DENMARK

1. Economy (The gap between principle and practice)

- Denmark is a welfare state (a form of government in which the state protects and promotes the
economic and social well-being of the citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity,
equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for citizens unable to avail themselves of the minimal
provisions for a good life.)

- The focus of people is: Solidarity (unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with
a common interest; mutual support within a group.)

- Problem: the state is inconsistent to its name of being a welfare state

 There is a rise of those in poverty and are homeless

o In the documents (laws) – policies are pro-welfare, they are consistent. In Reality,
goals are not reached. Citizens still have different accesses to services according
to the Danish Institute of Human Rights – more policies for equal opportunity is
needed
 There is an illusion of Inconsistency
o Framing of political discourse
- Gov. gradually changes their principles meaning a lot of Danish people
cannot see these radical changes, they only see the shallow level.
- Examples:
 Lowering the benefits of people who are unemployed
 Increasing the retirement age
 Start- Help program- ppl. who have not lived in Denmark for the
past 10 years will receive less social benefits
- PRIORITIZE PEOPLE TO WORK OVER HELPING THE NEEDY
 Problem of people with PRIVATE PENSIONS AND HEALTH INSURANCE
o The responsibility of helping the needy is left solely to the state
- Invest in private plans, Lessen taxes. Taxes that can be used to help the
needy
- The tax department has lost billions in VAT.
 Denmark has countless reasons to rightfully claim its place as one of the most progressive,
successful nations in the world; however, it seems that these successes have produced a
sort of “happiest nation complacency” that threatens to open the country to stagnation
and less admirable conditions. DENMARK NOW PROMOTES INDIVIDUALISM

2. Mental Health

- Denmark invested in Culture Vitamins (having people join concerts, museum adventures, communal singing)

3. Education

- Forcing Students to Graduate ‘On Time’

 It takes an average of 6 years for students to get their bachelor’s degree and masters
 Gov. makes a policy forcing student to make it shorter. Belief: they don’t need that much
time
 Battle between : Quality VS. Efficiency
 Denmark has a high employment rate . But are experiencing an economy driven uregency.
Students need to take their time in school because that’s how they self-actualize. Right to
education. It shouldn’t be the burden of students to solve problems that the gov. should
handle.
4. Danish police have arrested a prominent neo-Nazi activist and an alleged accomplice after 84 Jewish tombstones
were vandalized in the city of Randers.

- Instigated by the Nazi regime, rioters in 1938 attacked the Jewish community in Germany, burning
hundreds of synagogues and vandalising Jewish schools and businesses."Kristallnacht" means "night of broken
glass". At least 91 Jewish people were killed in the persecution, which escalated into the Holocaust during World War
Two.
 Anti-Semitism – prejudice against the jews. In Europe, there is a rise of people who continue to hate on the Jews
bordering ( abuse, murder, vandalism and bullying)
 EU countries made a survey and it said that a lot Jews were scared
 European Union forms an alliance with International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to ensure
continuous remembrance of the Holocaust and to prevent and fight any form of antisemitism, ( It calls all member
states to work together in countering Anti-Semitism.

5. Issue on Green Land

- Denmark and US have a strong relationship. Trump tweeted that he was no longer visiting Denmark because
PM Fredericksen is not interested in selling Green Land ( rich in coal, zinc, copper and iron ore., artic sea route, and a
vital strategical land WW2 – North America to Europe. )
JAPAN
CHINA
1.TikTok

CYBERSPACE
 - Virtual world of computers

- 1. Virtual Societal Warfare

-possible cyber aggression that involves efforts to manipulate or disrupt the information foundations of the
effective functioning of economic and social systems.

