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United Nations

January 13, 2023

"UN" redirects here. For other uses, see United Nations (disambiguation) and UN (disambiguation).

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.[2] It is the world's largest and most familiar international organization.[3] The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City, and has other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague (home to the International Court of Justice).

United Nations
  • Arabic:منظمة الأمم المتحدة
    Chinese:联合国
    French:Organisation des Nations unies
    Russian:Организация Объединённых Наций
    Spanish:Organización de las Naciones Unidas
Members of the United Nations
Headquarters760 United Nations Plaza, Manhattan, New York City (international territory)
Official languages
TypeIntergovernmental organization
Membership193 member states
2 observer states
Leaders
António Guterres
Amina J. Mohammed
Csaba Kőrösi
Collen Vixen Kelapile
Establishment
• UN Charter signed
26 June 1945 (77 years ago) (1945-06-26)
• Charter entered into force
24 October 1945 (77 years ago) (1945-10-24)
Website
un.org (General)
un.int (Permanent Missions)
Preceded by

The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future world wars, succeeding the League of Nations, which was characterized as ineffective.[4] On 25 April 1945, 50 governments met in San Francisco for a conference and started drafting the UN Charter, which was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24 October 1945, when the UN began operations. Pursuant to the Charter, the organization's objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law.[5] At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; with the addition of South Sudan in 2011, membership is now 193, representing almost all of the world's sovereign states.[6]

The organization's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies. Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring, reporting and confidence-building roles.[7] UN membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization beginning in the 1960s. Since then, 80 former colonies have gained independence, including 11 trust territories that had been monitored by the Trusteeship Council.[8] By the 1970s, the UN's budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN shifted and expanded its field operations, undertaking a wide variety of complex tasks.[9]

The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. The UN System includes a multitude of specialized agencies, funds and programmes such as the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. Additionally, non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.

The UN's chief administrative officer is the secretary-general, currently Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres, who began his first five year-term on 1 January 2017 and was re-elected on 8 June 2021. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states.

The UN, its officers, and its agencies have won many Nobel Peace Prizes, though other evaluations of its effectiveness have been mixed. Some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called it ineffective, biased, or corrupt.

History

Main article: History of the United Nations

Background (pre-1941)

In the century prior to the UN's creation, several international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.[10]

During World War I, several major leaders, especially US President Woodrow Wilson, advocated for a world body to guarantee peace. The winners of the war, the Allies, met to hammer out formal peace terms at the Paris Peace Conference. The League of Nations was approved, and started operations, but the U.S. never joined. On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations formally came into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, took effect.[11] The League Council acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly's business. It began with four permanent members—the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan.

After some limited successes and failures during the 1920s, the League proved ineffective in the 1930s. It failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1933. Forty nations voted for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of withdrawing from Manchuria.[12] It also failed against the Second Italo-Ethiopian War when calls for economic sanctions against Italy failed. Italy and other nations left the league. All of them realized that it had failed and they began to re-arm as fast as possible.

When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down.[13]

Declarations by the Allies of World War II (1941–1944)

 
1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the UN original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states

The first specific step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter-Allied conference that led to the Declaration of St James's Palace on 12 June 1941.[14][15] By August 1941, American president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941, the eight governments in exile of countries under Axis occupation, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and United States.[16][17]

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at the White House in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference. Roosevelt, considered a founder of the UN,[18][19] coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. Churchill accepted it, noting its use by Lord Byron.[20][21] The text of the Declaration by United Nations was drafted on 29 December 1941, by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins. It incorporated Soviet suggestions but included no role for France. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.[22][23]

Roosevelt's idea of the "Four Powers", referring to the four major Allied countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China, emerged in the Declaration by United Nations.[24] On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed the "Declaration by United Nations",[25] and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures. During the war, "the United Nations" became the official term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis powers.[26]

The October 1943 Moscow Conference resulted in the Moscow Declarations, including the Four Power Declaration on General Security which aimed for the creation "at the earliest possible date of a general international organization". This was the first public announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the League of Nations. The Tehran Conference followed shortly afterwards at which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met and discussed the idea of a post-war international organization.

The new international organization was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September to 7 October 1944. They agreed on proposals for the aims, structure and functioning of the new international organization.[27][28][29] It took the conference at Yalta in February 1945, and further negotiations with Moscow, before all the issues were resolved.[30]

Founding (1945)

 
The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue

By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed the Declaration by United Nations.[31] After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations.[32][33][34] The Big Four sponsoring countries invited other nations to take part and the heads of the delegations of the four chaired the plenary meetings.[35] Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The drafting of the Charter of the United Nations was completed over the following two months; it was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. Jan Smuts was a principal author of the draft.[36][37] The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—the US, the UK, France, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.[38]

The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented,[a] and the Security Council took place in London beginning in January 1946.[38] Debates began at once, covering topical issues such as the presence of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan, British forces in Greece and within days the first veto was cast.[41] British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb served as acting secretary-general.

The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, construction began on 14 September 1948 and the facility was completed on 9 October 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory.[42] The Norwegian foreign minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN secretary-general.[38]

Cold War (1947–1991)

 
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active secretary-general from 1953 until his death in 1961.

Though the UN's primary mandate was peacekeeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the organization, generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War.[43] Two notable exceptions were a Security Council resolution on 7 July 1950 authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR,[38][44] and the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953.[45]

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel.[46] Two years later, Ralph Bunche, a UN official, negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict.[47] On 7 November 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis;[48] however, the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.[49]

On 14 July 1960, the UN established United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its early decades, to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 11 May 1964.[50] While traveling to meet rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the conflict, Dag Hammarskjöld, often named as one of the UN's most effective secretaries-general,[51] died in a plane crash; months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[52] In 1964, Hammarskjöld's successor, U Thant, deployed the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which would become one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions.[53]

With the spread of decolonization in the 1960s, the organization's membership saw an influx of newly independent nations. In 1960 alone, 17 new states joined the UN, 16 of them from Africa.[48] On 25 October 1971, with opposition from the United States, but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization.[54] Third World nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria, which briefly became a dominant power at the UN.[55] On 10 November 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a resolution, over the strenuous US and Israeli opposition, declaring Zionism to be racism; the resolution was repealed on 16 December 1991, shortly after the end of the Cold War.[56][57]

With an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange.[58] By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its peacekeeping budget.

Post–Cold War (1991–present)

 
Kofi Annan, secretary-general from 1997 to 2006
 
Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters, seen in 2007

After the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in five years than it had in the previous four decades.[59] Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold.[60][61][62] The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.[63] In 1991, the UN authorized a US-led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.[64] Brian Urquhart, under-secretary-general from 1971 to 1985, later described the hopes raised by these successes as a "false renaissance" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.[65]

Beginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption.[66] In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan, withdrew his nation's funding from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over allegations of mismanagement, followed by the UK and Singapore.[67][68] Boutros Boutros-Ghali, secretary-general from 1992 to 1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat.[69][70] His successor, Kofi Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the US to withhold its UN dues.[70]

Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Somalia, Haiti, Mozambique, and the former Yugoslavia.[71] The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu. The UN mission to Bosnia faced "worldwide ridicule" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing.[72] In 1994, the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan genocide amid indecision in the Security Council.[73]

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised the NATO-led Kosovo Force beginning in 1999. The UN mission (1999-2006) in the Sierra Leone Civil War was supplemented by a British military intervention. The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO.[74] In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness.[75]

Under the eighth secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, the UN intervened with peacekeepers in crises such as the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War.[76] In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered "systemic failure".[77] In 2010, the organization suffered the worst loss of life in its history, when 101 personnel died in the Haiti earthquake.[78] Acting under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011, NATO countries intervened in the Libyan Civil War.

The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN's role in the 21st century.[79] The three-day meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, and culminated in the adoption by all member states of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a commitment to achieve international development in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, and public health. Progress towards these goals, which were to be met by 2015, was ultimately uneven. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN's focus on promoting development, peacekeeping, human rights, and global security.[80] The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.[81]

In addition to addressing global challenges, the UN has sought to improve its accountability and democratic legitimacy by engaging more with civil society and fostering a global constituency.[82] In an effort to enhance transparency, in 2016 the organization held its first public debate between candidates for secretary-general.[83] On 1 January 2017, Portuguese diplomat António Guterres, who previously served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, became the ninth secretary-general. Guterres has highlighted several key goals for his administration, including an emphasis on diplomacy for preventing conflicts, more effective peacekeeping efforts, and streamlining the organization to be more responsive and versatile to global needs.[84]

Structure

Main article: United Nations System

The United Nations is part of the broader UN system, which includes an extensive network of institutions and entities. Central to the organisation are five principal organs established by the UN Charter: the General Assembly (UNGA), the Security Council (UNSC), the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN Secretariat.[85] A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations on 1 November 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.[86]

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City, while the ICJ is seated in The Hague.[87] Most other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva,[88] Vienna,[89] and Nairobi;[90] additional UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the UN, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.[91] On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with regard to host and member countries.[92]

Below the six organs sit, in the words of the author Linda Fasulo, "an amazing collection of entities and organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it".[93] These include specialized agencies, research and training institutions, programs and funds, and other UN entities.[94]

All organisations in the UN system obey the Noblemaire principle, which calls for salaries that will attract and retain citizens of countries where compensation is highest, and which ensures equal pay for work of equal value regardless of the employee's nationality.[95][96] In practice, the International Civil Service Commission, which governs the conditions of UN personnel, takes reference to the highest-paying national civil service.[97] Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is administered by the UN organizations.[95][98]


Principal organs of the United Nations[99]
UN General Assembly
— Deliberative assembly of all UN member states — 		UN Secretariat
— Administrative organ of the UN — 		International Court of Justice
— Universal court for international law —
 
 
 
  • May resolve non-compulsory recommendations to states or suggestions to the Security Council (UNSC);
  • Decides on the admission of new members, following proposal by the UNSC;
  • Adopts the budget;
  • Elects the non-permanent members of the UNSC; all members of ECOSOC; the UN Secretary-General (following their proposal by the UNSC); and the fifteen judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Each country has one vote.
  • Supports the other UN bodies administratively (for example, in the organization of conferences, the writing of reports and studies and the preparation of the budget);
  • Its chairperson—the UN Secretary-General—is elected by the General Assembly for a five-year mandate and is the UN's foremost representative.
  • Decides disputes between states that recognize its jurisdiction;
  • Issues legal opinions;
  • Renders judgment by relative majority. Its fifteen judges are elected by the UN General Assembly for nine-year terms.
UN Security Council
— For international security issues — 		UN Economic and Social Council
— For global economic and social affairs — 		UN Trusteeship Council
— For administering trust territories (currently inactive) —
 
 
 
  • Responsible for co-operation between states as regards economic and social matters;
  • Co-ordinates co-operation between the UN's numerous specialized agencies;
  • Has 54 members, elected by the General Assembly to serve staggered three-year mandates.
  • Was originally designed to manage colonial possessions that were former League of Nations mandates;
  • Has been inactive since 1994, when Palau, the last trust territory, attained independence.

