29 September 2025 | 12:00 CAT
2-minute read

United Nations’ Viability Questioned Amid Global Crises; Calls for New Multilateralism

Eighty years after its founding, the United Nations is facing a crisis of credibility so deep that some observers now ask whether the organisation should continue to exist.

The UN, founded in the aftermath of World War II to preserve peace, has since become ineffective, especially in crises like war in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan.

Qaantiah Hunter highlighted the system’s over-reliance on old power structures and the lack of meaningful reform as evidence that the UN may no longer serve its original purpose.

Speaking on the Debrief Report, journalist Qaanitah Hunter argued that the UN has become an “expensive talk shop” incapable of fulfilling the mission it set for itself after World War II.

Hunter noted that this year’s General Assembly was dominated less by substantive debate than by spectacle, including former U.S. president Donald Trump complaining about a stuck elevator and technical glitches.

“Beyond that sort of drama, there’s something fundamental we have to look at,” she said. “The developed countries who pioneered the formation of the United Nations … have essentially tapped out of it.”

She pointed to the United States’ long record of disregarding international law while clinging to its veto power on the Security Council, a body she described as “deeply flawed.” African and other developing nations, she added, have repeatedly protested the absence of permanent African representation on the Council—an omission she called “deeply absurd.”

Hunter drew on the UN’s own Mandate Implementation Review Report to highlight the organisation’s internal stagnation.

“The UN by itself admits that it has passed something like 40 000 resolutions, most of which are repetitions, most of which go nowhere,” she explained.

Each year, the body produces thousands of reports—“more than two-thirds of those reports barely get more than 2 000 downloads”—and convenes tens of thousands of meetings without measurable impact.

Financial instability further undermines the institution, with major contributors such as the United States threatening to cut funding. Meanwhile, conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo continue unabated.

“If it can’t do it in the DRC, if it can’t do it in Ukraine, why exist?” Hunter asked.

Yet she stressed that multilateral cooperation itself is not obsolete. She pointed to the 33-nation “Hague Group,” which is pursuing accountability for alleged war crimes in Gaza, and to emerging blocs such as BRICS as evidence that “there’s still power in global cooperation.” The challenge, she said, is that the UN framework was “forced on the developing world” and designed for the post-1945 order—a context that no longer exists.

Hunter called for a bold rethink.

“Why not… create a new system with countries who still buy into the vision of a global order for peace and shared humanity?”

Until then, she argued, the UN remains a theatre of diplomacy unable to enforce international law, leaving vulnerable populations—from al-Fasher in Sudan to Gaza—without meaningful protection.

Listen to the Debrief Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.