Has the UN crossed the point of no return? World leaders debate in New York next week

(CNN) –It’s time for UNGA 79!

Quick explanation: The United Nations General Assembly is an annual summit of world leaders that has lasted nearly eight decades since the international organization was founded in San Francisco. It is a venue for long lectures, private sessions between countries, and group meetings on everything from artificial intelligence management to global conflict.

This year, the UN is once again immersed in a debate about its relevance, as they try to stop the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. Its secretary general, Antonio Guterres, wants to remedy this situation.

“Today I have a strong message: a call to Member States to adopt a spirit of compromise,” Guterres said this Wednesday.

It’s a denial he and his predecessors have been repeating for years. The 193 member states of the UN are unable to decide what they are going to order for lunch, much less reach a consensus on how to deal with Israel’s siege of Gaza, one of the main topics at Security Council meetings since the last war. October with terrorist attacks by the militant group Hamas in Israel.

The Security Council, the UN’s most powerful body, has been controlled by just five veto-fighting countries (the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom) and is ‘ increasingly dead.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022 is part of a series of shocking events that have shaken the UN system and are against the principles for which this international organization was created.

However, in the last few years Russia stopped any resolution in favor of Ukraine that it did not like, while the United States stopped the worst resolutions that were sent against Israel. Movements that only contribute to reinforcing the idea that the West is using multilateral institutions to criticize its geopolitical enemies.

The tone of the Security Council has become very harsh, said a UN diplomat. “Change. “I think it’s more difficult,” said the diplomat.

In the public sessions of the Council, the great powers often exchange their views in a vitriolic tone. Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Žbogar, who is also the current president of the Security Council, said that the atmosphere at the Council meetings was “toxic”.

The Council will meet this Friday to discuss the explosion of communication devices in Lebanon. This is a new thing among the hundreds of angry meetings about Gaza, Ukraine and the rest of the conflicts.

However, diplomats are optimistic about the possibility of change. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said this week: “It’s easy to be cynical, to really lose hope and give up on democracy, but we can’t afford that.”

She is leading the US campaign to expand the Security Council with two seats for Africa. However, the new members would not have the crucial veto power that the original five members have exercised since the post-World War II era.

The veto allows permanent members, known as the P5, to veto any resolution, from peacekeeping missions to sanctions, in defense of their national interests and foreign policy decisions.

The council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected for two-year terms, but some believe they are ineffective without veto privileges.

“I criticize the permanent members because they have more responsibility than the (10) elected members,” said the Slovenian Žbogar.

What the UN headquarters in New York will offer next week is a forum for Palestinians, Israelis, Ukrainians, Russians and others to express their views to the world and directly to each other.

President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskydelivering a speech next Wednesday and appearing at a special meeting of the Security Council.

It is also possible that the Prime Minister of Israel will be present, Benjamin Netanyahu – who was an ambassador to the UN-, will speak in front of the General Assembly at the end of next week, which will cause several abandonment of the hall of the assembly.

According to Richard Gowan, the UN director of the International Crisis Group, Netanyahu hates the group and trusts it deeply.”

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmerhis first appearance at the General Assembly after his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, skipped the meeting last year.

And again, the leaders of China and Russia will skip it all, sending high-ranking ministers to speak instead.

The amount of hot air caused by verbiage in UN speeches could make it one of the biggest emissions of greenhouse gases next week.

Climate change will be one of the main topics of discussion, and the General Assembly is expected to hold a meeting on sea level rise this Wednesday. Leaders of the most vulnerable island nations push for more action against global warming.

The war in Sudan will also be discussed, where famine has been announced in a refugee camp near El Fasher, the capital of the Sudanese state in North Darfur. The town has been under siege for months by the Rapid Support Forces (RPF), a rebel group that took up arms against the Sudan Armed Forces (FAS) in April 2023.

Millions of people have been displaced by the conflict and 25.6 million people in the country are suffering from extreme hunger, according to UN agencies.

The presidential race in the United States is also approaching. Many diplomats are already worried about who will speak for the United States next year.

“I think, in many of the private conversations around the General Assembly, the main question is: “what to do [el candidato presidencial republicano Donald] Trump with the gang?” Gowan said.

If the former US president is re-elected, the consequences for the UN will be no less than promised, he said, predicting deep budget cuts. The United States and China are the UN’s largest funders.

If six days of speeches have left you speechless, there is another big summit just before the UNGA.

Don’t feel like you have to keep reading here, but it’s a meeting called the “Future Summit” and, naturally, the countries are still negotiating their final document, called “Contract for the Future,” after months of negotiations.

The agreement, now in its fourth revision, aims to offer a plan on how to deal with pressing issues such as conflict, climate change, security council reform and artificial intelligence management.

The UN Secretary General believes that the final document represents the most important reform in a generation. Another diplomat said “it should make the UN more relevant.” But it is difficult 193 of anything to agree on something; so is the work of the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly.

Think we’ve almost reached the end of an article about the UNGA before traffic delays in New York during the UNGA are mentioned. Be careful with traffic jams.