General Assembly

Main article: United Nations General Assembly
 
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, addressing the UN General Assembly in December 1988

The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the UN. Composed of all UN member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions at the General Assembly Hall, but emergency sessions can also be called.[100] The assembly is led by a president, elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis, and 21 vice-presidents.[101] The first session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations.[38]

When the General Assembly decides on important questions such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required.[102][103] All other questions are decided by a majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from the approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security Council.[100]

Draft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by its six main committees:[104]

As well as by the following two committees:

  • General Committee – a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly's president, vice-president, and committee heads
  • Credentials Committee – responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation's UN representatives

Security Council

Main article: United Nations Security Council
 
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, demonstrates a vial with alleged Iraq chemical weapon probes to the UN Security Council on Iraq war hearings, 5 February 2003

The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the UN can only make "recommendations" to member states, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25.[105] The decisions of the council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.[106]

The Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly: Albania (term ends 2023), Brazil (2023), Gabon (2023), Ghana (2023), India (2022), Ireland (2022), Kenya (2022), Mexico (2022), Norway (2022), and the United Arab Emirates (2023).[107] The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions, allowing a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, though not debate. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms, with five member states per year voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis.[108] The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month.[109]

UN Secretariat

Main articles: United Nations Secretariat and Secretary-General of the United Nations

The UN Secretariat carries out the day-to-day duties required to operate and maintain the UN system.[110] It is composed of tens of thousands of international civil servants worldwide and headed by the secretary-general, who is assisted by the deputy secretary-general.[111] The Secretariat's duties include providing information and facilities needed by UN bodies for their meetings; it also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies.[112]

The secretary-general acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN. The position is defined in the UN Charter as the organization's "chief administrative officer".[113] Article 99 of the charter states that the secretary-general can bring to the Security Council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security", a phrase that secretaries-general since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving the position broad scope for action on the world stage.[114] The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues.[115]

The secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council, where the permanent members have veto power. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has become accepted that the position shall be held for one or two terms of five years.[116] The current secretary-general is António Guterres of Portugal, who replaced Ban Ki-moon in 2017.

Secretaries-general of the United Nations[117]
No. Name Country of origin Took office Left office Notes
- Gladwyn Jebb   United Kingdom 24 October 1945 2 February 1946 Served as acting secretary-general until Lie's election
1 Trygve Lie   Norway 2 February 1946 10 November 1952 Resigned
2 Dag Hammarskjöld   Sweden 10 April 1953 18 September 1961 Died in office
3 U Thant   Burma 30 November 1961 31 December 1971 First non-European to hold office
4 Kurt Waldheim   Austria 1 January 1972 31 December 1981
5 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar   Peru 1 January 1982 31 December 1991
6 Boutros Boutros-Ghali   Egypt 1 January 1992 31 December 1996 Served for the shortest time
7 Kofi Annan   Ghana 1 January 1997 31 December 2006
8 Ban Ki-moon   South Korea 1 January 2007 31 December 2016
9 António Guterres   Portugal 1 January 2017 Incumbent

International Court of Justice

Main article: International Court of Justice
 
The ICJ ruled that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), sometimes known as the World Court,[118] is the primary judicial organ of the UN. It is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice and occupies that body's former headquarters in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, making it the only principal organ not based in New York City. The ICJ's main function is adjudicating disputes among states; it has heard cases concerning war crimes, violations of state sovereignty, ethnic cleansing, and other issues.[119] The court can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions on matters of international law.[120] All UN member states are parties to the ICJ Statute, which forms an integral part of the UN Charter, and nonmembers may also become parties. The ICJ's rulings are binding upon parties and, along with its advisory opinions, serve as sources of international law.[118] The court is composed of 15 judges appointed to nine-year terms by the General Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation.[120][121]

Economic and Social Council

Main article: United Nations Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic, social, and humanitarian co-operation and development.[122] It was established to serve as the UN's primary forum for global issues and is the largest and most complex UN body.[122] ECOSOC's functions include gathering data, conducting studies, advising member nations, and making recommendations.[123][124] Its work is carried out primarily by subsidiary bodies focused on a wide variety of topics; these include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which advises UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples; the United Nations Forum on Forests, which coordinates and promotes sustainable forest management; the United Nations Statistical Commission, which co-ordinates information-gathering efforts between agencies; and the Commission on Sustainable Development, which co-ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working towards sustainable development. ECOSOC may also grant consultative status to nongovernmental organizations;[123] as of April 2021, close to 5,600 organizations have this status.[125][126]

Specialized agencies

Main article: List of specialized agencies of the United Nations

The UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the United Nations can establish various specialized agencies to fulfil its duties.[127] Specialized agencies are autonomous organizations working with the United Nations and each other through the co-ordinating machinery of the Economic and Social Council. Each was integrated into the UN system through an agreement with the UN under UN Charter article 57.[128] There are fifteen specialized agencies, which perform functions as diverse as facilitating international travel, preventing and addressing pandemics, and promoting economic development.[129][b]

Specialized agencies of the United Nations
No. Acronym Agency Headquarters Head Established in
1 FAO Food and Agriculture Organization   Rome, Italy   Qu Dongyu 1945
2 ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization   Montreal, Quebec, Canada   Juan Carlos Salazar 1947
3 IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development   Rome, Italy   Alvaro Lario 1977
4 ILO International Labour Organization   Geneva, Switzerland   Gilbert Houngbo 1946 (1919)
5 IMO International Maritime Organization   London, United Kingdom   Kitack Lim 1948
6 IMF International Monetary Fund   Washington, D.C., United States   Kristalina Georgieva 1945 (1944)
7 ITU International Telecommunication Union   Geneva, Switzerland   Houlin Zhao 1947 (1865)
8 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization   Paris, France   Audrey Azoulay 1946
9 UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization   Vienna, Austria   Gerd Müller 1967
10 UNWTO World Tourism Organization   Madrid, Spain   Zurab Pololikashvili 1974
11 UPU Universal Postal Union   Bern, Switzerland   Masahiko Metoki 1947 (1874)
12 WBG World Bank Group   Washington, D.C., United States   David Malpass (president) 1945 (1944)
13 WHO World Health Organization   Geneva, Switzerland   Tedros Adhanom 1948
14 WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization   Geneva, Switzerland   Daren Tang 1974
15 WMO World Meteorological Organization   Geneva, Switzerland   Petteri Taalas (secretary-general)
  Gerhard Adrian [de] (president)		 1950 (1873)

Other bodies

The United Nations system includes a myriad of autonomous, separately-administered funds, programmes, research and training institutes, and other subsidiary bodies.[130] Each of these entities have their own area of work, governance structure, and budget; several, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), operate independently of the UN but maintain formal partnership agreements. The UN performs much of its humanitarian work through these institutions, such as preventing famine and malnutrition (World Food Programme), protecting vulnerable and displaced people (UNHCR), and combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic (UNAIDS).[131]

Membership

Main article: Member states of the United Nations
 
  193 UN Member States
  2 UN Observer States (Palestine, Vatican)
  2 eligible Non-Member States (Niue, Cook Islands)
  17 non-self-governing territories
  Antarctica (international territory)

All the world's undisputed independent states, apart from Vatican City, are members of the United Nations.[6][c] South Sudan, which joined 14 July 2011, is the most recent addition, bringing a total of 193 UN member states.[132] The UN Charter outlines the rules for membership:

1. Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states that accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.

2. The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Chapter II, Article 4.[133]

 
Under Sukarno, Indonesia was the first and only country to leave the United Nations.

In addition, there are two non-member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly: the Holy See (which holds sovereignty over Vatican City) and the State of Palestine.[134] The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand, are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their "full treaty-making capacity" recognized by the Secretariat.[135]

Indonesia was the first and the only nation to withdraw its membership from the United Nations, in protest to the election of Malaysia as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1965 during conflict between the two countries.[136] After forming CONEFO as a short-lived rival to the UN, Indonesia resumed its full membership in 1966.

Group of 77

Main article: Group of 77

The Group of 77 (G77) at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the UN. Seventy-seven nations founded the organization, but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries.[137] The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group held its first major meeting in Algiers in 1967, where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional structures.[138] With the adoption of the New International Economic Order by developing countries in the 1970s, the work of the G77 spread throughout the UN system. Similar groupings of developing states also operate in other UN agencies, such as the Group of 24 (G-24), which operates in the IMF on monetary affairs.

