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United Nations
Nations Unies
Naciones Unidas
الأمم المتحدة
联合国 (聯合國)
Организация Объединённых Наций
Formation24 October 1945
TypeInternational organization
HeadquartersInternational territory on Manhattan Island, New York City
Membership
192 member states
Official language
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
South Korea Ban Ki-moon
Websitehttp://www.un.org/
The foundation of the U.N.

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. It was founded in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations Charter by 50 countries, replacing the League of Nations, founded in 1919. By 2007 it has become the world's most corrupt and incompetent organization.

The UN was founded after the end of World War II by the victorious Allied Powers in the hope that it would act to intervene in conflicts between nations and thereby avoid war. The organization's structure still reflects in some ways the circumstances of its founding. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has veto power on any UN resolution, are the main victors of World War II or their successor states: People's Republic of China (which replaced the Republic of China), the French Republic, the Russian Federation (which replaced the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

As of 2007, there are 192 United Nations member states, encompassing almost every recognized independent state. From its headquarters in New York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additional bodies deal with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most visible public figure is the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who assumed the post on 1 January 2007.

History

Harry Truman at founding conference in San Francisco, 1945.
Wartime poster of the United Nations
Main articles: League of Nations and History of the United Nations

The United Nations was founded as a successor to the League of Nations, which was widely considered to have been ineffective in its role as an international governing body, in that it had been unable to prevent World War II. Some argue that the UN's major advantage over the League of Nations is its ability to maintain and deploy its member nations' armed forces as peace keepers. Others see such "peace keeping" as a euphemism for war and domination of weak and poor countries by the wealthy and powerful nations of the world.[1]

The term "United Nations" (which appears in stanza 35 of Canto III of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage) was decided by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill [2] during World War II, to refer to the Allies. Its first formal use was in the 1 January 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, which committed the Allies to the principles of the Atlantic Charter and pledged them not to seek a separate peace with the Axis powers. Thereafter, the Allies used the term "United Nations Fighting Forces" to refer to their alliance.

The idea for the UN was espoused in declarations signed at the wartime Allied conferences in Moscow, Cairo, and Tehran in 1943. From August to October 1944, representatives of France, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union met to elaborate the plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Estate in Washington, DC. Those and later talks produced proposals outlining the purposes of the organization, its membership and organs, and arrangements to maintain international peace and security and international economic and social cooperation.

On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organizations began in San Francisco. In addition to the governments, a number of non-governmental organizations were invited to assist in drafting the charter. The 50 nations represented at the conference signed the Charter of the United Nations two months later on 26 June. Poland had not been represented at the conference, but a place had been reserved for it among the original signatories, and it added its name later. The UN came into existence on 24 October 1945, after the Charter had been ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council—Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.

Initially, the body was known as the United Nations Organization, or UNO. However, by the 1950s, English speakers were referring to it as the United Nations, or the UN.

Membership

Main article: United Nations member states
A world map showing the members of the UN.

As of 2007 there are 192 United Nations member states, including virtually all internationally-recognized independent states. Among the notable absences are the Republic of China (Taiwan), whose seat in the United Nations was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1971; the Holy See (administering authority of Vatican City), which has declined membership but is an observer state. Furthermore, peoples under a foreign sovereignty and unrecognized nations are unpresented in the UN, e.g. Transnistria and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The most recent addition to the UN is Montenegro, admitted on 28 June 2006.

Headquarters

UN headquarters in New York City
Main article: United Nations headquarters

The current United Nations headquarters building was constructed on 16 acres in New York City between 1949 and 1950, beside the East River. This office project land was bought for 8.5 million dollars by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., using his son Nelson as a crucial negotiator with New York's major developer, William Zeckendorf, in December 1946. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. then donated the land to the UN.

The headquarters was designed by an international team of architects that included Le Corbusier (Switzerland), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), and representatives of numerous other nations. Wallace K. Harrison, an adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, headed the team. There is disagreement among scholars as to attribution. UN headquarters officially opened on 9 January, 1951. While the principal headquarters of the UN are in New York, there are major agencies located in Geneva, The Hague, Vienna, Montreal, Copenhagen, Bonn, and elsewhere.