 National security will increasingly rely on a resilient information environment and, even more fundamentally, a strong
social topography. These elements likely require classic forms of information security as well as strong mediating
institutions and a population continuously inoculated against the techniques of social manipulation.
 The barrier between public and private endeavors and responsibilities is blurring; national security will rely on the
cooperation of private actors as much as public investments. The technologies and techniques of this form of conflict
are increasingly available to a wide range of actors. Private power in this realm matches and, in some cases,
exceeds public power.
 Conflict will increasingly be waged between and among networks. State actors are likely to develop such networks to
avoid attribution and strengthen their virtual societal warfare capabilities against retaliation. It will be much more
difficult to understand, maintain an accurate portrait of, and hit back against a shadowy global network.

2. Cyberattacks

It has been claimed that Russian security services organized a number of denial of service attacks as a part of
their cyber-warfare against other countries,[5] such as the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia and the 2008 cyberattacks on
Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.[6] One identified young Russian hacker said that he was paid
by Russian state security services to lead hacking attacks on NATO computers. He was studying computer
sciences at the Department of the Defense of Information. His tuition was paid for by the FSB. [7]
Estonia
In April 2007, following a diplomatic row with Russia over a Soviet war memorial, Estonia was targeted by a series of
cyberattacks on financial, media, and government websites which were taken down by an enormous volume of spam
being transmitted by botnets in what is called a distributed denial-of-service attack. Online banking was made
inaccessible, government employees were suddenly unable to communicate via e-mail, and media outlets could not
distribute news. The attacks reportedly came from Russian IP addresses, online instructions were in Russian, and
Estonian officials traced the systems controlling the cyberattacks back to Russia. [8][9] However, some experts held
doubts that the attacks were carried out by the Russian government itself.[10] A year after the attack NATO founded
the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn as a direct consequence of the attacks.[11]
France
In 2015, the Paris-based French broadcasting service TV5Monde was attacked by hackers who used malicious
software to attack and destroy the network's systems and take all twelve of its channels off the air. The attack was
initially claimed by a group calling themselves the "Cyber Caliphate" however a more in-depth investigation by French
authorities revealed the attack on the network had links to APT28, a GRU-affiliated hacker group.[12][13] In May 2017,
on the eve of the French presidential election, more than 20,000 e-mails belonging to the campaign of Emmanuel
Macron were dumped on an anonymous file-sharing website, shortly after the campaign announced they had been
hacked. Word of the leak spread rapidly through the Internet, facilitated by bots and spam accounts. An analysis by
Flashpoint, an American cybersecurity firm, determined with "moderate confidence" that APT28 was the group behind
the hacking and subsequent leak.[14]
Poland
A three-year pro-Russian disinformation campaign on Facebook with an audience of 4.5 million Poles was discovered
in early 2019 by OKO.press and Avaaz. The campaign published fake news and supported three Polish pro-Russian
politicians and their websites: Adam Andruszkiewicz, former leader of the ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist All-Polish
Youth and, as of 2019, Secretary of State in the Polish Ministry of Digitisation; Janusz Korwin-Mikke; and Leszek
Miller, an active member of the Polish United Workers' Party during the communist epoch and a prime minister of
Poland during the post-communist epoch. Facebook responded to the analysis by removing some of the web
pages.[29]
Ukraine
In March 2014, a Russian cyber weapon called Snake or "Ouroboros" was reported to have created havoc on
Ukrainian government systems.[30] The Snake tool kit began spreading into Ukrainian computer systems in 2010. It
performed Computer Network Exploitation (CNE), as well as highly sophisticated Computer Network Attacks
(CNA).[31]
From 2014 to 2016, according to CrowdStrike, the Russian APT Fancy Bear used Android malware to target the
Ukrainian Army's Rocket Forces and Artillery. They distributed an infected version of an Android app whose original
purpose was to control targeting data for the D-30 Howitzer artillery. The app, used by Ukrainian officers, was loaded
with the X-Agent spyware and posted online on military forums. CrowdStrike claims the attack was successful, with
more than 80% of Ukrainian D-30 Howitzers destroyed, the highest percentage loss of any artillery pieces in the army
(a percentage that had never been previously reported and would mean the loss of nearly the entire arsenal of the
biggest artillery piece of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.[32]).[33] According to the Ukrainian army, this number is incorrect
and that losses in artillery weapons "were way below those reported" and that that these losses "have nothing to do
with the stated cause".[34]
The U.S. government concluded after a study that a cyber attack caused a power outage in Ukraine which left more
than 200,000 people temporarily without power. The Russian hacking group Sandworm or the Russian government
were possibly behind the malware attack on the Ukrainian power grid as well as a mining company and a large
railway operator in December 2015.[35][36][37][38][39][40]
2014 Ukrainian presidential election[edit]
United States
In April 2015, CNN reported that "Russian hackers" had "penetrated sensitive parts of the White House" computers in
"recent months." It was said that the FBI, the Secret Service, and other U.S. intelligence agencies categorized the
attacks as "among the most sophisticated attacks ever launched against U.S. government systems."[51]
election".[58][59]
In 2018, the United States Computer Emergency Response Team released an alert warning that the Russian
government was executing "a multi-stage intrusion campaign by Russian government cyber actors targeted small
commercial facilities’ networks where they staged malware, conducted spear phishing, and gained remote access
into energy sector networks." It further noted that "[a]fter obtaining access, the Russian government cyber actors
conducted network reconnaissance, moved laterally, and collected information pertaining to Industrial Control
Systems."[60] The hacks targeted at least a dozen U.S. power plants, in addition to water processing, aviation, and
government facilities.[61]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
- Endemic reality: will always be improved, will always be progressing, will always continue to change the future

