“The UN: Broken, Battered, but Still Our Last Refuge”

“The UN: Broken, Battered, but Still Our Last Refuge”
…the solution for global stability

AM 8th Sept 26

“The UN is flawed, satirical in its impotence, ironic in its grandeur — but it is still the only cathedral where nations kneel together in seeking peace, love, and stability.” AM
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With just a few days remaining before the UN heads of states summit sits in the Big Apple, New York, New York.

I had a dejavu moment.
The “UN is not the best at work right now, but it’s all we got until we get something better,” according to experts across the divide.

The United Nations was born in 1945 from the ashes of Nazi barbarism, a phoenix rising from the rubble of World War II.
Its charter promised “never again” — never another Holocaust, never another Bosnia, never another Rwanda.

Yet history mocks us: Bosnia’s Srebrenica massacre, Rwanda’s machete apocalypse, Congo’s endless bleeding, Sudan’s civil wars.

The UN, like the church, often hovers like a fly on the wall of war, powerless to stop the slaughter, yet still the last resort when the blood dries.

Fast forward: Ukraine versus Russia, Israel versus Palestine. The ICC now dares to sanction Israeli leadership, issuing travel bans and war criminal indictments.

South Africa drags Israel to court, invoking international law. The irony drips: the hunter is finally summoned before the judge. Yet the hunted still wait for justice.

The UN’s toolbox is vast, IMF loans, World Bank development projects, IFC investments, debt restricting, sanctions regimes. Can we do without them (UN), ask Dr Kenneth Kaunda as irony and reality drips.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they fail. Sanctions on apartheid South Africa helped humble a regime; sanctions on Iraq starved children but left Saddam Hussein defiant. The paradox is eternal: just because the car will not start does not mean we wreck it.

Often, it is just a plug problem, or a dead battery. Save the car. Save the UN says lovers of peace.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs warns: “The UN may not work as intended, but it is all we have for now.”

Professor John Mearsheimer adds that without a neutral referee, civilisation collapses into Hobbesian chaos.

Another scholar, Francis Fukuyama, reminds us that institutions, however flawed, are the scaffolding of peace. And Amartya Sen insists that global justice requires imperfect but functioning forums.

The successes are undeniable: decolonisation, peacekeeping in Namibia, famine relief in Ethiopia, vaccines through UNICEF, climate accords in Paris.

The failures are equally glaring: Rwanda’s million dead, Bosnia’s 8,000 corpses, Gaza’s rubble, Ukraine’s trenches. The UN works and fails, but nations cling to it like a drowning man clings to driftwood.

The Bible says in Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” The Spanish proverb whispers: “La paz vale más que mil victorias” — peace is worth more than a thousand victories.

Without the UN, civilisation is gone. Imagine a world without referees: Ukraine swallowed whole, Palestine erased, Taiwan devoured, Africa left to warlords, West Africa, Congo Somalia glitters.

The dystopia would be diabolical, existential, a paradox of progress undone.

So let us not wreck the car. Let us fix the plug, recharge the battery, and drive civilisation forward. Africa, like every member continent, must keep the faith.

The UN is flawed, satirical in its impotence, ironic in its grandeur — but it is still the only cathedral where nations kneel together in seeking peace, love, and stability.

Welcome to the United Nations heads of States summit

The UNGA runs from September 22 to 28, 2026. During this time, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Monarchs from around the world will address the assembly.

📍 Location

The meetings are held at the official United Nations Headquarters:
Address: 405 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 (specifically inside the General Assembly Hall).

In Zambia all we do is pray for peace, love and unity. One Zambia one nation after the fractious contested 13th August poll, the fight in the dog is love. We just crave love the continent knows us for.
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Amb. Anthony Mukwita is a published Author & International Relations Analyst.