United Nations

It is often said that if we did not have the United Nations, it would have to be
invented, but what exactly is it and what does it do? And what authority does
it have?

The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945, at the end of the Second
World War. At that time 51 countries were members of the organisation, but
that number has now grown to 189 (nearly all of the countries in the world),
known as 'Member States'.The organisation is based in New York.

When they join the UN, all Member States agree to accept an international
agreement called the UN Charter. This document contains the aims and
beliefs of the UN, the way that it is organised and the standards of behaviour
that are expected of its members. The Charter states that the four main
objectives of the UN are:

1 to maintain international peace and security

2 to develop friendly relations between countries

3 to co-operate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for

human rights

4 to be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations.

So how is it all organised?

Nowadays five main bodies do the work of the United Nations.

The General Assembly is a sort of international parliament. Representatives

of all the Member States meet to discuss the world's problems, what should
be done about them, and the administration of the whole United Nations
Organisation. The General Assembly meets at least once a year (in
September) - or more often if there are serious problems to discuss. Each
Member State has one vote in any decision and important decisions can only
be taken with the agreement of two thirds of the representatives. The
Assembly's decisions are recommendations - a government can't be forced to
do what the Assembly says, but these recommendations are powerful
because they represent world opinion on any particular issue.

The Security Council is the part of the UN which is responsible for

international peace and security. There are 15 members of the Security
Council. Five members are permanent (The Russian Federation, The United
Kingdom, The United States, France and China) and the other 10 members
are elected by the General Assembly for a period of two years. At the
moment, the temporary members are Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Singapore,
The Syrian Arab Republic, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea and Ireland.
Each member has one vote. Important decisions can only be made if there
are nine votes in favour, and this must include the votes of each one of the
five permanent members. The Security Council is the only part of the UN that
can force Member States to accept its decisions or 'resolutions'. If a Member
State does not accept a resolution then the UN will first try to solve the
problem in a peaceful way. However, if the situation continues it can agree to
military action against the government involved.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the part of the UN which
co-ordinates the work of all the UN agencies, commissions and programmes
operating all over the world. All of these together are known as 'The United
Nations Family of Organisations'. This includes organisations such as The
United Nations Children's Fund, (UNICEF) , The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) both based in Paris, France,
and The World Health Organization, (WHO) based in Geneva, Switzerland.
ECOSOC covers all the UN work in areas such as economic and social
progress, health, culture, education, human rights, crime, outer space, the
environment, and many more. The Council has 54 members elected by the
General Assembly for periods of three years.

The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, Netherlands, is

the UN court. It started in 1946. The 15 judges (who must all be of different
nationalities) are elected by the General Assembly and the Security Council.
The court makes decisions about disputes between countries according to
international law, and also gives legal opinions to the General Assembly and
Security Council when necessary. Member States can't be forced to take part
in Court of Justice investigations but if they do agree to participate they must
accept the Court's final decision.

The Secretariat does all of the day-to-day administration of the UN

Organisation. Nearly 9,000 people of many different nationalities work in this
section in offices all over the world. The head of the Secretariat is the
Secretary-General, who is also the 'public face' of the UN. The current
Secretary-General is Kofi Annan from Ghana. The Secretary-General is a
highly respected world figure.

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Your turn
What do you think of this article? Do you agree with what it says?

Your texts

Mélissa writes “This article shows us the institutions of the United Nations.
However, in fact, we see that the first aim of this organization, peace and
security, has not been reached. Countries are still at war (for example in
Darfour) and people are still dying from starvation ...
For me, this organization that the five permanent members wanted in 1945,
after the Second World War, is a pious wish!”
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Giovanni writes “I don’t completely agree with Nur. It’s true that the UNO
has not enough power to realize its purposes, but I don’t think that it’s under
the control of the US. Kofi Annan has often criticized the politics of the US;
furthermore, China and Russian are permanent members of the Security
Council, and those States are absolutely against the politics of the US … I
really think that, at the moment, in the most important questions – first of all
peace – the UNO is an organization which often operates against the politics
of the US. In fact, the attack against Iraq was not established or supported by
the UNO.”

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Nur writes “This article was based on general information about the UNO,
which can be better for children, but I think the UN is itself not an
independent organization, because it has no power to do its job. The UN
seems to me as an instrument in the hands of great powers, particularly the
US. But to me it does not make any sense what the UN is.”

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Maria writes “The article is easy to understand and explains in a few words
the origin of the UN and its principals functions. However, it could be
interesting to explain and give examples of their activities and results. Since
1945, which have been the most important and successful?”

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BuiDuyQuang writes “The UN is very good for children. But it doesn’t have
enough respect for many countries. UNESCO is very useful for people. They
can know about famous places if they want to visit. My country has join the
WHO in November. I think the UN can make peace between country and
country. And help the poor. We can know the UN is the organization of the
world.”

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Sana M. Kadim writes "In my opinion the Security Council does nothing,
since they cannot take any action without the agreement of the five main
members. Mostly one of those is sharing one of the security problems which
happen all over the world."