The street address of the UN headquarters is: 760 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA. Due to security concerns, all mail sent to that address is sterilized.[3]

The UN buildings are not considered separate political jurisdictions,[citation needed] but do have certain aspects of sovereignty. For example, under agreements with their host countries the United Nations Postal Administration is allowed to issue postage stamps for local mailing. Since 1951 the New York office, since 1969 the Geneva office, and since 1979 the Vienna office have had their own issues. UN organizations also use their own telecommunications ITU prefix, 4U, and unofficially the New York, Geneva, and Vienna sites are considered separate entities for amateur radio purposes.

As the UN main building is aging, the UN is in the process of negotiating to build a temporary headquarters designed by Fumihiko Maki on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets for use while the current building is being expanded.[4]

Prior to 1949, the United Nations used a variety of venues in London and New York State.[5]

Financing

File:Vienna-Un-Building.jpg
UN offices occupy the majority of this complex, the Vienna International Centre

The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The regular two-year budgets of the UN and its specialized agencies are funded by assessments. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by national income statistics, along with other factors.

The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be overly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a 'ceiling' rate, setting the maximum amount any member is assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments to reflect current global circumstances. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. The U.S. is the only member that meets that ceiling, but it is in arrears with hundreds of millions of dollars (see United States and the United Nations). Under the scale of assessments adopted in 2000, other major contributors to the regular UN budget for 2001 are Japan (19.63%), Germany (9.82%), France (6.50%), the UK (5.57%), Italy (5.09%), Canada (2.57%), Spain (2.53%), and Brazil (2.39%).[6]

Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget (such as UNICEF and UNDP) are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments. Some of this is in the form of agricultural commodities donated for afflicted populations, but the majority is financial contributions.

Languages

The UN has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish[7]. The Secretariat uses two working languages, English and French.

When the UN was founded, five official languages were chosen: English, French, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Arabic was added in 1973. Controversy exists over whether the number of official languages should be reduced (for example to English only) or whether the list of languages should be expanded. There is growing pressure to add Hindi as the seventh official language. In 2001, Spanish-speaking countries complained that Spanish does not have equal status compared to English[8]. There is a strenuous resistance against downgrading the status of the French language in the organization (see for instance [9]); every Secretary General of the United Nations thus far has spoken French and the apparent difficulty of Ban Ki-Moon to do so fluently in his first press conference [10] was considered by some a faux pas (e.g. [11])

The UN standard for English language documents (United Nations Editorial Manual) follows British usage. The UN and all other organisations that are part of the UN system use Oxford spelling. The UN standard for Chinese (Mandarin) changed when the Republic of China (Taiwan) was succeeded by the People's Republic of China in 1971. From 1945 until 1971 traditional characters were used, and since 1971 simplified characters have been used.

Of the official languages of the UN, English is an official language in 52 of its members, French in 29, Arabic in 24, Spanish in 20, Russian in 4, and Chinese in 2. Portuguese and German are the languages spoken in most UN members (8 and 6 respectively) without being official languages of the organization.

Aims and Activities

Aims of the UN

The stated aims of the United Nations are to prevent war, to safeguard human rights, to provide a mechanism for international law, and to promote social and economic progress, improve living standards and fight diseases. [12] It gives the opportunity for countries to balance global interdependence and national interests when addressing international problems. Toward these ends it ratified a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. [13]

International conferences

The countries of the UN and its specialized agencies — the "stakeholders" of the system — give guidance and decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year. Governing bodies made up of member states include not only the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and the Security Council, but also counterpart bodies dealing with the governance of all other UN System agencies. For example, the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board oversee the work of WHO.

When an issue is considered particularly important, the General Assembly may convene an international conference to focus global attention and build a consensus for consolidated action. Recent examples include:

UN European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
Main article: United Nations International Years

The UN declares and coordinates "International Year of the..." in order to focus world attention on important issues. Using the symbolism of the UN, a specially designed logo for the year, and the infrastructure of the UN System to coordinate events worldwide, the various years have become catalysts to advancing key issues on a global scale.

Arms control and disarmament

The 1945 UN Charter envisaged a system of regulation that would ensure "the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources". The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the Charter and provided immediate impetus to concepts of arms limitation and disarmament. In fact, the first resolution of the first meeting of the General Assembly (24 January 1946) was entitled "The Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic Energy" and called upon the commission to make specific proposals for "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction".