- Benefits:

1. A.I. used as an entity that will counter fake news.

- “Fight Hoax” uses tech to counter fake news by using a 7 criteria algorithm which had 89
percent accuracy on early tests. Check for click baits, polarized language (embraces technology)

- “NewsGuard” human resources. They hire journalists to review articles and to check whether
they are legitimate or not.

- “Factmata” combines both human intervention and A.I. They say that human intervention is too
slow and A.I. alone can easily be wrong.

2. Can increase productivity

- Can decrease waiting times for patients. One estimate from McKinsey predicts big data could
save medicine and pharma up to $100B annually. You increase the access of people to
personalized medicine, health tech and other advances.

- Introduction of autonomous transportation. AI can tackle traffic congestion issues (japan)

- AI can help solve crimes through facial recognition.

-Harms:

1. AI causes our workforce to evolve

- 7 million jobs will be replaced by AI but 7.2 million jobs will be also created.

- There is a risk of having our privacy breached.

HUMANS
1. CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

- The development of children are founded upon 3 contexts.

a. Social Context
- Relationship with others. (Peers, parents, adults)
- Relationship with parents affects the entire life. ( traumas, trust)
b. Cultural Context
- Values, customs and way of living that transcends to the child’s entire lifespan
c. Socioeconomic
- A number of economic factors (education, healthcare, resources)
* The three contexts are always interacting with one another.
- Development

a. Nature (inherent, genes) VS. Nurture (how a child is raised)

b.. Moral Development
- ability to tell the difference between moral rules, social norms, and personal choices.
- morality is largely developed through external factors.
c. Psychosocial Development
- importance of relationships in relation to self, others, over all society
- Social and Emotional Development
- Why are children vulnerable?
a. a child is born with a vessel of innocence that is curious about basically anything
b. children can fall prey easily to the shortcoming of their parents.

2. PARENT PSYCHOLOGY
-have a moral obligation to cater to the needs of their children
- INSTINCITVE CHARACTERISTICS
a. protect their young.
b. love their children
- Parenting is a process: series of steps is needed as parenting styles change by time
a. can be influenced by own childhood
b. can be influenced by societal norms
c. can be influenced by religion or other traditions
- There is pressure in assessing what it means to be a good parent and a bad parent.
a. perception of society
b. self interest
- actions of a child is the embodiment of that parent’s parenting

What Is a Green New Deal?

What is a Green New Deal?

A Green New Deal is a big, bold transformation of the economy to tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate
change. It would mobilize vast public resources to help us transition from an economy built on exploitation and fossil
fuels to one driven by dignified work and clean energy.

