United Nations and Humanitarian Assistance - Essay Sample

Introduction

The United Nations has been hailed and criticized in equal measure. Those who hail it do so focusing on the achievements that the organization has achieved since its creation. On the other hand, those who criticize it focus on the challenges and the shortcomings that the organization has faced. Judging objectively, the UN is too important to be ignored as a result of the assistance it has provided to various nations. However, to make it more effective, there are a few things that need to be considered. This essay will focus on the ways that the United Nations can improve its governance to ensure human rights issues are dealt with more effectively and efficiently.

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One of the major ways of improving the performance of the UN is strengthening its human issues reforms by constituting an organ within itself to specifically address matters on human rights. The issue of human rights has become a key factor with the advancement of democracy (Mac Darrow & Arbour, 2009). Almost every nation on earth is faced by human rights crisis. The UN needs to have an organ that can solve the various human rights issues which arise in various nations. With such an organ, it will be easy to identify areas of need and address the issues as soon as possible.

The other way that the UN can improve its governance is to transform its development and humanitarian assistance architectures. Wood (2012) cited that there exists a lot of duplication of roles in the UN. The UN needs to focus on avoiding duplication among its various entities and enhance partnership between the civil society and the private sector. Engaging civil society will be a great way of ensuring that human rights issues are handled in the right manner (Boockmann & Dreher, 2011). However, the UN should ensure that this is done with the current budget to avoid overspending. Such kind of reorganization by the UN will be aimed at improving coherence, offering humanitarian assistance to address recurrent crises.

To ensure the human rights issues are dealt with effectively and efficiently, the UN can also make some management changes. The organization can make several changes on how it fills its senior ranks. These ranks should be filled through merit-based appointments. The organizations should ensure that positions for senior ranks are advertised and the duties and responsibilities of the job clarified (Thakur, 1994). During this process, the UN should set one senior rank to a person who is qualified to handle human rights issues. When the UN develops such a culture, it will be very easy to handle human rights issues arising in various nations as there will be experts to handle them. Although there exists the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, sometimes such an office is held by people who lack the pre-requisite background in handling human rights issues (Stettinius, 1946). This would make the office more effective.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the UN should focus on transforming its development and humanitarian assistance architectures, and making some management changes among other reforms to ensure that human rights issues are dealt with more effectively and efficiently. Since safeguarding of human rights is one of the basic functions of the UN, all efforts should be made to ensure this role is performed to the best level possible. Although the UN has done a lot to safeguard human rights, there is still more that can be done to improve the current situation.

References

Boockmann, B., & Dreher, A. (2011). Do human rights offenders oppose human rights resolutions in the United Nations? Public Choice, 146(3/4), 443-467. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41483638

Mac Darrow, & Arbour, L. (2009). The Pillar of Glass: Human Rights in the Development Operations of the United Nations. The American Journal of International Law, 103(3), 446-501. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40283652

Stettinius, E. (1946). Human Rights in the United Nations Charter. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 243, 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1025045

Thakur, R. (1994). Human Rights: Amnesty International and the United Nations. Journal of Peace Research, 31(2), 143-160. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/425029

Wood, S. (2012). The Case for Leverage-Based Corporate Human Rights Responsibility. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(1), 63-98. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23223699