The UN has established several forums to address multilateral disarmament issues. The principal ones are the First Committee of the General Assembly and the UN Disarmament Commission. Items on the agenda include consideration of the possible merits of a nuclear test ban, outer-space arms control, efforts to ban chemical weapons, nuclear and conventional disarmament, nuclear-weapon-free zones, reduction of military budgets, and measures to strengthen international security.

The Conference on Disarmament is a forum established by the international community for the negotiation of multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. It has 66 members representing all areas of the world, including the five major nuclear-weapon states (the People's Republic of China, France, Russia, UK and USA). While the conference is not formally a UN organization, it is linked to the UN through a personal representative of the Secretary-General; this representative serves as the secretary general of the conference. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly often request the conference to consider specific disarmament matters. In turn, the conference annually reports its activities to the Assembly.

Peacekeeping

Main articles: Peacekeeping and List of UN peacekeeping missions

UN peacekeepers are sent to various regions where armed conflict has recently ceased, in order to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage the combatants from resuming hostilities, for example in East Timor until its independence in 2001. These forces are provided by member states of the UN, and participation in peace keeping operations is optional; at this point only 2 nations, Canada and Portugal, have participated in all peacekeeping operations. The UN does not maintain any independent military. All UN peacekeeping operations must be approved by the Security Council.

The founders of the UN had high hopes that it would act to prevent conflicts between nations and make future wars impossible. Those hopes have not been fully realized. During the Cold War (from about 1945 until 1991), the division of the world into hostile camps made peacekeeping agreement extremely difficult. Following the end of the Cold War, there were renewed calls for the UN to become the agency for achieving world peace, as several dozen military conflicts continue to rage around the globe. But the breakup of the Soviet Union also left the U.S. in a unique position of global dominance, creating a variety of new challenges for the UN.

UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular scale, but including a surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In December 2000, the UN revised the assessment rate scale for the regular budget and for peacekeeping. The peacekeeping scale is designed to be revised every six months and was projected to be near 27% in 2003. The US intends to pay peacekeeping assessments at these lower rates and has sought legislation from the U.S. Congress to allow payment at these rates and to make payments towards arrears. The UN Peace-Keeping Forces (called the Blue Helmets) received the 1988 Nobel Prize for Peace. In 2001, the UN and Secretary General Kofi Annan won the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." The UN maintains a series of United Nations Medals awarded to military service members who enforce UN accords. The first such decoration issued was the United Nations Service Medal, awarded to UN forces who participated in the Korean War. The NATO Medal is designed on a similar concept and both are considered international decorations instead of military decorations.

Human rights

See also: United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery and Convention on the Rights of the Child

The pursuit of human rights was a central reason for creating the UN. World War II atrocities and genocide led to a ready consensus that the new organization must work to prevent any similar tragedies in the future. An early objective was creating a legal framework for considering and acting on complaints about human rights violations.

The UN Charter obliges all member nations to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights" and to take "joint and separate action" to that end. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though not legally binding, was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 as a common standard of achievement for all. The Assembly regularly takes up human rights issues.

On 15 March 2006 the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights with the UN Human Rights Council [14]. Its purpose is to address human rights violations. The UNCHR had repeatedly been criticized for the composition of its membership. In particular, several of its member countries themselves had dubious human rights records, including states whose representatives had been elected to chair the commission.

There are now seven UN-linked human rights treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Secretariat services are provided regarding six of those (excluding the latter) by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The United Nations and its various agencies are central in upholding and implementing the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A case in point is support by the UN for countries in transition to democracy. Technical assistance in providing free and fair elections, improving judicial structures, drafting constitutions, training human rights officials, and transforming armed movements into political parties have contributed significantly to democratization worldwide. The UN has helped run elections in countries with little democratic history, including recently in Afghanistan and East Timor.

The UN is also a forum to support the right of women to participate fully in the political, economic, and social life of their countries. The UN contributes to raising consciousness of the concept of human rights through its covenants and its attention to specific abuses through its General Assembly or Security Council resolutions or ICJ rulings.

