…Triumphs and trials on the global stage
By Joan Chioma Obinagwam
On October 24, 1945, as the ashes of World War II still smoldered, 51 nations gathered in San Francisco to sign a document that dared to dream of a world without war. The United Nations Charter wasn’t just ink on paper; it was a defiant roar against the horrors of Hiroshima, Auschwitz, and the trenches of Normandy. “We the Peoples,” it proclaimed, resolved to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and foster peace, dignity, and equality. Eighty years later, on this crisp autumn day in 2025, the UN marked its milestone with global fanfare – exhibitions in New York showcasing stories from 193 member states, a commemorative plenary in the General Assembly Hall, and postage stamps from India to Oman symbolizing unity. Yet, beneath the blue flags and solemn speeches, a gnawing question echoes: Has the UN fulfilled its audacious vision? Or has it become a grand hall of mirrors, reflecting our collective failures more than our triumphs?
Unity plea
The anniversary theme, “Building Our Future Together,” rings with optimism, but it feels like a plea amid the cacophony of crises. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in a poignant reflection shared on X, captured the organization’s enduring spirit: “For 80 years, the @UN has worked to forge peace, tackle poverty & hunger, advance human rights & build a more sustainable world. Now, more than ever, the world must recommit to solving problems no nation can solve alone. On this #UNDay, let’s stand together & act as one.” His words evoke the Charter’s four pillars: maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems, and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. But as fireworks lit up UN Headquarters and leaders like India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar unveiled commemorative stamps, the world outside burned – from Gaza’s rubble to Sudan’s famine, Ukraine’s trenches to climate-ravaged Pacific islands. The UN’s mission was born in hope; at 80, it teeters on the edge of irrelevance, its goals half-realized, its mechanisms paralyzed by politics.
Global victories
To assess the UN’s legacy is to navigate a labyrinth of victories and voids. Let’s start with the wins, those quiet miracles that have stitched humanity’s frayed fabric. Since 1945, the UN has been instrumental in decolonization, shepherding over 80 nations to independence – from Ghana’s Nkrumah in 1957 to Namibia’s freedom in 1990. Its peacekeeping forces, Nobel Peace Prize in hand since 1988, have monitored ceasefires in 70 operations, from Cyprus to Cambodia, saving countless lives and fostering fragile peaces. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 became a global lodestar, inspiring constitutions and courts worldwide. Health triumphs are staggering: The eradication of smallpox in 1980, a UN-led feat, prevented 300 million deaths this century alone. Polio cases plummeted from 350,000 annually in 1988 to mere dozens today, thanks to the World Health Organization’s vaccination drives.
Development gains
On development, the UN’s scorecards gleam brighter still. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 halved extreme poverty, from 1.9 billion to 836 million people by 2015, lifting Asia’s underclass and slashing child mortality by 50%. The successor Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, aim higher – ending hunger, ensuring gender equality, and combating climate change by 2030. By 2025, progress is uneven but undeniable: Renewable energy access doubled to 1.2 billion people, and maternal deaths dropped 38% since 2000. As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed noted during India’s UN Day reception, these gains “put people at the center of development,” echoing the Charter’s call for social progress.
Security stalled
Yet, for every step forward, there’s a chasm of shortfall. Peace and security? The UN’s crown jewel has tarnished. The Security Council, veto-wielded by its five permanent members (P5: US, Russia, China, UK, France), has become a veto chamber, not a decision-making body. Since 1946, 303 vetoes have stalled action – 83 by the US alone on Israel-related resolutions. Ongoing conflicts in Syria (500,000 dead), Yemen (377,000 famine victims), and now Gaza expose the paralysis. The Charter envisioned collective security; instead, we have proxy wars and unilateral strikes. As Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, tweeted amid the anniversary buzz: “80 years ago, the UN was born from a simple yet powerful vision: peace, dignity & human rights for all. These values are still being tested every day – but we must not give up. Let’s stand together to defend our values and build the world we envision. #UNday.” Türk’s plea lands like a gut punch – values tested, but not triumphant.
Rights falter
Human rights, too, flicker amid shadows. The UN’s human rights machinery – treaties like the Genocide Convention (1948) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, ratified by all but one nation) – has codified dignity. Yet enforcement is a farce. In Myanmar, Rohingya genocide unfolds unchecked; in Xinjiang, Uyghur internment camps defy scrutiny. The SDGs? Only 18% of targets are on track for 2030, per the 2025 SDG Report, derailed by COVID-19, inequality, and conflict. Poverty rebounded to 712 million in 2022, and climate goals slip as emissions rise 1.2% yearly. The UN80 Initiative, Guterres’s reform push to prune 8,000 mandates and boost efficiency, admits as much: The organization, bloated with 30+ agencies, often duplicates efforts, its $50 billion budget strained by donor whims.