Objectives

Peacekeeping and security

Main articles: United Nations peacekeeping and List of United Nations peacekeeping missions

The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed "Blue Helmets" for their distinctive gear.[139][140] Peacekeeping forces as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.[141]

 
A Nepalese soldier on a peacekeeping deployment providing security at a rice distribution site in Haiti during 2010

The UN has carried out 71 peacekeeping operations since 1947; as of April 2021, over 88,000 peacekeeping personnel from 121 nations were deployed on 12 missions, mostly in Africa.[142] The largest is the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which has close to 19,200 uniformed personnel;[143] the smallest, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), consists of 113 civilians and experts charged with monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.[144]

A study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared efforts at nation-building by the UN to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight U.S. cases at peace.[145] Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides, and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period.[146] Situations in which the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War (1950–53) and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Gulf War (1990–91).[147] Further studies published between 2008 and 2021 determined UN peacekeeping operations to be more effective at ensuring long-lasting peace and minimizing civilian casualties.[148]

 
The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971,[149] the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s,[150] and the Rwandan genocide in 1994.[151] Similarly, UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992–93 during the Somali Civil War.[152] UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, and sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[153] Haiti,[154] Liberia,[155] Sudan and what is now South Sudan,[156] Burundi, and Côte d'Ivoire.[157] Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010s Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[158]

In addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and economic resources for their creation.[105] The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter, resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction".[159] The UN has been involved with arms-limitation treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty (1967), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1971), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1992), and the Ottawa Treaty (1997), which prohibits landmines.[160] Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission.[161] Additionally, many peacekeeping missions focus on disarmament: several operations in West Africa disarmed roughly 250,000 former combatants and secured tens of thousands of weapons and millions of munitions.[162]

Human rights

One of the UN's primary purposes is "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion", and member states pledge to undertake "joint and separate action" to protect these rights.[127][163]

In 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee headed by American diplomat and activist Eleanor Roosevelt, and including the French lawyer René Cassin. The document proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings, though its effectiveness towards achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting.[164] The Declaration serves as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations" rather than a legally binding document, but it has become the basis of two binding treaties, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[165] In practice, the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution, though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.[166]

In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.[167] With the end of the Cold War, the push for human rights action took on new impetus.[168] The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993 to oversee human rights issues for the UN, following the recommendation of that year's World Conference on Human Rights. Jacques Fomerand, a scholar of the UN, describes this organization's mandate as "broad and vague", with only "meagre" resources to carry it out.[169] In 2006, it was replaced by a Human Rights Council consisting of 47 nations.[170] Also in 2006, the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,[171] and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people.[172]

Other UN bodies responsible for women's rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946; the United Nations Development Fund for Women, created in 1976; and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, founded in 1979.[173] The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee issues related to indigenous peoples, held its first session in 2002.[174]

Economic development and humanitarian assistance

Millennium Development Goals[175]

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Develop a global partnership for development

Another primary purpose of the UN is "to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character".[163] Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal, primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC.[176] In 2000, the 192 UN member states agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.[177] The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.[81] The SDGs have an associated financing framework called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), an organization for grant-based technical assistance founded in 1945, is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development. The organization also publishes the UN Human Development Index, a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors.[178][179] The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also founded in 1945, promotes agricultural development and food security.[180] UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the convention on the Rights of the Child.[181][182]

 
Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme reading the news that smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1980

The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are independent, specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement.[183] They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944.[184] The World Bank provides loans for international development, while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries.[185]

 
In Jordan, UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication, is another of the UN's largest agencies. In 1980, the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed. In subsequent decades, WHO largely eradicated polio, river blindness, and leprosy.[186] The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), begun in 1996, co-ordinates the organization's response to the AIDS epidemic.[187] The UN Population Fund, which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world's largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.[188]

Along with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN often takes a leading role in co-ordinating emergency relief.[189] The World Food Programme (WFP), created in 1961, provides food aid in response to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million people in 80 nations each year.[189][190] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950, works to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people.[191] UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals, though the UNHCR's administrative costs are paid for by the UN's primary budget.[192]

Environment and climate

Further information: United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Beginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1972, the UN has made environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda. A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which sought to give new impetus to these efforts.[193] In 1988, the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN organization, established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses and reports on research on global warming.[194] The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying states.[195]

Other global issues

Since the UN's creation, over 80 colonies have attained independence. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers. The UN works towards decolonization through groups including the UN Committee on Decolonization, created in 1962.[196] The committee lists seventeen remaining "non-self-governing territories", the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara.[197]

The UN also declares and co-ordinates international observances that bring awareness to issues of international interest or concern; examples include World Tuberculosis Day, Earth Day, and the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.[198]

Funding

Top 25 contributors to the United Nations budget for the period 2019–2021[199]
Member state Contribution
(% of UN budget)
  United States
22.000
  China
12.005
  Japan
8.564
  Germany
6.090
  United Kingdom
4.567
  France
4.427
  Italy
3.307
  Brazil
2.948
  Canada
2.734
  Russia
2.405
  South Korea
2.267
  Australia
2.210
  Spain
2.146
  Turkey
1.371
  Netherlands
1.356
  Mexico
1.292
  Saudi Arabia
1.172
  Switzerland
1.151
  Argentina
0.915
  Sweden
0.906
  India
0.834
  Belgium
0.821
  Poland
0.802
  Algeria
0.788
  Norway
0.754
Other member states
12.168

The UN budget for 2022 was $3.1 billion, not including additional resources donated by members, such as peacekeeping forces.[200][201]

The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by its gross national income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income.[202]

The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a "ceiling" rate, setting the maximum amount that any member can be assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to pressure from the United States. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%.[203] For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied.[202] In addition to the ceiling rates, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or "floor" rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget ($31,000 for the two-year budget 2021–2022).[204][205]

A large share of the UN's expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget.[206] The peacekeeping budget for the 2021–2022 fiscal year is $6.38 billion, supporting 75,224 personnel deployed in 10 missions worldwide.[207] UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. The largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping budget for 2020–2021 are: the United States (27.89%), China (15.21%), Japan (8.56%), Germany (6.09%), the United Kingdom (5.78%), France (5.61%), Italy (3.30%), Russia (3.04%), Canada (2.73%), and South Korea (2.26%).[208]

Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments, corporations, and private individuals.[209][210]

Evaluations, awards, and criticism

Main articles: Reform of the United Nations and Reform of the United Nations Security Council
See also: Criticism of the United Nations
 
The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the UN—diploma in the lobby of the UN Headquarters in New York City

Evaluations

In evaluating the UN as a whole, Jacques Fomerand writes that the "accomplishments of the United Nations in the last 60 years are impressive in their own terms. Progress in human development during the 20th century has been dramatic, and the UN and its agencies have certainly helped the world become a more hospitable and livable place for millions".[211] Evaluating the first 50 years of the UN's history, the author Stanley Meisler writes that "the United Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders, but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless", citing its role in decolonization and its many successful peacekeeping efforts.[212]

British historian Paul Kennedy states that while the organization has suffered some major setbacks, "when all its aspects are considered, the UN has brought great benefits to our generation and ... will bring benefits to our children's and grandchildren's generations as well."[213]

Then French President François Hollande stated in 2012 that "France trusts the United Nations. She knows that no state, no matter how powerful, can solve urgent problems, fight for development and bring an end to all crises ... France wants the UN to be the centre of global governance".[214] In his 1953 address to the United States Committee for United Nations Day, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed the view that, for all its flaws, "the United Nations represents man's best organized hope to substitute the conference table for the battlefield".[215]

UN peacekeeping missions are assessed to be generally successful. An analysis of 47 peace operations by Virginia Page Fortna of Columbia University found that UN-led conflict resolution usually resulted in long-term peace.[216] Political scientists Hanne Fjelde, Lisa Hultman and Desiree Nilsson of Uppsala University studied twenty years of data on peacekeeping missions, including in Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic, concluding that they were more effective at reducing civilian casualties than counterterrorism operations by nation states.[217] Georgetown University professor Lise Howard postulates that UN peacekeeping operations are more effective due to their emphasis on "verbal persuasion, financial inducements and coercion short of offensive military force, including surveillance and arrest", which are likelier to change the behavior of warring parties.[148]

Awards

A number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work. Two secretaries-general, Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan, were each awarded the prize (in 1961 and 2001, respectively), as were Ralph Bunche (1950), a UN negotiator, René Cassin (1968), a contributor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1945), the latter for his role in the organization's founding. Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, was awarded the prize in 1957 for his role in organizing the UN's first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis. UNICEF won the prize in 1965, the International Labour Organization in 1969, the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988, the International Atomic Energy Agency (which reports to the UN) in 2005, and the UN-supported Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded in 1954 and 1981, becoming one of only two recipients to win the prize twice. The UN as a whole was awarded the prize in 2001, sharing it with Annan.[218] In 2007, IPCC received the prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."[219]

Criticism

Role

 
Marking of the UN's 70th anniversary – Budapest, 2015

In a sometimes-misquoted statement, U.S. President George W. Bush stated in February 2003—referring to UN uncertainty towards Iraqi provocations under the Saddam Hussein regime—that "free nations will not allow the UN to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society."[220][221][222]

In 2020, former U.S. President Barack Obama, in his memoir A Promised Land noted, "In the middle of the Cold War, the chances of reaching any consensus had been slim, which is why the U.N. had stood idle as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary or U.S. planes dropped napalm on the Vietnamese countryside. Even after the Cold War, divisions within the Security Council continued to hamstring the U.N.'s ability to tackle problems. Its member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia, or prevent ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka."[223][224]

Since its founding, there have been many calls for reform of the UN but little consensus on how to do so. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, while others want its role reduced to humanitarian work.

