UNITED NATION

The United Nations (UN) is an The UN was established after

intergovernmental organization World War II with the aim of
whose stated purposes are to preventing future world wars, and
maintain international peace and succeeded the League of Nations,
security, develop friendly relations which was characterized as
among nations, achieve ineffective.[4] On 25 April 1945,
international cooperation, and 50 nations met in San Francisco,
serve as a centre for harmonizing California for a conference and
the actions of nations.[2] It is the started drafting the UN Charter,
The organization's mission to preserve world
world's largest international which was adopted on 25 June peace was complicated in its early decades due
organization.[3] The UN is 1945. The charter took effect on in part to Cold War tensions that existed between
headquartered in New York City 24 October 1945, when the UN the United States and Soviet Union and their
(in the United States, but with began operations. The respective allies. Its mission has included the
provision of primarily unarmed military observers
certain extraterritorial privileges), organization's objectives, as
and lightly armed troops charged with primarily
and the organization has other defined by its charter, include
monitoring, reporting and confidence-building
offices in Geneva, Nairobi, maintaining international peace
roles.[7] UN membership grew significantly
Vienna, and The Hague, where and security, protecting human following widespread decolonization in the 1960s.
the International Court of Justice rights, delivering humanitarian aid, Since then, 80 former colonies have gained
is headquartered. promoting sustainable independence, including 11 trust territories that
development, and upholding had been monitored by the Trusteeship Council.
[8] By the 1970s, the UN's budget for economic
international law.[5] At its
and social development programmes vastly
founding, the UN had 51 member
exceeded its spending on peacekeeping. After
states; as of 2023, it has 193 – the end of the Cold War in 1991, the UN shifted
almost all of the world's sovereign and expanded its field operations, undertaking a
states. wide variety of complex tasks.

The UN's chief administrative officer is the

secretary-general, currently Portuguese
politician and diplomat António Guterres,
who began his first five year-term on 1
January 2017 and was re-elected on 8
June 2021. The organization is financed
by assessed and voluntary contributions
from its member states.

The UN, its officers, and its agencies have

won many Nobel Peace Prizes, though
other evaluations of its effectiveness have
been mixed. Some commentators believe
the organization to be an important force
for peace and human development, while
others have called it ineffective, biased,
and corrupt.