Thought for the day: United Nations at 75
Natalie Samarasinghe is Chief of Strategy for the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. She is on leave of absence from her role as Executive Director of the UN Association of the UK.
75 years ago, world leaders created the United Nations.
That moment is often romanticized: a generation battered by war, uniting for peace and progress.
But it was also a hardnosed response by wartime leaders, who recognised that the welfare of their citizens was best secured through co-operation and compromise.
Unprecedented suffering led to this realization. What will it take today? A global health emergency? An existential climate crisis?
75 years ago, the fear of a third world war – a nuclear war – was real. One in three people were subjects, not citizens. Most lacked basic necessities.
Since then, the UN has helped scores of countries transition to independence. It has set international laws on everything from human rights to arms control. It has eradicated smallpox and won 12 Nobel Peace Prizes.
Every day, it feeds, shelters and protects millions of people.
And it does all this on less than what we in the UK spend at Christmas. The World Health Organization is cheaper than any bridge across the Irish Sea.
But we are not celebrating our anniversary. How can we, with so much suffering? Even before the pandemic, one in three of us did not have safe drinking water. Now, poverty and hunger are on the rise.
COVID-19 has exposed the unfairness baked into our world, and made clear that we cannot ignore it any more.
This must be our turning point. We cannot aspire to return to how things were. We must build forward and better.
That will require the same combination of vision and pragmatism that inspired the UN’s creation. Can we do it?
The pandemic has shown that huge changes are possible when there is political will.
The UN stands ready to help, but it is only as effective as governments want it to be – as we want it to be.
2020 won’t be remembered for being the UN’s 75th anniversary. But it could become the year we turned things around, if we stand together and act now.