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The United Nations: A Short Review
Every Member Material - November 2005
The United Nations: A Brief History
The United Nations was officially formed on October 24, 1945. After the unsuccessful attempt to prevent war by the League of Nations, the UN was created so that a war such as World War II would never happen again. It was started by the four nations that had declared war on the Axis Powers: Great Britain, United States, China and the USSR (Russia today). The original charter was written in June of 1945 in San Francisco and by October, fifty nations had signed it. Their aim was to eliminate the problems that cause wars by promoting peace and human dignity. Today these goals have been expanded to include peace and security, economic and social development, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and international law.
Before the actual formation of the United Nations, Franklin Roosevelt had called for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to be held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July of 1944. This conference was called to formulate proposals for an international monetary fund, for an international bank for reconstruction, and for general resolutions governing international banking policies. By 1947, twenty-nine nations had signed the articles of Bretton Woods. The institutions established in these articles exist today.
Some of the earliest problems, with which the UN dealt, involved the establishment of an independent state of Israel and the resulting conflicts with Palestine, the Korean War, and the Berlin Blockade. More recently, the UN has had to deal with worldwide terrorism and atrocities in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Civil conflicts have erupted in many countries including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cambodia. Obviously, not only are there disputes between countries but also within countries.
International conferences sponsored by the UN have led to wider recognition of long-term global problems. Conferences have involved thousands of Non-Governmental Organizations, citizens, academics, and business people. They have produced treaties, reaffirmed commitments, made declarations, and generally led to increased international cooperation. Conferences have included those on Environment and Development, Human Rights, Social Development, Women, and Human Settlements. The Millennium Summit held in September of 2000 in New York resulted in a declaration of values and goals for the new century. Goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, and reducing child mortality. (www.un.org/milleniumgoals/). The Summit held in New York this September 2005 was intended to evaluate the progress that is being made toward the accomplishment of those millennium goals.
THE UNITED NATIONS: ORGANIZATION
Charter: The charter is the constituting instrument of the United Nations, setting out the rights and obligations of Member States and establishing the Organization’s organs and procedures.
Purposes: The purposes of the United Nations, as set forth in the Charter, are to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these ends.
Structure: The six principal organs of the United Nations are the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice and Secretariat. The United Nations Family, however, is much larger, encompassing 15 agencies and several programs and bodies.
Budget: The budget for the two years 2000-2001 was $2.5 billion. Primary funding comes from the contributions of Member States, which are assessed on a scale approved by the General Assembly. The fundamental criterion on which the scale of assessments is based is the capacity of countries to pay. This is determined by considering their relative shares of total worldwide gross national product, adjusted to take into account a number of factors, including their per capita incomes. In addition, countries are assessed for the cost of peacekeeping operations, which stood at around $2 billion in 2000.
The United Nations Family: This family is made up of the United Nations Secretariat, the United Nations programs and funds – such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Development Program and the specialized agencies. Specialized agencies include UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), WHO (World Health Organization), the Universal Postal Union, the International Monetary Fund and others. Each of these sets its own standards and guidelines. Together, they provide technical assistance and other forms of help in virtually all areas of economic and social endeavor.
UNITED NATIONS’ ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The strength of the United Nations system is its universality, its credibility, its moral authority and its willingness to take on world problems. These problems may seem distant to some nations, but they demand the resources and attention of billions of global citizens.
“The UN is the world’s absolutely indispensable platform for bringing countries and cultures together. The UN was established especially to keep the peace and avoid a third world war. In this essential mission, it has served humanity well. It has been the vehicle for working out regional differences and building coalitions for collective security.” David Harwood
For six decades the United Nations and a good number of it members have shared a vision of the world in which peace and prosperity are the property of all people. Member nations share the core principles of freedom, democracy, good governance and human rights. The UN has dealt effectively with many problems. The Counter Terrorism Committee (2001) has enhanced the capacities of states to fight terrorism. Peacekeeping efforts have helped maintain ceasefires and have caused peace agreements to be implemented.
