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.

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 193
Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council,
the Economic and Social Council and other bodies and committees.

The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for
peacekeeping, peacebuilding, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance, there are
many other ways the United Nations and its System (specialized agencies, funds and
programmes) affect our lives and make the world a better place. The Organization works on
a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and
refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation,
to promoting democracy, human rights, gender equality and the advancement of women,
governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines,
expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts
for a safer world for this and future generations.

The UN has 4 main purposes

 To keep peace throughout the world;

 To develop friendly relations among nations;
 To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer
hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and
freedoms;
 To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals

United Nations (UN), international organization established on October 24, 1945.

The United Nations (UN) was the second multipurpose international organization
established in the 20th century that was worldwide in scope and membership. Its
predecessor, the League of Nations, was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919
and disbanded in 1946. Headquartered in New York City, the UN also has regional
offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Its official languages
are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. For a list of UN member
countries and secretaries-general, see below.

(Read Ted Turner’s Britannica entry on the U.N. Foundation.)

According to its Charter, the UN aims:

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental
human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations
arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to
promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
In addition to maintaining peace and security, other important objectives include
developing friendly relations among countries based on respect for the principles
of equal rights and self-determination of peoples; achieving worldwide cooperation
to solve international economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems;
respecting and promoting human rights; and serving as a centre where countries can
coordinate their actions and activities toward these various ends.

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The UN formed a continuum with the League of Nations in general purpose,

structure, and functions; many of the UN’s principal organs and related agencies
were adopted from similar structures established earlier in the century. In some
respects, however, the UN constituted a very different organization, especially with
regard to its objective of maintaining international peace and security and its
commitment to economic and social development.

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Changes in the nature of international relations resulted in modifications in the

responsibilities of the UN and its decision-making apparatus. Cold War tensions
between the United States and the Soviet Union deeply affected the UN’s security
functions during its first 45 years. Extensive post-World War II decolonization in
Africa, Asia, and the Middle East increased the volume and nature of political,
economic, and social issues that confronted the organization. The Cold War’s end in
1991 brought renewed attention and appeals to the UN. Amid an increasingly volatile
geopolitical climate, there were new challenges to established practices and
functions, especially in the areas of conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the UN and its programs and affiliated agencies
struggled to address humanitarian crises and civil wars,
unprecedented refugee flows, the devastation caused by the spread of AIDS, global
financial disruptions, international terrorism, and the disparities in wealth between
the world’s richest and poorest peoples.
History and development
Despite the problems encountered by the League of Nations in arbitrating conflict
and ensuring international peace and security prior to World War II, the major Allied
powers agreed during the war to establish a new global organization to help manage
international affairs. This agreement was first articulated when U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter in August 1941. The name United Nations was
originally used to denote the countries allied against Germany, Italy, and Japan. On
January 1, 1942, 26 countries signed the Declaration by United Nations, which set
forth the war aims of the Allied powers.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union took the lead in
designing the new organization and determining its decision-making structure and
functions. Initially, the “Big Three” states and their respective leaders (Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin) were hindered by disagreements on
issues that foreshadowed the Cold War. The Soviet Union demanded individual
membership and voting rights for its constituent republics,
and Britain wanted assurances that its colonies would not be placed under UN
control. There also was disagreement over the voting system to be adopted in
the Security Council, an issue that became famous as the “veto problem.”

The first major step toward the formation of the United Nations was taken August
21–October 7, 1944, at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, a meeting of the diplomatic
experts of the Big Three powers plus China (a group often designated the “Big Four”)
held at Dumbarton Oaks, an estate in Washington, D.C. Although the four countries
agreed on the general purpose, structure, and function of a new world organization,
the conference ended amid continuing disagreement over membership and voting. At
the Yalta Conference, a meeting of the Big Three in a Crimean resort city in February
1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin laid the basis for charter provisions delimiting
the authority of the Security Council. Moreover, they reached a tentative accord on
the number of Soviet republics to be granted independent memberships in the UN.
Finally, the three leaders agreed that the new organization would include
a trusteeship system to succeed the League of Nations mandate system.

The Dumbarton Oaks proposals, with modifications from the Yalta Conference,
formed the basis of negotiations at the United Nations Conference on International
Organization (UNCIO), which convened in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, and
produced the final Charter of the United Nations. The San Francisco conference was
attended by representatives of 50 countries from all geographic areas of the world: 9
from Europe, 21 from the Americas, 7 from the Middle East, 2 from East Asia, and 3
from Africa, as well as 1 each from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the
Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (in addition to the Soviet Union itself) and 5
from British Commonwealth countries. Poland, which was not present at the
conference, was permitted to become an original member of the UN. Security
Council veto power (among the permanent members) was affirmed, though any
member of the General Assembly was able to raise issues for discussion. Other
political issues resolved by compromise were the role of the organization in the
promotion of economic and social welfare; the status of colonial areas and the
distribution of trusteeships; the status of regional and defense arrangements; and
Great Power dominance versus the equality of states. The UN Charter was
unanimously adopted and signed on June 26 and promulgated on October 24, 1945.
Organization and administration
Principles and membership
The purposes, principles, and organization of the United Nations are outlined in the
Charter. The essential principles underlying the purposes and functions of the
organization are listed in Article 2 and include the following: the UN is based on
the sovereign equality of its members; disputes are to be settled by peaceful means;
members are to refrain from the threat or use of force in contravention of the
purposes of the UN; each member must assist the organization in any enforcement
actions it takes under the Charter; and states that are not members of the
organization are required to act in accordance with these principles insofar as it is
necessary to maintain international peace and security. Article 2 also stipulates a
basic long-standing norm that the organization shall not intervene in matters
considered within the domestic jurisdiction of any state. Although this was a major
limitation on UN action, over time the line between international and domestic
jurisdiction has become blurred.

New members are admitted to the UN on the recommendation of the Security

Council and by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly. Often, however, the
admittance of new members has engendered controversy. Given Cold War divisions
between East and West, the requirement that the Security Council’s five permanent
members (sometimes known collectively as the P-5)—China, France, the Soviet
Union (whose seat and membership were assumed by Russia in 1991), the United
Kingdom, and the United States—concur on the admission of new members at times
posed serious obstacles. By 1950 only 9 of 31 applicants had been admitted to the
organization. In 1955 the 10th Assembly proposed a package deal that, after
modification by the Security Council, resulted in the admission of 16 new states (4
eastern European communist states and 12 noncommunist countries). The
most contentious application for membership was that of the communist People’s
Republic of China, which was placed before the General Assembly and blocked by the
United States at every session from 1950 to 1971. Finally, in 1971, in an effort to
improve its relationship with mainland China, the United States refrained from
blocking the Assembly’s vote to admit the People’s Republic and to expel the
Republic of China (Taiwan); there were 76 votes in favour of expulsion, 35 votes
opposed, and 17 abstentions. As a result, the Republic of China’s membership and
permanent Security Council seat were given to the People’s Republic.

