The United Nations is an
international body whose prime objective is to achieve international
cooperation, facilitate international law, maintain international peace and
security, economic development, social progress and protection of human rights.
The United Nations was established after the World War II with the signing of
United Nations Charter by 50 countries on 26 June, 1945. Later Poland signed on
15 October, 1945 that led to 51 Founding members. It is the largest and most
powerful intergovernmental organization in the world.
The winning countries of
World War II together established the United Nations with the aim of
intervening in international conflict.
They wanted that no war like World War II would ever emerge again in
future. The most powerful countries of Security Council in the composition of
United States (the United States,
France, Russia, and the United Kingdom) were the most important countries in
the Second World War.
Currently, there are 193
countries in the United Nations including majority of internationally
recognized countries of the world. The
composition of this institution includes General Assembly, Security Council,
Economic and Social Council, Secretariat and International Court of Justice.
The main body of the U.N. is the general assembly, where representatives from
all of the nations discuss matters of global importance.
The UN’s chief
administrative officer is the Secretary-General and has a tenure of 5 years.
It’s member nations provide finance for the smooth functioning of this
institution on a voluntary basis.
History
The League of Nations was formed in 1929 after the First World War. The League of Nations was largely ineffective and it has the great advantage of the UN being in its place that the United Nations can deploy the armies of its member states to maintain peace.
Ideas about the United Nations first emerged during World War II. The countries that won the Second World War together tried to make some decisions about the structure, membership etc. of this institution.
On 24 April 1945, after the end of the Second
World War, the United Nations Conference of International Organizations took
place in San Francisco, USA and all 50 countries present signed the United
Nations Convention. Poland was not
present at the conference, but a special place was kept for his signature and
later Poland also signed it. The United
Nations came into existence after the Security Council signed five permanent
countries.
Membership
Till 2006 the UN has 192
member countries. Almost all recognized
countries in the world are the core members of the institution. South Sudan is
the latest addition which became a member on July 2011 and takes the tally to
193 member countries.
At present there are 193
permanent members and 2 observer states of the Unites Nations General Assembly
: the Holy See (which holds sovereignty over Vatican City) and
the State of Palestine.
Rules for Membership
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.
UN Headquarter
The headquarter of the
United Nations is established in New York City, USA on a land purchased for
eighty-five million dollars. The establishment of this building was managed by
a group of international artisans. Apart from this headquarters, other
important institutions are also in Geneva, Copenhagen etc.
These institutions are not
independent jurisdictions of the United Nations, but they are given
considerable freedoms.
Languages
The United Nations has
recognized six languages as “official languages” (Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish), but only two of these languages i.e. English and
French are considered operating languages.
At the time of
establishment, only four official languages were accepted (Chinese, English,
French, Russian) and in 1973 Arabic and Spanish were also added. Controversy
arose about these languages. Some people believe that the number of official
languages should be reduced from 6 to 1 (English), but its opponents believe
that the official languages should be increased. Many believe that Hindi should
also be included as the official language of the UN.
The United Nations uses
British English in place of American English. Traditional letters of the
Chinese language were in use until 1971, because until then, the Taiwanese
government of the United Nations was considered an official government of
China. When the present-day Chinese
government was adopted in place of Taiwan, the United Nations began using the
simplified alphabet.
=>India is demanding
from a long time to grant the status of an official language to Hindi. The
reason provided in this regard is that Hindi is the second largest spoken
language in the world.
Objectives
The main objectives of the
United Nations are: to prevent war, to protect human rights, to raise
international legal process, social and economic development, to improve living
standards and cure for the emancipation of diseases, to remind the member
nation of international concerns and to give a chance to handle international
affairs. To fulfill these objectives, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was ratified in 1948.
Human Rights
One of the UN’s prime
objective is “to promote and encourage 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.
After the genocide of
World War II, the United Nations considered human rights very important. Considering it important to prevent such
incidents in future, in 1948 the General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. This non-binding declaration establishes equal
status for the whole world, which is what the United Nations will try to
support.
On 15 March 2006, the
General Assembly abandoned the United Nations Human Rights Commission and
established the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Today there are seven
union bodies in relation to human rights.
These seven bodies are :-
1. Human Rights Parliament
2. Parliament of Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights
3. Caste Discrimination
Expulsion Parliament
4. Discrimination against
Women Parliament
5. Parliament Against
Torture
6. Children’s Rights
Parliament
7. Overseas Employees
Parliament
Peacekeeping
The UN sends peacekeepers
to regions where armed conflict (violence) has recently stopped or paused to
enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage warriors from resuming
hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping
forces are voluntarily provided by member states. The peacekeeping force as a
whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.
There are only two nations
in the world that have participated in every peacekeeping task: Canada and
Portugal. The United Nations does not maintain an independent army.
Every act of peacekeeping
is approved by the Security Council.
The founders of the United
Nations had high hopes that they would stop the war forever, but at the time of
the Cold War (1945-1951), it was very difficult to maintain a peacekeeping
solidarity due to the division of the world into opposing parts.
UN Women
The formation of UN Women
as a single agency within the world body was approved on 4 July 2010 with the
aim of promoting the issue of women’s equality in the world. It was originally
founded on 1 January 2011.
Headquarters is built in
New York City, USA. The current head of
UN Women is Michelle Bachelet, former Prime Minister of Chile. The main task of the institution will be to
remove all forms of discrimination against women and to make efforts towards
their empowerment. It is noteworthy that
India’s Vijayalakshmi Pandit has the distinction of being the first woman
President of the 8th United Nations General Assembly in 1953.
The new entity has been
named UN Women by merging 4 UN organizations. These organizations are as
follows:
1. United Nations Women
Development Fund 1976
2. Women’s Promotion
Division 1946
3. Office of the Special
Advisor on Gender Based Issues 1997
4. United Nations
International Research and Training Institute for the Promotion of Women 1976
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