From the Muslim Student Association’s teach-in protest in response to a campus event called “The American Muslim Identity” to the visit of UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the week of April 2nd offered a valuable perspective of the American identity from a global perspective.
In her April 5th lecture in Page Auditorium, Ambassador Nikki Haley painted a hopeful picture of the United States’s future role in the UN. “The era of leading from behind is over. It is a new day for the U.S.” she said. While the Duke community welcomed Haley’s visit, eagerly filling up the seats of Page Auditorium, we should begin a dialogue that evaluates the UN critically, flaws and all.
In reality, the UN fails respond effectively to all international crises, especially ones that do not draw media attention.
Thousands of miles away from Durham, North Carolina, men like Saliou Ndiaye have set off from their home countries intending to embark on the dangerous journey over the Mediterranean to Europe.
After four years working on a construction site, Ndiaye earned enough money to embark on the grueling two-thousand mile journey from Senegal, through the deserts of Mali and Niger, to the unwelcoming Libyan town of Sabha, where he was held hostage for ransom money by smugglers for five days.
Men like Ndiaye have fallen out of Haley’s field of view, overshadowed by more newsworthy topics such as chemical weapons in Syria.
Slave trade has gone on for years in war-torn Libya, exacerbated by Libya’s failed transitional government and refugee crisis. Approximately 71,000 of people in Libya are enslaved.
African migrants and refugees are sold in open markets as slaves in Libya and are held against their will in inhumane conditions in exchange for ransom money. Conditions are especially inhumane in Libya, as it is a major transit destination for migrants hoping to flee war-torn states for Europe by sea. Migrants pay smugglers to transport them to Europe.
Germany, Italy, Greece, Belgium and Britain have attempted to crack down on the flow of migrants by bolstering the corrupt Libyan coast guard. Championing a policy aimed at curtailing the influx of refugees, the European Union bolsters a corrupt coast guard that struggles with infiltration of people smugglers and mafias.
The UN must take the necessary steps to condemn the European Union for its continued support of a corrupt coast guard. The UN should sanction actors involved in or complicit in the commission of serious human rights abuses against persons in Libya. Such individuals include human traffickers in Europe, the Libyan Coast Guard, and local militias in Libya.
The UN held an emergency meeting in November 2017 in response to videos and reports of slave auctions in Libya. While the members of the UNHCR agree that such grave abuses “can no longer be ignored,” it cannot effectively respond to the crisis due to dramatic funding gaps in sub-Saharan Africa. The UNHCR reduced spending in North Africa by $38.4 million in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016. Although the UNHCR has worked to help 13,000 people get out of detention centers in Libya, an estimated 15,000 people still remain in these centers. The UNHCR must make further investments in North Africa to adequately respond to the issue.
The United States’s budget cuts reflect its growing indifference towards its influential role in the UN. From 2017 to 2018, the United States reduced its contribution to the UNHCR from $1.45 billion to $125 million.
In fact, Ambassador Haley touted these budget cuts in December, arguing that the UN has long taken advantage of the US’s generosity. Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, criticized U.S. draconian measures, arguing that cutting the U.S. aid to the UNHCR will “leave a gaping hole that other big donors would struggle to fill.” Elevated funding to the UN is crucial to ensure that core U.S. interests are aired in the international forum.
Cuts to UN funding have implications beyond Libya’s humanitarian crisis. By losing the support of a significant benefactor, the UN must turn a blind eye to men and women being stripped of their dignity and cast aside the core tenets of its founding. The UN has failed Libya for allowing it to decay into a failed state and ignoring the struggles of its people.
On October 20, 2011, Libyans took to the sandy streets of Sirte, Libya, celebrating the long-awaited death of Muammar Gaddafi. To Libyans, the day signified hope. That day, revolutionaries declared that “The blood of the martyrs [would] not go in vain.” Almost seven years later, the promise of a better tomorrow in Libya has died down.
The U.S. cannot afford to avoid confronting mass human rights crises.
While I have long taken pride in the United State's role as a global watchdog of sorts during human rights crises, I have at times questioned it. How can we, as global citizens, claim our moral high ground, yet turn a blind eye to undeniable human suffering?
The Duke community, like Haley, must take on a role to speak for American values. As Haley accurately framed the everlasting predicament, “When the U.S. fails to lead, we suffer and the world suffers.” More importantly, if we do not feel comfortable voicing our opinions, how can we be sure that others will speak for us?
The visit of Zuhdi Jasser and the resulting teach-in protest of the Muslim Students Association have taught the Duke community the power in information. When we research the speakers coming to our campus, rather than being blinded by their big names and careers, we often uncover their human flaws, their failures to act, or even an ethical discomfort within ourselves. With the upcoming visits of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Rev. William J. Barber II, I urge you all to evaluate these speakers beyond their celebrity-level status.
Ariel Friedman is a Trinity sophomore.
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