Controversy also arose over the issue of “divided” states, including the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East
Germany), North and South Korea, and North and South Vietnam. The two German
states were admitted as members in 1973; these two seats were reduced to one after
the country’s reunification in October 1990. Vietnam was admitted in 1977, after the
defeat of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country in 1975. The two Koreas
were admitted separately in 1991.

Following worldwide decolonization from 1955 to 1960, 40 new members were

admitted, and by the end of the 1970s there were about 150 members of the UN.
Another significant increase occurred after 1989–90, when many former Soviet
republics gained their independence. By the early 21st century the
UN comprised nearly 190 member states.

Principal organs
The United Nations has six principal organs: the General
Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social
Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court
of Justice, and the Secretariat.

General Assembly
The only body in which all UN members are represented, the
General Assembly exercises deliberative, supervisory, financial,
and elective functions relating to any matter within the scope of
the UN Charter. Its primary role, however, is to discuss issues
and make recommendations, though it has no power to enforce
its resolutions or to compel state action. Other functions
include admitting new members; selecting members of the
Economic and Social Council, the nonpermanent members of
the Security Council, and the Trusteeship Council; supervising
the activities of the other UN organs, from which the Assembly
receives reports; and participating in the election of judges to
the International Court of Justice and the selection of
the secretary-general. Decisions usually are reached by a simple
majority vote. On important questions, however—such as the
admission of new members, budgetary matters, and peace and
security issues—a two-thirds majority is required.

The Assembly convenes annually and in special sessions,

electing a new president each year from among five regional
groups of states. At the beginning of each regular session, the
Assembly also holds a general debate, in which all members
may participate and raise any issue of international concern.
Most work, however, is delegated to six main committees: (1)
Disarmament and International Security, (2) Economic and
Financial, (3) Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural, (4) Special
Political and Decolonization, (5) Administrative and Budgetary,
and (6) Legal.
The General Assembly has debated issues that other organs of
the UN have either overlooked or avoided,
including decolonization, the independence
of Namibia, apartheid in South Africa, terrorism, and
the AIDS epidemic. The number of resolutions passed by the
Assembly each year has climbed to more than 350, and many
resolutions are adopted without opposition. Nevertheless, there
have been sharp disagreements among members on several
issues, such as those relating to the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli
conflict, and human rights. The General Assembly has drawn
public attention to major issues, thereby forcing member
governments to develop positions on them, and it has helped to
organize ad hoc bodies and conferences to deal with important
global problems.

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The large size of the Assembly and the diversity of the issues it
discusses contributed to the emergence of regionally based
voting blocs in the 1960s. During the Cold War the Soviet
Union and the countries of eastern Europe formed one of the
most cohesive blocs, and another bloc comprised the United
States and its Western allies. The admission of new countries of
the Southern Hemisphere in the 1960s and ’70s and
the dissipation of Cold War tensions after 1989 contributed to
the formation of blocs based on “North-South” economic issues
—i.e., issues of disagreement between the more prosperous,
industrialized countries of the Northern Hemisphere and the
poorer, less industrialized developing countries of the Southern
Hemisphere. Other issues have been incorporated into the
North-South divide, including Northern economic and political
domination, economic development, the proliferation
of nuclear weapons, and support for Israel.
Security Council
The UN Charter assigns to the Security Council primary
responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and
security. The Security Council originally consisted of 11
members—five permanent and six nonpermanent—elected by
the General Assembly for two-year terms. From the beginning,
nonpermanent members of the Security Council were elected to
give representation to certain regions or groups of states. As
membership increased, however, this practice ran into
difficulty. An amendment to the UN Charter in 1965 increased
the council’s membership to 15, including the original five
permanent members plus 10 nonpermanent members. Among
the permanent members, the People’s Republic of
China replaced the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1971, and
the Russian Federation succeeded the Soviet Union in 1991.
After the unification of Germany, debate over the
council’s composition again arose, and Germany, India,
and Japan each applied for permanent council seats.

The nonpermanent members are chosen to achieve equitable

regional representation, five members coming
from Africa or Asia, one from eastern Europe, two from Latin
America, and two from western Europe or other areas. Five of
the 10 nonpermanent members are elected each year by the
General Assembly for two-year terms, and five retire each year.
The presidency is held by each member in rotation for a period
of one month.

Each Security Council member is entitled to one vote. On all

“procedural” matters—the definition of which is sometimes in
dispute—decisions by the council are made by
an affirmative vote of any nine of its
members. Substantive matters, such as the investigation of a
dispute or the application of sanctions, also require nine
affirmative votes, including those of the five permanent
members holding veto power. In practice, however, a
permanent member may abstain without impairing the validity
of the decision. A vote on whether a matter is procedural or
substantive is itself a substantive question. Because the Security
Council is required to function continuously, each member is
represented at all times at the UN’s headquarters in New York
City.

Any country—even if it is not a member of the UN—may bring

a dispute to which it is a party to the attention of the Security
Council. When there is a complaint, the council first explores
the possibility of a peaceful resolution. International
peacekeeping forces may be authorized to keep warring parties
apart pending further negotiations. If the council finds that
there is a real threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an
act of aggression (as defined by Article 39 of the UN Charter), it
may call upon UN members to apply diplomatic or economic
sanctions. If these methods prove inadequate, the UN Charter
allows the Security Council to take military action against the
offending country.

During the Cold War, continual disagreement between the

United States and the Soviet Union coupled with the veto power
of the Security Council’s permanent members made the
Security Council an ineffective institution. Since the late 1980s,
however, the council’s power and prestige have grown. Between
1987 and 2000 it authorized more peacekeeping operations
than at any previous time. The use of the veto has declined
dramatically, though disagreements among permanent
members of the Security Council—most notably in 2003 over
the use of military force against Iraq—have occasionally
undermined the council’s effectiveness. To achieve consensus,
comparatively informal meetings are held in private among the
council’s permanent members, a practice that has been
criticized by nonpermanent members of the Security Council.
In addition to several standing and ad hoc committees, the
work of the council is facilitated by the Military Staff
Committee, sanctions committees for each of the countries
under sanctions, peacekeeping forces committees, and an
International Tribunals Committee.
Economic and Social Council
Designed to be the UN’s main venue for the discussion of
international economic and social issues, the Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) directs and coordinates the economic,
social, humanitarian, and cultural activities of the UN and its
specialized agencies. Established by the UN Charter, ECOSOC
is empowered to recommend international action on economic
and social issues; promote universal respect for human rights;
and work for global cooperation on health, education, and
cultural and related areas. ECOSOC conducts studies;
formulates resolutions, recommendations, and conventions for
consideration by the General Assembly; and coordinates the
activities of various UN programs and specialized agencies.
Most of ECOSOC’s work is performed in
functional commissions on topics such as human rights,
narcotics, population, social development, statistics, the status
of women, and science and technology; the council also
oversees regional commissions for Europe, Asia and the Pacific,
Western Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

The UN Charter authorizes ECOSOC to grant consultative

status to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Three
categories of consultative status are recognized: General
Category NGOs (formerly category I) include organizations with
multiple goals and activities; Special Category NGOs (formerly
category II) specialize in certain areas of ECOSOC activities;
and Roster NGOs have only an occasional interest in the UN’s
activities. Consultative status enables NGOs to attend ECOSOC
meetings, issue reports, and occasionally testify at meetings.
Since the mid-1990s, measures have been adopted to increase
the scope of NGO participation in ECOSOC, in the ad hoc global
conferences, and in other UN activities. By the early 21st
century, ECOSOC had granted consultative status to more than
2,500 NGOs.

