The UN; MAIN FUNCTIONS

OF UN;ROLE OF UN TODAY
AND THE FUTURE; THE UN
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
By: Angel Saguban, Jonah Mae Salvoro, Christian Zamora
MAIN FUNCTIONS OF UN
• Maintenance of International peace and security (to
preserve international peace and security, provides for the
pacific settlement of disputes, through the intervention of the
Security Council, by means such as negotiation, mediation,
arbitration, and judicial decisions. The Security Council may
investigate any dispute or situation to determine whether it is
likely to endanger international peace and security. At any
stage of the dispute, the council may recommend appropriate
procedures or methods of adjustment, and, if the parties fail
to settle the dispute by peaceful means, the council may
recommend terms of settlement )
PEACEKEEPING, PEACEMAKING,
PEACE BUILDING
• International armed forces were first used in 1948 to observe cease-
fires in Kashmir and Palestine. Although not specifically mentioned in
the UN Charter, the use of such forces as a buffer between warring
parties pending troop withdrawals and negotiations—a practice
known as peacekeeping—was formalized in 1956 during the Suez
Crisis between Egypt, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.
Peacekeeping missions have taken many forms, though they have in
common the fact that they are designed to be peaceful, that they
involve military troops from several countries, and that the troops
serve under the authority of the UN Security Council. In 1988 the UN
Peacekeeping Forces were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
 SANCTIONS AND MILITARY ACTION
• By subscribing to the Charter, all members undertake to place at the
disposal of the Security Council armed forces and facilities for military
sanctions against aggressors or disturbers of the peace. During the Cold
War, however, no agreements to give this measure effect were
concluded. Following the end of the Cold War, the possibility of
creating permanent UN forces was revived.
 ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMEN
• The UN’s founders hoped that the maintenance of international peace
and security would lead to the control and eventual reduction of
weapons. Therefore the Charter empowers the General Assembly to
consider principles for arms control and disarmament and to make
recommendations to member states and the Security Council. The
Charter also gives the Security Council the responsibility to formulate
plans for arms control and disarmament. Although the goal of arms
control and disarmament has proved elusive, the UN has facilitated the
negotiation of several multilateral arms control treaties.
 ECONOMIC WELFARE AND
COOPERATION
• The General Assembly, ECOSOC, the Secretariat, and many of the
subsidiary organs and specialized agencies are responsible for
promoting economic welfare and cooperation in areas such as postwar
reconstruction, technical assistance, and trade and development.
 FINANCING ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
• The World Bank is also primarily responsible for financing economic
development. In 1956 the International Finance Corporation was
created as an arm of the World Bank specifically to stimulate private
investment flows. The corporation has the authority to make direct
loans to private enterprises without government guarantees and is
allowed to make loans for other than fixed returns. In 1960 the
International Development Association (IDA) was established to make
loans to less-developed countries on terms that were more flexible than
bank loans.
 TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT
• After the massive decolonization of the 1950s and early 1960s, less-
developed countries became much more numerous, organized, and
powerful in the General Assembly, and they began to create organs to
address the problems of development and diversification in developing
economies. Because the international trading system and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade dealt primarily with the promotion of trade
between advanced industrialized countries, in 1964 the General Assembly
established the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) to address issues of concern to developing countries. Toward that
end, UNCTAD and the Group of 77 less-developed countries that promoted
its establishment tried to codify principles of international trade and arrange
agreements to stabilize commodity prices.
 SOCIAL WELFARE AND COOPERATION
• The United Nations is concerned with issues of human rights,
including the rights of women and children, refugee resettlement, and
narcotics control. Some of its greatest successes have been in the
area of improving the health and welfare of the world’s population. In
the 1990s, despite severe strains on the resources of UN development
programs and agencies resulting from massive refugee movements
and humanitarian crises, the UN increased its emphasis on social
development.
 THE ENVIRONMENT
• In response to growing worldwide concern with environmental issues, the
General Assembly organized the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment, which was held in Stockholm in 1972 and led to the creation
of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the same year.
UNEP has attempted to find solutions to various environmental problems,
including pollution in the Mediterranean Sea; the threat to aquatic
resources posed by human economic activity; deforestation,
desertification, and drought; the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer by
human-produced chemicals; and global warming. Much disagreement has
arisen regarding the scientific bases of environmental concerns and the
question of how to combine the goals of environmental protection and
development.
