UNITED NATIONS

Introduction:

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to

maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve
international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the
largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental
organization in the world. The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City,
with its other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna and The Hague. The UN was established
after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars, succeeding the ineffective League of
Nations. 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. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; this
number grew to 193 in 2011, representing almost all of the world's sovereign states.

The predecessor entity to the UN was the League of Nations. The League of Nations was
established during WWI in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles (one of the peace treaties adopted
at the end of WWI). The League of Nations' goal was to encourage cooperation between
countries and keep international peace and security. Unfortunately, the League of Nations
failed to prevent WWII and, therefore, was seen as a failure.

Purposes:

The UN Charter sets out four main purposes:

1. Maintaining worldwide peace and security

2. Developing relations among nations
3. Fostering cooperation between nations in order to solve economic, social, cultural, or
humanitarian international problems
4. Providing a forum for bringing countries together to meet the UN's purposes and goals

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. 

General Assembly: The General Assembly is the main policymaking body of the U.N. that votes
on decisions the organization makes. All 193 members are represented in this branch.
Security Council: This 15-member council oversees measures that ensure the maintenance of
international peace and security. The Security Council determines if a threat exists and
encourages the parties involved to settle it peacefully.
Economic and Social Council: The Economic and Social Council makes policies and
recommendations regarding economic, social and environmental issues. It consists of 54
members who are elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms.
Trusteeship Council: The Trusteeship Council was originally created to supervise the 11 Trust
Territories that were placed under the management of seven member states. By 1994, all the
territories had gained self-government or independence, and the body was suspended. But that
same year, the Council decided to continue meeting occasionally, instead of annually.
International Court of Justice: This branch is responsible for settling legal disputes submitted by
the states and answering questions in accordance with international law.
Secretariat: The Secretariat is made up of the Secretary-General and thousands of U.N. staffers.
Its members carry out the daily duties of the U.N. and work on international peacekeeping
missions.

Success of the UN:

The U.N. has an impressive record of resolving many international conflicts. U.N. peacekeepers
have, since 1945, undertaken over 60 field missions and negotiated 172 peaceful settlements
that ended regional conflicts. Right now, peacekeepers are in 20 hot spots around the world
trying to save lives and avert wars.

The U.N. also fought for the liberation of countries that have been under colonial rule for over
450 years. Eighty nations and more than 750 million people have since been freed from
colonialism.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowered the U.N. to act as custodian for
the protection of human rights, discrimination against women, children’s rights, torture,
missing persons and arbitrary detention that was occurring in many countries.

Moreover, the U.N. and its specialised agencies are engaged in enhancing all aspects of human
life, including education, health, poverty reduction, the rights of women and children, and
climate change.

As a result, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded 12 times to the U.N., its specialised agencies,
programmes and staff. This included an award in 1988 to the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces, and in
2001 to the U.N. and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

The U.N. defined, codified and expanded the realm of international law, governing the legal
responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other, and their treatment of individuals
within State boundaries. More than 560 multilateral treaties on human rights, refugees,
disarmament, trade, oceans, outer space, etc. encompassing all aspects of international affairs
were negotiated by the U.N.

The U.N. has made progress with its eight Millennium Development Goals, which will be
followed by 17 Sustainable Development Goals to enhance social, environmental and economic
progress by 2030. But it could not stop the United States from abandoning the Kyoto Protocol,
ignoring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, repudiating the Biological Weapons
Convention, and repealing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Since the foundation of the United Nations, its role was ranging from positive to negative
regarding various issues and crises in different fields. It made a lot of remarkable achievements
and witnessed the signature of various conventions and treaties. Among its political
achievements is avoiding the eruption of a third world war, delivering aid and food for
Palestinian civilians since 1950 through the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for
Palestinan refugees (UNRWA).

In addition, it helped in ending the triple aggression on Egypt in 1956 and establishing the
World food program (WFP) in 1960. It also helped in ending the civil war in Salvatore, ending
the conflict between Iraq and Iran during the Persian Gulf War in 1980s, and demolition of
Berlin Wall and Germany’s unification in 1989. Furthermore, it played a vital role in sending 42
peacekeeping troops and monitoring ceasefire in conflict zones and unstable areas, resulting in
rewarding the peacekeeping forces with Nobel Prize for peace in 1988. Last but not least, it
contributed to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1990s.