Originally, ECOSOC consisted of representatives from 18

countries, but the Charter was amended in 1965 and in 1974 to
increase the number of members to 54. Members are elected for
three-year terms by the General Assembly. Four of the five
permanent members of the Security Council—the United States,
United Kingdom, Soviet Union (Russia), and France—have
been reelected continually because they provide funding for
most of ECOSOC’s budget, which is the largest of any UN
subsidiary body. Decisions are taken by simple majority vote.
Trusteeship Council
The Trusteeship Council was designed to supervise the
government of trust territories and to lead them to self-
government or independence. The trusteeship system, like
the mandate system under the League of Nations, was
established on the premise that colonial territories taken from
countries defeated in war should not be annexed by the
victorious powers but should be administered by a trust country
under international supervision until their future status was
determined. Unlike the mandate system, the trusteeship system
invited petitions from trust territories on their independence
and required periodic international missions to the territories.
In 1945 only 12 League of
Nations mandates remained: Nauru, New Guinea, Ruanda-
Urundi, Togoland and Cameroon (French administered),
Togoland and Cameroon (British administered), the Pacific
Islands (Carolines, Marshalls, and Marianas), Western Samoa,
South West Africa, Tanganyika, and Palestine. All these
mandates became trust territories except South West Africa
(now Namibia), which South Africa refused to enter into the
trusteeship system.
 More From Britannica

political system: The United Nations organization

The Trusteeship Council, which met once each year, consisted

of states administering trust territories, permanent members of
the Security Council that did not administer trust territories,
and other UN members elected by the General Assembly. Each
member had one vote, and decisions were taken by a simple
majority of those present. With the independence of Palau, the
last remaining trust territory, in 1994, the council terminated
its operations. No longer required to meet annually, the council
may meet on the decision of its president or on a request by a
majority of its members, by the General Assembly, or by the
Security Council. Since 1994 new roles for the council have
been proposed, including administering the global commons
(e.g., the seabed and outer space) and serving as a forum for
minority and indigenous peoples.
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice, commonly known as the
World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United
Nations, though the court’s origins predate the League of
Nations. The idea for the creation of an international court to
arbitrate international disputes arose during an international
conference held at The Hague in 1899. This institution was
subsumed under the League of Nations in 1919 as
the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) and
adopted its present name with the founding of the UN in 1945.

The court’s decisions are binding, and its broad

jurisdiction encompasses “all cases which the parties refer to it
and all matters specially provided for in the Charter of the
United Nations or in treaties and conventions in force.” Most
importantly, states may not be parties to a dispute without their
consent, though they may accept the compulsory jurisdiction of
the court in specified categories of disputes. The court may give
advisory opinions at the request of the General Assembly or the
Security Council or at the request of other organs and
specialized agencies authorized by the General Assembly.
Although the court has successfully arbitrated some cases (e.g.,
the border dispute between Honduras and El Salvador in 1992),
governments have been reluctant to submit sensitive issues,
thereby limiting the court’s ability to resolve threats to
international peace and security. At times countries also have
refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction or the findings of the
court. For example, when Nicaragua sued the United States in
the court in 1984 for mining its harbours, the court found in
favour of Nicaragua, but the United States refused to accept the
court’s decision, blocked Nicaragua’s appeal to the Security
Council, and withdrew from the compulsory, or general,
jurisdiction of the court, which it had accepted since 1946.

The 15 judges of the court are elected by the General Assembly

and the Security Council voting independently. No two judges
may be nationals of the same state, and the judges are to
represent a cross section of the major legal systems of the
world. Judges serve nine-year terms and are eligible for
reelection. The seat of the World Court is The Hague.
Secretariat

Antonio Guterres

The secretary-general, the principal administrative officer of the United

Nations, is elected for a five-year renewable term by a two-thirds vote of
the General Assembly and by the recommendation of the Security
Council and the approval of its permanent members. Secretaries-general
usually have come from small, neutral countries. The secretary-general
serves as the chief administrative officer at all meetings and carries out
any functions that those organs entrust to the Secretariat; he also
oversees the preparation of the UN’s budget. The secretary-general has
important political functions, being charged with bringing before the
organization any matter that threatens international peace and security.
Both the chief spokesperson for the UN and the UN’s most visible
and authoritative figure in world affairs, the secretary-general often
serves as a2 high-level negotiator. Attesting to the importance of the
post, two secretaries-general have been awarded the Nobel Prize for
Peace: Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961 and Kofi Annan, corecipient with the
UN, in 2001.

The Secretariat influences the work of the United Nations to a much

greater degree than indicated in the UN Charter. It is responsible for
preparing numerous reports, studies, and investigations, in addition to
the major tasks of translating, interpreting, providing services for large
numbers of meetings, and other work. Under the Charter the staff is to
be recruited mainly on the basis of merit, though there has been a
conscious effort to recruit individuals from different geographic regions.
Some members of the Secretariat are engaged on permanent contracts,
but others serve on temporary assignment from their national
governments. In both cases they must take an oath of loyalty to the
United Nations and are not permitted to receive instructions from
member governments. The influence of the Secretariat can be attributed
to the fact that the some 9,000 people on its staff are permanent experts
and international civil servants rather than political appointees of
member states.