The status quo economy leaves millions behind. While padding the pockets of corporate polluters and billionaires, it
exposes working class families, communities of color, and others to stagnant wages, toxic pollution, and dead-end
jobs. The climate crisis only magnifies these systemic injustices, as hard-hit communities are hit even harder by
storms, droughts, and flooding. Entrenched inequality, meanwhile, exacerbates the climate crisis by depriving
frontline communities of the resources needed to adapt and cope.

Climate change and inequality are inextricably linked. We cannot tackle one without addressing the other. A Green
New Deal would take on both.

To tackle the climate crisis at the speed that justice and science demand, a Green New Deal would upgrade our
infrastructure, revitalize our energy system, retrofit our buildings, and restore our ecosystems. In so doing, a Green
New Deal would cut climate pollution while creating millions of family-sustaining jobs, expanding access to clean air
and water, raising wages, and building climate resilience. To counteract inequality, those benefits would go first and
foremost to the working class families and communities of color that have endured the brunt of the fossil fuel
economy.

What would a Green New Deal achieve?

 Millions of family-sustaining jobs: Whether replacing lead pipes, weatherizing homes, expanding
railways, or manufacturing wind turbines, millions of workers will lead the transition to a new economy. The
jobs created must be high-road, union jobs: with family-sustaining wages and benefits, safe working
conditions, and training and advancement opportunities.

 Climate sanity: A Green New Deal would help us swiftly transition to a clean energy economy. By investing
in smart grids for renewable energy distribution, encouraging energy-efficient manufacturing, and expanding
low-emissions public transit, a Green New Deal would significantly reduce climate pollution.

 Clean air and water: A Green New Deal would replace lead pipes, clean up hazardous waste sites, and
reduce toxic air and water pollution from oil, gas, and coal. Those benefiting the most would be the
communities of color and low-income families who today endure disproportionate exposure to toxins.

 Lower costs: A Green New Deal would help working class families slash their energy bills and reduce their
transit costs by offering more energy-efficient homes, access to affordable wind and solar power, and more
reliable options for affordable public transportation.

 Community resilience: Communities need greater resources to ensure safety and growth amid rising
climate risks. A Green New Deal would help climate-exposed communities build bridges that can withstand
floods, restore wetlands that buffer hurricanes, and shield coastlines from sea level rise.

 Greater racial and economic equity: The disproportionate benefits of a Green New Deal would go to the
working-class families and communities of color that have endured disproportionate economic and
environmental hazards for decades. A Green New Deal must counteract systemic racism and economic
exploitation by giving hard-hit communities priority access to new job opportunities, cost savings, pollution
cleanup projects, and climate resilience initiatives.

What policies are part of a Green New Deal?

A Green New Deal is not a single law, but a suite of economic policies to deliver better job opportunities, less climate
pollution, cleaner air and water, and more resilient communities. Here are three examples.

 Infrastructure Renewal: We have a major, job-creating opportunity to repair, upgrade, and expand our
country’s neglected roads, bridges, energy grid, and water systems. This is not only a matter of fixing what’s
broken – it’s a chance to build a cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient infrastructure system that
supports workers and frontline communities for coming generations. Specific projects in a Green New Deal
infrastructure overhaul would include: expanding access to light rail and low-emissions public transit,
replacing lead pipes, building a smart grid for increased wind and solar power, replacing stormwater
systems to prevent flooding and toxic runoff, and restoring wetlands and other natural buffers that protect
communities. Each project must fulfill high-road standards:

o Create family-sustaining jobs: Each project should be required to pay workers prevailing wages,
hire locally, offer training opportunities, and sign project labor agreements with unions.
 o Tackle pollution and climate change: Priority should be given to projects that build resilience or
reduce climate and local pollution, and the materials used should be climate-resilient, energy
efficient, and produced via clean manufacturing.

o Level the playing field: Priority should be given to projects that benefit low-income families and
communities of color, with community benefit agreements used to ensure support for community-
defined priorities.

o Help communities, not corporations: This infrastructure transformation should be large in scale,
driven by public funds, and spent on public infrastructure, so that tax dollars support the resilience
of communities, not the profit margins of CEOs.

