General Knowledge / World GK / International Organisations
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The United Nations (UN) was instituted to maintain international peace and security, to formulate friendly relations among different countries and to encourage international cooperation in solving social, economic and humanitarian problems. It is also involved in promotion and encouragement of respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights. It acts as a centre for harmonising the actions of different nations to achieve its aims.
The United Nations Organisation was established in the year 1945. The number of member states in the UN are 193. The headquarters of United Nations is located in New York. The number of official languages of UN are six namely, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The UN Charter provided for six main organs of the UN. They are,
The General Assembly is the important organ of the UN consisting of representatives of all the members-states of the UN. Generally in
September, it holds regular annual session. Each member-state has one single vote and all the members are equally placed, unlike the UN Security
Council.
Decisions of General Assembly are taken based on simple majority vote, but in the cases of security, peace, UN budget and election of new UN
Security Council members, a two-thirds majority is required.
It is an important organ of the UN dealing with basic responsibility of maintaining the World Peace and Security. It consists of 15 nations as
its members of which 5 are permanent in nature - The US, France, China, The UK and Russia. The remaining 10 members are non-permanent members,
who are elected by a two-thirds majority of the UN General Assembly for a term of 2 years.
Out of these 10 non-permanent seats, 5 seats are allocated to Afro-Asian region, two seats are allocated to Latin America, one seat is allocated
to Eastern Europe and the remaining two seats are allotted to Western Europe and others.
The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council have special voting rights called "Veto" power. Any decision in the UN Security Council can only be taken with the support of at least 9 members that includes 5 permanent members. Thus, no decision can be taken in the Security Council, even if one of the five permanent members votes against the proposal.
Decisions that are taken by the UN Security Council are binding on all the member-states of the UN, since the UN charter provides that the
decisions of the Security Council are made in the name of all the UN members.
The powers of the UN Security Council include, taking decisions to settle disputes among different member-states, approving admission of
nations as new members of UN, requisitioning military forces from different member-states for peace-keeping operations, recommending to the
General Assembly in the appointment of new Secretary General, etc.
The UN Security Council was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988 for its role in ensuring World peace by means of conflict resolution.
Economic and Social Council is the Chief Coordinating Agency of the United Nations in the social and economic sectors between the UN and its
specialised institutions. ECOSOC consists of only 54 members. It generally meets two times in a year.
The main activities of ECOSOC include, conducting studies and giving recommendations on educational, social, economic, health and related matters
in the world giving special focus to least developed countries.
ECOSOC carries out its activities through 9 functional commissions, 5 regional commissions and different standing committees.
The 9 functional commissions were set up to focus on specific areas like status of women, social development, human rights, population and
development, etc.
The five regional commissions of ECOSOC are :
The main functions of these commissions are to help in raising the economic activity levels in their respective regions and to strengthen the economic relations among the States and with others.
The Trusteeship Council was created to oversee 11 Trust Territories that were administered by 7 Member States and make sure that appropriate measures were taken for their independence. After Palau, the last surviving UN Trustee Territory, gained its independence on November 1, 1994, the Trusteeship Council ceased its operations.
The UN Secretariat carries out the daily activities required to operate the Unites Nations Organisation. The Secretariat comprises of
Secretary-General, who serves as the spokesperson and leader of the UN, and thousands of worldwide UN staff members. On the recommendation
of the Security Counci, the General Assembly appoints the Secretary-General for a five-year term that is renewable.
The functions of
the Secretariat include rendering information and providing facilities that are needed by the UN bodies for their meetings and at the same
time performing the tasks assigned to it by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and other UN Agencies.
As per the terms of the UN Charter, there are sixteen specialised agencies, which are autonomous organisations established to deal with specific issues. ECOSOC coordinates between the UN and these agencies and also among the agencies.
| Name of the Agency | Year of Esta |
Head |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Universal Postal Union (UPU) | 1875* / 1948 | Berne | To improve the world postal services |
| 2. Inter |
1919* / 1946 | Geneva | To encourage productive employ |
| 3. Inter |
1934* / 1947 | Geneva | To promote cooperation in use of telecommu |
| 4. Food and Agri |
1945* / 1946 | Rome | To deal with the problems of food and agriculture |
| 5. UN Educa |
1946 | Paris | To promote and spread education, knowledge and mutual under |
| 6. Inter |
1944 / 1945 | Washin |
To mobilise and allocate capital for world economic develop |
| 7. Inter |
1947 | Mont |
To encourage cooperation in air navigation and transport |
| 8. Inter |
1944 / 1945 | Washin |
To promote financial & monetary stability and assist in revival of inter |
| 9. World Health Organi |
1947 | Geneva | To promote the highest possible levels of health to all people |
| 10. World Meteoro-logical Organi |
1951 | Geneva | To improve the world meteoro-logical activities |
| 11. Inter |
1955* / 1957 | Washin |
To encourage economic develop |
| 12. Inter |
1959 | London | To facilitate cooperation in maritime activities |
| 13. Inter |
1961 | Washin |
To help in economic develop |
| 14. UN Industrial Develop |
1967 | Vienna | To encourage industrial develop |
| 15. World Intel |
1970 | Geneva | To encourage for protection of intellectual property |
| 16. Inter |
1977 | Rome | To extend financial assistance to the least developed countries in order to increase production of food |
*(1st mentioned year is the year of its establishment. 2nd mentioned year is the year of becoming Specialised Agency of UN)
The following are the special bodies created by the UN General Assembly and / or ECOSOC to deal with the specific areas of trade and development, environment, research and training, relief and welfare, etc.
| Name of the Body | Year of Esta |
Head |
Objective |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) | 1946 | New York | To assist the Least Developed Countries by providing child healthcare services |
| 2. UN High Commis |
1951 | Geneva | To render relief and rehabili |
| 3. World Food Programme (WFP) | 1963 | Rome | To furnish aid in the form of food for social and economic develop |
| 4. UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) | 1963 | Geneva | To render training to the UN personnel and to the officials of countries dealing with UN schemes |
| 5. UN Confe |
1964 | Geneva | To encourage inter |
| 6. UN Research Institute for Social Develop |
1964 | Geneva | To carry on research on matters related to social develop |
| 7. UN Develop |
1965 | New York | To assist Least Developed Countries in their socio-economic develop |
| 8. UN Popu |
1967 | New York | To promote population related programmes |
| 9. UN Environ |
1972 | Nairobi | To facilitate international cooperation in matters that affect the human environ |
| 10. UN Univer |
1972 | Tokyo | To conduct training and research on develop |
| 11. UN Inter |
1976 | Santo Dom |
To assist in integrating women into develo |
| 12. UN Centre for Human Settle |
1978 | Nairobi | To render technical assistance to human settlement and planning schemes of the Govern |
| 13. UN Institute for Disarma |
1980 | Geneva | To conduct research in fields related to disarma |
| 14. Univer |
1980 | San Jose, Costa Rica | To conduct research on all matters that affect peace of the world |
| 15. UN Inter |
1991 | Vienna | To tackle drug trafficking and drug abuse. It was later converted as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 1997 |