The Secretariat is based in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi (Kenya),

and other locales. It has been criticized frequently for poor
administrative practices—though it has made persistent efforts to
increase the efficiency of its operations—as well as for a lack of
neutrality.
Subsidiary organs
The United Nations network also includes subsidiary organs
created by the General Assembly and autonomous specialized
agencies. The subsidiary organs report to the General Assembly
or ECOSOC or both. Some of these organs are funded directly
by the UN; others are financed by the voluntary contributions
of governments or private citizens. In addition, ECOSOC has
consultative relationships with NGOs operating in economic,
social, cultural, educational, health, and related fields. NGOs
have played an increasingly important role in the work of the
UN’s specialized agencies, especially in the areas of health,
peacekeeping, refugee issues, and human rights.
Specialized agencies
The specialized agencies report annually to ECOSOC and often
cooperate with each other and with various UN organs.
However, they also have their own principles, goals, and rules,
which at times may conflict with those of other UN organs and
agencies. The specialized agencies are autonomous insofar as
they control their own budgets and have their own boards of
directors, who appoint agency heads independently of the
General Assembly or secretary-general. Major specialized
agencies and related organs of the UN include the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
and the World Health Organization (WHO). Two of the most
powerful specialized agencies, which also are the most
independent with respect to UN decision making, are the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The United
Nations, along with its specialized agencies, is often referred to
collectively as the United Nations system.

Global conferences
Global conferences have a long history in multilateral
diplomacy, extending back to the period after World War I,
when conferences on disarmament and economic affairs
were convened by the League of Nations. With the UN’s
establishment after World War II, the number and frequency of
global conferences increased dramatically. The trickle of
narrowly focused, functional meetings from the early 1950s
became a torrent in the 1990s with a series of widely publicized
gatherings attended by high-level representatives and several
thousands of other participants.

Virtually all matters of international concern have been debated

by UN global conferences, including the proliferation of nuclear
weapons, small-arms trafficking, racism, overpopulation,
hunger, crime, access to safe drinking water, the environment,
the role of women, and human rights. The format and
frequency of the conferences have varied considerably over
time. The increasing number of meetings has led to complaints
of “conference fatigue” by some countries.

Global conferences have served a number of significant

functions. Considered “town meetings of the world,” they
provide an arena for discussion and for the exchange of
information. The conferences take stock of existing knowledge
and help to expand it through the policy analyses that they
trigger. They also serve as incubators of ideas, raise
elite consciousness, and may also identify emerging issues. For
example, the dramatic acceleration in the growth of the world’s
population in the second half of the 20th century was a
challenge first identified by conferences organized by the UN in
the 1950s and ’60s. Global conferences have nurtured public
support for solutions to global issues. Thus, NGOs have played
a key role in many of the UN global conferences. At some
conferences, the NGOs have organized parallel conferences to
discuss the major issues; at others, they have participated
alongside government representatives, serving on national
delegations and presenting position papers.

Global conferences have faced a number of criticisms. Some

observers claim that they are inefficient and too large and
unwieldy to set international agendas. Others argue that they
have been captured by different constituencies, of the North or
the South, depending on the issue. Still others contend that
such conferences have become too politicized, with the result
that unrelated issues are sometimes linked to serve political
purposes. For example, the global conferences on racism in
1978 and 2001, according to these critics, were unduly
politicized by declarations asserting a link between racism
and Zionism.
Jacques FomerandKaren Mingst
Administration
Finances
The secretary-general must submit a biennial budget to the
General Assembly for its approval. The Charter stipulates that
the expenses of the organization shall be borne by members as
apportioned by the General Assembly. The Committee on
Contributions prepares a scale of assessments for all members,
based on the general economic level and capacity of each state,
which is also submitted to the General Assembly for approval.
The United States is the largest contributor, though the
proportion of its contributions has declined continually, from
some two-fifths at the UN’s founding to one-fourth in 1975 and
to about one-fifth in 2000. Other members make larger per
capita contributions. The per capita contribution of San
Marino, for example, is roughly four times that of the United
States.

The U.S. contribution became a controversial issue during the

1990s, when the country refused to pay its obligations in full
and objected to the level of funding it was required to provide.
In 1999 the U.S. Congress passed a UN reform bill, and after
intense negotiations UN members agreed to reduce the U.S.
share of the budget and to increase contributions from other
states to make up the shortfall.

When the cost of the special programs, specialized agencies,

and peacekeeping operations is added to the regular budget, the
total annual cost of the United Nations system increases
substantially. (Special programs are financed by voluntary
contributions from UN members, and specialized agencies and
peacekeeping operations have their own budgets.) Partly
because of a rapid increase in the number of appeals to the UN
for peacekeeping and other assistance after the end of the Cold
War and partly because of the failure of some member states to
make timely payments to the organization, the UN has suffered
continual and severe financial crises.
Privileges and immunities
A general Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the
United Nations, approved by the General Assembly in February
1946 and accepted by most of the members, asserts that the UN
possesses juridical personality. The convention also provides
for such matters as immunity from legal process of the property
and officials of the UN. An agreement between the UN and the
United States, signed in June 1947, defines the privileges and
immunities of the UN headquarters in New York City.
Headquarters
The General Assembly decided during the second part of its
first session in London to locate its permanent headquarters
in New York. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated land for a
building site in Manhattan. Temporary headquarters were
established at Lake Success on Long Island, New York. The
permanent Secretariat building was completed and occupied in
1951–52. The building providing accommodations for the
General Assembly and the councils was completed and
occupied in 1952.

United Nations

The UN flag, adopted in 1947, consists of the official emblem of

the organization (a circular world map, as seen from the North
Pole, surrounded by a wreath of olive branches) in white
centred on a light blue background. The Assembly designated
October 24 as United Nations Day.
Lynch Karen The

Functions
Maintenance of international peace and security
The main function of the United Nations is to preserve
international peace and security. Chapter 6 of the Charter
provides for the pacific settlement of disputes, through the
intervention of the Security Council, by means such as
negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and judicial decisions. The
Security Council may investigate any dispute or situation to
determine whether it is likely to endanger international peace
and security. At any stage of the dispute, the council may
recommend appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment,
and, if the parties fail to settle the dispute by peaceful means,
the council may recommend terms of settlement.

The goal of collective security, whereby aggression against one

member is met with resistance by all, underlies chapter 7 of the
Charter, which grants the Security Council the power to order
coercive measures—ranging from diplomatic, economic, and
military sanctions to the use of armed force—in cases where
attempts at a peaceful settlement have failed. Such measures
were seldom applied during the Cold War, however,
because tensions between the United States and the Soviet
Union prevented the Security Council from agreeing on the
instigators of aggression. Instead, actions to maintain peace
and security often took the form of preventive diplomacy and
peacekeeping. In the post-Cold War period, appeals to the UN
for peacekeeping and related activities increased dramatically,
and new threats to international peace and security were
confronted, including AIDS and international terrorism.

