The United Nations

Nations usually sign conventions to settle disputes among them. Yet, an arena is required to stimulate dialogue and decision-making on more complicated global issues, including global stability and advancing human rights for mankind. One such organisation is indeed the United Nations (UN).

The United Nations is a worldwide organisation formed in 1945 by 51 members to prevent war, develop cordial relations between nations, and promote social advances, improved livelihoods, and civil rights.

The United Nations

The United Nations is a global organisation that was founded in 1945, soon after WWII ended. It was founded by 51 nations to promote diplomatic relations during international crises and to propose recommendations on global challenges. The United Nations, like other organisations, was founded to achieve certain aims and objectives: peace & security, human rights, law and order, and development.

United Nations History and its Founding Members

•  With the proclamation of St James’s Palace in 1941, the United Nations was born. The Axis powers were at their lowest point in the Second World War, and also, the proclamation expressed hope that peace might be won for coming generations.
• This was approved by delegates from the expelled government agencies of Poland, Luxembourg, Norway, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia.
•  Following then, a sequence of events took place. The ideas for a replacement institution and an initiative for the League of Nations were given additional length at each.
• In October 1944, the United Kingdom, China, the USSR, and the United States convened in Washington, DC, for the Dumbarton Oaks summit, when the structure of organisation and protocols were created.

Functions of UN and its Principal Organs

The primary organs of the UN are 

• The General Assembly

• The United Nations Security Council

• •  The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• The Trusteeship Council

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

•  The United Nations Secretariat

When the United Nations was constituted in 1945, all six were established.

1. General Assembly – A General Assembly is the United Nations’ principal consultative, regulatory, and representational body. The General Assembly is the only UN institution with comprehensive membership, with all 193 UN Member States participating.
2. The United Nations Security Council – Under the UN Charter, it has direct responsibility for maintaining peace and security.  There are fifteen representatives, with five permanent nations (The United States, USSR, France, China, and Great Britain) and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms but by National Convention on a regional level.
3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – It is the main body in charge of development cooperation, evaluation, discourse, and suggestions on economic, political, and environmental concerns, as well as the achievement of globally accepted development objectives. It has members that the General Assembly chooses over three-year periods that overlap. It is also the United Nations’ premier venue for sustainability study, discussion, and new thinking.
4. Trusteeship Council – The United Nations Charter, Chapter XIII, was created in 1945. The Trusteeship Commission of the United Nations has authority and power over non-self-governing territories. A-League of Nations commission was a legal recognition for specific regions that were handed from one country’s sovereignty to another after World War I or even the legal documents that included the internationally accepted rules for governing the country under the authority of the United nations.
5. International Court of Justice (ICJ) – The International Court of Justice seems to be the United Nations’ main legal authority. The United Nations Charter created this in July 1945, and it commenced functioning in May 1946. The ICJ has been the replacement for the League of Nations’ Permanent Court of Arbitration, which also was created in 1920.
6. Secretariat – The Secretary-General, with hundreds of thousands of global UN employees, makes up the Secretariat, which carries out all the UN’s day-to-day duties as required by the General Assembly or even the Organisation’s other primary institutions.

Besides these broad institutions, the UN also has several specialist institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), and others that operate towards a specific goal.

What are the UN’s Key Problems?

Throughout its history, the United Nations has faced several problems. There is no single issue that causes these problems now, but instead, a complex set of variables that makes the UN’s role of promoting global peace challenging. The following are some of the obstacles to the UN’s efforts for world peace:

1. Aggressiveness and Stubbornness in Geopolitics: Disputes are getting more prevalent, and hostile global powers are increasingly amplifying them by supporting proxy organisations to fight a war abroad.
2. Military Intervention Legacies: Military conflict or military coup have been unable to provide sustainable peace or combat fundamentalist organisations, despite being framed towards counter-terrorism, humanitarian protection, or the removal of renegade regimes. This has created a climate of suspicion toward any UN action.
3. Fear of Forcible Relocation: As frightened individuals evacuate war-torn countries, the effects of forced relocation are felt most acutely in nearby countries, which are attempting to handle the situation as best humanity can. Meanwhile, Western leaders are rushing to bolster borders and armed security guards in transit nations so that they can lock their borders and keep the problem at bay.
4. Humanitarianism in Serious Risk: Humanitarians, without question, have such a difficult job. With few resources, the UN and the other countries and their organisations are putting in huge efforts to aid war victims. However, they are still incapable of protecting human ideals, assisting in conflict prevention, or enabling individuals impacted by humanitarian disasters to take action.

Conclusion 

Despite its numerous flaws, the United Nations has played a critical role in making humankind more civilised, stable, and safe since its inception during World War II. As the world’s greatest democracy body of all nations, the United Nations bears a significant duty to humanity in terms of creating a civilised society, infrastructure prosperity for people living in extreme poverty, and environmental preservation in the face of climate change.