United Nations Organization
■ The United Nations (UN) is a diplomatic and political international organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations
■ The UN is headquartered in New York City, the UN has other offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and
■ The Hague, where the International Court of Justice is headquartered at the Peace Palace.
■ The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future world wars, and succeeded the League of Nations, which was characterized as ineffective
■ On 25 April 1945, 50 nations met in San Francisco, California for a conference and started drafting the UN Charter, which was adopted on 25 June 1945.
■ The charter took effect on 24 October 1945, when the UN began operations
■ The UN’s objectives, as defined by its charter, include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law
■ As of 2023, it has 193 – almost all of the world’s sovereign states.
■ The UN has six principal operational organizations:
the General Assembly
the Security Council
the Economic and Social Council
the International Court of Justice
the UN Secretariat
the Trusteeship Council.
■ The UN System includes a multitude of specialized agencies, funds, and programmes, including the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF.
General Assembly
■ The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
■ All 193 Member States of the UN are represented in the General Assembly
■ Each year, in September, the full UN membership meets in the General Assembly Hall in New York for the annual General Assembly session.
■ Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.
Security Council
■ It has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security.
■ The Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly on a regional basis.
■ In January 2022, the UNSC got five new non permanent members (Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates) after Estonia, Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam finished their terms.
■ Albania is joining for the first time while Brazil is taking an 11th turn. Gabon and Ghana each have been on the council three times before and the UAE once.
■ India, for the eighth time, entered the UNSC as a non-permanent member in 2021 and is on the council for two years i.e 2021-22.
■ Veto power” refers to the power of the permanent member to veto (Reject) any resolution of Security Council.