The UN Security Council provides a neutral forum for debate, discussion and resolution.
The UN now has 191 member countries and serves a world population of over 6 billion. The UN’s World Food program is feeding millions of citizens of Ethiopia. UN agencies are working to eliminate polio and fight HIV/AIDS in over 100 nations and 14 UN missions are working to keep the peace in many corners of the world.
The UN is most instrumental in providing humanitarian aid and refugee relief. The World Health Organization responded effectively to the SARS outbreak. UN aid agencies were the first on the scene after the recent tsunami in Asia. The new International Maritime Organization has established measures that should make it more difficult to use ships as tools of terrorism. Other new measures should help to decrease oil spills and other maritime sources of pollution.
The UN is an international forum where leaders of the world can settle their differences at the table of diplomacy. The world needs a multilateral organization that enables all to leverage resources to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Multilateral efforts are most effective when exercised by responsible, free and democratic nations who become true partners in ensuring peace and prosperity.
The United Nations: What is Not Working?
Since the end of the Cold War, the UN system has been stretched to its limits. Political, ethnic, economic, and social tensions have been unleashed as modern communications have spread the concepts of civil, political, economic and human rights around the globe. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened. As economic development spreads so do concerns for the environment. We are a global community encompassing urban consumer societies and wholly different cultures and economies. We are challenged by technology and transnational economic forces. There is intensified competition for natural resources and a need to respect sovereignty. It is a very complex and interdependent world.
In 1945, the UN founders created a general assembly, several governing organs (Security Council, Economic and Social Council, etc.) and a number of specialized agencies (UNESCO, WHO, etc.). With the creation of the International Bank and the International Monetary Fund at Bretton Woods, more separate and distinct institutions were woven into the web. Many times, it would seem that one agency or governing organ has no idea what another is doing. Even representatives from the same country working within different agencies complicate or duplicate efforts. Such situations call for a more global strategy and coherent policies clearly stated for all agencies and organs.
The UN has been accused of some serious recent failures.
- It failed to enforce 17 resolutions against Saddam, tolerating his ejection of UN weapons inspectors, and enabling him to stay in power by looking the other way as he exploited Oil for Food. Apparently, there was widespread corruption among the many companies that did business with Saddam’s regime. Additionally, Saddam promoted business with the countries who always voted against enforcing the UN’s own resolutions against him.
- It failed to use UN peacekeepers already in place to stop the Rwanda genocide in 1994 and they have failed more recently to stop the massacre of African Muslims in Sudan’s Darfur province.
- It has failed to bring up for formal debate or action the North Korean and Iranian violations of the nuclear non-proliferation agreements.
The UN’s task in the area of human rights is complicated by its respect for national sovereignty and national boundaries. This respect often conflicts with ethnic tensions and the interests of ethnic groups living on opposite sides of a national border, as in Bosnia and Israel.
Very recently, the UN and Kofi Annan have been accused of incompetence, mismanagement and worse with regard to the Oil-For-Food Program for Iraq.
Materials referenced:
“American Foreign Policy at a Crossroads”—David Harwood speech
Editorial, “The UN 60 Years Later” Sichan Siv, senior US Diplomat at the UN, Denver Post
“The USA/UN Shared Principles, Shared Future”, National Voter Sept/Oct 2003
Website: www.un.org/english
Editorial, “On Planet U.N.”, The Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2004
“How to Save the U.N. (If We Really Have To)”, Charles Hill, The Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2004
“Renewing The United Nations System-A Summary” a review of the book Renewing the United Nations System by Erskine Childers and Brian Urquhart. Reviewed by David Blackwell. Found at www.globalpolicy.org/reform/intro/1995childers.htm
“In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, a report by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the General Assembly, March 21, 2005.
Committee: Elaine Olson, Ann Roux, Pat Mesec