Representation and structure

Core features of the UN apparatus, such as the veto privileges of some nations in the Security Council, are often described as fundamentally undemocratic, contrary to the UN mission, and a main cause of inaction on genocides and crimes against humanity.[225][226]

Jacques Fomerand states the most enduring divide in views of the UN is "the North–South split" between richer Northern nations and developing Southern nations. Southern nations tend to favour a more empowered UN with a stronger General Assembly, allowing them a greater voice in world affairs, while Northern nations prefer an economically laissez-faire UN that focuses on transnational threats such as terrorism.[227]

There have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council's membership to be increased, for different ways of electing the UN's secretary-general, and for a UN Parliamentary Assembly.

Exclusion of countries

After World War II, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the U.S. as the government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that created the new organization. Future French president Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it a machin ("contraption"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace, preferring direct defence treaties between countries.[228]

Since 1971, the Republic of China (ROC), or Taiwan, has been excluded from the UN and consistently denied membership in its reapplications; Taiwanese citizens are also barred from entering UN facilities with ROC passports. The UN officially adheres to the "One China" policy endorsed by most member states, which recognizes the People's Republic of China (PRC), a permanent member of the UN Security Council, as the only legitimate Chinese government.[229] Critics allege that this position reflects a failure of the organization's development goals and guidelines,[230] and it garnered renewed scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Taiwan was denied membership in the World Health Organization despite its relatively effective response to the virus.[231] Support for Taiwan's inclusion is subject to pressure from the PRC, which regards the territories administered by the ROC as their own territory.[232][233]

Independence

Throughout the Cold War, both the US and USSR repeatedly accused the UN of favouring the other. In 1950, the USSR boycotted the organization in protest to China's seat at the UN Security Council being given to the anticommunist government of the Republic of China. Three years later, the Soviets effectively forced the resignation of UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie by refusing to acknowledge his administration due to his support of the Korean War.[234]

Ironically, the US had simultaneously scrutinized the UN for employing communists and Soviet sympathizers, following a high-profile accusation that Alger Hiss, an American who had taken part in the establishment of the UN, had been a Soviet spy. US Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that the UN Secretariat under Secretary-General Lie harbored American communists, leading to further pressure that the UN chief resign.[235] The US saw nascent opposition to the UN into the 1960s, particularly among political conservatives, with groups such as the John Birch Society alleging that the organization was an instrument for communism.[236] Popular opposition to the UN was expressed through bumper stickers and signs with slogans such as "Get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S.!" and "You can't spell communism without U.N."[237]

National sovereignty

In the United States, there were concerns about supposed threats to national sovereignty, most notably promoted by the John Birch Society, which mounted a nationwide campaign in opposition to the UN during the 1960s.[238][239][240]

Beginning in the 1990s, the same concern appeared with the American Sovereignty Restoration Act, which has been introduced multiple times in the United States Congress. In 1997, an amendment containing the bill received a floor vote, with 54 representatives voting in favor.[241][242] The 2007 version of the bill (H.R. 1146) was authored by U.S. Representative Ron Paul, Republican of the 14th district of Texas, to effect U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations. It would repeal various laws pertaining to the UN, terminate authorization for funds to be spent on the UN, terminate UN presence on U.S. property, and withdraw diplomatic immunity for UN employees.[243] It would provide up to two years for the U.S. to withdraw.[244] The Yale Law Journal cited the Act as proof that "the United States’s complaints against the United Nations have intensified."[245] The most recent iteration, as of 2022, is H.R.7806, introduced by Rep. Mike D. Rogers.[246]

Bias

The UN's attention to Israel's treatment of Palestinians is considered excessive by a range of critics, including Israeli diplomat Dore Gold, British scholar Robert S. Wistrich, American legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, Australian politician Mark Dreyfus, and the Anti-Defamation League.[247] In September 2015, Saudi Arabia's Faisal bin Hassan Trad was elected chair of an advisory committee in the UN Human Rights Council that appoints independent experts,[248] a move criticized by human rights groups.[249][250] The UNHRC has likewise been accused of anti-Israel bias, as it has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than the rest of the world combined.[251]

Effectiveness

According to international relations scholar Edward Luck, former director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, the United States has preferred a feeble United Nations in major projects undertaken by the organization so as to forestall UN interference with, or resistance to, American policies. "The last thing the U.S. wants is an independent U.N. throwing its weight around," Luck said. Similarly, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan explained that "The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with not inconsiderable success."[252]

In 1994, former special representative of the secretary-general of the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published Somalia: The Missed Opportunities,[253] a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia. Sahnoun claims that between the start of the Somali civil war in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies; when the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN's excessive caution and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Sahnoun warned that if radical reform were not undertaken, then the UN would continue to respond to such crises with inept improvisation.[254]

Beyond specific instances or areas of alleged ineffectiveness, some scholars debate the overall effectiveness of the UN. Adherents to the realist school of international relations take a pessimistic position, arguing that the UN is not an effective organization because it is dominated and constrained by great powers. Liberal scholars counter that it is an effective organization because it has proved capable of solving many problems by working around the restrictions imposed by powerful member states. The UN is generally considered by scholars to be more effective in realms such as public health, humanitarian assistance, and conflict resolution.[255]

Inefficiency and corruption

Critics have also accused the UN of bureaucratic inefficiency, waste, and corruption. In 1976, the General Assembly established the Joint Inspection Unit to seek out inefficiencies within the UN system. During the 1990s, the US withheld dues citing inefficiency and only started repayment on the condition that a major reforms initiative be introduced. In 1994, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog.[256]

In 2004, the UN faced accusations that its recently ended Oil-for-Food Programme—in which Iraq had been allowed to trade oil for basic needs to relieve the pressure of sanctions—had suffered from widespread corruption, including billions of dollars of kickbacks. An independent inquiry created by the UN found that many of its officials had been involved in the scheme, and raised "significant" questions about the role of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan.[257]

Model United Nations

Main article: Model United Nations

The United Nations has inspired the extracurricular activity Model United Nations (MUN). MUN is a simulation of United Nations activity based on the UN agenda and following UN procedure. It is usually attended by high school and university students who organize conferences to simulate the various UN committees to discuss important issues of the day.[258] Today, MUN educates tens of thousands on the activities of the UN around the world. MUN has many famous and notable alumni, such as former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.[259]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Poland had not been represented among the fifty nations at the San Francisco conference due to the reluctance of the Western superpowers to recognize its post-war communist government. However, the Charter was later amended to list Poland as a founding member, and Poland ratified the Charter on 16 October 1945.[39][40]
  2. ^ Some sources identify seventeen specialized agencies, taking into account the three specialized agencies that make up the World Bank Group, which is now treated as one organization: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
  3. ^ For details on Vatican City's status, see Holy See and the United Nations.

