By Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
When the United Nations was founded in 1945, it carried the hopes of a weary world emerging from the rubble of war. Its Charter began with the soaring declaration, “We the Peoples of the United Nations.” Those words promised that never again would genocide stain the conscience of humanity, never again would the world descend into total war, never again would the weak be abandoned to the cruelty of the strong.
And yet, history has made a mockery of those promises.
In 1994, as Rwanda descended into the abyss, the United Nations abandoned us. Peacekeepers withdrew while machetes reaped their harvest. The world’s most vulnerable cried out, but the institution that had pledged to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war turned its back. For Rwandans, “Never Again” became the cruelest lie of all. Since then, the UN has abandoned Rwanda still, leaving millions across the Great Lakes to suffer under the shadows of violence and impunity.
But Rwanda is not alone. Look at Palestine, where generations have lived and died under siege, occupation, and conflict. Look at the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Myanmar, and Ukraine, where civilians are massacred while the Security Council dithers. The pattern is unmistakable: the United Nations watches as the world burns.
The Secretary-General himself has confessed what we all know: the veto — that anachronistic privilege of five post–World War II powers — is the grave digger of the United Nations. It silences justice, paralyzes peace, and elevates power over principle. With every veto cast in that chamber, another nail is hammered into the coffin of global trust.
What then is left of the UN Charter’s opening words? What meaning do “We the Peoples” carry when the institution cannot prevent genocide, cannot stop wars, cannot resolve old conflicts, cannot protect civilians, cannot halt hunger, cannot reverse climate catastrophe? The gap between word and deed has become a chasm. Into it have fallen the innocent — slaughtered, displaced, starved, forgotten.
The United Nations was meant to galvanize humanity to confront our greatest common challenges. Instead, inequality widens, the planet warms, pandemics rage, democracies falter, and warlords thrive. The Sustainable Development Goals, once heralded as a global blueprint, are now little more than decorative wallpaper at summits where speeches soar but action withers.
So, to the dignitaries gathering in New York for yet another General Assembly: why are you here? To repeat tired phrases? To preserve an illusion? To preside over the slow death of the very institution that was supposed to embody the conscience of humanity?
The truth is stark. The United Nations is becoming irrelevant to the 21st century. Unless it reforms — and especially unless the Security Council itself is torn down and rebuilt — it will die. Its death will not be mourned by the peoples of the world, for it will have already betrayed them.
The choice is now. Reform or die.
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