Notwithstanding the primary role of the Security Council, the

UN Charter provides for the participation of the General
Assembly and nonmember states in security issues. Any state,
whether it is a member of the UN or not, may bring any dispute
or situation that endangers international peace and security to
the attention of the Security Council or the General Assembly.
The Charter authorizes the General Assembly to “discuss any
questions relating to the maintenance of international peace
and security” and to “make recommendations with regard to
any such questions to the state or states concerned or to the
Security Council or to both.” This authorization is restricted by
the provision that, “while the Security Council is exercising in
respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it
in the present Charter, the General Assembly shall not make
any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation
unless the Security Council so requests.” By the “Uniting for
Peace” resolution of November 1950, however, the General
Assembly granted to itself the power to deal with threats to the
peace if the Security Council fails to act after a veto by a
permanent member. Although these provisions grant the
General Assembly a broad secondary role, the Security Council
can make decisions that bind all members, whereas the General
Assembly can make only recommendations.
Peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace building
International armed forces were first used in 1948 to observe
cease-fires in Kashmir and Palestine. Although not specifically
mentioned in the UN Charter, the use of such forces as
a buffer between warring parties pending troop withdrawals
and negotiations—a practice known as peacekeeping—was
formalized in 1956 during the Suez
Crisis between Egypt, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.
Peacekeeping missions have taken many forms, though they
have in common the fact that they are designed to be peaceful,
that they involve military troops from several countries, and
that the troops serve under the authority of the UN Security
Council. In 1988 the UN Peacekeeping Forces were awarded the
Nobel Prize for Peace.

During the Cold War, so-called first-generation, or “classic,”

peacekeeping was used in conflicts in the Middle
East and Africa and in conflicts stemming
from decolonization in Asia. Between 1948 and 1988 the UN
undertook 13 peacekeeping missions involving generally lightly
armed troops from neutral countries other than the permanent
members of the Security Council—most
often Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, India, Ireland,
and Italy. Troops in these missions, the so-called “Blue
Helmets,” were allowed to use force only in self-defense. The
missions were given and enjoyed the consent of the parties to
the conflict and the support of the Security Council and the
troop-contributing countries.

With the end of the Cold War, the challenges of peacekeeping

became more complex. In order to respond to situations in
which internal order had broken down and the civilian
population was suffering, “second-generation” peacekeeping
was developed to achieve multiple political and social
objectives. Unlike first-generation peacekeeping, second-
generation peacekeeping often involves civilian experts and
relief specialists as well as soldiers. Another difference between
second-generation and first-generation peacekeeping is that
soldiers in some second-generation missions are authorized to
employ force for reasons other than self-defense. Because the
goals of second-generation peacekeeping can be variable and
difficult to define, however, much controversy has accompanied
the use of troops in such missions.

In the 1990s, second-generation peacekeeping missions

were undertaken in Cambodia (1991–93), the
former Yugoslavia (1992–95), Somalia (1992–95), and
elsewhere and included troops from the permanent members of
the Security Council as well as from the developed and
developing world
(e.g., Australia, Pakistan, Ghana, Nigeria, Fiji, India). In the
former Yugoslav province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Security Council created “safe areas” to protect the
predominantly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) population from
Serbian attacks, and UN troops were authorized to defend the
areas with force. In each of these cases, the UN reacted to
threats to peace and security within states, sometimes taking
sides in domestic disputes and thus jeopardizing its own
neutrality. Between 1988 and 2000 more than 30 peacekeeping
efforts were authorized, and at their peak in 1993 more than
80,000 peacekeeping troops representing 77 countries
were deployed on missions throughout the world. In the first
years of the 21st century, annual UN expenditures on
peacekeeping operations exceeded $2 billion.

In addition to traditional peacekeeping and preventive

diplomacy, in the post-Cold War era the functions of UN forces
were expanded considerably to include peacemaking and peace
building. (Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-
Ghali described these additional functions in his reports An
Agenda for Peace [1992] and Supplement to an Agenda for
Peace [1995].) For example, since 1990 UN forces have
supervised elections in many parts of the world,
including Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Cambodia; encouraged peace
negotiations in El Salvador, Angola, and Western Sahara; and
distributed food in Somalia. The presence of UN troops in
Yugoslavia during the violent and protracted disintegration of
that country renewed discussion about the role of UN troops
in refugee resettlement. In 1992 the UN created
the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), which
provides administrative and technical support for political and
humanitarian missions and coordinates all mine-clearing
activities conducted under UN auspices.

The UN’s peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace-building

activities have suffered from serious logistical and financial
difficulties. As more missions are undertaken, the costs and
controversies associated with them have multiplied
dramatically. Although the UN reimburses countries for the use
of equipment, these payments have been limited because of the
failure of many member states to pay their UN dues.
Sanctions and military action
By subscribing to the Charter, all members undertake to place
at the disposal of the Security Council armed forces and
facilities for military sanctions against aggressors or disturbers
of the peace. During the Cold War, however, no agreements to
give this measure effect were concluded. Following the end of
the Cold War, the possibility of creating permanent UN forces
was revived.

During the Cold War the provisions of chapter 7 of the UN

Charter were invoked only twice with the support of all five
permanent Security Council members—against Southern
Rhodesia in 1966 and against South Africa in 1977. After
fighting broke out between North and South Korea in June
1950, the United States obtained a Security Council resolution
authorizing the use of force to support its ally, South Korea, and
turn back North Korean forces. Because the Soviet Union was at
the time boycotting the Security Council over its refusal to seat
the People’s Republic of China, there was no veto of the U.S.
measure. As a result, a U.S.-led multinational force fought
under the UN banner until a cease-fire was reached on July 27,
1953.

The Security Council again voted to use UN armed forces to

repel an aggressor following the August 1990 invasion
of Kuwait by Iraq. After condemning the aggression and
imposing economic sanctions on Iraq, the council authorized
member states to use “all necessary means” to restore “peace
and security” to Kuwait. The resulting Persian Gulf War lasted
six weeks, until Iraq agreed to comply with UN resolutions and
withdraw from Kuwait. The UN continued to monitor
Iraq’s compliance with its resolutions, which included the
demand that Iraq eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. In
accordance with this resolution, the Security Council
established a UN Special Mission (UNSCOM) to inspect and
verify Iraq’s implementation of the cease-fire terms. The United
States, however, continued to bomb Iraqi weapons installations
from time to time, citing Iraqi violations of “no-fly” zones in the
northern and southern regions of the country, the targeting of
U.S. military aircraft by Iraqi radar, and the obstruction of
inspection efforts undertaken by UNSCOM.

The preponderant role of the United States in initiating and

commanding UN actions in Korea in 1950 and the Persian
Gulf in 1990–91 prompted debate over whether the
requirements and spirit of collective security could ever be
achieved apart from the interests of the most powerful
countries and without U.S. control. The continued U.S.
bombing of Iraq subsequent to the Gulf War created further
controversy about whether the raids were justified under
previous UN Security Council resolutions and, more generally,
about whether the United States was entitled to undertake
military actions in the name of collective security without the
explicit approval and cooperation of the UN. Meanwhile some
military personnel and members of the U.S. Congress opposed
the practice of allowing U.S. troops to serve under UN
command, arguing that it amounted to an infringement of
national sovereignty. Still others in the United States and
western Europe urged a closer integration of United States and
allied command structures in UN military operations.