 Weatherize America: Each time that a homeowner, business, or local government decides to weatherize a
building, it supports jobs, slashes energy bills, and cuts climate pollution. A nationwide Green New Deal plan
to weatherize buildings from coast to coast would create hundreds of thousands of retrofitting jobs, save
families billions of dollars, and move us closer to climate sanity. We could achieve these goals with new
national energy efficiency standards for public and private buildings, with public investments to help energy
utilities implement the standards. The building weatherization projects enabled by this funding should be
required to pay prevailing wages and focus training opportunities in working class communities. New
national standards for more energy-efficient appliances and industrial processes would create even more
high-road jobs in manufacturing and engineering, while further cutting energy costs, toxic emissions, and
climate pollution.

 Buy Clean: Each year the federal government spends billions of our tax dollars to buy goods, from steel for
bridges to paper for offices. As part of a Green New Deal, a new “Buy Clean” law would ensure that these
government purchases help fuel the transition to a clean energy economy and the creation of good jobs for
those who need them most. Buy Clean standards would require, for example, that tax dollars be spent on
goods manufactured with clean and efficient practices that protect our air, water, and climate. These
standards also would require that government contractors pay family-sustaining wages, hire and train local
workers, and locate job opportunities in working class communities and communities of color.

Isn’t a Green New Deal pretty hypothetical?

None of this is hypothetical. It’s already happening. From coast to coast, broad local coalitions are leading the way in
pushing state-level Green New Deal policies that create good jobs, cut climate and local pollution, and counteract
racial and economic inequity. As Donald Trump desperately tries to divide us, unions, environmental groups, and
racial justice organizations are joining forces to chart the path for a Green New Deal. Their local successes offer
momentum, and a model, for a nationwide mobilization under a new administration. Here are just a few examples:

 Weatherization in Illinois: One month after Trump’s election, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition succeeded in
getting the Future Energy Jobs Act signed into law, after two years of organizing and advocacy by unions,
green groups, consumer associations, and environmental justice organizations. Among other things, the law
sets new energy efficiency standards and invests in weatherizing buildings across the state. The gains for
Illinois offer a glimpse of what a nationwide weatherization plan could offer: the creation of over 7,000 new
jobs in the state each year, reduced air and climate pollution, and $4 billion in energy savings for Illinois
families, with priority access for low-income households.

 Buy Clean in California: In 2017, California enacted a landmark Buy Clean law – the handiwork of a
statewide coalition of labor and environmental allies. The law states that when California spends taxpayer
dollars on steel, glass, and insulation for infrastructure projects, the state must prioritize companies that limit
climate pollution throughout their supply chain. Thanks to the law, California will now leverage its spending
to encourage climate-friendly manufacturing and local job creation – a sample of what a much larger,
nationwide Buy Clean law could achieve.

 Infrastructure Renewal in Pittsburgh: The unions, community groups, and environmental organizations
that make up Pittsburgh United's Clean Rivers Campaign have been pushing for job-creating green
infrastructure projects that could drastically reduce flooding in some of Pittsburgh’s vulnerable
neighborhoods. They are one of many local coalitions across the country calling for, and often securing,
public investments in green spaces to absorb rainwater, replacement of lead pipes, more resilient roads, and
other critical infrastructure upgrades. Such fights help lay the groundwork for a national infrastructure
renewal plan to simultaneously boost community resilience and create good jobs.

The Geneva Convention was a series of international diplomatic meeting s that produced a number of
agreements, in particular the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, a group of international laws for the
humane treatment of wounded or captured military personnel, medical personnel and non -military civilians
 during war or armed conflicts. The agreements originated in 1864 and were significantly updated in 1949
after World War II.

