Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's a really tough time to be the UN

Tell you what, it’s a tough time to be the UN.

I can’t help but feel that the UN’s credibility is increasingly on the line at the moment with how often it’s being ignored.

Take for example what’s just happened overnight: the International Criminal Court – which was set up through the UN and endorsed by the UN's General Assembly – has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

That's ballsy. That's the first time they’ve gone after a world leader who is democratically elected.

Trouble is, it doesn’t sound like at least three significant international powers are necessarily going to respect this.

The US: they won’t arrest Netanyahu, they’re not a member of the ICC.

The UK: they won’t commit publicly to arresting him.

And nor will France. They say it’s legally complex.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tell you what, it feels like. It's a bit of
a tough time to be the UN at the moment,
doesn't it. I mean, I can't help but feel that
the UN's credibility is increasingly on the line with how
often it's actually just being ignored. Right now, take for example,
what's just happened overnight. Right the UN's principal judicial body,
the International Criminal Court, has issued an arrest warrant for
the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo. Now this is ballsy,

(00:22):
It's really ballsy, because this is the first time the
ICC has gone after a world leader who is actually
democratically elected and also one who is backed by a
whole bunch of Western powers. And there's your trouble. What
do the Western powers do? Well? Sounds like a lot
of them are just going to ignore the ICC, or
at least that's a possibility. The US says they're not

(00:42):
going to arrest net and Yahoo. Well, of course, of
course they're not going to arrest net Yaho. There is
bigause backup. But they're also not a member of the ICC.
The UK, they're not committing publicly to arresting net and Yahoo,
and they are a member of the ICC in France. Well,
they won't say either. They just keep saying it's leely complex.
Now that's bloody awkward, isn't it. I mean, if you've

(01:03):
got three Western powers who are three permanent security members
of the UN and they won't say if they're going
to do what the UN's judicial body wants them to do,
doesn't that undermine the ICC and also the parent the UN?
Then what about the other big UN thing that's happening
at the moment. This is Cop twenty nine. I mean,
this is a joke, right, It's an actual bigger joke
than Cop twenty eight last year, and that was a

(01:24):
big enough joke already. The big names haven't turned up
this year, Shijingping, Joe Biden, Nerendramodi. For the second year
in a row, the host country has been busted using
the climate You almost can't make this up. Using the
Climate Conference to strike secret fossil fuel deals on the
side so they can make some money off hurting the climate.

(01:45):
And then it looks like they're going to have to
extend the conference by our day just to try to
stitch together the final deal, because if they don't, this
thing is going to look like a complete flop. And
this is without even mentioning the fact that the incoming
leader of the free world is already preparing, apparently to
all out of the UN's Paris Agreement, which is like
its top climate agreement. So I don't know about you,
but I feel like it's a tough time to be

(02:06):
the UN because we are increasingly, by the looks of things,
starting to tire of its overreach and its ridiculous targets
and just ignoring it. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
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