In order to assess the UN’s expanded role in ensuring

international peace and security through dispute settlement,
peacekeeping, peace building, and enforcement action,
a comprehensive review of UN Peace Operations was
undertaken. The resulting Brahimi Report (formally the Report
of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations), issued in
2000, outlined the need for strengthening the UN’s capacity to
undertake a wide variety of missions. Among the many
recommendations of the report was that the UN maintain
brigade-size forces of 5,000 troops that would be ready
to deploy in 30 to 90 days and that UN headquarters be staffed
with trained military professionals able to use advanced
information technologies and to plan operations with a UN
team including political, development, and human
rights experts.
Arms control and disarmament
The UN’s founders hoped that the maintenance of international
peace and security would lead to the control and eventual
reduction of weapons. Therefore the Charter empowers the
General Assembly to consider principles for arms
control and disarmament and to make recommendations to
member states and the Security Council. The Charter also gives
the Security Council the responsibility to formulate plans for
arms control and disarmament. Although the goal of arms
control and disarmament has proved elusive, the UN
has facilitated the negotiation of several multilateral arms
control treaties.

Because of the enormous destructive power realized with the

development and use of the atomic bomb during World War II,
the General Assembly in 1946 created the Atomic Energy
Commission to assist in the urgent consideration of the control
of atomic energy and in the reduction of atomic weapons. The
United States promoted the Baruch Plan, which proposed the
elimination of existing stockpiles of atomic bombs only after a
system of international control was established and prohibited
veto power in the Security Council on the commission’s
decisions. The Soviet Union, proposing the Gromyko Plan,
wanted to ensure the destruction of stockpiles before agreeing
to an international supervisory scheme and wanted to retain
Security Council veto power over the commission. The
conflicting positions of the two superpowers prevented
agreement on the international control of atomic weapons and
energy.

In 1947 the Security Council organized the Commission for

Conventional Armaments to deal with armaments other
than weapons of mass destruction, but progress on this issue
also was blocked by disagreement between the Soviet
Union and the Western powers. As a result, in 1952 the General
Assembly voted to replace both of these commissions with a
new Disarmament Commission. Consisting of the members of
the Security Council and Canada, this commission was directed
to prepare proposals that would regulate, limit, and balance
reduction of all armed forces and armaments; eliminate all
weapons of mass destruction; and ensure international control
and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes only. After five
years of vigorous effort and little progress, in 1957
the International Atomic Energy Agency was established to
promote the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

In 1961 the General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring

the use of nuclear or thermonuclear weapons to be contrary
to international law, to the UN Charter, and to the laws of
humanity. Two years later, on August 5, 1963, the Nuclear Test-
Ban Treaty was signed by the Soviet Union, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty—to which more
than 150 states later adhered—prohibited nuclear tests or
explosions in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater.
In 1966 the General Assembly unanimously approved a treaty
prohibiting the placement of weapons of mass destruction in
orbit, on the Moon, or on other celestial bodies and recognizing
the use of outer space exclusively for peaceful purposes.

In June 1968 the Assembly approved the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which banned the spread of
nuclear weapons from nuclear to nonnuclear powers; enjoined
signatory nonnuclear powers, in exchange for technical
assistance in developing nuclear power for “peaceful purposes,”
not to develop or deploy nuclear weapons; and committed the
nuclear powers to engage in measures of disarmament. The
treaty represented a significant commitment on the part of
more than 140 (now 185) signatory powers to control nuclear
weapons proliferation; nevertheless, for many years the treaty,
which went into effect in 1970, was not ratified by significant
nuclear powers (including China and France) and many “near-
nuclear” states
(including Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and South
Africa). Some of these states signed the treaty in the early
1990s: South Africa signed in 1991, followed by France and
China in 1992.

The UN has been active in attempting to eliminate other

weapons of mass destruction of a variety of types and in a
variety of contexts. In 1970 the General Assembly approved a
treaty banning the placement of weapons of mass destruction
on the seabed. A convention prohibiting the manufacture,
stockpiling, and use of biological weapons was approved by the
Assembly in 1971 and took effect in 1975, though many states
have never acceded to it. In 1991 the UN General Assembly
passed a resolution on the registration of conventional arms
that required states to submit information on major
international arms transfers. During the first several years of
the registry, fewer than half of the UN’s members submitted the
required information; by 2000 about three-fifths of
governments filed annual reports. In 1993 the Chemical
Weapons Convention, which prohibited the development,
production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and
called for the destruction of existing stockpiles within 10 years,
was opened for signature. In 1996 the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear
weapons, was signed—though it has not yet entered into force—
and two years later a treaty banning the production and export
of antipersonnel land mines (Convention on the Prohibition of
the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-
Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction) was concluded.
Despite international pressure, the United States refused to
sign both the test ban and the land mine agreements.
Many negotiations on disarmament have been held in Geneva.
Negotiations have been conducted by the Ten-Nation
Committee on Disarmament (1960); the Eighteen-Nation
Committee on Disarmament (1962–68); the Conference of the
Committee on Disarmament (1969–78); and the Disarmament
Commission (1979– ), which now has more than 65 countries as
members. Three special sessions of the General Assembly have
been organized on disarmament, and, though the General
Assembly sessions have produced little in the way
of substantive agreements, they have served to focus public
attention on the issue. In other forums, significant progress has
been made on limiting specific types of armaments, such as
bacteriologic, chemical, nuclear, and toxic weapons.
Karen Mingst

Economic welfare and cooperation

The General Assembly, ECOSOC, the Secretariat, and many of
the subsidiary organs and specialized agencies are responsible
for promoting economic welfare and cooperation in areas such
as postwar reconstruction, technical assistance, and trade and
development.
Economic reconstruction
The devastation of large areas of the world and the disruption
of economic relations during World War II resulted in the
establishment (before the UN was founded) of the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in
1943. The UNRRA was succeeded by the International Refugee
Organization, which operated from 1947 to 1951. To assist in
dealing with regional problems, in 1947 ECOSOC established
the Economic Commission for Europe and the Economic
Commission for Asia and the Far East. Similar commissions
were established for Latin America in 1948 and for Africa in
1958. The major work of economic reconstruction, however,
was delegated to the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank), one of the major financial
institutions created in 1944 at the UN Monetary and Financial
Conference (commonly known as the Bretton Woods
Conference). Although the World Bank is
formally autonomous from the UN, it reports to ECOSOC as
one of the UN’s specialized agencies. The World Bank works
closely with donor countries, UN programs, and other
specialized agencies.
Financing economic development
The World Bank is also primarily responsible for financing
economic development. In 1956 the International Finance
Corporation was created as an arm of the World Bank
specifically to stimulate private investment flows. The
corporation has the authority to make direct loans to private
enterprises without government guarantees and is allowed to
make loans for other than fixed returns. In 1960
the International Development Association (IDA) was
established to make loans to less-developed countries on terms
that were more flexible than bank loans.