United Nations Commission on Human Rights enhanced democracy and free elections in more
than 45 countries through its investigations and technical assistance. United Nations also
witnessed the signature of dozens of significant conventions and treaties on the political,
humanitarian, environmental and diplomatic levels. Among them in the political and
humanitarian fields are the , the signature of Refugees’ Convention in 1951 regarding the rights
granted for the refuges during conflicts and managing many refugees’ crises after World War
Two, and signing a very important treaty which was the treaty on the Non- Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons in 1968 in order to enhance global safety through preventing the countries
from disseminating nuclear weapons and facilitating the implementation of the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s safeguards regarding peaceful nuclear experiments.

Moreover, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 was released to govern the
territorial boundaries of countries and the continental shelves, and the rights granted for each
country to utilize the international waters and its assigned economic zones.

On the environmental aspect, it took an important step towards climate change mitigation by
the signature of the Kyoto Protocolin Japan in 1998. It is considered to be the first measure
taken regarding climate issues to decrease the Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) and mitigate
the global warming phenomenon and it was a further development to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

On the diplomatic field, the United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and
Immunities (UNCDII) in Vienna witnessed the signature and ratification of three principle
conventions which are: “Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961”, “Vienna Convention
on Consular Relations and Optional Protocols 1963”, and “Vienna Convention on the diplomatic
representation of states in their relations with international organizations of a universal
character 197586”. Moreover, it witnessed the signature and ratification of many conventions
and statutes that established a lot of international organizations and courts like IOM, ICAO,
IAEA, ICC, and others.

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."

Failures of the UN:

The U.N. is not without shortcomings. In 1970, when the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT)
was signed by 190 nations, all five superpowers owned nuclear weapons. Later, despite the NPT
and Partial Test Ban Treaty, several countries – North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, and India –
developed nuclear weapons. This revealed the U.N.’s inability to enforce regulations on
offending nations.

Along similar lines, the U.N.’s International Court of Justice has resolved major international
disputes, but the U.N.’s veto powers have limited its effectiveness at critical times.

The International Criminal Court, established in 2002, has prosecuted several war criminals –
but it has been criticised for prosecuting only African leaders while Western powers too have
committed war crimes.

Dag Hammarskjold, secretary-general  from 1953-1961, said that the “U.N. was not created to
take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.” The U.N. has solved many violent
conflicts, prevented wars, and saved millions of lives but it also faced disappointments.

In Cambodia, a peacekeeping mission (1991–95) ended violence and established a democratic

government, but well after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge (1975-79) had executed over 2.5 million
people.
In Rwanda, over 800,000 were massacred in 100 days. In 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the
“safe zone” of Srebrenica and massacred 8,000 Muslim men and boys. In Darfur, an estimated
300,000 Sudanese civilians were killed. In Nigeria, Boko Haram has killed over 13,000 people.

A recent report by “Body Count” revealed that “in addition to one million deaths in Iraq, an
estimated 220,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan as a result of
US foreign policy”.

Last year, Israel attacked homes, schools, hospitals, and U.N. shelters in Gaza killing 2,200
Palestinians. Condemning that action, Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,
said that “Israel was deliberately defying international law in its military offensive in Gaza and
that world powers should hold it accountable for possible war crimes.” The U.N. Security
Council (SC) has failed as the United States vetoes any action against Israel.

The Arab Spring in the Middle East caused thousands of deaths and regime changes in Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Libya is devastated with over 40,000 deaths, and the civil war in Syria
has killed over 220,000 people. These wars have displaced over 50 million people. Now, ISIS has
infiltrated these countries causing gruesome killings, human rights abuses, and war crimes, at
an unprecedented rate.

These catastrophic events might have been prevented if the Member States of the U.N. had the
ability to resolutely act in a timely manner. But the U.N. is not a world government, and it does
not have a standing army of peace-keepers ready for deployment. And, it is the Member States
that make decisions at the U.N.

These setbacks clearly reflect the shortcomings of the U.N. Security Council, and its veto powers
that allow some members’ own interests to be placed ahead of the need to end a raging
conflict.

Navi Pillay, addressing the Security Council, said that “short-term geopolitical considerations
and national interest, narrowly defined, have repeatedly taken precedence over intolerable
human suffering and grave breaches of – and long-term threats to – international peace and
security.”

