what was the worst United Nations failure in history and why?

Answer 1

The United Nations had an inconsistent record on human rights in the Helsinki region, suffering the worst failure in its history during 1995 for failure to intervene in the Srebrenica massacre, despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees.

Kosovo in 1999. Iraq...

I think Sudan that is the biggest failure in terms of humanitarian action because it can't stop it's own members in the Security Council (China & Russia) from helping the Sudanese government.

They botch things at every respect. To me the UN seems useless.

Answer 2

To date, the managment or lack thereof of the crisis in Darfur ranks as a failure of the United Nations. Why? IN over four years of supposed dialogue, referendums and weightless motions passed, the killing still goes on rampant, there is no real international involvement in this matter and the news media reduces it to an 15-30 second soundbyte when it comes to foreign policy. And this soundbyte is solely due to persons in the entertainment industry actually going over to the region, galvanizing the everyday citizen to a state of awareness who then look to this international agency for real results and become sadly disappointed. Leaders of nations are not concerned about Darfur because the United Nations fails to make it a primary topic of concern. The same level of genocide that struck Bosnia, strikes Darfur. Still the criss falls on deaf ears and bureaucrats more interested in having diplomatic dinners for photo-ops instead of doing the work the international community looks to the United Nations to handle. At this rate the concerned citizens of the world community would be better served to go in with their own privatetly funded mercenary army and air force and repel the problem themselves rather than continue to wait on the United Nations for real results.

Answer 3

Well, I would have said its creation, but someone said that already. Really, I can't pick just ONE incident. The two ones that really stand out to me are the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda. To date, almost nothing is being done to help the Sudanese victims. All the big guys at the U.N. are all talk and no action.

In 1994, an estmated 800,000 - 1,000,000+ people were killed or displaced during the Rwandan massacre. All these people died in less than three months. The U.N. went in to 'help' and instead pulled out after eleven of their people died. What has more of an impact - eleven lives, or a million? On top of that, the peacekeepers were not allowed to shoot the Interhamwe (the killers). WHAT THE CRAP?! If someone's shooting at me, I'll shoot back! Those stupid-@$$ pansies didn't let their peacekeepers shoot! Well, I've got news here: sometimes, in order to have peace, you must have WAR!!!
...
That is all.

Answer 4

I'm disturbed by the absolute lack of power the United Nations has weilded over the years and how indecisive and timid all their leaders have been. I think their biggest failure was in forming in the beginning without any solid, realistic plan for making any difference in the world.

Answer 5

I think the worst failure in UN history was the "Oil for Food" program at the start of the Iraq war. The program allowed Iraq to sell oil for money for food only. Good idea.... Feed the hungry but limit Iraq's money making ability to wage war. This program failed badly because of proven, high visibilty corruption by the UN people running it. Had this program succeded the Iraq war cold have been prevented.

Answer 6

It's hard to say, couldn't we evaluate thier successes, instead? There were some right? No?

OK, the failure of the partition plan to create sepparate Israeli and Palestinian states in 1947 that was blocked by Arab opposition has possibly had the most far-reaching consequences, since you could lay much of the problems of the middle east on it. Then again, if the Arabs had been the sort who'd've willingly accepted partician, they probably would have accepted even a unified Israel, by now.

Answer 7

For me, it is Somalia and Sudan-Darfur.

People are still dying, starving and homeless.... for a pretty long time. The UN has not been effective in both these areas, all solutions so far have been temporal, not permanent.

Answer 8

making it possible for the UK and USA to invade Iraq because it has devastated a country and lost thousands of military and civilian lives, as well as making our two nations an international laughing stock.

Answer 9

Oil-for-Food

Answer 10

I think this question would be a lot more interesting if I could think of a single success the UN has had.