Digital outcry
No critique cuts deeper than the voices from the digital trenches, where anniversary joy clashes with raw anguish. On X, as global leaders toasted in Beijing and Dresden, ordinary citizens aired the UN’s underbelly. Ali T (@Turn3685), a steadfast advocate for Palestine, fired a salvo at Guterres: “Mr Guterres – The delay in invoking the Uniting for Peace resolution and calling an Emergency Special Session (ESS) is not due to legal barriers, it’s purely political. And it’s deeply unfair. Who is holding it back? United States? Western friends of Israel? Didn’t Columbia trigger the process in Sept 2025? Haven’t a majority of member states requested an ESS. I heard 112 countries have submitted letters which amount to formal procedural requests, and yet no procedural request has been officially registered to date. Why is this? Blocking an ESS must be undermining the spirit of the UN Charter and the ICJs ruling which reaffirmed the humanitarian obligations of member states. The public have a right to know what is going on. Please respond. How can people get behind the United Nations for the next 80 yrs If you cannot act together now.” Ali’s thread, echoing 112 nations’ pleas since Colombia’s September 2025 push, spotlights Gaza’s agony: 41,000 dead, famine weaponized, UNRWA barred despite ICJ orders for aid access. The Uniting for Peace resolution (1950), a Charter workaround for Security Council gridlock, could convene the General Assembly for action – perhaps even peacekeeping troops. Yet, political inertia reigns, veto shadows looming.
Global grievances
Ali’s cry rippled, igniting a chorus of despair. Nat (@natdee07) piled on: “FREE MAZI NNAMDI KANU. Nigeria government kidnapped him from Kenya and kept him in solitary confinement for years without any crime known to law. UN working group has ordered his release 3yrs ago, Nigerian Court discharged and acquitted him, yet held. Is Nigeria stronger than @UN?” Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, languishes despite UN Human Rights Working Group rulings – a stark reminder that recommendations bind like whispers in a storm. Corroborating from afar, Gabriela Ondir (@gabbyondir) lamented: “Please pay attention to what is happening in Korea — religious persecution. They are mistreating an elderly woman who has always fought for peace alongside the United Nations. Can you help?” These aren’t abstract gripes; they’re indictments. In a world of 8 billion, the UN’s human rights council fields 150,000 complaints yearly, yet resolutions falter on sovereignty shields.
Defunding threats
The backlash crescendoed with calls to defund the UN, a toxic brew from isolationists and the aggrieved alike. In the US, where Republicans poll low on UN support (29% see it as vital, per Chicago Council 2025 survey), figures like Trump-era holdovers decry it as a “globalist scam.” X threads amplify this: “Why fund a body that can’t stop Hamas?” versus “Defund the enablers of Israeli apartheid.” Guterres’s reform bid – consolidating mandates, digitizing with AI, tying budgets to results – aims to counter this. But as Brookings notes, without P5 buy-in, it’s tinkering at the edges. The EU and OACPS’s joint statement on anniversary day vowed recommitment to the Charter, stressing “peaceful solutions and preventive diplomacy” – noble, but non-binding.
Partial triumphs
So, has the UN achieved its mission? Partially, gloriously in patches – smallpox slain, colonies crumbled, billions lifted from destitution. Its vision of a cooperative world endures in SDGs and peace accords, a testament to multilateralism’s muscle. Yet, the goals? Faltering. Peace elusive in 50+ conflicts; rights trampled in shadows; sustainability slipping as COP29 looms with tepid pledges. The Charter’s peoples – we – are poorer for it. Gaza’s blockade, Kanu’s chains, Korea’s silenced elder: These aren’t footnotes; they’re failures that erode trust.
Future stakes
At 80, the UN stands at a precipice, not a pinnacle. Guterres’s call to “act as one” is imperative, but action demands teeth – Security Council expansion, veto curbs, binding enforcement. As Türk urges, we cannot give up. Imagine: An invoked Uniting for Peace shielding Gaza, UNRWA unhindered, Kanu freed, persecuted voices amplified. The next 80 years hinge on reclaiming the Charter’s fire, not just its words. For in unity’s forge, we build not just futures, but survival. Will we stand together? Or let the dream, like so many before, fade into history’s indifferent dusk?
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