The UN itself has played a more limited role in financing

economic development. The General Assembly provides
direction and supervision for economic activities, and ECOSOC
coordinates different agencies and programs. UN development
efforts have consisted of two primary activities. First, several
regional commissions (for Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Latin
America, and Africa) promote regional approaches to
development and undertake studies and
development initiatives for regional economic projects. Second,
UN-sponsored technical assistance programs, funded from
1965 through the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), provide systematic assistance in fields
essential to technical, economic, and social development of
less-developed countries. Resident representatives of the UNDP
in recipient countries assess local needs and priorities and
administer UN development programs.
Trade and development
After the massive decolonization of the 1950s and early 1960s,
less-developed countries became much more numerous,
organized, and powerful in the General Assembly, and they
began to create organs to address the problems of development
and diversification in developing economies. Because the
international trading system and the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade dealt primarily with the promotion of trade
between advanced industrialized countries, in 1964 the General
Assembly established the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) to address issues of concern to
developing countries. Toward that end, UNCTAD and
the Group of 77 less-developed countries that promoted its
establishment tried to codify principles of international
trade and arrange agreements to stabilize commodity prices.

UNCTAD discussions resulted in agreements on a Generalized

System of Preferences, providing for lower tariff rates for some
exports of poorer countries, and on the creation of a Common
Fund to help finance buffer stocks for commodity agreements.
UNCTAD also has discussed questions related to shipping,
insurance, commodities, the transfer of technology, and the
means for assisting the exports of developing countries.

The less-developed countries attempted a more concerted and

wide-ranging effort to redistribute wealth and economic
opportunities through demands for a New International
Economic Order, made in 1974 by the Group of 77 (which had
become a permanent group representing the interests of less-
developed states in the UN and eventually came to include
more than 120 states). Encouraged by the successful
demonstration of economic power by the oil-producing
countries during the embargo of 1973–74, developing states
demanded greater opportunities for development finance, an
increase in the percentage of gross national
product allocated by the advanced industrialized states
to foreign aid, and greater participation in the specialized
agencies created to deal with monetary and development issues,
including the World Bank and the IMF. These demands
resulted in limited modification of aid flows and of the practices
of specialized agencies and produced much greater debate and
publicity surrounding development issues. Following the
East Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, UNCTAD and other
UN agencies took part in discussions aimed at creating a new
international financial architecture designed to control short-
term capital flows.
Social welfare and cooperation
The United Nations is concerned with issues of human rights,
including the rights of women and
children, refugee resettlement, and narcotics control. Some of
its greatest successes have been in the area of improving the
health and welfare of the world’s population. In the 1990s,
despite severe strains on the resources of UN development
programs and agencies resulting from massive refugee
movements and humanitarian crises, the UN increased its
emphasis on social development.
Refugees
After World War II the International Refugee
Organization successfully resettled, repatriated, transported,
and maintained more than one million European and Asian
refugees. It was abolished in 1952 and replaced by a new
international refugee structure. In 1951 ECOSOC drew up, and
the General Assembly approved, a Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) was then appointed and directed to act
under this convention, and ECOSOC appointed an Advisory
Commission to assist the high commissioner.

The work of the UNHCR has become increasingly important

since the late 1980s, involving major relief operations in Africa,
Asia (particularly Southeast and Central Asia), Central America,
western and central Europe, and the Balkans. At the end of the
1990s approximately 20 million people had been forced to
migrate or had fled oppression, violence, and starvation. The
UNHCR works in more than 120 countries and cooperates with
more than 450 NGOs to provide relief and to aid in
resettlement. For its services on behalf of refugees, the Office of
the UNHCR was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1954 and
1981.
A separate organization, the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East (UNRWA), administers aid to refugees in the Middle East.
Human rights
Unlike the League of Nations, the United Nations incorporated
the principle of respect for human rights into its Charter,
affirming respect for human rights and for fundamental
freedoms for all without regard to race, sex, language, or
religion. According to the Charter, the General Assembly is
charged with initiating studies and making recommendations,
and ECOSOC is responsible for establishing commissions to
fulfill this purpose. Consequently, the Commission on Human
Rights, originally chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, was created in
1946 to develop conventions on a wide range of issues,
including an international bill of rights, civil liberties, the status
of women (for which there is now a separate
commission), freedom of information, the protection
of minorities, the prevention of discrimination on the grounds
of race, sex, language, or religion, and any other human rights
concerns. The commission prepared the nonbinding Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the
General Assembly in 1948.

After the declaration, the commission began drafting

two covenants, one on civil and political rights and another on
economic and cultural rights. Differences in economic and
social philosophies hampered efforts to reach agreement, but
the General Assembly eventually adopted the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in
1966. The covenants, which entered into force in 1976, are
known collectively, along with the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, as the international bill of rights. Although all
countries have stated support for the 1948 declaration, not all
observe or have ratified the two covenants. In general, Western
countries have favoured civil and political rights (rights to life,
liberty, freedom from slavery and arbitrary arrest, freedom of
opinion and peaceful assembly, and the right to vote), and
developing countries have stressed economic and cultural
rights such as the rights to employment, shelter, education, and
an adequate standard of living.

The Commission on Human Rights and its subcommission

meet annually in Geneva to consider a wide range of human
rights issues. Human rights violations are investigated by a
Human Rights Committee set up according to the provisions of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The
commission and subcommission also carry out special
responsibilities delegated by the General Assembly or by
ECOSOC. The commission and subcommission have
strengthened human rights norms and expanded the range of
recognized rights, in part by drafting additional conventions on
matters such as women’s rights, racial
discrimination, torture, labour laws, apartheid, and the rights
of indigenous peoples.

In particular, the UN has acted to strengthen recognition of the

rights of women and children. It established a
special Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, which was approved in 1979
and has been ratified by some 170 countries, and the
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been
ratified by more than 190 countries. In 1995 the Fourth World
Conference on Women, held in Beijing, developed a Platform
for Action to recognize women’s rights and improve women’s
livelihood worldwide, and follow-up meetings monitored
progress toward meeting these goals. UNIFEM, the United
Nations Development Fund for Women, has worked since 1995
to implement the Beijing Platform for Action.

