Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah has introduced in the US Senate an Act calling for the United States’ complete withdrawal from the United Nations. The proposal is co-sponsored by Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Rick Scott. Congressmen Mike Rogers and Chip Roy are introducing the companion bill in the House of Representatives. In public comments, Senator Lee has bemoaned Americans’ hard-earned dollars being funnelled into “initiatives that fly in the face of our values.” Keeping the door ajar slightly, Lee added: “If we engage with the UN in the future, it will be on our terms, with the full backing of the Senate and an iron-clad escape clause.”

Senator Blackburn herself commented: “The United Nations has betrayed our trust time and time again, and we cannot continue to be their cash cow and undermine our own national security and interests.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has not yet, as far as we have seen, commented on the proposed legislation. In his New Year’s Message on December 30, 2024, he had presciently commented that “there are no guarantees for what lies ahead in 2025”. He added: “Together, we can make 2025 a new beginning”. “Not as a world divided. But as nations united.”

US withdrawal from the UN would certainly run counter to the vision of the UN Secretary-General.

Consider reform before releasing the guillotine

As a democracy, the US is entitled to pursue its national interests, and members of the US legislature are within their rights to propose withdrawal from the UN. We would, however, respectfully suggest that before releasing the guillotine of immediate withdrawal, the legislature, and/or President Trump/Secretary Rubio could first designate a panel on UN reforms that would elicit submissions, conduct hearings, and make recommendations on UN reforms that, if implemented, could pre-empt the need for a US withdrawal.

There are certainly flaws in the UN. The majority of its members are governed by autocracies and this is reflected in the decisions of the UN General Assembly. The Security Council is riven by clashes among its five permanent members. And the UN Human Rights Council has among its members notorious violators of human rights.

Reforms are certainly possible. In the General Assembly, for example, one could examine the need to enlarge consensus in decision-making so that more thoughtful and equitable resolutions and decisions are adopted. Expanding the membership of the Security Council and bringing in the consensus rule in decision-making could reduce friction among the members, especially the permanent members. On membership of the UN Human Rights Council, the General Assembly could designate an Expert Selection Panel that would weigh applicants for membership and make recommendations for decisions by the General Assembly. Positive reforms are thus possible.

A US departure could drag away a quarter of UN funding

 It would be an unfortunate and sad day were the US to leave the world organization. For a start, it would no longer be the ‘United’ Nations. Second, it would lose the practical wisdom of the US. Pragmatism is the hallmark of American philosophy. Third, it would lose almost a quarter of its funding, which the US now pays to the regular budget of the UN, not counting America’s substantial voluntary contributions to humanitarian and other operations, such as peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding operations.

The UN at least merits an effort to reform it before the US considers pulling out of the world body. The US would earn respect and gratitude in the international community for making a good faith effort to reform the world body before pulling out peremptorily.

Eighty years of contributions to peace and mediation  

In the eighty years of its existence the UN has made historic contributions for good in the world. In the area of international peace and security, the efforts of the UN Secretary-General contributed to solving the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is amply documented in a book, Preventive Diplomacy at the United Nations. The UN Preventive Deployment in Macedonia helped prevent war in that part of the world. UN peacemaking and peacekeeping missions have rendered invaluable service in various situations. And UN humanitarian operations coordinate the world community’s efforts to aid people caught up in human and natural disasters.

In the area of development, decades of UN technical assistance have seen tangible benefits in numerous countries. UNICEF has helped countless millions of needy children world-wide. And the UN Sustainable Development Goals, hold up a vision of progress towards better lives for the world’s peoples. Sustainable Development Goal 16 calls for all countries to pursue strategies of peace and justice grounded in equity.

In the area of human rights, the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted under the leadership of Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, remains a beacon of justice for every human being on the planet. The International Covenant on Human Rights, together with the Universal Declaration, are known as the International Bill of Rights, which has a visible American imprint.

On the future of the Earth and its inhabitants, the UN, ever since the Stockholm conference on the human environment of 1972, has sought to coordinate the efforts of the international community to preserve and protect the human environment: the earth and its peoples.

Lessons from the League of Nations

The UN is surely worth saving. America’s non-participation in the League of Nations doomed that body and condemned it to oblivion. America’s withdrawal from the UN could condemn the UN to a similar fate.

Surely, it would be right for America to consider reforms of the world body before pulling out from it precipitously and condemning it to oblivion.

America is certainly powerful. But in dispatching the UN to history, it would certainly face the judgment of history.

Please, President Trump: “Save the UN” and give peace, development, human rights, and human survival a chance.

Dr Bertrand Ramcharan has served many roles at the United Nations. He was a former Chief Speech-Writer for the UN Secretary-General, Director in the UN Political Department; Director of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia; Deputy and then Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the peace process in Georgia. He is the author of Preventive Diplomacy at the UN and Contemporary Preventive Diplomacy.