United Nations Influence on Global Policies, Essay Example

Introduction

The main purpose of creating the United Nations back after the Second World War was to represent different countries’ interest and negotiate international agreements. Today, however, instead of being restricted to keeping peace, the organization is also committed to negotiate international agreements that positively impact disadvantaged countries. In the light of the globalization, however, it seems that the organization is not effective enough to stand up against the capitalist countries’ practices that are exploiting the natural and human resources of developing countries.

If I had the power to influence the leadership of the United Nations, I would urge them to consider a more extensive protection protocol for protecting developing countries’ national interest. I truly believe that many companies in the capitalist world are taking advantage of the lack of legislation, regulation, and government funding in Third World countries, and this has a negative impact on not only the inhabitants of the developing countries, but also the living environment.

Further, I would encourage the leadership of the UN to provide advice and support for countries, such as India and Thailand to create national policies that prevent pollution, exploitation of the national resources. Similarly, the organization should make a clear stand about human rights issues and dangerous practices in countries, such as China.

Standing Up Against Global Warming

Enforcing the recommendations of the Global Impact initiative and setting targets for all companies is the only way to stop or slow down global warming (Hoessle, 2014). As China has not attended Global Warming summits for a long time, and refuses to commit to carbon footprint reduction, it is important that the United Nations works alongside with trade organizations to create sanctions for such behavior. The UN Climate summit in New York, this month has showed that other developing countries, such as India have made an effort to collaborate with the organization, while China refused to attend.

Enforcing the  UN Convention on Transnational Crime (UNTOC) and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption 

Transnational Crime

I would urge the UN leadership to introduce more sanctions against countries and companies engaging in legal, but unethical exploitation of humans, natural resources, and introduce sanctions against companies that engage in such activities. It seems that the United nations is currently leaving the regulation of transnational companies to governments, even though their actions can have a catastrophic consequence to the living environment, the population of the Earth, and the development of individual countries (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1994). Companies all over the world are allowed to exploit human and natural resources. Just a few examples are: Grupo Mexico endangering workers in copper mines of North Mexico, the French oil company, Total ISA using slave labor to build pipelines in Myanmar. If the UN supported the government of Myanmar to develop regulations and enforce human rights, the company could not have exploited workers. While there are some international protocols in place, and countries are taken to court to pay for the damage, nothing seems to be done to enforce international and national level regulation of domestic and foreign companies.

Enforcing the Human Rights Charter and the UN-REDD Program’s Initiatives

While the United Nations’ Earth Summit and Climate Change Summit are designed to create protocols, it seems that nothing is done. Countries are allowed to simply not sign international agreements, claiming self-regulation is the answer. However, without effective collaboration, restrictive policies and measures, exploitation of workers, deforestation, and water pollution will continue, affecting every human on the Earth. While the UN has pledged to fight for “human rights and workers’ rights to end labour exploitation”(UN-Redd, 2010, p. 43) several times, and created environmental protocols for the protection of the natural environment, the organization still focuses on recommendations, instead of setting clear obligations.

Conclusion

The United Nations should increase its power and influence on countries to actively participate in initiatives and adapt frameworks, regulations, and legislation supporting the above initiatives. The enforcement of  UN Convention on Transnational Crime (UNTOC) in countries where corruption is a great issue, and governments allow companies to exploit workers and the environment is extremely crucial to protect the more than 7 billion people on Earth.

References

Hoessle, Ulrike (2014) The Contribution of the UN Global Compact towards the Compliance of International Regimes: A Comparative Study of Businesses from the USA,  Mozambique, United Arab Emirates and Germany. In: Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Volume  2014, Number 53, March 2014, pp. 27-60(34)

UNN-REDD+ (2010) The UN-REDD programme strategy 2011-2015. Retrieved from http://www.unep.org/forests/Portals/142/docs/UN-REDD%20Programme%20Strategy.pdf

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (1994) Environmental degradation and social integration. Retrieved from http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/52B8B9CA2197847380256B65004C9CC9/$file/bp3.pdf