The UN, through special rapporteurs and working groups,

monitors compliance with human rights standards. In 1993 the
General Assembly established the post of United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), which is the
focal point within the UN Secretariat for human rights activity.
Control of narcotics
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs was authorized by the
General Assembly in 1946 to assume the functions of the
League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and
Other Dangerous Drugs. In addition to reestablishing the pre-
World War II system of narcotics control, which had been
disrupted by the war, the United Nations addressed new
problems resulting from the development of synthetic drugs.
Efforts were made to simplify the system of control by drafting
one convention incorporating all the agreements in force. The
UN established the Office for Drug Control and Crime
Prevention (ODCCP) in 1997 to address problems relating to
drugs, crime, and international terrorism.
Health and welfare issues
The UN, through the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) and specialized agencies such as the World
Health Organization (WHO), works toward improving health
and welfare conditions around the world. UNICEF, originally
called the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, was
established by the General Assembly in December 1946 to
provide for the needs of children in areas devastated by World
War II. UNICEF was made a permanent UN organization in
1953. Financed largely by the contributions of member states, it
has helped feed children in more than 100 countries,
provided clothing and other necessities, and sought
to eradicate diseases such as tuberculosis, whooping cough,
and diphtheria. UNICEF promotes low-cost preventive health
care measures for children, including the breast-feeding of
infants and the use of oral rehydration therapy to
treat diarrhea, the major cause of death in children. UNICEF
has key monitoring responsibilities under the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.

WHO is the primary UN agency responsible for health

activities. Among its major initiatives have
been immunization campaigns to protect populations in the
developing world, regulation of the pharmaceutical industry to
control the quality of drugs and to ensure the availability of
lower-cost generics, and efforts to combat the spread of
HIV/AIDS. The UN has responded to
the AIDS epidemic through the establishment of UNAIDS, a
concerted program of cosponsoring agencies, including
UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Bank.
UNAIDS is the leading advocate of global action on AIDS,
supporting programs to prevent transmission of the disease,
providing care for those infected, working to reduce the
vulnerability of specific populations, and alleviating the
economic and social impact of the disease. In 2001 UNAIDS
coordinated a General Assembly special session on the disease.
The environment
In response to growing worldwide concern with environmental
issues, the General Assembly organized the United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment, which was held
in Stockholm in 1972 and led to the creation of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the same year.
UNEP has attempted to find solutions to various environmental
problems, including pollution in the Mediterranean Sea; the
threat to aquatic resources posed by human economic
activity; deforestation, desertification, and drought; the
depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer by human-produced
chemicals; and global warming. Much disagreement has arisen
regarding the scientific bases of environmental concerns and
the question of how to combine the goals of environmental
protection and development. Although both developed and
developing countries recognize the need to preserve natural
resources, developing countries often charge that
the environment has been despoiled primarily by the advanced
industrialized states, whose belated
environmental consciousness now hampers development for
other countries. In other instances, developed countries have
objected to the imposition of environmental standards, fearing
that such regulations will hamper economic growth and erode
their standard of living.

UNEP succeeded in establishing, through the General

Assembly, a World Commission on Environment and
Development and in 1988 outlined an environmental program
to set priorities for the 1990–95 period. International
conferences, such as the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (the “Earth Summit”), held
in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, have continued to focus attention on
environmental issues. The Earth Summit, which was far larger
than any previous intergovernmental global conference,
incorporated input from numerous NGOs. It produced a
Convention on Biological Diversity; a Framework Convention
on Climate Change, or Global Warming Convention; the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development (the Rio
Declaration); a Statement of Principles on Forests; and a plan
for the sustainable development of the Earth’s resources into
the 21st century (Agenda 21). The Global Warming Convention
was amended in 1997 by the Kyoto Protocol and in 2015 by
the Paris Agreement on climate change, both of which aimed to
limit global average temperature increases through reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions.
Dependent areas
The United Nations has expressed concern for people living in
non-self-governing territories. Most importantly, the UN has
affirmed and facilitated the transition to independence of
former colonies. The anticolonial movement in the UN reached
a high point in 1960, when the General Assembly adopted a
resolution sponsored by more than 40 African and Asian states.
This resolution, called the Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, condemned
“the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and
exploitation” and declared that “immediate steps shall be
taken…to transfer all powers” to the peoples in the colonies
“without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with
their freely expressed will and desire…in order to enable them
to enjoy complete independence and freedom.” After
the decolonization period of the 1950s and ’60s, new
states exerted increasing power and influence, especially in the
General Assembly. With the admission of the new states of
Africa and Asia to the United Nations in the 1960s and ’70s and
the end of the Cold War in 1991, politics within the General
Assembly and the Security Council changed as countries
formed regional voting blocs to express their preferences and
principles.

UN efforts to gain independence for Namibia from South

Africa, carried out from the 1940s to the ’80s, represent
perhaps the most enduring and concerted attempt by the
organization to promote freedom for a former colony. In 1966
the General Assembly took action to end the League of
Nations mandate for South West Africa, providing for a United
Nations Council for South West Africa in 1967 to take over
administrative responsibilities in the territory and to prepare it
for independence by 1968. South Africa refused to acknowledge
the council, and the General Assembly, secretary-general,
and Security Council continued to exert pressure through the
1970s. In 1978 the General Assembly adopted a program of
action toward Namibian independence, and the Security
Council developed a plan for free elections. In 1988, with
Namibian independence and the departure of Cuban troops
from neighbouring Angola implicitly linked, South Africa finally
agreed to withdraw from Namibia. In the following year a UN
force—United Nations Temporary Auxiliary Group (UNTAG)—
supervised elections and assisted in repatriating refugees.
Namibia gained formal independent status in 1990.
Development of international law
The United Nations, like the League of Nations, has played a
major role in defining, codifying, and expanding the realm
of international law. The International Law Commission,
established by the General Assembly in 1947, is the primary
institution responsible for these activities. The Legal Committee
of the General Assembly receives the commission’s reports and
debates its recommendations; it may then either convene an
international conference to draw up formal conventions based
on the draft or merely recommend the draft to states.
The International Court of Justice reinforces legal norms
through its judgments. The commission and the committee
have influenced international law in several important
domains, including the laws of war, the law of the sea, human
rights, and international terrorism.

The work of the UN on developing and codifying laws of war

was built on the previous accomplishments of the Hague
Conventions (1899–1907), the League of Nations, and
the Kellog-Briand Pact (1928). The organization’s first concern
after World War II was the punishment of suspected Nazi war
criminals. The General Assembly directed the International
Law Commission to formulate the principles of international
law recognized at the Nürnberg trials, in which German war
criminals were prosecuted, and to prepare a draft code of
offenses against the peace and security of mankind. In 1950 the
commission submitted its formulation of the Nürnberg
principles, which covered crimes against peace, war crimes,
and crimes against humanity. The UN also took up the problem
of defining aggression, a task attempted unsuccessfully by the
League of Nations. Both the International Law Commission and
the General Assembly undertook prolonged efforts that
eventually resulted in agreement in 1974. The definition of
aggression, which passed without dissent, included launching
military attacks, sending armed mercenaries against another
state, and allowing one’s territory to be used for perpetrating an
act of aggression against another state. In 1987 the General
Assembly adopted a series of resolutions to strengthen legal
norms in favour of the peaceful resolution of disputes and
against the use of force.