The UN and its Security Council are becoming irrelevant

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The United Nations and its Security Council are becoming increasingly irrelevant – not because the founding idea has failed, but because its most powerful members have. They routinely violate their own treaties, ignore agreements they helped create, and then insist the rules still bind others. This is the danger: when powerful states act without restraint, they set precedents that weaken the very system meant to hold them accountable.

Reports suggest that China may be planning – or may have already begun – sending weapons to Iran, potentially violating a UN arms embargo. Yet, this raises a deeper contradiction: how can the international community hold China accountable when the United States and Israel have themselves acted in violation of UN principles?

The United States and Israel have carried out military actions against Iran and Lebanon, resulting in civilian deaths and violations of national sovereignty, often without meaningful engagement with, or authorisation from, the United Nations. Russia, through its war in Ukraine, stands in clear violation of international law. Yet Moscow justifies its actions by pointing to what it views as Western hypocrisy, arguing that selective enforcement has replaced universal principles. In this fractured global order, each nation finds its own justification.

Iran claims the right to self-defence under attack. The United States sends weapons to Ukraine in the name of defending sovereignty. China, viewing this precedent, may see itself as doing the same for Iran. This is the dangerous cycle now in motion – one in which every violation becomes justification for the next.

This is not merely instability; it is how world wars begin.

The United Nations was created to prevent global conflict, to resolve disputes through law rather than force. But when its most powerful members operate outside its charter and refuse to hold one another accountable, they do not just weaken the UN – they dismantle it.

The United States must be held accountable. Israel must cease its bombing campaigns in Lebanon. Russia must end its war against Ukraine. These are not optional demands; they are necessary if the UN is to retain any meaning.

Yet the damage may already be done. The precedents set by the United States, Russia, and Israel have opened the door for others. As China considers its own actions, the uncomfortable question arises: is China violating the UN Charter, or merely operating within the broken logic that others have already established?

When rules are applied selectively, they cease to be rules. And when the system meant to preserve peace becomes a tool of power politics, we move not towards stability, but towards chaos.

The UN was created to stop a world war. If this path continues, it may instead become a witness to one.

REV RENALDO C MCKENZIE renaldo.mckenzie@jts.edu.jm