References

Citations

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Bibliography

Further reading

External links

  • Records of the UN Registry at the United Nations Archives

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Others

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January 13, 2023
united, nations, redirects, here, other, uses, disambiguation, disambiguation, intergovernmental, organization, whose, stated, purposes, maintain, international, peace, security, develop, friendly, relations, among, nations, achieve, international, cooperation. UN redirects here For other uses see United Nations disambiguation and UN disambiguation The United Nations UN is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security develop friendly relations among nations achieve international cooperation and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations 2 It is the world s largest and most familiar international organization 3 The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City and has other main offices in Geneva Nairobi Vienna and The Hague home to the International Court of Justice United Nations Arabic منظمة الأمم المتحدةChinese 联合国French Organisation des Nations uniesRussian Organizaciya Obedinyonnyh NacijSpanish Organizacion de las Naciones UnidasFlag EmblemMembers of the United NationsHeadquarters760 United Nations Plaza Manhattan New York City international territory Official languagesArabicChineseEnglishFrenchRussianSpanish 1 TypeIntergovernmental organizationMembership193 member states2 observer statesLeaders Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres Deputy Secretary GeneralAmina J Mohammed General Assembly PresidentCsaba Korosi Economic and Social Council PresidentCollen Vixen KelapileEstablishment UN Charter signed26 June 1945 77 years ago 1945 06 26 Charter entered into force24 October 1945 77 years ago 1945 10 24 Websiteun org General un int Permanent Missions Preceded byLeague of NationsThe UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future world wars succeeding the League of Nations which was characterized as ineffective 4 On 25 April 1945 50 governments met in San Francisco for a conference and started drafting the UN Charter which was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24 October 1945 when the UN began operations Pursuant to the Charter the organization s objectives include maintaining international peace and security protecting human rights delivering humanitarian aid promoting sustainable development and upholding international law 5 At its founding the UN had 51 member states with the addition of South Sudan in 2011 membership is now 193 representing almost all of the world s sovereign states 6 The organization s mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring reporting and confidence building roles 7 UN membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization beginning in the 1960s Since then 80 former colonies have gained independence including 11 trust territories that had been monitored by the Trusteeship Council 8 By the 1970s the UN s budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping After the end of the Cold War the UN shifted and expanded its field operations undertaking a wide variety of complex tasks 9 The UN has six principal organs the General Assembly the Security Council the Economic and Social Council ECOSOC the Trusteeship Council the International Court of Justice and the UN Secretariat The UN System includes a multitude of specialized agencies funds and programmes such as the World Bank Group the World Health Organization the World Food Programme UNESCO and UNICEF Additionally non governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN s work The UN s chief administrative officer is the secretary general currently Portuguese politician and diplomat Antonio Guterres who began his first five year term on 1 January 2017 and was re elected on 8 June 2021 The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states The UN its officers and its agencies have won many Nobel Peace Prizes though other evaluations of its effectiveness have been mixed Some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development while others have called it ineffective biased or corrupt Contents 1 History 1 1 Background pre 1941 1 2 Declarations by the Allies of World War II 1941 1944 1 3 Founding 1945 1 4 Cold War 1947 1991 1 5 Post Cold War 1991 present 2 Structure 2 1 General Assembly 2 2 Security Council 2 3 UN Secretariat 2 4 International Court of Justice 2 5 Economic and Social Council 2 6 Specialized agencies 2 7 Other bodies 3 Membership 3 1 Group of 77 4 Objectives 4 1 Peacekeeping and security 4 2 Human rights 4 3 Economic development and humanitarian assistance 4 4 Environment and climate 4 5 Other global issues 5 Funding 6 Evaluations awards and criticism 6 1 Evaluations 6 2 Awards 6 3 Criticism 6 3 1 Role 6 3 2 Representation and structure 6 3 3 Exclusion of countries 6 3 4 Independence 6 3 5 National sovereignty 6 3 6 Bias 6 3 7 Effectiveness 6 3 8 Inefficiency and corruption 7 Model United Nations 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10 1 Citations 10 2 Bibliography 11 Further reading 12 External links 12 1 Official websites 12 2 OthersHistoryMain article History of the United Nations Background pre 1941 In the century prior to the UN s creation several international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife 10 During World War I several major leaders especially US President Woodrow Wilson advocated for a world body to guarantee peace The winners of the war the Allies met to hammer out formal peace terms at the Paris Peace Conference The League of Nations was approved and started operations but the U S never joined On 10 January 1920 the League of Nations formally came into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations ratified by 42 nations in 1919 took effect 11 The League Council acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly s business It began with four permanent members the United Kingdom France Italy and Japan After some limited successes and failures during the 1920s the League proved ineffective in the 1930s It failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1933 Forty nations voted for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of withdrawing from Manchuria 12 It also failed against the Second Italo Ethiopian War when calls for economic sanctions against Italy failed Italy and other nations left the league All of them realized that it had failed and they began to re arm as fast as possible When war broke out in 1939 the League closed down 13 Declarations by the Allies of World War II 1941 1944 1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the UN original three branches The Four Policemen an executive branch and an international assembly of forty UN member states The first specific step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter Allied conference that led to the Declaration of St James s Palace on 12 June 1941 14 15 By August 1941 American president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post war world At the subsequent meeting of the Inter Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941 the eight governments in exile of countries under Axis occupation together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and United States 16 17 President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at the White House in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference Roosevelt considered a founder of the UN 18 19 coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries Churchill accepted it noting its use by Lord Byron 20 21 The text of the Declaration by United Nations was drafted on 29 December 1941 by Roosevelt Churchill and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins It incorporated Soviet suggestions but included no role for France One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted 22 23 Roosevelt s idea of the Four Powers referring to the four major Allied countries the United States United Kingdom Soviet Union and Republic of China emerged in the Declaration by United Nations 24 On New Year s Day 1942 President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill Maxim Litvinov of the USSR and T V Soong of China signed the Declaration by United Nations 25 and the next day the representatives of twenty two other nations added their signatures During the war the United Nations became the official term for the Allies To join countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis powers 26 The October 1943 Moscow Conference resulted in the Moscow Declarations including the Four Power Declaration on General Security which aimed for the creation at the earliest possible date of a general international organization This was the first public announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the League of Nations The Tehran Conference followed shortly afterwards at which Roosevelt Churchill and Stalin met and discussed the idea of a post war international organization The new international organization was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September to 7 October 1944 They agreed on proposals for the aims structure and functioning of the new international organization 27 28 29 It took the conference at Yalta in February 1945 and further negotiations with Moscow before all the issues were resolved 30 Founding 1945 The UN in 1945 founding members in light blue protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue By 1 March 1945 21 additional states had signed the Declaration by United Nations 31 After months of planning the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco 25 April 1945 attended by 50 governments and a number of non governmental organizations 32 33 34 The Big Four sponsoring countries invited other nations to take part and the heads of the delegations of the four chaired the plenary meetings 35 Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944 The drafting of the Charter of the United Nations was completed over the following two months it was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries Jan Smuts was a principal author of the draft 36 37 The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council the US the UK France the Soviet Union and the Republic of China and by a majority of the other 46 signatories 38 The first meetings of the General Assembly with 51 nations represented a and the Security Council took place in London beginning in January 1946 38 Debates began at once covering topical issues such as the presence of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan British forces in Greece and within days the first veto was cast 41 British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb served as acting secretary general The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN construction began on 14 September 1948 and the facility was completed on 9 October 1952 Its site like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva Vienna and Nairobi is designated as international territory 42 The Norwegian foreign minister Trygve Lie was elected as the first UN secretary general 38 Cold War 1947 1991 Dag Hammarskjold was a particularly active secretary general from 1953 until his death in 1961 Though the UN s primary mandate was peacekeeping the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the organization generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War 43 Two notable exceptions were a Security Council resolution on 7 July 1950 authorizing a US led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea passed in the absence of the USSR 38 44 and the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953 45 On 29 November 1947 the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine approving the creation of the state of Israel 46 Two years later Ralph Bunche a UN official negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict 47 On 7 November 1956 the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis 48 however the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR s simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country s revolution 49 On 14 July 1960 the UN established United Nations Operation in the Congo UNOC the largest military force of its early decades to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 11 May 1964 50 While traveling to meet rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the conflict Dag Hammarskjold often named as one of the UN s most effective secretaries general 51 died in a plane crash months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 52 In 1964 Hammarskjold s successor U Thant deployed the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus which would become one of the UN s longest running peacekeeping missions 53 With the spread of decolonization in the 1960s the organization s membership saw an influx of newly independent nations In 1960 alone 17 new states joined the UN 16 of them from Africa 48 On 25 October 1971 with opposition from the United States but with the support of many Third World nations the mainland communist People s Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization 54 Third World nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria which briefly became a dominant power at the UN 55 On 10 November 1975 a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a resolution over the strenuous US and Israeli opposition declaring Zionism to be racism the resolution was repealed on 16 December 1991 shortly after the end of the Cold War 56 57 With an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East Vietnam and Kashmir the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange 58 By the 1970s the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its peacekeeping budget Post Cold War 1991 present Kofi Annan secretary general from 1997 to 2006 Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters seen in 2007 After the Cold War the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties taking on more missions in five years than it had in the previous four decades 59 Between 1988 and 2000 the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold 60 61 62 The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia and oversaw democratic elections in post apartheid South Africa and post Khmer Rouge Cambodia 63 In 1991 the UN authorized a US led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 64 Brian Urquhart under secretary general from 1971 to 1985 later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization given the more troubled missions that followed 65 Beginning in the last decades of the Cold War American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption 66 In 1984 US President Ronald Reagan withdrew his nation s funding from United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO over allegations of mismanagement followed by the UK and Singapore 67 68 Boutros Boutros Ghali secretary general from 1992 to 1996 initiated a reform of the Secretariat reducing the size of the organization somewhat 69 70 His successor Kofi Annan 1997 2006 initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the US to withhold its UN dues 70 Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another in the early 1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous serious crises within nations such as Somalia Haiti Mozambique and the former Yugoslavia 71 The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu The UN mission to Bosnia faced worldwide ridicule for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing 72 In 1994 the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan genocide amid indecision in the Security Council 73 From the late 1990s to the early 2000s international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised the NATO led Kosovo Force beginning in 1999 The UN mission 1999 2006 in the Sierra Leone Civil War was supplemented by a British military intervention The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO 74 In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization prompting a new round of questioning of the organization s