Unit Two
What are the different parts of the
United Nations?
What could the founders
of the United Nations do to make sure the new organization wouldn't suffer
the same fate as the League of Nations? In the war-torn
world of the 1940's, the impulse to form a cooperative family of nations emerged stronger than ever.
Even
in 1944, a year before the end of the Second World War, the leaders of four
allied nations: the United States,
Great Britain, the Soviet
Union and China held a
discreet meeting in Washington,
D.C. at an estate called
Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks was administered by Harvard University,
which had offered it as a meeting site. Here they discussed possible plans
for an effective cooperative body of nations. At this meeting and at a
broader meeting of world leaders in San Francisco
in 1945, the founders of the United Nations were determined to create a durable interrelation of parts -- and to strengthen the structural weaknesses that had caused the League of Nations to disband. The founding member-states decided to make a
stronger executive branch called the Security Council, which would have the
authority to make decisions that member-states would be obliged
to act on. The Council was to be composed of 15 member-nations, including 5
permanent members: China, France, Great
Britain, the U.S.
and the USSR
(the allied powers of the Second World War) and 10 rotating
members that would have two-year terms. For a resolution
to pass, a total of nine votes would be needed, including votes (and no
vetoes) from permanent members. The decisions of the Security Council would
be binding, meaning that member-states would be obliged to
follow them; nations that failed to comply
were to suffer disciplinary measures such as economic sanctions. The founders of the United Nations recognized
the need for member-states to commit themselves to backing up words with
actions. While the League of Nations had no
military authority, the United Nations was to have the authority to call on
member-states to contribute troops to keep peace in troubled areas. The
Security Council would decide the need for military intervention. All
together, there were to be six main branches of the United Nations. In
addition to the Security Council, there was to be the General
Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat,
the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.
The General Assembly was
to discuss and debate issues of concern to the world community. Unlike the
Security Council, all nations were to be equally represented in the General
Assembly with each, regardless of its size, having one vote. This means that
a small nation such as Lichtenstein, with a population of under 35,000 was to
have the same voting rights as a very large nation such as India with a population of over a
billion. Also, unlike the Security Council, the General Assembly's decisions
would not be binding; that is, member-states would not be obliged to carry
out the decisions of the General Assembly. General Assembly decisions would,
of course, carry moral authority in the eyes of the world, and in this way, exert pressure on member-states to follow them. Two
thirds of the member-states would have to vote in favor of a resolution in
order for it to pass.
The
Economic and Social Council was to deal with issues of economic and
social development in different societies
The
International Court of Justice, located in the Hague, Netherlands
would act as a world court, hearing and settling legal disputes that member
states put before it. The Court was also to give advisory
opinions on legal questions that international organs and agencies brought to
it.
The
Trusteeship Council was to protect and advance the interests of people
living in trust territories. But since so many of the world's trust territories have gained
independence, the work of the Trusteeship Council was formally suspended in
1994.
The
Secretariat was to act as the administrative body, serving the other
organs of the United Nations. It would administer the programmes
and policies put in place by the other parts of the Organization. The
representatives of the original 51 member-states in San Francisco ratified the United Nations
Charter on 24 October 1945. Since, then the date, 24 October has been
recognized as "United Nations Day". And a vision that began as
words on pages sprang to life as actions
in the world. In the words of the third Secretary-General, U Thant of Burma (now called Myanmar) "The Charter of
the United Nations is the first, most daring code of behaviour
addressed to the most powerful of all institutions on the planet -- armed
nations." And today, at this writing, it is hard to imagine the world
without the United Nations. As Stephen Schlesinger, author of Act of
Creation: The Founding of the United Nations wrote, "The U.N. and its
labors are, in fact, the background noise of our global age -- sometimes
loud, sometimes soft, but always emitting a hum. One cannot pick up any major
newspaper or watch any network newscast or listen to any radio news show or
consult any media Web site in the United States and not see or hear the name
of the U.N. invoked regularly by the broadcaster or written down in a daily
report by a journalist..."
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