UNO-United Nation Organization

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

History

As the Second World War raged, the leaders of the United Kingdom, China, the United States and the Soviet Union, under intense pressure from the press and public, discussed the details of a post-war organization. In 1944 representatives meeting at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, prepared a blueprint for an international organization. Towards the end of the war representatives of 50 countries gathered in San Francisco between April and June 1945 to hammer out the final text that would lay the foundations of international cooperation. This was the Charter of the United Nations, signed on 26 June by 50 countries. Poland, the 51st country, was not able to send a representative to the San Francisco conference but is considered an original member.

Background (pre-1941)

In the century prior to the UN’s creation, several international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.

During World War I, several major leaders, especially American President Woodrow Wilson, advocated for a world body to guarantee peace. The winners of the war, the Allies, met to decide on formal peace terms at the Paris Peace Conference. The League of Nations was approved, and started operations, but the United States never joined. On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations formally came into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, took effect. The League Council acted as an executive body directing the Assembly’s business. It began with four permanent members the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan.

After some limited successes and failures during the 1920s, the League proved ineffective in the 1930s, as it failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1933. Forty nations voted for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of withdrawing from Manchuria. It also failed to act against the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, after the appeal for international intervention by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I at Geneva in 1936 went with no avail, including when calls for economic sanctions against Italy failed. Italy and other nations left the League.

When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down.

Declarations by the Allies of World War II (1941–1944)

The first step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter-Allied Conference that led to the Declaration of St James’s Palace on 12 June 1941.By August 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter; which defined goals for the post-war world. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941, the eight governments in exile of countries under Axis occupation, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and the United States.

Roosevelt and Churchill met at the White House in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference. Roosevelt, considered a founder of the UN, coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. Churchill accepted it, noting its use by Lord Byron. The text of the Declaration by United Nations was drafted on 29 December 1941, by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Harry Hopkins. It incorporated Soviet suggestions but included no role for France. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.

Roosevelt’s idea of the “Four Powers”, referring to the four major Allied countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China, emerged in the Declaration by the United Nations.On New Year’s Day 1942, Roosevelt, Churchill, the Soviet Union’s former Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, and the Chinese Premier T. V. Soong signed the “Declaration by United Nations”,and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures. During the war, the United Nations became the official term for the Allies. In order to join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis powers.
The October 1943 Moscow Conference resulted in the Moscow Declarations, including the Four Power Declaration on General Security which aimed for the creation “at the earliest possible date of a general international organization”. This was the first public announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the League of Nations. The Tehran Conference followed shortly afterwards at which Roosevelt, Churchill and Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, met and discussed the idea of a post-war international organization.

The new international organisation was formulated and negotiated amongst the delegations from the Allied Big Four at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September to 7 October 1944. They agreed on proposals for the aims, structure and functioning of the new organization.It took the conference at Yalta in February 1945, and further negotiations with the Soviet Union, before all the issues were resolved.

Founding (1945)

By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed the Declaration by the United Nations.After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco on 25 April 1945. It was attended by 50 nations’ governments and a number of non-governmental organizations. The delegations of the Big Four chaired the plenary meetings. Previously, Churchill had urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The drafting of the Charter of the United Nations was completed over the following two months, and it was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and China and by a majority of the other 46 nations.

The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented,[a] and the Security Council took place in London beginning in January 1946. Debates began at once, covering topical issues such as the presence of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan and British forces in Greece. British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb served as interim secretary-general.

The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN. Construction began on 14 September 1948 and the facility was completed on 9 October 1952. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN secretary-general (Jebb was only in the position until a permanent secretary-general was elected).

Purposes of the United Nations

Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues, and provide a forum for its Member States to express their views.
Main purpose of UNO is listed below:

• Maintaining international peace and security
• Protecting human rights
• Delivering humanitarian aid
• Promoting sustainable development
• Upholding international law
• Developing friendly relations among nations
• Achieving international cooperation in solving international problems
• Being a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

Structure and Organization of the United Nations

The main bodies of the United Nations 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 under the UN Charter when the organization was founded in 1945.

1. General Assembly : The General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the UN and is composed of representatives of all Member States. The work of the United Nations year-round derives largely from the mandates given by the General Assembly. Comprising all Member States of the United Nations, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter. The Assembly meets in regular session intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as required. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority. Decisions on other questions are by simple majority. Each country has one vote.
2. Security Council: The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Council is composed of five permanent members – China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States – and ten non-permanent members. The non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. Each Council member has one vote. Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of at least nine of the 15 members. Decisions on substantive matters require nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. This rule is often referred to as the “veto” power. A reform of the Security Council, including its membership, is under consideration.
3. Economic and Social Council: The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the principal organ to coordinate the economic, social and related work of the United Nations and the specialized agencies and institutions. Voting in the Council is by simple majority; each member has one vote.
4. International Court of Justice: The International Court of Justice, located at the Hague in the Netherlands, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions to the UN and its specialized agencies. Its Statute is an integral part of the United Nations Charter.
5. Trusteeship Council: The International Court of Justice, located at the Hague in the Netherlands, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions to the UN and its specialized agencies. Its Statute is an integral part of the United Nations Charter.
6. Secretariat: The Secretariat an international staff working in duty stations around the world – carries out the diverse day-to-day work of the Organization. It services the other principal organs of the United Nations and administers the programmes and policies laid down by them.