effectiveness 75 Under the eighth secretary general Ban Ki moon the UN intervened with peacekeepers in crises such as the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War 76 In 2013 an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered systemic failure 77 In 2010 the organization suffered the worst loss of life in its history when 101 personnel died in the Haiti earthquake 78 Acting under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011 NATO countries intervened in the Libyan Civil War The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN s role in the 21st century 79 The three day meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history and culminated in the adoption by all member states of the Millennium Development Goals MDGs a commitment to achieve international development in areas such as poverty reduction gender equality and public health Progress towards these goals which were to be met by 2015 was ultimately uneven The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN s focus on promoting development peacekeeping human rights and global security 80 The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals 81 In addition to addressing global challenges the UN has sought to improve its accountability and democratic legitimacy by engaging more with civil society and fostering a global constituency 82 In an effort to enhance transparency in 2016 the organization held its first public debate between candidates for secretary general 83 On 1 January 2017 Portuguese diplomat Antonio Guterres who previously served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees became the ninth secretary general Guterres has highlighted several key goals for his administration including an emphasis on diplomacy for preventing conflicts more effective peacekeeping efforts and streamlining the organization to be more responsive and versatile to global needs 84 StructureMain article United Nations System The United Nations is part of the broader UN system which includes an extensive network of institutions and entities Central to the organisation are five principal organs established by the UN Charter the General Assembly UNGA the Security Council UNSC the Economic and Social Council ECOSOC the International Court of Justice ICJ and the UN Secretariat 85 A sixth principal organ the Trusteeship Council suspended operations on 1 November 1994 upon the independence of Palau the last remaining UN trustee territory 86 Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City while the ICJ is seated in The Hague 87 Most other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva 88 Vienna 89 and Nairobi 90 additional UN institutions are located throughout the world The six official languages of the UN used in intergovernmental meetings and documents are Arabic Chinese English French Russian and Spanish 91 On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate safeguarding the UN s impartiality with regard to host and member countries 92 Below the six organs sit in the words of the author Linda Fasulo an amazing collection of entities and organizations some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it 93 These include specialized agencies research and training institutions programs and funds and other UN entities 94 All organisations in the UN system obey the Noblemaire principle which calls for salaries that will attract and retain citizens of countries where compensation is highest and which ensures equal pay for work of equal value regardless of the employee s nationality 95 96 In practice the International Civil Service Commission which governs the conditions of UN personnel takes reference to the highest paying national civil service 97 Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is administered by the UN organizations 95 98 Principal organs of the United Nations 99 vte UN General Assembly Deliberative assembly of all UN member states UN Secretariat Administrative organ of the UN International Court of Justice Universal court for international law May resolve non compulsory recommendations to states or suggestions to the Security Council UNSC Decides on the admission of new members following proposal by the UNSC Adopts the budget Elects the non permanent members of the UNSC all members of ECOSOC the UN Secretary General following their proposal by the UNSC and the fifteen judges of the International Court of Justice ICJ Each country has one vote Supports the other UN bodies administratively for example in the organization of conferences the writing of reports and studies and the preparation of the budget Its chairperson the UN Secretary General is elected by the General Assembly for a five year mandate and is the UN s foremost representative Decides disputes between states that recognize its jurisdiction Issues legal opinions Renders judgment by relative majority Its fifteen judges are elected by the UN General Assembly for nine year terms UN Security Council For international security issues UN Economic and Social Council For global economic and social affairs UN Trusteeship Council For administering trust territories currently inactive Responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security May adopt compulsory resolutions Has fifteen members five permanent members with veto power and ten elected members Responsible for co operation between states as regards economic and social matters Co ordinates co operation between the UN s numerous specialized agencies Has 54 members elected by the General Assembly to serve staggered three year mandates Was originally designed to manage colonial possessions that were former League of Nations mandates Has been inactive since 1994 when Palau the last trust territory attained independence General Assembly Main article United Nations General Assembly Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union addressing the UN General Assembly in December 1988 The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the UN Composed of all UN member states the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions at the General Assembly Hall but emergency sessions can also be called 100 The assembly is led by a president elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis and 21 vice presidents 101 The first session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations 38 When the General Assembly decides on important questions such as those on peace and security admission of new members and budgetary matters a two thirds majority of those present and voting is required 102 103 All other questions are decided by a majority vote Each member country has one vote Apart from the approval of budgetary matters resolutions are not binding on the members The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security Council 100 Draft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by its six main committees 104 First Committee Disarmament and International Security Second Committee Economic and Financial Third Committee Social Humanitarian and Cultural Fourth Committee Special Political and Decolonization Fifth Committee Administrative and Budgetary Sixth Committee Legal As well as by the following two committees General Committee a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly s president vice president and committee heads Credentials Committee responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation s UN representativesSecurity Council Main article United Nations Security Council Colin Powell the US Secretary of State demonstrates a vial with alleged Iraq chemical weapon probes to the UN Security Council on Iraq war hearings 5 February 2003 The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries While other organs of the UN can only make recommendations to member states the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out under the terms of Charter Article 25 105 The decisions of the council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions 106 The Security Council is made up of fifteen member states consisting of five permanent members China France Russia the United Kingdom and the United States and ten non permanent members elected for two year terms by the General Assembly Albania term ends 2023 Brazil 2023 Gabon 2023 Ghana 2023 India 2022 Ireland 2022 Kenya 2022 Mexico 2022 Norway 2022 and the United Arab Emirates 2023 107 The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions allowing a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution though not debate The ten temporary seats are held for two year terms with five member states per year voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis 108 The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month 109 UN Secretariat Main articles United Nations Secretariat and Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres the current secretary general The UN Secretariat carries out the day to day duties required to operate and maintain the UN system 110 It is composed of tens of thousands of international civil servants worldwide and headed by the secretary general who is assisted by the deputy secretary general 111 The Secretariat s duties include providing information and facilities needed by UN bodies for their meetings it also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council the General Assembly the Economic and Social Council and other UN bodies 112 The secretary general acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN The position is defined in the UN Charter as the organization s chief administrative officer 113 Article 99 of the charter states that the secretary general can bring to the Security Council s attention any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security a phrase that secretaries general since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving the position broad scope for action on the world stage 114 The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues 115 The secretary general is appointed by the General Assembly after being recommended by the Security Council where the permanent members have veto power There are no specific criteria for the post but over the years it has become accepted that the position shall be held for one or two terms of five years 116 The current secretary general is Antonio Guterres of Portugal who replaced Ban Ki moon in 2017 Secretaries general of the United Nations 117 No Name Country of origin Took office Left office Notes Gladwyn Jebb United Kingdom 24 October 1945 2 February 1946 Served as acting secretary general until Lie s election1 Trygve Lie Norway 2 February 1946 10 November 1952 Resigned2 Dag Hammarskjold Sweden 10 April 1953 18 September 1961 Died in office3 U Thant Burma 30 November 1961 31 December 1971 First non European to hold office4 Kurt Waldheim Austria 1 January 1972 31 December 19815 Javier Perez de Cuellar Peru 1 January 1982 31 December 19916 Boutros Boutros Ghali Egypt 1 January 1992 31 December 1996 Served for the shortest time7 Kofi Annan Ghana 1 January 1997 31 December 20068 Ban Ki moon South Korea 1 January 2007 31 December 20169 Antonio Guterres Portugal 1 January 2017 IncumbentInternational Court of Justice Main article International Court of Justice The ICJ ruled that Kosovo s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law The International Court of Justice ICJ sometimes known as the World Court 118 is the primary judicial organ of the UN It is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice and occupies that body s former headquarters in the Peace Palace in The Hague Netherlands making it the only principal organ not based in New York City The ICJ s main function is adjudicating disputes among states it has heard cases concerning war crimes violations of state sovereignty ethnic cleansing and other issues 119 The court can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions on matters of international law 120 All UN member states are parties to the ICJ Statute which forms an integral part of the UN Charter and nonmembers may also become parties The ICJ s rulings are binding upon parties and along with its advisory opinions serve as sources of international law 118 The court is composed of 15 judges appointed to nine year terms by the General Assembly every sitting judge must be from a different nation 120 121 Economic and Social Council Main article United Nations Economic and Social Council The Economic and Social Council ECOSOC assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic social and humanitarian co operation and development 122 It was established to serve as the UN s primary forum for global issues and is the largest and most complex UN body 122 ECOSOC s functions include gathering data conducting studies advising member nations and making recommendations 123 124 Its work is carried out primarily by subsidiary bodies focused on a wide variety of topics these include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues which advises UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples the United Nations Forum on Forests which coordinates and promotes sustainable forest management the United Nations Statistical Commission which co ordinates information gathering efforts between agencies and the Commission on Sustainable Development which co ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working towards sustainable development ECOSOC may also grant consultative status to nongovernmental organizations 123 as of April 2021 close to 5 600 organizations have this status 125 126 Specialized agencies Main article List of specialized agencies of the United Nations The UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the United Nations can establish various specialized agencies to fulfil its duties 127 Specialized agencies are autonomous organizations working with the United Nations and each other through the co ordinating machinery of the Economic and Social Council Each was integrated into the UN system through an agreement with the UN under UN Charter article 57 128 There are fifteen specialized agencies which perform functions as diverse as facilitating international travel preventing and addressing pandemics and promoting economic development 129 b Specialized agencies of the United Nations No Acronym Agency Headquarters Head Established in1 FAO Food and Agriculture Organization Rome Italy Qu Dongyu 19452 ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization Montreal Quebec Canada Juan Carlos Salazar 19473 IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development Rome Italy Alvaro Lario 19774 ILO International Labour Organization Geneva Switzerland Gilbert Houngbo 1946 1919 5 IMO International Maritime Organization London United Kingdom Kitack Lim 19486 IMF International Monetary Fund Washington D C United States Kristalina Georgieva 1945 1944 7 ITU International Telecommunication Union Geneva Switzerland Houlin Zhao 1947 1865 8 UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Paris France Audrey Azoulay 19469 UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization Vienna Austria Gerd Muller 196710 UNWTO World Tourism Organization Madrid Spain Zurab Pololikashvili 197411 UPU Universal Postal Union Bern Switzerland Masahiko Metoki 1947 1874 12 WBG World Bank Group Washington D C United States David Malpass president 1945 1944 13 WHO World Health Organization Geneva Switzerland Tedros Adhanom 194814 WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization Geneva Switzerland Daren Tang 197415 WMO World Meteorological Organization Geneva Switzerland Petteri Taalas secretary general Gerhard Adrian de president 1950 1873 Other bodies The United Nations system includes a myriad of autonomous separately administered funds programmes research and training institutes and other subsidiary bodies 130 Each of these entities have their own area of work governance structure and budget several such as the World Trade Organization WTO and the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA operate independently of the UN but maintain formal partnership agreements The UN performs much of its humanitarian work through these institutions such as preventing famine and malnutrition World Food Programme protecting vulnerable