It serves the purpose of a forum where a lot of stuff gets dragged out into the open. The expectation of its being a world government has always been basically a fantasy...I'm still often found wondering what real purpose the UN serves - starting Monday North Korea will chair the UN disarmament forum on nuclear weapons. It's a rotating position (alphabetically) but the fact remains that stuff like this (and China being elected to the UN Human Rights Council) makes me consider how laughably gutless / pointless the UN actually is.