Blue Planet United knows that educating and empowering young adults is vital to sustainable development. Starting in 2022, we joined the United Nations Association of Pomona Valley, CA, in sponsoring an annual High School essay contest centered on the work of the U.N. toward sustainability, climate action and human rights. Blue Planet provided speakers for classes, expertise in selecting the question, reading the essays, and providing 5 monetary prizes.

In 2024 we celebrated the accomplishments of five talented high school history students. These students were among a group presented with a challenging essay question that asked them to analyze the United Nation’s non-peacekeeping agencies and discuss whether they contributed to a more peaceful world. These winners tackled the topic with vigor and their teacher, Rita Torres, commented that the contest “…motivated them in ways you cannot even believe.”

In this time of great turmoil, it is refreshing to participate in something so positive that raises global awareness and highlights the importance of continuing to seek peace instead of conflict. Blue Planet United is pleased to present the winning work for the 2024 essay contest.

The 2024 1st Prize Essay by Iker Saavedra, 11th grade student at Garey High School in Pomona, CA

IMPROVEMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO PROMOTE PEACE

Formed on October 24, 1945, in San Francisco, California, the United Nations hopes to maintain peace and security, protect human rights, deliver humanitarian aid, and support sustainable development and climate action throughout the world. Although not directly involved in peacekeeping efforts, the human rights work that the U.N. does still contributes to a peaceful world by setting guidelines for anti-trafficking efforts, monitoring the rights of people during war, and reporting the oppression of freedom of speech.

First and foremost, human trafficking has been a grave problem throughout centuries and is an example of a violation of basic human rights. Being stripped from your freedom and being used for labor or sexual reasons is unfortunately something people run from their whole lives when they get forced into. The U.N has recognized the fear and the problem human trafficking has caused and is currently working on preventing all forms of trafficking. The U.N. has generated principles and guidelines that hope to help those involved in anti-trafficking efforts. When trafficked, victims are at times let go due to outgrowing the wanted age of the traffickers. Therefore the victims are released into the world with low self-esteem and other complications caused by their trauma which can lead to violence. Installing these guidelines are preventing the development of future violence and the overall violence that comes with trafficking itself.

Moreover, the U.N.’s involvement in the prolonged conflict of Palestine and Israel is an example of the organization addressing human rights. The Gaza war has been occurring for a long period and is an example of a modern day genocide and violation of basic human rights. Many children and adults are murdered simply because of land and their identity. The conflict has unfortunately gained a recent upbringing in violence however, the U.N is intervening. A BBC article states that the U.N “permanently devotes an entire section - Item 7- to scrutiny of the situation in ‘Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” Essentially this means that the U.N is examining the conflict in order to assure that human rights are being protected. It can be concluded that the U.N. made a mistake in not intervening and protecting rights earlier which could have slowed down or even entirely prevented the continuous fighting. Overall, human rights should be protected and taken care of since it is evident violence has come when rights are ignored.

The U.N is also tackling human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. The country of Saudi Arabia has been notorious for countless amounts of violations such as the oppression of women and religion, the ban on protests, and even routine torture in custody. The U.N. has recognized the horrific acts and is sending Saudi Arabia under its 4th Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR essentially acts as a review of the human rights record of each nation but Saudi Arabia has failed to implement the recommendations given to them in the past reviews. Fortunately, change is occurring as the article states “135 U.N members are calling for reform in Saudi Arabia” and are pushing towards a more strict UPR for the nation this time around. After the UPR came back, Amnesty International, a human rights group with more than ten million members, stated that there are concerns “about the escalating crackdown on freedom of expression and the increased use of counterterrorism and cybercrime laws to silence dissent.” The quote explains the Saudi government’s intent on silencing the citizens who go against the government’s restrictive policies, in this case, policies against women. This is an example of right violations since everyone is entitled to their own opinion and freedom of speech which the government is not allowing. With so much disagreement going on between the government and its citizens and nothing being done about it, it's concerning since civil wars can arise from this problem. Most revolutions in history have begun because of the lack of political representation, so what’s to say that it's not possible in Saudi Arabia during its current situation. For the most part, history has shown that shunning out citizen voices and even completely taking away their freedom of speech has led to conflicts and war, so all human rights no matter the category should be protected to ensure no conflicts begin.

Through anti-trafficking efforts, the monitoring of the rights of people during war, and reporting the oppression of freedom of speech, the human rights work of the United Nations still maintains peace throughout the world. Nations should continue to fund the U.N. because the organization has proven to maintain a safe world regardless of their areas of focus. The work of the U.N is fascinating and is evidently preventing major conflicts by getting to them before they form into larger problems. Although not always successful, the U.N has created a more peaceful world than before and it is safe to say that it will keep proving to do so in the future.

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