Early 2006, an anti-torture panel at the United Nations recommended the closure of Guantanamo and criticized alleged U.S. use of secret prisons and suspected delivery of prisoners to foreign countries for questioning. Some Democrats and human rights groups argued that the CIA’s secret prison system did not allow monitoring for abuses and they hoped that it would be shut down.

Humanitarian assistance and international development

In conjunction with other organizations, such as the Red Cross, the UN provides food, drinking water, shelter and other humanitarian services to populaces suffering from famine, displaced by war, or afflicted by other disaster. Major humanitarian arms of the UN are the World Food Programme (which helps feed more than 100 million people a year in 80 countries), the High Commissioner for Refugees with projects in over 116 countries, as well as peacekeeping projects in over 24 countries. At times, UN relief workers have been subject to attacks (see Attacks on humanitarian workers).

The UN is also involved in supporting development, e.g. by the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the largest multilateral source of grant technical assistance in the world. Organizations—like the WHO, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—are leading institutions in the battle against diseases around the world, especially in poor countries. The UN Population Fund is a major provider of reproductive services. It has helped reduce infant and maternal mortality in 100 countries.

The UN annually publishes the Human Development Index (HDI), a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors.

The UN promotes human development through various agencies and departments:

On 9 March 2006, Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for those in the Horn of Africa threatened with starvation.[16]

UN also had an agency called the World Food Council with the goal of coordinating national ministries of agriculture to help alleviate malnutrition and hunger. It was suspended in 1993.

Treaties and international law

The UN negotiates treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to avoid potential international disputes. Disputes over use of the oceans may be adjudicated by a special court.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the main court of the UN. Its purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states. The ICJ began in 1946 and continues to hear cases. Important cases include:

  • In 1998 the General Assembly called a conference in Rome for the establishment of an International Criminal Court (ICC), at which the "Rome Statute" was adopted. The International Criminal Court became operational in 2002 and began its first case in 2006.[18] It is the first permanent international court charged with trying those who commit the most serious crimes under international law including war crimes and genocide. However, the ICC is functionally independent of the UN both in terms of personnel and financing, although some meetings of the ICC governing body, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, are held at the UN. There is a "relationship agreement" between the ICC and the UN that governs how the two institutions regard each other legally.[19][20]

There is also a SCIU (Serious Crimes Investigation Unit) for East Timor.

Notable United Nations figures

Many famous humanitarians and celebrities have been involved with the United Nations, including Amitabh Bachchan, Audrey Hepburn, Eleanor Roosevelt, Danny Kaye, Roger Moore, Peter Ustinov, Bono, Jeffrey Sachs, Angelina Jolie, Mother Teresa, Shakira, Jay Z, and Nicole Kidman.

Reform

Main articles: Reform of the United Nations and Reform of the United Nations Security Council

In recent years there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations. But there is little clarity, let alone consensus, about how to reform it. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, others want its role reduced to humanitarian work. There have also been numerous calls for the UN's Security Council's membership to be increased to be able to reflect the current geo-political state (i.e increasing members from Africa, South America and Asia) In 2004 and 2005, allegations of mismanagement and corruption regarding the Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq under Saddam Hussein led to renewed calls for reform.

An official reform programme was initiated by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan shortly after starting his first term on 1 January 1997. Reforms mentioned include changing the permanent membership of the Security Council (which currently reflects the power relations of 1945); making the bureaucracy more transparent, accountable and efficient; making the UN more democratic; and imposing an international tariff on arms manufacturers worldwide.

In September 2005, the UN convened a World Summit that brought together the heads of most member states, in a plenary session of the General Assembly's 60th session. The UN called the summit "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in the areas of development, security, human rights and reform of the United Nations".[21] Secretary General Kofi Annan had proposed that the summit agree upon a global "grand bargain" to reform the UN, revamping international systems for peace and security, human rights and development, to make them capable of addressing the extraordinary challenges facing the UN in the 21st century. World leaders agreed upon a compromise text with such notable items as:

  • the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to provide a central mechanism to help countries emerging from conflict;
  • the agreement that the international community has the right to step in when national governments fail to fulfill their responsibility to protect their own citizens from atrocity crimes;
  • a Human Rights Council (created 9 May and becoming operational 19 June)[22];
  • an agreement to devote more resources to UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services;
  • several agreements to spend billions more on achieving Millennium Development Goals;
  • a clear and unambiguous condemnation of terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations";
  • a democracy fund;
  • an agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council due to the completion of its mission.[23]

Although the UN member states achieved little in the way of reform of UN bureaucracy, Annan continued to carry out reforms under his own authority. He established an ethics office, responsible for administering new financial disclosure and whistleblower protection policies. As of late December 2005, the Secretariat was completing a review of all General Assembly mandates more than five years old. That review is intended to provide the basis for decision-making by the member states about which duplicative or unnecessary programmes should be eliminated.

