Stakeholders laud UN at 70, want objectives reviewed

AHEAD of the United Nations (UN) Day, marked yearly on October 24, and its 70th anniversary celebration, stakeholders of the world body under the aegis of United Nations Association of Nigeria (UNAN) have taken stock of its enduring achievements and commended the founders.

According to the stakeholders, the global body has done enormously well since its establishment on October 24, 1945 after the World War II as a replacement for the League of Nations, which failed to prevent the war.

At a lecture organised to commemorate the anniversary, with the theme: “UN At 70, The Story So Far”, which held at the United Nations Information premises, Ikoyi, Lagos, UNAN members agreed that without the UN, there could have been a World War III following the rumpus across the globe.

In his paper presentation, Dr. Olusegun Bolarinwa, a senior research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), while tracing the origin of the UN, noted that it has outlived its establishment objectives – which include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict – and as such there is need for review of these objectives.

According Bolarinwa, prior to the UN’s creation, several international treaty organisations and conferences had been formed to regulate conflicts between nations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, noting that following the catastrophic loss of lives during the World War I, the Paris peace conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between countries.