Resolved: When in conflict, the United Nations should prioritize global poverty reduction over envir

UN: knock knock Myanmar Junta: Whoï¿½€™s there? UN: Itï¿½€™s the United Nations Junta: who? Un: this is the United Nations we need to talk! Junta: Oh Yea ï¿½€" youï¿½€™re the guy who tried to sell us democracy and human rights last year ï¿½€" Iï¿½€™m sorry we donï¿½€™t accept solicitors on a Monday. I stand in Negation of the Resolution Resolved: When in conflict, the United Nations should prioritize global poverty reduction over environmental protection. Definitions: Poverty: a certain level of material deprivation below, which an individual suffers physically, emotionally, and socially Environment: the area in which something exists or lives United Nations ï¿½€" An international organization committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security Contention 1) The United Nations is Corrupt The United Nations as constituted is profoundly corrupt. In a world filled with war-mongering dictators and suppressing regimes who know that the UN lacks any real power, regimes are almost completely free to do whatever they want. It is funded by the lavish UN bureaucracies that are rank with bribery and bid rigging. The UN supported Saddam's regime by allowing oil-for-food money to be channeled away from the people to the government of Iraq. The United Nations is structured in a way that allows non-democratic nations to block advancement of the interests of democratic nations. It does things like elect Libya, "One of the world's worst abusers of human rights" to chair its Human Rights Commission. It cannot even pass a resolution condemning genocide in Darfur or Zimbabwe, let alone do anything about it. The UN is overwhelmingly a podium for authoritarian nations seeking to suppress human rights and keep dictators in power. Contention 2) The UN is a joke The United Nations is unable to take direct and independent actions without support from its members. In other words, the UN is completely powerless and pacifistic. For example the UN has five nations with veto powers. These veto powers give these five nations the ability to disagree with anything that does not help them. This fails for many reasons. One is a true democracy among nations is unbiased and fair. Thus the structure of the Un needs a major overhaul. This too is not likely to happen since the countries with vetoing powers are unlikely to unanimously agree to give up there right to veto for fairness sake. As stated previously the United Nations has proven itself as a failure for its entire history and will continue being useless. Maybe if peaceful countries withdraw their membership and stop participating in the UN as a protest it will force it to adopt new methods and stop dealing with non-peaceful and non-humanitarian nations. Contention 3) Environmental degradation causes poverty and should be the first priority Poverty is increasingly caused by environmental scarcities. Awareness and concern about environmental degradation has grown around the world over the last few decades, and are currently shared by people of different nations. The poor feel the negative impacts of environmental degradation. The poor often rely on natural resources to meet their basic needs through agricultural production and gathering resources essential for household maintenance, such as water, firewood and wild plants for consumption and medicine. Thus the depletion and contamination of water sources directly threaten the livelihoods of those who depend on them. Contention 4) Main purpose of the UN The United Nations provides a place for the countries of the world to do two things. First and most important it allows countries a neutral means of communication. This is important because most conflicts that don't involve fighting over things can be resolved if both sides sit down and talk it out. Second the United Nations is in a basic sense is a world government. That being said the amount of power the UN can exert on a sovereign nation is basically up to that nation, however, the UN is a place where treaties can be agreed upon, such as human rights issues, or pollution control. To avoid country's from going to war . The United Nations (UN) generally works towards world solutions to avoid more serious problems and to work toward the world getting along better. In other words, the UN tries to achieve world peace. Conclusion Thus I negate the resolution on the fact that the UN is a joke, it is corrupt and it is not the United Nations responsibility to fight poverty or environmental crisis. Also I negate the resolution When in conflict, the United Nations should prioritize global poverty reduction over environmental protection because environmental degradation causes poverty.