The organization of the United Nations.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 433.

The organization of the United Nations was founded on 24 October 1945. The United Nations Charter was worked out during the World War II and was unanimously adopted at the San Francisco conference. The purposes and principals of the United Nations, according to the Charter, are:

· To maintain international peace and security and to this end to take effective measures to prevent a threat to the peace, to suppress acts of aggression and other breaches of peace;

· To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principal of equal right and self respect of peoples;

· To promote respect for man rights and fundamental freedoms not depending on the origin, to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems.

The UN formed as a continuum with the League of Nations in general purposes, structure, and functions. The official languages of the United Nations are English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, French and Arabic.

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

The General Assembly is the main deliberative body of the UN in which all Member States are represented. The General Assembly, convened usually once a year, may discuss any issue within the scope of the Charter and make recommendations. The General Assembly exercises control over the activities of UN organs, including the Security Council, which submit annual reports to the General Assembly. The General Assembly elects 10 nonpermanent Security Council members and all 27 members of the Economic and Social Council. The General Assembly admits new members and appoints the general secretary on the recommendation of the Security Council. The General Assembly considers and approves the United Nations budget and apportions the contributions among the states. The decisions on substantive matters are taken by a two-thirds vote and on procedural matters by an affirmative majority.

The Security Council is the main body which is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. The 5 permanent members of the Security Council are the USA, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom. Originally the Security Council consisted of 11 members, 6 of which were nonpermanent. However according to the amendments to the Charter, which came into force in August 1965, the composition of the council was enlarged as far as 15 members. The Security Council is empowered to take compulsory measures to reestablish, the international peace and security in case of frictions among the states, threat to the peace, breaches of international peace and acts of aggression.

The International Court of Justice is the principal juridical body of the United Nations. The seat of the Court is in The Hague. It consists of 15 judges elected by the General Assembly and the Security Council voting independently. All Member-States can refer to it, and they are bound to carry out the decisions of the Court according to the case to which they are parties.

The Secretariat is the sixth principal body of the UN and exercise administrative functions of the organization. It serves other organs and implements the programmers and the policies, laid down by them. As its head is the General Secretary. He may get any issue across to the Security Council, which in his opinion threaten to international peace and security. The General Secretary submits annual reports about the UN's work to the General Assembly. The staff of the Secretariat consists of more than 14 thousand of people from 170 countries.

Maintenance of international peace – from its foundation the UN managed to put an end to armed conflicts trough such methods as mediation and negotiations and also application of collective armed forces. UN peacekeeping troops, so called “blue helmets” have served through out the world, most extensively in the Middle East. With time their functions were extended dramatically, and now they can take not only offensive but also defensive actions.

According to the Charter the disarmament issue is one of the top priorities of the organization. The General Assembly diligently emphasizes the necessity of the universal and complete disarmament under the strict international control including the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Realized the destructive power or the nuclear energy the World Community advocated the destruction of existing stockpiles of atomic bombs. But discords between the developed countries always hampered the plans to adjust and to eliminate armed forces and armament, to exterminate weapons of mass destruction and to insure international control of use nuclear energy in peaceful purposes. However, in spite of all this, the Nuclear Weapons Test-Bar Treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons were adopted. Also the General Assembly adopted the treaty prohibiting the production, storing and use of biological and chemical warfare, and also the emplacement of weapons of mass destruction on the seabed and in outer space.

Health, care and environmental issues – to improve health and welfare conditions around the world the UN founded the International Children's Emergency Fund ( UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO). They managed to provide immunization for 80 % of the world's children against six childhood diseases. According to the program of environmental protection the organization works on such problems as protecting water resources, combating disforestation, desertification, and attempts are made to phase out the production of ozonodepleting chemicals.