VOA常速英语: 联合国成立75周年

It was June 1945 in San Francisco California that the UN Charter was signed. Created to prevent a repeat of the atrocities of WW II, the United Nations was designed as a framework to peacefully resolve international disputes. The organization marks its 75th anniversary in a much different world, one gripped by global upheavals, says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. From Covid-19 to climate disruption,from racial injustice to rising inequalities, we are a world in turmoil. At the same time, we have an international community with an enduring vision— embodied in the Charter—to guide us to a better future. Our shared challenge is to rise to this moment.
But several of the UNs major founding powers are moving further away from one of its core principles: multilateralism. These smaller countries are embracing it. We really see this move towards investing UN with even more importance, because these countries collectively acknowledge, that many of the problems of our day cannot be solved except by multilateral diplomacy. Things like climate change,things like global health,as we see too clearly today, can only be solved through international cooperation. The UN Chief acknowledges that today's multilateralism needs to be more robust. The problem is not that multilateralism is not up to the challenges the world faces. The problem is that today's multilateralism lacks scale, ambition and teeth.

Over the years the UN has expanded its work, to include peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. Today the organization feeds 87 million people in 83 countries, vaccinates half the world's children, and has nearly 100,000 peacekeepers deployed in 13 countries. While preventing another world war, the UN has struggled to curb conflicts in nearly every corner of the globe, making the body ineffectual, say critics, "The UN isn't what it was conceived to be in 1945. It's been largely ineffective in its political arms. Many of its humanitarian agencies do very good work, but on the political side it has not functioned as it was expected to. The UN is marking its anniversary during the Covid-19 pandemic, a disease that poses perhaps its single greatest challenge since its founding. But before the virus the UN was already facing a long to-do list. I think the overwhelming challenge for the UN in the next decades, will be coordinating international responses to climate change. Equally challenging, finding ways to balance power among its strongest members, so they will continue to cooperate and not paralyze the organizations work.
China is gaining influence in the UN very rapidly as its economy grows, but that leaves American officials nervous, and it leaves diplomats from other countries worried, that they are losing their positions and their influence in the UN system. The organization which has a multi-billion dollar annual budget, is also facing the worst fiscal crisis in its history. The UN is incredibly cash-strapped right now, and that has real-world consequences, programmatic consequences. It has consequences for peace and security. It has consequences for things like global health as we see today. As the UN looks ahead, it will need the unity and political will of its 193 member states, to successfully tackle the many problems the world faces. Margaret Beshear VOA news New York