There was a time when the decline of the United Nations was debated in academic seminars and diplomatic circles. Today, that debate has largely ended. The world has seen enough. The institution that was created to prevent war, protect civilians and uphold international law has been reduced to a stage where statements are delivered, resolutions are passed, and atrocities continue regardless.
Pakistan and China’s informal meeting of the UN Security Council on the implementation of resolutions is important in principle. It rightly highlights the fact that UNSC resolutions are not symbolic gestures but legal obligations under the UN Charter. It also draws attention to the selective and prolonged non-implementation of decisions on Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, where generations have suffered while the international system has hidden behind procedure, vetoes and diplomatic language.
Yet this is precisely the tragedy. The UN no longer lacks words, reports, committees or specialised bodies. It lacks consequence. It failed to stop a genocide. It failed to protect the very humanitarian structures meant to deliver food, shelter, water and medicine. It failed to uphold the sanctity of its own peacekeepers, whose blue helmets were once presented as symbols of hope. It failed to restrain the reckless militarisation of the Middle East, the threats around Hormuz, and the wider collapse of international legal restraint.
What more remains to be said? The UN still carries the prestige of history, which is why its meetings attract attention and why states continue to speak through it. But as a functional organisation capable of enforcing justice, preventing war or protecting the weak, it is finished.
Pakistan perhaps continues to treat the UN seriously because it still holds on to the promises embedded in its resolutions: a two-state solution in Palestine, a free and fair plebiscite in Kashmir, and the sanctity of international agreements such as the Indus Waters Treaty.
But faith in a broken institution can become its own trap. Hope, in the end, is what kills you.