The untied nations

It was the house at the end of the street; the one where nobody wanted to
live. The landlord who owned the house always worried about it. He wanted
to rent the house, but nobody wanted to live there. It was at the wrong end
of the street, people said. It was too dark, they said. It was too damp. The
rooms are too small. It’s in the wrong part of the city. That’s what all the
people said when they came to look at the old house at the end of the street.
Nobody wanted to rent the house; nobody wanted to live in the wrong part of
the city.

The landlord thought about what to do. It was easier to rent flats, he thought,
so he turned the big old house into small flats. Seeing as people from the city
didn’t want to live there, the landlord asked people from outside the city to
live there. His idea was a success - soon, people came to live in the big old
house. Two Polish girls, Agnieska and Magda came to live in the small flat on
the ground floor. A French woman called Elodie came to live in the big flat on
the top floor. Her boyfriend, who came from Morocco and was called Mourad
came to live with her. An Australian boy called Hugh moved into one of the
flats on the second floor, but he didn’t work (he was an artist and spent all of
his days painting, but he didn’t sell any of his paintings so he didn’t have
much money) so soon he asked a friend of his, a German guy called Knut to
move in with him and help him pay the rent. (Knut was an artist too, and
sometimes Knut sold a painting, so he had some money, at least). A man
from Zimbabwe called Dave moved into the other flat. He was waiting for his
wife and son to get their visas so they could come and live with him.

All these people didn’t mind that the house was at the wrong end of the
street, it was no problem for them that it was a bit too dark, they didn’t care
that there was no garden, nor that the rooms were too small. The fact that
the house was in the wrong part of the city meant nothing to them. They
liked living in the big old house which was now a big block of small flats. It
was cheap, they said. They didn’t like the city where nobody had made them
feel welcome. They liked living in the big old house where everybody came
from somewhere else, and where, soon enough, everyone became friends.

Hugh and Knut invited the other people to come and look at their paintings,
and everybody said they liked them a lot, but nobody bought them. Elodie
and Mourad decided to cook a big meal for everybody in the house. They
made a mixture of French and Moroccan food, which everybody thought was
delicious. Dave showed everyone pictures of his wife and his son, and
Agnieska offered to help him try and get visas for them so they could come
and live in the big house too.

For a while, it was great. Everybody was very happy. “We should call this
house ‘The unofficial United Nations’” they joked.

However, things changed. After a while, everybody got fed up of the smells of
Elodie and Mourad’s cooking coming from upstairs. “Everything smells of
garlic!” they compained. “The whole house smells of garlic!”
After a while, everybody got fed up of the loud music that Hugh and Knut
always had on while they were working. “There’s never any peace or quiet in
this building!” they complained. “Those two lazy artists just sit around
listening to loud music all the time!”

After a while, Agnieska and Magda stopped being friendly with the other
people in the building, and invited lots of their own Polish friends over to their
flat on the ground floor. They had parties that finished very late at night.
They drank lots of vodka and made a lot of noise. Soon, the other people in
the building were complaining. “We can’t sleep at night!” they said. “There’s
always too much noise from the Polish parties!”

Dave felt very sad about the situation. He remembered the time when they
were the unofficial United Nations. He had liked it. He thought that he had
found friends and people who could help him at a time when he was on his
own, far away from his family. Dave wanted to change the situation. He
decided to do something about it. Dave decided to have a meeting. He told
everybody who lived in the building to come and meet in his flat. “We need to
talk about our problems!”. Fortunately, everyone agreed.

So Dave from Zimbabwe sat down next to Knut from Germany who sat next
to Hugh from Australia who sat next to Elodie from France who sat next to
Mourad from Morocco who sat next to Agnieska and Magda from Poland.
“What are we going to do?” asked Dave. “We used to be friends, and now
we’re all arguing all the time!”
Everyone started to shout.
“It’s the Polish parties all night!”
“It’s the noisy music all day!”
“It’s the smell of garlic all day and all night!”
“Wait! Wait! Wait!” shouted Dave, shouting even louder than all the other
people. “Please be quiet! We have to work together to solve our problems. If
we can’t work together, then we will all be alone forever.”
Everyone was very quiet. They all knew that Dave was right.
“So...here is my suggestion. Agnieska and Magda – no more than one party a
month. And you have to invite us all! Elodie, Mourad - please put less garlic in
your food! And invite us to dinner more often! Knut and Hugh – please buy
some headphones.”
Everybody was still silent.
“I think we need to vote on these issues” said Dave. “Everybody who thinks
that Agnieska and Magda should agree, raise your hands.” Five people raised
their hands. “Motion carried!” said Dave.
“Everyone who thinks that Elodie and Mourad should take it easy on the garlic
and invite us to dinner more often, raise your hands!” Five hands raised.
“Motion carried!” said Dave.
“Everybody who thinks that Knut and Hugh should buy some headphones,
raise your hands!” Five hands went up. “Motion carried!”
“And everybody who thinks Dave should be our leader, raise your hands!”
shouted Elodie. Six hands went up.
“Congratulations Dave!”, said Elodie, “You are the first leader of the Untied
Nations