Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's a really tough time to be the UN

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Tell you what, it’s a tough time to be the UN.

I can’t help but feel that the UN’s credibility is increasingly on the line at the moment with how often it’s being ignored.

Take for example what’s just happened overnight: the International Criminal Court – which was set up through the UN and endorsed by the UN's General Assembly – has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

That's ballsy. That's the first time they’ve gone after a world leader who is democratically elected.

Trouble is, it doesn’t sound like at least three significant international powers are necessarily going to respect this.

The US: they won’t arrest Netanyahu, they’re not a member of the ICC.

The UK: they won’t commit publicly to arresting him.

And nor will France. They say it’s legally complex.

That's awkward, isn’t it? If three permanent security members won’t say they'll arrest him, doesn't that undermine the ICC and its parent the UN?

Then what about the other big UN event at the moment: COP29?

That is a bigger joke than COP28 last year which was already a joke.

The big names haven’t turned up: Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, Narendra Modi.

For the second year in a row, the host nation has been busted using the climate conference to strike secret fossil fuel deals on the side.

And it looks like they’re going to have to extend the conference by maybe a day to try to stitch together a final deal and stop this becoming a complete flop.

And that’s without even mentioning the fact that the incoming leader of the free world is preparing to pull out of the UN’s Paris Agreement.

So, tough time to be the UN because we are increasingly, by the looks of things, starting to tire of its overreach and ridiculous targets.

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