and displaced people UNHCR and combating the HIV AIDS pandemic UNAIDS 131 MembershipMain article Member states of the United Nations 193 UN Member States 2 UN Observer States Palestine Vatican 2 eligible Non Member States Niue Cook Islands 17 non self governing territories Antarctica international territory All the world s undisputed independent states apart from Vatican City are members of the United Nations 6 c South Sudan which joined 14 July 2011 is the most recent addition bringing a total of 193 UN member states 132 The UN Charter outlines the rules for membership 1 Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace loving states that accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and in the judgment of the Organization are able and willing to carry out these obligations 2 The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council Chapter II Article 4 133 Under Sukarno Indonesia was the first and only country to leave the United Nations In addition there are two non member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly the Holy See which holds sovereignty over Vatican City and the State of Palestine 134 The Cook Islands and Niue both states in free association with New Zealand are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their full treaty making capacity recognized by the Secretariat 135 Indonesia was the first and the only nation to withdraw its membership from the United Nations in protest to the election of Malaysia as a non permanent member of the Security Council in 1965 during conflict between the two countries 136 After forming CONEFO as a short lived rival to the UN Indonesia resumed its full membership in 1966 Group of 77 Main article Group of 77 The Group of 77 G77 at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations designed to promote its members collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the UN Seventy seven nations founded the organization but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries 137 The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the Joint Declaration of the Seventy Seven Countries issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD The group held its first major meeting in Algiers in 1967 where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional structures 138 With the adoption of the New International Economic Order by developing countries in the 1970s the work of the G77 spread throughout the UN system Similar groupings of developing states also operate in other UN agencies such as the Group of 24 G 24 which operates in the IMF on monetary affairs ObjectivesPeacekeeping and security Main articles United Nations peacekeeping and List of United Nations peacekeeping missions The UN after approval by the Security Council sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities Since the UN does not maintain its own military peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed Blue Helmets for their distinctive gear 139 140 Peacekeeping forces as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988 141 A Nepalese soldier on a peacekeeping deployment providing security at a rice distribution site in Haiti during 2010 The UN has carried out 71 peacekeeping operations since 1947 as of April 2021 over 88 000 peacekeeping personnel from 121 nations were deployed on 12 missions mostly in Africa 142 The largest is the United Nations Mission in South Sudan UNMISS which has close to 19 200 uniformed personnel 143 the smallest the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan UNMOGIP consists of 113 civilians and experts charged with monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization UNTSO have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948 the longest running active peacekeeping mission 144 A study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts It compared efforts at nation building by the UN to those of the United States and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace as compared with four out of eight U S cases at peace 145 Also in 2005 the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War and presented evidence albeit circumstantial that international activism mostly spearheaded by the UN has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period 146 Situations in which the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War 1950 53 and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Gulf War 1990 91 147 Further studies published between 2008 and 2021 determined UN peacekeeping operations to be more effective at ensuring long lasting peace and minimizing civilian casualties 148 The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures In many cases member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971 149 the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s 150 and the Rwandan genocide in 1994 151 Similarly UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992 93 during the Somali Civil War 152 UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape soliciting prostitutes and sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 153 Haiti 154 Liberia 155 Sudan and what is now South Sudan 156 Burundi and Cote d Ivoire 157 Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010s Haiti cholera outbreak which killed more than 8 000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake 158 In addition to peacekeeping the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament Regulation of armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and economic resources for their creation 105 The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction 159 The UN has been involved with arms limitation treaties such as the Outer Space Treaty 1967 the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 1968 the Seabed Arms Control Treaty 1971 the Biological Weapons Convention 1972 the Chemical Weapons Convention 1992 and the Ottawa Treaty 1997 which prohibits landmines 160 Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues the International Atomic Energy Agency the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission 161 Additionally many peacekeeping missions focus on disarmament several operations in West Africa disarmed roughly 250 000 former combatants and secured tens of thousands of weapons and millions of munitions 162 Human rights One of the UN s primary purposes is promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race sex language or religion and member states pledge to undertake joint and separate action to protect these rights 127 163 Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1949 In 1948 the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights drafted by a committee headed by American diplomat and activist Eleanor Roosevelt and including the French lawyer Rene Cassin The document proclaims basic civil political and economic rights common to all human beings though its effectiveness towards achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting 164 The Declaration serves as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations rather than a legally binding document but it has become the basis of two binding treaties the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights 165 In practice the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses 166 In 1979 the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 167 With the end of the Cold War the push for human rights action took on new impetus 168 The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993 to oversee human rights issues for the UN following the recommendation of that year s World Conference on Human Rights Jacques Fomerand a scholar of the UN describes this organization s mandate as broad and vague with only meagre resources to carry it out 169 In 2006 it was replaced by a Human Rights Council consisting of 47 nations 170 Also in 2006 the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 171 and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people 172 Other UN bodies responsible for women s rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of Women a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946 the United Nations Development Fund for Women created in 1976 and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women founded in 1979 173 The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee issues related to indigenous peoples held its first session in 2002 174 Economic development and humanitarian assistance Millennium Development Goals 175 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Achieve universal primary education Promote gender equality and empower women Reduce child mortality Improve maternal health Combat HIV AIDS malaria and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability Develop a global partnership for developmentAnother primary purpose of the UN is to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic social cultural or humanitarian character 163 Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC 176 In 2000 the 192 UN member states agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015 177 The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals 81 The SDGs have an associated financing framework called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda The UN Development Programme UNDP an organization for grant based technical assistance founded in 1945 is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development The organization also publishes the UN Human Development Index a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty literacy education life expectancy and other factors 178 179 The Food and Agriculture Organization FAO also founded in 1945 promotes agricultural development and food security 180 UNICEF the United Nations Children s Fund was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the convention on the Rights of the Child 181 182 Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme reading the news that smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1980 The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund IMF are independent specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework according to a 1947 agreement 183 They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944 184 The World Bank provides loans for international development while the IMF promotes international economic co operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries 185 In Jordan UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp The World Health Organization WHO which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication is another of the UN s largest agencies In 1980 the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed In subsequent decades WHO largely eradicated polio river blindness and leprosy 186 The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV AIDS UNAIDS begun in 1996 co ordinates the organization s response to the AIDS epidemic 187 The UN Population Fund which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV is the world s largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services 188 Along with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement the UN often takes a leading role in co ordinating emergency relief 189 The World Food Programme WFP created in 1961 provides food aid in response to famine natural disasters and armed conflict The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million people in 80 nations each year 189 190 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR established in 1950 works to protect the rights of refugees asylum seekers and stateless people 191 UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments corporations and individuals though the UNHCR s administrative costs are paid for by the UN s primary budget 192 Environment and climate Further information United Nations Environment Programme United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Beginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme UNEP in 1972 the UN has made environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Brazil which sought to give new impetus to these efforts 193 In 1988 the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization WMO another UN organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which assesses and reports on research on global warming 194 The UN sponsored Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying states 195 Other global issues Since the UN s creation over 80 colonies have attained independence The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers The UN works towards decolonization through groups including the UN Committee on Decolonization created in 1962 196 The committee lists seventeen remaining non self governing territories the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara 197 The UN also declares and co ordinates international observances that bring awareness to issues of international interest or concern examples include World Tuberculosis Day Earth Day and the International Year of Deserts and Desertification 198 FundingTop 25 contributors to the United Nations budget for the period 2019 2021 199 Member state Contribution of UN budget United States 22 000 China 12 005 Japan 8 564 Germany 6 090 United Kingdom 4 567 France 4 427 Italy 3 307 Brazil 2 948 Canada 2 734 Russia 2 405 South Korea 2 267 Australia 2 210 Spain 2 146 Turkey 1 371 Netherlands 1 356 Mexico 1 292 Saudi Arabia 1 172 Switzerland 1 151 Argentina 0 915 Sweden 0 906 India 0 834 Belgium 0 821 Poland 0 802 Algeria 0 788 Norway 0 754Other member states 12 168The UN budget for 2022 was 3 1 billion not including additional resources donated by members such as peacekeeping forces 200 201 The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay as measured by its gross national income GNI with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income 202 The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to finance its operations Thus there is a ceiling rate setting the maximum amount that any member can be assessed for the regular budget In December 2000 the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to pressure from the United States As part of that revision the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25 to 22 203 For the least developed countries LDCs a ceiling rate of 0 01 is applied 202 In addition to the ceiling rates the minimum amount assessed to any member nation or floor rate is set at 0 001 of the UN budget 31 000 for the two year budget 2021 2022 204 205 A large share of the UN s expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget 206 The peacekeeping budget for the 2021 2022 fiscal year is 6 38 billion supporting 75 224 personnel deployed in 10 missions worldwide 207 UN peace operations are funded by assessments using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members who must approve all peacekeeping operations This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries The largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping budget for 2020 2021 are the United States 27 89 China 15 21 Japan 8 56 Germany 6 09 the United Kingdom 5 78 France 5 61 Italy 3 30 Russia 3 04 Canada 2 73 and South Korea 2 26 208 Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments corporations and private individuals 209 210 Evaluations awards and criticismMain articles Reform of the United Nations and Reform of the United Nations Security Council See also Criticism of the United Nations The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the UN diploma in the lobby of the UN Headquarters in New York City Evaluations In evaluating the UN as a whole Jacques Fomerand writes that the accomplishments of the United Nations in the last 60 years are impressive in their own terms Progress in human development during the 20th century has been dramatic and the UN and its agencies have certainly helped the world become a more hospitable and livable place for millions 211 Evaluating the first 50 years of the UN s history the author Stanley Meisler writes that the United Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless citing its role in decolonization and its many successful peacekeeping efforts 212 