Challenges:

A great portion of these problems haven’t been solved until now because of several reasons,
one of them is the abuse of veto power by the permanent countries to refuse certain decisions
that are not in their interest, or in other words due to lack of cooperation and consensus among
the Security Council’s member countries and especially the powerful ones like Russia, USA and
European countries. The veto power is controversial. Supporters regard it as a promoter of
international stability, a check against military interventions and a critical safeguard against US
domination. Critics say that the veto is the most undemocratic element of the UN, as well as the
main cause of inaction on war crimes and crimes against humanity, as it prevents UN action
against notable human rights abuses of nations like China, Russia, Israel and the United States.

Another significant reason is the absence of clear clarification or the presence of some
deficiencies in some of the charter’s articles which hindered taking the quick, suitable and right
actions by the UN to handle these situations and crises, created problems of bureaucracy
concerning implementation, and paved the way for the powerful countries to implement them
according to their whims. A third reason is the existence of major administrative problems in
the institutional framework of the international organization as well as its recent exposure to
financial crises.

The Charter is vague in defining the duties of the secretary general, the United Nations’ top
official. He or she is expected to show no favoritism to any particular country, but the office is
largely dependent on the funding and the good will of the most powerful nations.

The Security Council — notably the P5 — chooses the secretary general, by secret ballot, to
serve a maximum of two five-year terms. This process makes it difficult for the role to be
independent of the P5’s influence.

The secretary general has no army to deploy, but what the position does enjoy is a bully pulpit.
If the officeholder is perceived as being independent, he or she is often the only person in the
world who can call warring parties to the peace table.

The current secretary general, António Guterres, a Portuguese statesman, took the reins this
year. He was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December
2015.

Reforms and Recommendations:

A very frequently discussed change to the UN structure is to change the permanent

membership of the UN Security Council, which reflects the power structure of the world as it
was in 1945.At another level, calls for reforming the UN demand to make the UN administration
(usually called the UN Secretariat or "the bureaucracy") more transparent, more accountable,
and more efficient, including direct election of the Secretary-General by the people as in
a presidential system.
UN Secretariat/administration reforms seldom get much attention in the media, though within
the Organization they are seen as widely contentious issues. They run the bureaucracy of the
UN, responding to the decisions by the Member States in the Security Council and the General
Assembly
Another frequent demand is that the UN become "more democratic", and a key institution of
a world democracy. This raises fundamental questions about the nature and role of the UN. The
UN is not a world government, rather a forum for the world's sovereign states to debate issues
and determine collective courses of action. A direct democracy would request the presidential
election of the UN Secretary-General by direct vote of the citizens of the democratic countries
(world presidentialism) as well as the General Assembly (just as cities, states and nations have
their own representatives in many systems, who attend specifically to issues relevant to the
given level of authority) and the International Court of Justice. Others have proposed a
combination of direct and indirect democracy, whereby national governments might ratify the
expressed will of the people for such important posts as an empowered World Court.
Implementation of population-based UN voting also raises the problems of diversity of interests
and governments of the various nations. The nations in the UN contain representative
democracies as well as absolute dictatorships and many other types of government. Allowing
large powers to vote their population's interests en bloc raises the question of whether they
would really represent the interests and desires of their individual citizens and the world
community. Anything like direct election would be impossible as well in the many nations
where an accurate direct vote would be impossible or where the local government has power
to influence the local voters as well as security of the ballot box. Giving the UN any kind of
actual governance power raises the question of how these powers could be carried out. What
would happen when a vote of the UN General Assembly demands changes in the borders or
political status of a nation, or requires citizens in some nations to tax themselves in favor of
other nations, or demands the arrest of the leader of a nation, and is met by refusal?

Conclusion:

During the last 70 years, geopolitics have changed drastically that call for reform of the U.N. –
to meet global needs and challenges of the 21st century. Member States accuse the Security
Council of being arrogant, secretive and undemocratic but the veto powers resist change.
Meanwhile, violations of the U.N. Charter by powerful countries continue to erode the
effectiveness of the United Nations. However, as mandated by its Charter, the U.N. has
prevented another World War. The U.N. has made impressive and unprecedented progress in
all aspects of human development, bringing great benefits to millions of people around the
world. Our convoluted world needs the U.N. The Security Council must be reformed and
strengthened to enable the U.N. as a whole to confront and resolve complex challenges of our
world.

As President Obama has said, the U.N. is imperfect, but it is also indispensable.