Henry Dunant
For much of mankind’s history, the ground rules of warfare were hit or miss, if they existed at all. While
some civilizations showed compassion for the injured, helpless or innocent civilians, others tortured or
slaughtered anyone in sight, no questions asked.

In 1859, Genevan businessman Henry Dunant traveled to Emperor Napoleon III’s headquarters in northern
Italy to seek land rights for a business venture. He got much more than he bargained for, however, when
he found himself a witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, a gory battle in the Second War of
Italian Independence.

The horrific suffering Dunant saw impacted him so greatly he wrote a first-hand account in 1862 called A
Memory of Solferino. But he didn’t just write about what he’d observed, he also proposed a solution: All
nations come together to create trained, volunteer relief groups to treat battlefield wounded and o ffer
humanitarian assistance to those affected by war.

Red Cross
A committee was formed—which included Dunant and an early iteration of the Red Cross—in Geneva to
explore ways to implement Dunant’s ideas.

In October 1863, delegates from 16 countries along with military medical personnel traveled to Geneva to
discuss the terms of a wartime humanitarian agreement. This meeting and its resultant treaty signed by 12
nations became known as the First Geneva Convention.

Despite playing an important role in the progression of what became the International Committee of the
Red Cross, continuing his work as champion for the battle -wounded and prisoners of war and winning the
first Nobel Peace Prize, Dunant lived and died in near poverty.

Geneva Conventions of 1906 and 1929

In 1906, the Swiss government arranged a conference of 35 states to review and update improvements to
the First Geneva Convention.

The amendments extended protections for those wounded or captured in battle as well as volunteer
agencies and medical personnel tasked with treating, transporting and removing the wounded and killed.

It also made the repatriation of captured belligerents a recommendation instead of mandatory. The 1906
Convention replaced the First Geneva Convention of 1864.

After World War I, it was clear the 1906 Convention and The Hague Convention of 1907 didn’t go far
enough. In 1929, updates were made to further the civilized treatment of prisoners of war.

The new updates stated all prisoners must be treated with compassion and live in humane conditions. It
also laid out rules for the daily lives of prisoners and esta blished the International Red Cross as the main
neutral organization responsible for collecting and transmitting data about prisoners of war and the
wounded or killed.

Geneva Conventions of 1949

Germany signed the Convention of 1929, however, that didn’t p revent them from carrying out horrific acts
on and off the battlefield and within their military prison camps and civilian concentration camps
during World War II. As a result, the Geneva Conventions were expanded in 1949 to protect non-
combatant civilians.

According to the American Red Cross, the new articles also added provisions to protect:

 medical personnel, facilities and equipment

 wounded and sick civilians accompanying military forces
 military chaplains
 civilians who take up arms to fight invading forces
Article 9 of the Convention specified the Red Cross has the right to assist the wounded and sick and
provide humanitarian aid. Article 12 stipulated the wounded and sick must not be murdered, tortured,
exterminated or exposed to biological experiments.

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 also laid out rules for protecting wounded, sick or shipwrecked armed
forces at sea or on hospital ships as well as medical workers and civilians accompanying or treating
military personnel. Some highlights of these rules are:

 hospital ships cannot be used for any military purpose nor captured or attacked
 captured religious leaders must be returned immediately
 all sides must attempt to rescue any shipwrecked personnel, even those from another side of the conflict
Male and female prisoners of war received expanded protections in the Convention of 1949 such as:

 they must not be tortured or mistreated

 they’re only required to give their name, rank, birth date and serial number when captured
 they must receive suitable housing and adequate amounts of food
 they must not be discriminated against for any reason
 they have the right to correspond with family and receive ca re packages
 the Red Cross has the right to visit them and examine their living conditions
Articles were also put in place to protect wounded, sick and pregnant civilians as well as mothers and
children. It also stated civilians may not be collectively depo rted or made to work on behalf of an
occupying force without pay. All civilians should receive adequate medical care and be allowed to go about
their daily lives as much as possible.

