the country, or been thankful for an accurate weather report — then you have been served directly or indirectly by one part or another of the U.N. system.”
Problems notwithstanding, many still think the world needs the United Nations. For those in favor, the answer is not to walk away from the U.N., but to work together to fix what is broken.
On the whole, Americans agree with this aspiration regardless of party lines. National research conducted from April 10 to 15, 2012 by Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates, on behalf of the United Nations Foundation, shows voters overwhelmingly believe it is important the United States maintain an active role within the United Nations. More than eight out of ten voters (83%) say it is important that the United States maintain an active role within the United Nations, with a substantial majority (63%) saying it is “very important” the United States do so. The majorities of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats agree.
As President Dwight D. Eisenhower noted, “With all the defects … the United Nations still represents man’s best organized hope to substitute the conference table for the battlefield.”
What do you think? Should Congress have ratified this Rights of Persons with Disabilities treaty? Should we support the U.N.?
Carley Lee-Lampshire was a featured writer at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she earned two bachelor degrees in journalism and political science. Connect with Carley on LinkedIn to find out more about her and comment on her blog.