I THE UNITED NATIONS

- The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. 

It is currently made up of 193 Member States.
-   The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the
purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.
- The United Nations can take action on the issues confronting
humanity, such as: peace and security, climate change, sustainable
development, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, humanitarian
and health emergencies, gender equality, governance, food
production, and more.
- The UN's Chief Administrative Officer is the Secretary-General.
- The UN also provides a forum for its members to express their views in the
General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council,
and other bodies and committees. By enabling dialogue between its
members, and by hosting negotiations, the Organization has become a
mechanism for governments to find areas of agreement and solve problems
together.
- 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

II Main Organs
The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council,
the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International
Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.  All were established in 1945  when
the UN was founded. 

1 General Assembly
- All 193 Member States of the Organization are represented in the General
Assembly - one of the six main organs of the UN - to discuss and work
together on a wide array of international issues covered by the Charter
of the United Nations, such as development, peace and security,
international law,…. Decisions on important questions, require have to
agree a two-thirds majority Member States of the General Assembly.
 - Every year in September, all the Members meet in this unique forum at
Headquarters in New York for the General Assembly session.
- Sitting arrangements in the General Assembly Hall change for each session.
- The General Assembly, each year, elects a GA President to serve a one-year
term of office.

2 Security Council
- The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of
international peace and security.
- There are 15 Members in SC (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent
members). Each Member has one vote, all Member States are obligated to
comply with Council decisions.
- The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a
threat to the peace or act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a
dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of
adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, the Security Council
can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to
maintain or restore international peace and security.
- The Security Council has a Presidency, which rotates, and changes, every
month.

3 Economic and Social Council

- The Economic and Social Council is the principal body for coordination,
policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on economic, social and
environmental issues, as well as implementation of internationally agreed
development goals.

- It has 54 Members, elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms. It

is the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative
thinking on sustainable development.

- ECOSOC was established by the UN Charter (1945). ECOSOC membership is

based on geographic representation: 14 seats are allocated to Africa, 11 to Asia, 6
to eastern Europe, 10 to Latin America and the Caribbean, and 13 to western
Europe and other areas.

- Decisions are taken by simple majority vote.

- The presidency of ECOSOC changes annually.

- Most of ECOSOC’s work is performed in functional commissions on topics

such as human rights, narcotics, population, social development, statistics, the
status of women, and science and technology; the council also oversees
regional commissions for Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Western Asia, Latin
America, and Africa.

- The UN charter allows ECOSOC to grant consultative status to

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

4 Trusteeship Council
- The Trusteeship Council was established in 1945 by the UN Charter, under
Chapter XIII, to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that
had been placed under the administration of seven Member States, and
ensure that adequate steps were taken to prepare the Territories for self -
government and independence.
- By 1994, all Trust Territories had attained self-government or independence.
The Trusteeship Council suspended operation on 1 November 1994.
( “By a resolution adopted on 25 May 1994, the Council amended its rules of
procedure to drop the obligation to meet annually and agreed to meet as
occasion required -- by its decision or the decision of its President, or at the
request of a majority of its members or the General Assembly or the Security
Council.”  thông tin bổ sung, không nói cũng được )

- Trusteeship Council is one of the main organs of the United Nations and
assigned to it the task of supervising the administration of Trust Territories
placed under the Trusteeship System.
- The main goals of the System were to promote the advancement of the
inhabitants of Trust Territories and their progressive development towards
self-government or independence. The Trusteeship Council is made up of the
five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, the Russian
Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- Under the Charter, the Trusteeship Council is authorized to examine and
discuss reports from the Administering Authority on the political, economic,
social and educational advancement of the peoples of Trust Territories and, in
consultation with the Administering Authority, to examine petitions from and
undertake periodic and other special missions to Trust Territories.

- At the beginning of each session the Trusteeship Council elects a President and a
Vice-President from among the representatives of the members of the Council.

5 International Court of Justice

The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six
principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York
(United States of America).
- The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United
Nations.
- The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal
disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal
questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized
agencies.
- The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year
terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
Moreover, the Court as a whole must represent the main forms of civilization
and the principal legal systems of the world. These organs vote simultaneously
but separately.
- In order to ensure a measure of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every
three years. Judges are eligible for re-election.
6 Secretariat
- The Secretariat comprises the Secretary-General and tens of thousands of
international UN staff members who carry out the day-to-day work of the UN
as mandated by the General Assembly and the Organization's other principal
organs.
- The Secretariat carries out the substantive and administrative work of the
United Nations as directed by the General Assembly, the Security Council and
the other organs. At its head is the Secretary-General, who provides overall
administrative guidance.

- The main functions of the - Secretariat are:

+ To gather and prepare background information on various issues so that

government delegates can study the facts and make recommendations.

+ To help carry out the decisions made by the different organs of the United
Nations.

+ To organize international conferences.

+ To translate speeches and distribute documents into the UN’s official

languages.

+To keep the public informed about the work of the United Nations.

- Under the Charter, each Member State undertakes to respect the exclusively
international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and
the staff and to refrain from seeking to influence them improperly in the
discharge of their duties.

- The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly on the

recommendation of the Security Council for a period of five years. the
Secretary-General is a symbol of United Nations ideals and a spokesman for the
interests of the world's peoples.

- The Secretary-General’s functions include:

+ Bringing any problem that threatens world peace to the attention of the
Security Council.

+ Proposing issues to be discussed by the General .

+ Assembly or any other organ of the United Nations.

+ Acting as a referee in disputes between Member States.

- Each Secretary-General also defines his role within the context of his
particular time in office.

Leadership
. The current Secretary-General of the UN, and the ninth occupant of the
post, is Mr. António Guterres of Portugal, who took office on 1 January 2017.
The UN Charter describes the Secretary-General as "chief administrative
officer" of the Organization.

Funds, Programmes, Specialized Agencies and Others

- The UN system is made up of the UN itself and many programmes, funds, and
specialized agencies, all with their own leadership and budget.
- The programmes and funds are financed through voluntary.
III UN IN VIỆT NAM ( phần này nếu còn thời gian nói thoáng qua, không thì
thôi )
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

1. UN and the Nobel Peace Prize

In 70 years, the United Nations, its specialised agencies, related agencies, funds,
programmes and staff were awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize eleven
times. One agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) received the famous prize in both 1954 and 1981. Two Secretaries-
General, Kofi Annan and Dag Hammarskjöld, were also honoured for their work
by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

2. UN and Vietnam

On September 20, 1977, Vietnam became an official member of the United

Nations (UN). This marked the recognition by the largest global organisation and
the international community of a peaceful, unified, independent, free and
democratic Vietnam.
Over the past four decades, Vietnam and the UN have always strived to nurture
and build an increasingly better cooperative relationship with positive results
and great potential for development.

Vietnam has received tremendous support from the UN and its members and
demonstrated itself as an active and responsible member of the international
community.

After the liberation of the south and national reunification, Vietnam had to both
deal with severe war consequences and reorganise its poor and backward
economy and gradually restore production.

Joining the UN was a great event that helped Vietnam establish its stature in the
international arena. Vietnam has made a contribution to protecting the cause of
peace, development and progress and has taken full advantage of the great
spiritual and material support from international organisations for the
reconstruction of the country during the tough years following the war and
sanctions.