SVKMS NMIMS

School Of Law, Mumbai

A SYNOPSIS on the Topic

A Critical Epilogue on the Successes And Failures of the UN

In compliance to the partial fulfilment of the marking scheme, for Trimester IX

of 2016-2017, in the subject of Company Law II

Submitted To

Prof. Sourav Saha

for evaluation.

Received by:

On date:

Time: Submitted by:

Vidhi Agarwal (A073)

B.B.A., LL.B (Hons.)

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 SYNOPSIS

TITLE: A Critical Epilogue on the Successes and Failures of the UN.

RESEARCH PROBLEM: The United Nations was set up in 1945 to promote international
cooperation and to achieve peace and security. However, not everything has gone to plan.
Though the UN keeps the world looking pretty by protecting World Heritage Sites it failed to
stop Islamist group in Islamic State blowing up ancient temples at Palmyra, Syria. The United
Nations has also been criticised for the failure of some of its peacekeeping missions. Despite
some of the shortcomings stated above it is clear that UN has done a lot of good in the world.
However some still call it outdated and say that it needs to be reformed. Lets just say the
success rate is well below 100%.

METHODOLOGY: The researcher aims to undertake a doctrinal research thereby relying

upon secondary sources of information on the research topic. The Information is mostly
collected from books, case judgements and relevant online articles to cover and appropriately
answer the research questions taken up by the researcher.

LIMIT OF RESEARCH: Keeping in mind the colossal amount of cases that have happened
around the world since UN came into existence, the researcher will undertake a few of those
case studies and will not be able to map all that has happened across the globe. Therefore
though the paper will essentially include important details for a valid conclusion, it may not
be a perfect report card of the UN.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS: The researcher attempts to answer the following questions by

way of this research paper:

1. Under what circumstances and with what aims was the UN established?
2. Has it stood true to the goal and objective with which it was formed?
3. What are some of the greatest examples of mishaps that UN failed to foresee resulting
in blatant violation of its own aim/object of world peace and security?
4. Can the efforts taken towards vaccinating children of deadly diseases or mitigating the
climate change be considered as feathers to the cap of UN?

LITERATURE REVIEW:

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 1. The United Nations Biggest Wins And Worst Fails 1: The article maps the
journey of UN right from the object with which it was established to the progresses it
made and the missions that did not quite go as per plan. It also deals with cases where
UN did not display best of efforts to curb violence leading to a loss of human lives in
uncountable numbers. The article ends on a note which questions the readers as to
whether we really need UN.
2. Success in peacekeeping:2 This article on UNs website brags about how the
organisation has built up an impressive record of peacekeeping achievements over
more than 60 years of our existence, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It
further lays down the factors required for success of peacekeeping mission and how
peacekeeping is a unique global partnership which brings together the General
Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, troop and police contributors and the
host governments in a combined effort to maintain international peace and security. Its
strength lies in the legitimacy of the UN Charter and in the wide range of contributing
countries that participate and provide precious resources.
3. UN at 70: Five greatest successes and failures: 3 This article written on UNs 70 th
birthday deals with the question how has the UN fared over the last seven decades?
and the answer given is that there will never be definitive answer to the question of
whether it has been a success or a failure. The article however goes on to list a few
successes and failures of the UN. The good side includes Prosecutions of Charles
Taylor and Slobodan Milosevic, Ending famine, Protecting the Galapagos Islands etc.
whereas the other side has some more serious issues like Rwanda genocide, Rape and
child sex abuse in the Congo, Spreading cholera in Haiti and then Iraq oil for food
programme which is considered as the worst financial scandal in the history of UN.

HYPOTHESIS: UN has more to be blamed than to be appreciated for, which suggests that
UN has become outdated and needs reforms.
1 Joel Davidge, The United Nations Biggest Wins And Worst Fails, ww.scenesofreason.com,
(Accessed on 17.03.2017 at 2:30 p.m.), https://www.scenesofreason.com/the-united-nations-
successes-and-failures/

2 Success in peacekeeping, www.un.org, (Accessed on 18.03.2017 at 9:24p.m.),

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/success.shtml

3 Richard Spencer, UN at 70: Five greatest successes and failures, www.telegraph.co.uk, (accessed on
19.03.2017 at 6:30p.m.), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/11700969/UN-at-70-
Five-greatest-successes-and-failures.html

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TENTATIVE CHAPTERIZATION:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Journey of UN in Brief.

Chapter 3: Case Studies

Chapter 4: Conclusion

Chapter 5: Suggestions

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