Millennium Development Goals

Main article: Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 192 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The Borgen Project estimates that $40 to 60 billion each year is needed to achieve all eight goals."The Borgen Project and the Millenium Development Goals". Retrieved 2007-02-08. $40-$60 billion: Annual cost of attaining all goals before 2015.

The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000, commits the states to:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
  2. Achieve universal primary education;
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women;
  4. Reduce child mortality;
  5. Improve maternal health;
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability;
  8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Successes and failures in security issues

A large share of UN expenditures addresses the core UN mission of peace and security. The peacekeeping budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year is approximately $5 billion (compared to approximately $1.5 billion for the UN core budget over the same period), with some 70,000 troops deployed in 17 missions around the world. The Human Security Report 2005[24], produced by the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia with support from several governments and foundations, documented a dramatic, but largely unrecognized, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War. Statistics include:

  • A 40% drop in violent conflict.
  • An 80% drop in the most deadly conflicts.
  • An 80% drop in genocide and politicide.

The Report, published by Oxford University Press, argued that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the post–Cold War decline in armed conflict, though the report indicated the evidence for this contention is mostly circumstantial.

The Report singles out several specific investments that have paid off: [25]

  • A sixfold increase in the number of UN missions mounted to prevent wars, from 1990 to 2002.
  • A fourfold increase in efforts to stop existing conflicts, from 1990 to 2002.
  • A sevenfold increase in the number of ‘Friends of the Secretary-General’, ‘Contact Groups’ and other government-initiated mechanisms to support peacemaking and peacebuilding missions, from 1990 to 2003.
  • An elevenfold increase in the number of economic sanctions against regimes around the world, from 1989 to 2001.
  • A fourfold increase in the number of UN peacekeeping operations, from 1987 to 1999.

These efforts were both more numerous and, on average, substantially larger and more complex than those of the Cold War era.

In the area of Peacekeeping, successes include:

  • The US Government Accountability Office concluded that UN Peacekeeping is eight times less expensive than funding a U.S. force. [26]
  • A 2005 RAND Corp study found the U.N. to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It also compared U.N. nation-building efforts to those of the U.S., and found that of eight U.N. cases, seven are at peace, whereas of eight U.S. cases, four are at peace, and four are not or not-yet-at peace. [27]

However, in many cases UN members have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Iraq is said to have broken 17 Security Council resolutions dating back to June 28, 1991 as well as trying to bypass the UN economic sanctions. For nearly a decade, Israel delayed implementing resolutions calling for the dismantling of Jewish communities in "occupied territories". Such failures stem from UN's intergovernmental nature — in many respects it is an association of 192 member states who must reach consensus, not an independent organization. Even when actions are mandated by the 15-member Security Council, the Secretariat is rarely given the full resources needed to carry out the mandates.

Other serious security failures include:

  • Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of security council members to approve any military action.[28]
  • Failure by MONUC (UNSC Resolution 1291) to effectively intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 1998-2002 (with fighting reportedly continuing), and in carrying out and distributing humanitarian aid.
  • Failure to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 Dutch peacekeepers to protect it.
  • Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in Somalia; the food was instead usually seized by local warlords. A U.S./UN attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
  • Failure to implement the provisions of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 calling for disarmament of Lebanese paramilitary groups such as Fatah and Hezbollah.
  • Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Peacekeepers from several nations have been repatriated from UN peacekeeping operations for sexually abusing and exploiting girls as young as 8 in a number of different peacekeeping missions. This abuse is ongoing despite many revelations and probes by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services.[29][30] A 2005 internal UN investigation found that sexual exploitation and abuse has been reported in at least five countries where UN peacekeepers have been deployed, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, and Liberia. [12] The BBC carried a similar report, and also cited a member of the World Food Programme as an offender.[31]

