The international legal framework underpinning the United Nations has been under attack since the turn of the millennium. While United States President Trump is destroying what’s left of it, he has had many accomplices in its gradual yet tangible decline in the last 25 years.
The prohibition against aggression was decimated when, without a credible claim of self-defense, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in 2003; Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and in 2022; the US and Israel attacked Iran in 2025; and, most recently, the US invaded Venezuela in 2026.
The prohibition against genocide was and is being violated with impunity in Myanmar, Palestine and Sudan — with China, the US, the United Arab Emirates and others openly aiding and abetting the genocides.
The prohibition against torture was breached by the US in Bagram and Abu Ghraib and still in Guantánamo Bay; by Russia and Syria in Siberian and Syrian prison cells; by Israel in Sde Teiman and other detention centers; and by countless other states.
Even the prohibition against apartheid and racial segregation is flouted by China in the Xinjiang Province and by Israel in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The prohibition against the use of chemical weapons, older than the League of Nations and the UN, has been broken by Russia in targeted assassinations and by both state and nonstate actors during the civil war in Syria.
States — large and small — are not only violating the prohibitions, they are failing to fulfill the affirmative obligations, including the prevention and punishment pillars of the Genocide Convention and the common articles of the Geneva Conventions.
Nonstate actors are also trampling the prohibitions: Hamas killing and taking civilians hostages; Al Shabaab and the Houthis resorting to acts of piracy; as well as the Lord’s Resistance Army, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and ISIS resurrecting slavery, including sexual slavery.
The main institutional pillar of the post-World War II legal order, the UN, is also being attacked — financially and politically by the US and militarily by Israel.
Since his second term in office began on Jan.20, 2025, Trump has cut or reduced aid and funding for the UN, various UN programs and several organizations of the system. In February 2025, the US withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO; it also stopped funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
A year later, on Jan. 7, 2026, the US announced that it would “cease participating in and funding” 31 other UN entities that it claims are operating “contrary to U.S. national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty,” including UN entities and programs combating climate change, empowering women and promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.
A year into Trump’s second term, the US has also accrued $1.5 billion in arrears of its mandatory dues to the UN; pursuant to Article 19 of the UN Charter, this puts the US at risk of losing its vote in UN General Assembly. The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has reminded the US that “assessed contributions to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping budget, as approved by the UNGA, are a legal obligation under the UN Charter for all member states, including the US.”
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), since the terrible Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has waged a continuous assault on the UN and UNRWA with full US support, including declaring Guterres persona non grata and denying the UNRWA commissioner-general entry into the OPT.
More alarmingly, and in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, the UN Charter and the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities, Israel has killed nearly 400 UNRWA staff as well as hundreds of their children; detained and reportedly tortured dozens of UNRWA staff without charge; and destroyed or damaged more than 300 UNRWA facilities including, most recently, on Jan. 20, 2026, demolishing UNRWA’s headquarters in East Jerusalem.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), along with an overwhelming majority of UN member states, have declared unlawful Israel’s occupation, annexation and settlements as well as its obstruction of UN mandates, denial of UN privileges and immunities and its targeting of UN protected personnel and premises.
The attacks on the UN globally and on UNRWA in the OPT converge in Trump’s latest scheme: the so-called Board of Peace. UN Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025) endorsed a Board of Peace in November 2025, which is a far cry from the one launched by Trump in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026.
In that resolution and its annexes, the Council stipulated that the Board of Peace is bound by international legal principles and is intended to lead to “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” and to “peaceful and prosperous co-existence” between Israel and Palestine. The resolution and its annexes also clearly state that “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” and that it will be “redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza.”
It also says that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza” or force Palestinians to leave Gaza.
The membership of Trump’s Board of Peace and the billion-dollar membership fee reflect his endless appetite for flattery and bribery; his inclusion of war criminals and profiteers like Tony Blair and diplomatic dilettantes like Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Executive Board reveals Trump’s true motive for this so-called peace initiative.
On the legal side, Trump’s Board of Peace exceeds the limited transitional mandate in Gaza and aspires to replace the UN or at least the Security Council more broadly; it replaces the veto of the five permanent members with a single veto accorded to Trump personally not only as a permanent member of the Board of Peace but as its chairman for life; and, as evidenced by the Gaza plan presented in Davos, it seeks to take over Gaza and its gas reserves to build a real-estate dream Riviera while concentrating the Palestinian population in confined monitored camps or forcibly displacing them.
Legally speaking, Trump can only prevail domestically if the US Congress and the US Supreme Court and, ultimately, the US electorate itself allow him to pursue his illegal, unconstitutional acts. He can only prevail internationally if the Security Council, the General Assembly and, ultimately, the rest of the UN membership fail to enforce Security Council Resolution 2803; fail to finance the UN and UN system entities and programs they have established and mandated; and fail to uphold the UN Charter and ICJ pronouncements.
Trump aims to enshrine his own whim over the will of the international community — his own sense of (im)morality over the international rule of law. Let us hope that the collective will to save the UN and international law is stronger than Trump’s whim to destroy them.
Legally Speaking is a new opinion column by Mona Ali Khalil commenting on the most important global legal issues each month.
This is an opinion essay.
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Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 30 years of UN and other experience, including as a former senior legal officer in the UN and the IAEA, with expertise in peacekeeping, peace enforcement, disarmament and counterterrorism. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in international relations from Harvard University and a master’s in foreign service and a J.D. from Georgetown University. She is the founder and director of MAK LAW INTERNATIONAL and an affiliate of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict. She has co-authored several publications, including Empowering the UN Security Council: Reforms to Address Modern Threats, the UN Security Council Conflict Management Handbook and Protection of Civilians.
The article serves as a powerful and necessary clarion call, vigorously defending the principles of multilateralism and international law at a time when they face profound challenges. It compellingly articulates a moral vision for a world order grounded in rules, cooperation, and human dignity, reminding us of the values we must tirelessly strive to uphold. Its passion is a testament to the vital importance of civic engagement in preserving the institutions designed to prevent conflict and protect the vulnerable.
Mona thank you again for this great contribution to Humanity. I would say that the two parias who are committing international crimes, genocide and crime against humanity and destroying the UN are Donal J. Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu the two are sending the UN to Hell. As a simple example we all know that Trump moved out of UNESCO because of Israel! The two are together for the rule of the Jungle!