Geneva Convention Protocols

In 1977, Protocols I and II were added to the Conventions of 1949. Protocol I increased protections for
civilians, military workers and journalists during international armed conflicts. It also banned the use of
“weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering,” or cause “widespread, long -term and
severe damage to the natural environment.”

According to the Red Cross, Protocol II was established because most victims of armed conflicts since the
1949 Convention were victims of vicious civil wars. The Protocol stated all people not taking up arms be
treated humanely and there should never be an order by anyone in command for “no survivors. ”

In addition, children should be well cared for and educated, and the following is prohibited:

 taking hostages
 terrorism
 pillage
 slavery
 group punishment
 humiliating or degrading treatment
In 2005, a Protocol was created to recognize the symbol of the red crystal—in addition to the red cross,
the red crescent and the red shield of David —as universal emblems of identification and protection in
armed conflicts.

Over 190 states follow the Geneva Conventions because of the belief that some battlefield behavior s are
so heinous and damaging, they harm the entire international community. The rules help draw a line —as
much as is possible within the context of wars and armed conflicts —between the humane treatment of
armed forces, medical staff and civilians and unrestrained brutality against them.

UNITED NATIONS
1. Since the second half of the 20th century, there have been countless wars, some of them still ongoing, all under
the watch of the United Nations.
2. The United Nations (UN) was set up in 1945 as an international umbrella organisation with several objectives
primarily including the prevention of war and maintaining peace in disputed areas.
3. However, the UN has failed several times across the world mostly because of the right to veto at the disposal of
five countries.
Here are some of the most damning indictments of the UN’s ineffectiveness:

Israeli occupation (1948-Now)

Ever since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, Palestinians have been fighting against what a UN investigator
once described as Israel’s ethnic cleansing.
At least 15,000 Palestinians were killed and some 750,000 out of a total population of 1.9 million were forced to take
refuge far from their homelands between 1947 and 1949. More than 7,000 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis have died
in the conflict between 2000 and 2014.
Today Israel controls 85 percent of historic Palestine. It also imposes a crippling blockade on Gaza and continues its
construction of illegal settlements on occupied lands in defiance of several UN resolutions calling for an end to those
activities.
The United States has also used its veto power several times to counter UN Security Council resolutions that have
condemned Israel’s use of force against Palestinian civilians.
Kashmir dispute (1948-Now)
The ongoing confrontation in the disputed Kashmir region has become one of the greatest human rights crises in
history, marked by wanton killings, rape, incarceration of leaders and activists, torture and disappearances of
Kashmiris, despite several unimplemented UN resolutions over the issue.
The mountainous region is divided between India and Pakistan, who have both claimed it in full since gaining
independence from British colonists in 1947.
The rebellion by several Muslims groups in India-administered Kashmir, who seek either a merger with Pakistan or
independence, has gained momentum after 1989. At least 68,000 people have been killed by Indian security forces
since then.
Cambodia violence (1975-1979)
After the end of the US-Vietnam War and the Cambodian civil war in 1975, the Khmer Rouge regime took control of
Cambodia turning it into a socialist country, by using the policy of ultra-Maoism.
The regime carried out genocide between 1975-1979, killing some two million people, nearly 25 percent of the
country.
The Vietnamese intervention ended genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime. The United Nations recognised the
Khmer Rouge regime, while ignoring concerns of human rights violations.

Somali civil war (1991-Now)