Criticism and controversies

See also: China and the United Nations, Israel and the United Nations, Soviet Union and the United Nations, and United States and the United Nations

Security Council

Main article: United Nations Security Council

The United Nations has been criticized as unable to act in a clear and decisive way when confronted with a crisis. Recent examples include the Iranian nuclear program and the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Because each of the five permanent members of the Security Council have a veto, and because they often disagree, many times no action can be agreed upon. Typically but not always this division includes the United States on one side with either China, Russia or both on the other. Other times the Security Council has been able to agree but lacks the will or means to enforce its resolutions. A recent example is the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Crisis, where no action has been taken to enforce the provisions of Resolution 1559 and Resolution 1701 to disarm non-governmental militias such as Hezbollah. Critics question the effectiveness and relevance of the Security Council because there usually are no consequences for violating a Security Council resolution. See Reform of the United Nations Security Council.

Human Rights oversight

Inclusion on the old United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) of nations such as Sudan and Libya, whose leaderships have dubious records on human rights,[32][33] and Libya's chairmanship of this Commission, has been an issue. These countries argued that Western countries, whom they accused of colonialist aggression and brutality, had no right to argue about membership of the Commission.

However on 15 March 2006 the General Assembly passed a resolution creating a new body - the United Nations Human Rights Council – to replace the Commission. The body has stricter rules for peacekeeping membership including a universal human rights review and a dramatic increase in the number of nations needed to elect a candidate to the body, from election-by-regional-slate on the 53-member Economic and Social Council to fully one-half of the 192 members of the General Assembly.

9 May 2006 saw the elections of 47 new members to the Council. While some governments with poor records were elected, such as Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan, some other rights violators did not make it onto the new Council:

• States shunned by rights groups: Syria, North Korea, Belarus, and Burma

• States which had been members of the Commission: Zimbabwe, Sudan, Nepal, and Libya

• States which ran but did not receive enough votes: Iran, Venezuela, Thailand, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan

Due to the changes in membership between the Commission and the Council, the number of states deemed "Not Free" by Freedom House was more than halved.[34][35][36]

Bureaucratic inefficiency

The U.N. has been accused of inefficiency and waste due to its cumbersome and excessive bureaucracy. During the 1990s the United States, currently the largest contributor to the U.N., gave this inefficiency as a reason for withholding their dues. The repayment of the dues was made conditional on a major reforms initiative. In 1994 the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by a ruling of the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog.[37] A reform program has been proposed, but has not yet approved by the General Assembly.[38][39]

Alleged Anti-Israel Discrimination

File:Stampogdrprop.jpg
Stamp of the GDR version of the UNO
See also: Israel and the United Nations

The United Nations has been accused of taking a one-sided approach to issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[13][14][15]. These charges allege that Israel has been singled out by the world body for uniquely critical treatment. Unlike all other refugee groups, the Palestinians have their own agency within the United Nations (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) separate from the The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is otherwise responsible for global refugee crises. [16]

Israel was excluded from membership in any of the UN's regional groups until 2000. In effect, this meant Israel was forbidden from serving on UN bodies such as the Security Council. Israel's recent permission to participate more fully within the UN as a member of the Western European and Others regional group is temporary and subject to renewal. Israel is allowed to participate only in the New York operations of the UN and is excluded from the UN offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Rome and Vienna which handle such issues as human rights and arms control. Censure of Israel has been instituted as a routine agenda item for various UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council.

Inaction On Genocide and Human Rights

The United Nations has been accused of ignoring the plight of people across the world, especially in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Current examples include the UN's inaction toward the Sudanese government in Darfur[17], the Chinese government's ethnic cleansing in Tibet, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Oil-for-Food scandal

See also: Oil-for-Food Programme

The Oil-for-Food Program was established by the UN in 1996. Its purpose was to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs of ordinary Iraqi citizens who were affected by international economic sanctions, without allowing the Iraqi government to rebuild its military in the wake of the first Gulf War. It was discontinued in late 2003 amidst allegations of widespread abuse and corruption. The former director, Benon Sevan of Cyprus, first was suspended, then resigned from the UN, as an Template:PDFlink of a UN-sponsored investigation led by Paul Volcker concluded that Sevan had accepted bribes from the Iraqi regime, and recommended that his UN immunity be lifted to allow for a criminal investigation.[40]

Under UN auspices, over $65 billion worth of Iraqi oil was sold on the world market. Officially, about $46 billion was used for humanitarian needs. Additional revenue paid for Gulf War reparations through a Compensation Fund, UN administrative and operational costs for the Programme (2.2%), and the weapons inspection programme (0.8%).

