EDITORIAL: Russia and China hijack U.N.

OPINION:

The United Nations’ ability to protect international human rights is consistently undermined by Russia and China. This has been painfully apparent throughout 2007-08, especially when it comes to humanitarian crises in Africa. Among the most notorious examples have been the U.N.’s inability to stop the Darfur genocide or to halt Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s brutal persecution of political opponents. In a recent report by the European Council on Foreign Relations titled “A Global Force for Human Rights? An Audit of European Power at the U.N.,” authors Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner chronicle the declining influence of the West within the international assembly.

In the 1990s, the EU could count on support for its human-rights policies in the U.N. General Assembly 72 percent of the time; in the last two years, they have 48 percent and 55 percent support. The decline of EU influence has a direct impact on America: More than half of the time, the United States takes the same position as the EU. In the 1990s, America garnered support 77 percent of the time; by 2007-2008 this dropped to 30 percent. By contrast, Russia and China had less than 50 percent support in the 1990s and have vastly augmented their influence to 74 percent. Approximately 19 states - including Russia, China, Pakistan and Egypt - consist of an “Axis of Sovereignty” that block Western initiatives. This is all the more troubling when one considers that the EU holds four or five seats on the Security Council at any given time and is the U.N.’s biggest aid donor.

One of the major problems is that Western powers are losing ground with a host of other countries. Hence, the report recommends a coalition-building policy with African, Latin American and moderate Islamic nations. These states need to be given political and financial incentives in order to vote alongside Western nations. The authors also call for more transparency so that those nations who thwart human-rights initiatives are placed in the media spotlight. Also, the report recommends that a humanitarian policy should not be watered down merely for fear that Russia and China will exercise their veto power: Instead, the West should call their bluff and let them bear the international backlash for vetoing human-rights initiatives.

These recommendations, while useful, mask the real problem: Western nations have lost their moral authority and are increasingly viewed as declining powers. It is no wonder that other countries gravitate toward the rising sun. In order for the West to have more influence at the U.N., Europe and the United States must be valued as world leaders - they must be perceived as truly exemplary and truly fearsome. Western lack of confidence in itself is now manifest in a fundamental international loss of prestige. This is likely to continue until there is internal reform.