Opinion

Abbey Makoe|Published 3 hours ago

IN A week in which the US vetoed a UN Security Council (UNSC) binding resolution aimed at ordering the immediate ceasefire in Gaza, letting aid into the starving population and releasing the hostages held by Hamas, the relevance of the UN was inadvertently put in the dock.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the UN, summed up the mood after 14 out of the 15 UNSC members saw their endorsement of an immediate end to the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza vetoed by the US.

It was the 6th time the US has vetoed a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire that includes the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza and the release of hostages. The goal posts had been shifted so many times that it has become abundantly clear that the US and Israeli pursuit of Hamas has become a tired excuse to not end the war for ulterior motives that include ethnic cleansing, as the UN found through an independent probe this week.

While the US was once again blocking a UNSC council with the cheering Israel in tow, the world stood powerless amid Israel’s diabolical policy of deliberate starvation and mass displacement as the IDF’s ground invasion and bombardment of the remaining Gaza high-rise buildings were being razed to the ground, and an unknown number of people were trapped under heaps of rubble.

The death toll since October 2023 is said by the under-capacity Palestinian authorities in Gaza to be around 65,000, but other sources put the death toll to date at about 500,000.

For too long, nations of the Global South in particular have been calling for reforms of the UN system. The world body was established after the end of WWII in 1945 at a time when the bulk of nation-states were still colonies of the Western imperial countries, especially the UK, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Germany.

This week’s latest veto by Washington of a morally correct resolution calling for an end to the genocide, release of hostages and tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners-of-war languishing in Israeli jails without charge, failed due to the fault-lines of the UNSC.

Palestine’s Mansour, always unable to conceal his pain and trauma, said afterwards: “When it comes to atrocities and crimes, the use of the veto should simply not be allowed.” He added: “It is deeply regrettable and painful that resolution has been blocked.”

The resolution was sponsored by 10 non-permanent members of the UNSC who felt duty-bound to exercise their privilege in the body to enforce the rule of international law and halt the unabating annihilation of the Palestinian people with shocking impunity.

I paint this picture of hopelessness and despair that emanates from a ruthless unipolar world order, and I want to juxtapose it with the glimmer of hope that emerged out of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), whose meeting was recently held in Tianjin, China.

One can argue that the SCO is simply an antithesis of a unilateral world order in that its expressed objectives are in sync with the founding principles of the UN Charter.

As attempts to reform the UNSC are thwarted at every turn, nations of the global South in particular have turned their focus on what they may achieve together, as a collective of like-minded countries yearning for a just world order based on equality before international law.

As is the case with the growing need for ideological solidarity in China, the world’s second biggest economy after the US, has been at the forefront of a rapidly changing global architecture.

At the Tianjin meeting of the SCO hosted by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and attended by 26 heads of state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, it became crystal clear that the international world is indeed undergoing some reconfiguration of great significance.

Immediately after launching what he coined as the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), President Xi wasted no time laying out his vision of a new world order.

“I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity,” President Xi said in a widely accepted speech that received worldwide media coverage.

His remarks were being made in an atmosphere of geopolitical tension in which the wealthy nations of the Global North, led by the US, have enforced their hegemony across every corner of the universe. They insist, and enforce, their brand of political system referred to as the Rules-Based World.

But the cause of international conflict is the inability and perhaps unwillingness of the Western powers to appreciate that at the heart of the international community is diversity. The world can still be united in diversity, and no single power, no matter how powerful, has the right to enforce its will in the affairs of sovereign states.

Unfortunately, the UN shortcomings have been laid bare through a litany of excesses by the powerful states against their weak counterparts.

The bulk majority of the nation-states of the world want to live in peace and harmony despite their differences in culture, tradition and/or ideological outlook. Organisations such as the CSO, founded in June 2001 and having its HQ in Beijing, China, have grown to serve as a glimmer of hope in an increasingly dark world.

This week’s glaring failures at the UNSC, where the US shielded Israel in the face of an unfolding genocide in Gaza, will give impetus to the rapid rise of SCO in influence, impact and international stature.

The concept of the GGI by President Xi is not accidental. It is the outcome of a well-thought-out plan and strategy for a global architecture that would be acceptable to the majority of the nations of the world, particularly those that feel disenfranchised due to the size of their economies and militaries.

President Xi’s widely embraced GGI would be premised on fundamental principles such as total regard for equality of nations before international law, aligned with the founding principles of the UN Charter. Respect for global consensus cultivated on the basis of multilateralism would also form the core characteristics of President Xi’s proposed GGI.

Founded 24 years ago on “mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilisations, and pursuit of common development”, the SCO has increasingly grown to become a catalyst for the development and reform of the global governance system.

President Xi elaborated: “We have discussed regional affairs together, built platforms and mechanisms together, and benefited from cooperation together. We have also initiated many new global governance concepts and put them into practice.”

True, President Xi is on point. Away from the Western-dominated international bodies, the Global South has been minding its business, working out alternative governance systems that cater for the needs of developing and emerging economies.

The idea of the GGI also comes at a time of growing deficit in global governance. The shifting paradigm in international relations has become irreversible. The former colonies have gained their independence, some through the barrel of a gun. Many lives have been lost, infrastructure destroyed, and scars of fighting for freedom are permanent.

There can be no going back. Events in New York this week, coupled with the reports that the US has denied visas for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation from attending the UN General Assembly in New York next week, will only deepen the distrust in the UN and where it is located. It cannot be that the leaders of the world can only be allowed to attend UN meetings by the US, independent of the UN. This is why the matter of the visa refusal has already triggered debate about relocating the UN HQ to Geneva.

It is thus my conclusion that, amid growing evidence of the hazards of the unipolar world order, the Global South countries will continue to converge and thrash out a common future with shared developmental objectives. It will be a future where there are no small or big countries. It will be a future based on equality before international law and the utmost regard for individual countries’ sovereignty.

These are the hallmarks of the new beginnings. The UN was founded with good and noble intentions. However, the disordered faults of progress have necessitated rapid reconfiguration of the unequal and unjust world order that is premised on the big man syndrome.

* Abbey Makoe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views expressed are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.

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