Since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by the Somali Rebellion in 1991, the decades-long civil war has
raged between rival clans in the country.
The UN peacekeeping mission, UNOSOM, which was set up in December 1992 to facilitate humanitarian aid to
people trapped by civil war and famine, has since failed because of the lack of government to communicate with and
repeated attacks against UN officers.
The failure of the UN peacekeeping mission caused about 500,000 civilian deaths in the country.
Rwandan civil war (1994):
One of the worst ethnic genocides since World War II, the civil war between the Rwandan Armed Forces and the
rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) began in 1990 and lasted until 1994.
In 1994, the then Hutu-dominated regime killed 10 UN peacekeeping officers to prevent international intervention.
In only three months, Hutus brutally murdered about 800,000 Tutsis and raped nearly 250,000 women in Rwanda
while UN troops abandoned the victims or just stayed there as spectators while the horrific and brutal violence raged
on.
Srebrenica Massacre (1995)
In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence after a referendum. Following the declaration of
independence, Bosnian Serbs mobilised their forces into the country with the help of the Serbian government, which
led to the start of the war.
Around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb troops under the command of former General Ratko
Mladic at Srebrenica in July 1995, the worst mass killing on European soil since World War II.
Many of the Muslim victims had fled to the UN-declared safe zone in Srebrenica only to find the outnumbered and
lightly armed Dutch troops there unable to defend them.
Darfur conflict in Sudan (2003-Now)
Rebels in Sudan’s western region of Darfur rose up against the government in February 2003, saying Khartoum
discriminated against non-Arab farmers there.
Some 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then, while 4.4 million people need aid and over 2.5
million have been displaced.
However, four years later, the UN decided to send 26,000 troops for a resolution in Darfur.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir in 2009 and
2010 on charges of war crimes and genocide in his drive to crush the Darfur revolt.

Iraq invasion (2003-2011)

More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the US-led invasion in 2003,
according to research conducted by one of Britain’s leading polling groups.

The intervention and regime change sought by the US left Iraq with civil and economic instability, and vulnerable to
terrorism by Daesh in the coming years.
UN Resolution 1483 attempted to legitimise the invasion that was carried out under the false assertion by the US and
the UK that the Saddam regime was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Syrian civil war (2011-Now):
The Syrian regime launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters who took to the streets in March 2011, with its
leader Bashar al Assad saying he would “relentlessly fight terrorist groups”— referring to the pro-democracy
protesters.
The regime released imprisoned Al Qaeda members, right after the protests turned into an uprising, who later formed
the backbone of leadership in Daesh, which spread to Syria in 2014 from Iraq.
Several foreign countries are involved in several conflict areas across Syria.
In the year that followed, the UN Security Council tried to pass several resolutions to address the conflict, but Russia
utilised its veto power at least a dozen times to protect its ally, Assad.
Syria's conflict alone had, by the end of last year, pushed more than 6.3 million people out of the country, accounting
for nearly one-third of the global refugee population. Another 6.2 million Syrians are internally displaced.

South Sudan (2013-Now)

South Sudan became an independent country in July 2011, separating from Sudan.
The country has been experiencing a civil war between President Salva Kiir, from the Dinka ethnic group, and former
vice president Riek Machar, frin the Nuer ethnic group.
In the civil war, at least 382,000 people have been killed, according to a State Department-funded study.
More than 14,500 UN peacekeeping officers deployed in the country have failed to prevent the humanitarian crisis in
South Sudan. The conflict has forced 2.5 million people to flee the country and left another 1.8 million people
displaced within South Sudan. Nearly five million people are also facing severe food insecurity.
Yemen civil war (2014-Now)
The war in Yemen, which began in 2014, between forces loyal to the internationally-accepted government of
President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi backed by Saudi Arabia and Iranian-backed Houthis has turned more violent
after a Saudi-led international coalition started operations against Houthis in March 2015.
The Saudi-led coalition began its intervention in Yemen in 2015, escalating the war, which left the poorest country in
the Arab world in a state of disaster.
The UN has failed to send humanitarian aid, food and drugs to civilians amid a blockade imposed on the war-torn
country.
Rohingya Crisis, Myanmar (2017-Now)
On August 25, 2017, Myanmar launched a major military crackdown on the Muslim ethnic minority, killing almost
24,000 civilians and forcing 750,000 others, including women and children, to flee to Bangladesh, according to the
Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).
China stood behind Myanmar on the Rohingya crisis by blocking efforts for the Rohingya in the UN Security Council.
The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings and
disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. The UN has described the Rohingya as the “world's most
persecuted people.”