 DEPENDENT AREAS
• The United Nations has expressed concern for people living in non-self-
governing territories. Most importantly, the UN has affirmed and facilitated
the transition to independence of former colonies. The anticolonial
movement in the UN reached a high point in 1960, when the General
Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by more than 40 African and
Asian states. This resolution, called the Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, condemned “the
subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation”
and declared that “immediate steps shall be taken…to transfer all powers”
to the peoples in the colonies “without any conditions or reservations, in
accordance with their freely expressed will and desire…in order to enable
them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.”
 DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL
LAW
• The United Nations, like the League of Nations, has played a major role
in defining, codifying, and expanding the realm of international law.
The International Law Commission, established by the General
Assembly in 1947, is the primary institution responsible for these
activities. The Legal Committee of the General Assembly receives the
commission’s reports and debates its recommendations; it may then
either convene an international conference to draw up formal
conventions based on the draft or merely recommend the draft to
states.
 ASSESSMENT
• The United Nations is the only global international organization that
serves multiple functions in international relations. The UN was
designed to ensure international peace and security, and its founders
realized that peace and security could not be achieved without
attention to issues of rights—including political, legal, economic, social,
environmental, and individual. Yet the UN has faced difficulties in
achieving its goals, because its organizational structure still reflects the
power relationships of the immediate post-1945 world, despite the fact
that the world has changed dramatically—particularly with respect to
the post-Cold War relationship between the United States and Russia
and the dramatic increase in the number of independent states.
 ROLE OF UN TODAY AND THE
FUTURE
• As the most representative inter-governmental organization of the world today, the United
Nations' role in world affairs is irreplaceable by any other international or regional
organizations. The United Nations has made enormous positive contributions in
maintaining international peace and security, promoting cooperation among states and
international development. Today, people of the world still face the two major issues of
peace and development. Only by international cooperation can mankind meet the
challenges of the global and regional issues. The United Nations can play a pivotal and
positive role in this regard. Strengthening the role of the United Nations in the new century
and promoting the establishment of a just and reasonable international political and
economic order goes along with the trend of history and is in the interest of all nations.In
order to strengthen the role of the United Nations, efforts should be made to uphold the
purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The authority of the Security
Council in maintaining international peace and security must be preserved and role of the
United Nations in development area should be strengthened. To strengthen the role of the
United Nations, it is essential to ensure to all Member States of the United Nations the
right to equal participation in international affairs and the rights and interests of the
developing countries should be safeguarded.
THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
• The General Assembly plays a key role in the financing of
peace operations.
• The GENERAL ASSEMBLY  is the main deliberative,
policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations.
Comprising all 193 member states of the UN, it provides a
unique forum for multilateral discussion of international issues
including peace and security.
• Financing matters- While not normally directly involved in political
decisions on establishing or terminating UN peace operations, the General
Assembly does play a key role in peace operation financing. As all UN
Member States share the costs of peacekeeping, the Assembly apportions
these expenses based on a special scale of assessments, taking into account
the relative economic wealth of Member States, with the permanent members
of the Security Council required to pay a larger share because of their special
responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
• Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations- The General Assembly
monitors the performance of UN Peacekeeping through its 
Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. It was established in 1965
to conduct a comprehensive review of all issues relating to peacekeeping. 
The Committee reports on its work to the General Assembly through its 
Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization).
• "Uniting for Peace" resolution- Under the UN Charter, however, the
General Assembly cannot discuss and make recommendations on peace and
security matters which are at that time being addressed by the Security Council.
• Despite the UN Charter's provision limiting the General Assembly's powers
with regard to peace and security matters, there may be cases when the
Assembly can take action.
• In accordance with the General Assembly's 
"Uniting for Peace" resolution of November 1950 [resolution 377 (V)], if the
Security Council fails to act, owing to the negative vote of a permanent
member, then the General Assembly may act. This would happen in the case
where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of
aggression. The General Assembly can consider the matter with a view to
making recommendations to Members for collective measures to maintain or
restore international peace and security.
• This resolution was invoked only once in UN peacekeeping history, when in
1956 the General Assembly established the First