UN CHARTER – 80th ANNIVERSARY 2025

Eighty years ago, on 24 October 1945, the United Nations Charter officially came into effect. The Charter acknowledges that “it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations” to avoid a repeat of the mass atrocities and genocide horrifically perpetrated during the Second World War. The UN is celebrating this 80th anniversary marking the people’s victory in the global struggle against fascism, which ushered in an era of hope for advances for self determination and human rights with a push to end colonial occupation and domination worldwide.

From an early stage the United Nations came under intense pressure when the big powers formed rival military alliances and blocs to try to bypass its peacemaking vision and principles. Less powerful nations, such as Ireland, persevered and prevailed in the face of this. Examples include our Foreign Affairs Minister, Frank Aiken and his positive role for peace in the UN in the 1950s. His contribution helped the creation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for realising the goal of nuclear disarmament.

Despite this type of success the pressure from the continuing bigger power rivalry played its part in tearing the fabric of the Charter apart. Here in Ireland our government has more and more succumbed to this pressure.  Their intention to do away with the UN element of our Triple Lock shows how open they are for us to participate in one of the overseas adventures of the US dominated NATO, which has been shown to regularly act in breach of the principles of the UN Charter and international law.

Contrary to any logic the Government spokespeople are saying that our Neutrality will not be affected by this . They make statements that ‘we are neutral militarily but we are not politically neutral’. This contradicts the wise adage that ‘war is politics by other means’, and that adhering to the principle of a State being neutral means that we are enemies of none, and that we try to maintain friendly relations to all. If a conflict escalates or arises between other States we should remain neutral in that conflict in that we should not support or join in with any of the aggressive activities of either party, whether they be through financial, economic, cultural or military means.

This has advantages for peace and security. One is that a neutral country is more favourably placed to promote or make a valuable contribution for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Another is that we could  offer and deliver genuine humanitarian aid to citizens / residents of either or all the countries adversely affected in the war. Also adhering to a sincere peace policy of pro-active neutrality enables us better to maintain our credibility when it comes to fulfilling our UN Charter obligations when agreed by the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice for taking appropriate and effective actions  as in the ongoing Israeli occupation and genocide in Palestine