British historian Paul Kennedy states that while the organization has suffered some major setbacks when all its aspects are considered the UN has brought great benefits to our generation and will bring benefits to our children s and grandchildren s generations as well 213 Then French President Francois Hollande stated in 2012 that France trusts the United Nations She knows that no state no matter how powerful can solve urgent problems fight for development and bring an end to all crises France wants the UN to be the centre of global governance 214 In his 1953 address to the United States Committee for United Nations Day U S President Dwight D Eisenhower expressed the view that for all its flaws the United Nations represents man s best organized hope to substitute the conference table for the battlefield 215 UN peacekeeping missions are assessed to be generally successful An analysis of 47 peace operations by Virginia Page Fortna of Columbia University found that UN led conflict resolution usually resulted in long term peace 216 Political scientists Hanne Fjelde Lisa Hultman and Desiree Nilsson of Uppsala University studied twenty years of data on peacekeeping missions including in Lebanon the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic concluding that they were more effective at reducing civilian casualties than counterterrorism operations by nation states 217 Georgetown University professor Lise Howard postulates that UN peacekeeping operations are more effective due to their emphasis on verbal persuasion financial inducements and coercion short of offensive military force including surveillance and arrest which are likelier to change the behavior of warring parties 148 Awards A number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work Two secretaries general Dag Hammarskjold and Kofi Annan were each awarded the prize in 1961 and 2001 respectively as were Ralph Bunche 1950 a UN negotiator Rene Cassin 1968 a contributor to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull 1945 the latter for his role in the organization s founding Lester B Pearson the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs was awarded the prize in 1957 for his role in organizing the UN s first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis UNICEF won the prize in 1965 the International Labour Organization in 1969 the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988 the International Atomic Energy Agency which reports to the UN in 2005 and the UN supported Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded in 1954 and 1981 becoming one of only two recipients to win the prize twice The UN as a whole was awarded the prize in 2001 sharing it with Annan 218 In 2007 IPCC received the prize for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change 219 Criticism Role Marking of the UN s 70th anniversary Budapest 2015 In a sometimes misquoted statement U S President George W Bush stated in February 2003 referring to UN uncertainty towards Iraqi provocations under the Saddam Hussein regime that free nations will not allow the UN to fade into history as an ineffective irrelevant debating society 220 221 222 In 2020 former U S President Barack Obama in his memoir A Promised Land noted In the middle of the Cold War the chances of reaching any consensus had been slim which is why the U N had stood idle as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary or U S planes dropped napalm on the Vietnamese countryside Even after the Cold War divisions within the Security Council continued to hamstring the U N s ability to tackle problems Its member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia or prevent ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka 223 224 Since its founding there have been many calls for reform of the UN but little consensus on how to do so Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs while others want its role reduced to humanitarian work Representation and structure Core features of the UN apparatus such as the veto privileges of some nations in the Security Council are often described as fundamentally undemocratic contrary to the UN mission and a main cause of inaction on genocides and crimes against humanity 225 226 Jacques Fomerand states the most enduring divide in views of the UN is the North South split between richer Northern nations and developing Southern nations Southern nations tend to favour a more empowered UN with a stronger General Assembly allowing them a greater voice in world affairs while Northern nations prefer an economically laissez faire UN that focuses on transnational threats such as terrorism 227 There have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council s membership to be increased for different ways of electing the UN s secretary general and for a UN Parliamentary Assembly Exclusion of countries After World War II the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the U S as the government of France and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that created the new organization Future French president Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN famously calling it a machin contraption and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace preferring direct defence treaties between countries 228 Since 1971 the Republic of China ROC or Taiwan has been excluded from the UN and consistently denied membership in its reapplications Taiwanese citizens are also barred from entering UN facilities with ROC passports The UN officially adheres to the One China policy endorsed by most member states which recognizes the People s Republic of China PRC a permanent member of the UN Security Council as the only legitimate Chinese government 229 Critics allege that this position reflects a failure of the organization s development goals and guidelines 230 and it garnered renewed scrutiny during the COVID 19 pandemic when Taiwan was denied membership in the World Health Organization despite its relatively effective response to the virus 231 Support for Taiwan s inclusion is subject to pressure from the PRC which regards the territories administered by the ROC as their own territory 232 233 Independence Throughout the Cold War both the US and USSR repeatedly accused the UN of favouring the other In 1950 the USSR boycotted the organization in protest to China s seat at the UN Security Council being given to the anticommunist government of the Republic of China Three years later the Soviets effectively forced the resignation of UN Secretary General Trygve Lie by refusing to acknowledge his administration due to his support of the Korean War 234 Ironically the US had simultaneously scrutinized the UN for employing communists and Soviet sympathizers following a high profile accusation that Alger Hiss an American who had taken part in the establishment of the UN had been a Soviet spy US Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that the UN Secretariat under Secretary General Lie harbored American communists leading to further pressure that the UN chief resign 235 The US saw nascent opposition to the UN into the 1960s particularly among political conservatives with groups such as the John Birch Society alleging that the organization was an instrument for communism 236 Popular opposition to the UN was expressed through bumper stickers and signs with slogans such as Get the U S out of the U N and the U N out of the U S and You can t spell communism without U N 237 National sovereignty In the United States there were concerns about supposed threats to national sovereignty most notably promoted by the John Birch Society which mounted a nationwide campaign in opposition to the UN during the 1960s 238 239 240 Beginning in the 1990s the same concern appeared with the American Sovereignty Restoration Act which has been introduced multiple times in the United States Congress In 1997 an amendment containing the bill received a floor vote with 54 representatives voting in favor 241 242 The 2007 version of the bill H R 1146 was authored by U S Representative Ron Paul Republican of the 14th district of Texas to effect U S withdrawal from the United Nations It would repeal various laws pertaining to the UN terminate authorization for funds to be spent on the UN terminate UN presence on U S property and withdraw diplomatic immunity for UN employees 243 It would provide up to two years for the U S to withdraw 244 The Yale Law Journal cited the Act as proof that the United States s complaints against the United Nations have intensified 245 The most recent iteration as of 2022 is H R 7806 introduced by Rep Mike D Rogers 246 Bias The UN s attention to Israel s treatment of Palestinians is considered excessive by a range of critics including Israeli diplomat Dore Gold British scholar Robert S Wistrich American legal scholar Alan Dershowitz Australian politician Mark Dreyfus and the Anti Defamation League 247 In September 2015 Saudi Arabia s Faisal bin Hassan Trad was elected chair of an advisory committee in the UN Human Rights Council that appoints independent experts 248 a move criticized by human rights groups 249 250 The UNHRC has likewise been accused of anti Israel bias as it has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than the rest of the world combined 251 Effectiveness According to international relations scholar Edward Luck former director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University the United States has preferred a feeble United Nations in major projects undertaken by the organization so as to forestall UN interference with or resistance to American policies The last thing the U S wants is an independent U N throwing its weight around Luck said Similarly former US Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan explained that The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook The task was given to me and I carried it forward with not inconsiderable success 252 In 1994 former special representative of the secretary general of the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published Somalia The Missed Opportunities 253 a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia Sahnoun claims that between the start of the Somali civil war in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991 the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies when the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance they were totally outperformed by NGOs whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN s excessive caution and bureaucratic inefficiencies Sahnoun warned that if radical reform were not undertaken then the UN would continue to respond to such crises with inept improvisation 254 Beyond specific instances or areas of alleged ineffectiveness some scholars debate the overall effectiveness of the UN Adherents to the realist school of international relations take a pessimistic position arguing that the UN is not an effective organization because it is dominated and constrained by great powers Liberal scholars counter that it is an effective organization because it has proved capable of solving many problems by working around the restrictions imposed by powerful member states The UN is generally considered by scholars to be more effective in realms such as public health humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution 255 Inefficiency and corruption Critics have also accused the UN of bureaucratic inefficiency waste and corruption In 1976 the General Assembly established the Joint Inspection Unit to seek out inefficiencies within the UN system During the 1990s the US withheld dues citing inefficiency and only started repayment on the condition that a major reforms initiative be introduced In 1994 the Office of Internal Oversight Services OIOS was established by the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog 256 In 2004 the UN faced accusations that its recently ended Oil for Food Programme in which Iraq had been allowed to trade oil for basic needs to relieve the pressure of sanctions had suffered from widespread corruption including billions of dollars of kickbacks An independent inquiry created by the UN found that many of its officials had been involved in the scheme and raised significant questions about the role of Kojo Annan the son of Kofi Annan 257 Model United NationsMain article Model United Nations The United Nations has inspired the extracurricular activity Model United Nations MUN MUN is a simulation of United Nations activity based on the UN agenda and following UN procedure It is usually attended by high school and university students who organize conferences to simulate the various UN committees to discuss important issues of the day 258 Today MUN educates tens of thousands on the activities of the UN around the world MUN has many famous and notable alumni such as former UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon 259 See also Politics portal World portalInternational relations List of country groupings List of current Permanent Representatives to the United Nations List of multilateral free trade agreements United Nations in popular culture United Nations Memorial Cemetery United Nations television film series World Summit on the Information Society Spying on United Nations leaders by United States diplomats League of Nations UNICEFNotes Poland had not been represented among the fifty nations at the San Francisco conference due to the reluctance of the Western superpowers to recognize its post war communist government However the Charter was later amended to list Poland as a founding member and Poland ratified the Charter on 16 October 1945 39 40 Some sources identify seventeen specialized agencies taking into account the three specialized agencies that make up the World Bank Group which is now treated 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New York University Press ISBN 978 0814707944 Osmanczyk Edmund Jan 2004 Mango Anthony ed Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements Vol 4 Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 0415939249 Schlesinger Stephen C 2003 Act of Creation The Founding of the United Nations A Story of Super Powers Secret Agents Wartime Allies and Enemies and Their Quest for a Peaceful World Boulder Colorado Westview Press ISBN 978 0813333243 Sherwood Robert E 1948 Roosevelt and Hopkins An Intimate History New York Harper and Brothers Weiss Thomas G Daws Sam eds 2009 2007 The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199560103 Wistrich Robert S 2010 A Lethal Obsession Anti Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad New York Random House ISBN 978 1400060979 Further readingLowe Vaughan Roberts Adam Welsh Jennifer Zaum Dominik eds 2008 The United Nations Security Council and War The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199533435 Mazower Mark 2009 No Enchanted Palace The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations Princeton University Press Roberts Adam Kingsbury Benedict eds 1994 United Nations Divided World The UN s Roles in International Relations 2nd ed Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0198279266 External linksUnited Nations at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Travel information from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Records of the UN Registry at the United Nations ArchivesOfficial websites Official website in English French Spanish Arabic Chinese and Russian The United Nations Regional Information Centre UNRIC United Nations Volunteers United Nations Documentation Research Guide Official YouTube channel English Others Searchable archive of UN discussions and votes United Nations Association of the UK independent policy authority on the UN Website of the Global Policy Forum independent think tank on the UN UN Watch NGO monitoring UN activities UN Coronavirus page United Nations COVID 19 Statement Works by or about United Nations at Internet Archive Works by United Nations at LibriVox public domain audiobooks United Nations on Nobelprize org Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title United Nations amp oldid 1132164662, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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