Recently, I watched the movie Shake Hands with the Devil.

Shake Hands with the Devil is a 2007 Canadian war drama film starring Roy Dupuis as Roméo Dallaire, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in August 2007. Based on Dallaire’s autobiographical book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, the film recounts Dallaire’s harrowing personal journey during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and how the United Nations didn’t heed Dallaire’s urgent pleas for further assistance to halt the massacre. <Source: Shake Hands with the Devil (2007 film) – Wikipedia>

The movie prompted me to ask the question: “Why isn’t the United Nations interceding in the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas war?” It seems like a reasonable question. So why aren’t the news media asking the United Nations for a response?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the UN Security Council the same question. “You need to act immediately,” Zelensky implored the UN during a live-streamed address on April 6 to its members. He begged them to do something to stop the war in his country, criticizing the Security Council’s inaction directly. And he called out the elephant in the room: Russia, one of the five permanent members of the Council, whose status gives it the ability to veto any action it disagrees with.“We are dealing with a state that turns the right of veto in the UN Security Council into a right to die,” Zelensky said.

“It was a blunt message urging the Council to reform, and if that won’t work,” he said, “the next option would be to dissolve yourself altogether. And I know you can admit that if there is nothing you can do besides conversation.” <Source: Why isn’t the United Nations doing more to stop what’s happening in Ukraine? | CNN Politics>

What about the Israel-Hamas war that is claiming the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians?

The U.N. Security Council failed to address the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, rejecting rival United States and Russian resolutions.

The council is the U.N.’s most powerful body, charged with maintaining international peace and security, but its divisions have left it impotent and scrambling to try to find a resolution with acceptable language.

The resolution drafted by the United States, Israel’s closest ally, would have reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defense, urged respect for international laws — especially protection of civilians — and called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza.

In Wednesday’s vote in the 15-member council, 10 countries voted in favor, Russia, China, and the United Arab Emirates voted against, and Brazil and Mozambique abstained. The resolution was not adopted because permanent council members Russia and China cast vetoes.

The Russian resolution, which was then put to a vote, would have called for an immediate “humanitarian cease-fire” and unequivocally condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza. <Source: UN Security Council Fails Again to Address Israel-Hamas War, Rejecting US and Russian Resolutions (usnews.com)>

If the United Nations cannot act to stop the killing of innocents, what exactly is their “peacekeeping” role?