Also implicated in the scandal was Kofi Annan's son Kojo Annan, alleged to have illegally procured UN Oil-for-Food contracts on behalf of the Swiss company Cotecna. India's foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was removed from office because of his role in the scandal.

The Australian government set up the Cole Inquiry in November 2005 to investigate whether the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) breached any laws with its contracts with Iraq during the Oil-for-Food Programme. AWB paid Saddam Hussein's regime almost $300 million, through a front company called 'Alia', to secure wheat contracts to Iraq. Australia's Prime Minister (John Howard), Deputy Prime Minister (Mark Vaile), and Foreign Minister (Alexander Downer) denied knowing about such bribes when they were called to testify before the inquiry. It has been suggested that although the Australian Government did not monitor AWB effectively enough to stop the bribes, the UN should have been more forceful in requesting the Australian Government to investigate. The Cole Inquiry is scheduled to report on 24 November 2006.[41]

UN Peacekeepers rape accusations in Congo, Haiti, Liberia, and Sudan

In December 2004, during the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, at least 68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia and more than 150 other allegations have been uncovered by UN investigators, all perpetrated by UN peacekeepers, specifically ones from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. Peacekeepers from 3 of those nations are also accused of obstructing the investigation [18]. Also, a French UN logistics expert in Congo was also charged of rape and child pornography in the same month [19].

The BBC reported that young girls were abducted and raped by UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince.[20]. Similar accusations have been made in Liberia [21] and in Sudan. [22]

Personnel policy

The UN and its agencies are immune to the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding UN's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries. Hiring and firing practices, working hours and environment, holiday time, pension plans, health insurance, life insurance, salaries, expatriation benefits and general conditions of employment are governed by UN rules and regulations. This independence allows agencies to implement human resources policies which may even be contrary to the laws of a host- or a member country. For instance, a person who is otherwise eligible for employment in Switzerland, where the International Labour Organization (ILO) has its headquarters, may not be employed by the ILO unless he or she is a citizen of an ILO member state.

Smokers

The World Health Organization, an agency of the UN, banned all recruitment of cigarette smokers on 1 December 2005, in order to promote the principle of a tobacco-free work environment.[42] There is a smoking ban within the UN headquarters, but some member nations allow smoking in their UN embassies. Moreover, users of illegal drugs are ineligible for employment in the UN.

Same-sex marriages

Despite their independence in matters of human resources policy, UN agencies voluntarily apply the laws of member states regarding same-sex marriages, allowing decisions about the status of employees in a same-sex partnership to be based on nationality. They recognize same-sex marriages only if the employees are citizens of countries that recognize the marriage. Some agencies provide limited benefits to domestic partners of their staff.

Main article: Portrayal of the United Nations in popular culture

An education activity called Model United Nations has grown popular in schools worldwide. Model UN has students simulate (usually) a body in the UN System to help them develop skills in debate and diplomacy. Conferences are held by both colleges and high schools. Committees typically included are General Assembly committees, ECOFIN committees, the Security Council, and a large range of specialized committees like a Historical Security Council or the Senior Management Group. Students debate topics that the UN addresses and try to represent their country's views in order to reach a solution.

The perception of the UN as a large, world-encompassing government organization has prompted many ideas about world democracy. The UN is also often the subject of conspiracy theories.[43]

See also

Template:UN portal

References

  1. ^ "Evidence mounts of a UN massacre in Haiti". Haiti Information Project. 2005-07-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ David, Wilton. "United Nations". Etymologies & Word Origins: Letter U. WordOrigins.org. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ "Security Notice". United Nations. 2001. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ See United Nations headquarters#Renovation plans
  5. ^ The Story of United Nations Headquarters www.un.org, United Nations, Accessed September 20, 2006
  6. ^ "United Nations Fact Sheet". USDOS Fact Sheets. U.S. Department of State. 2001-09-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "What are the official languages of the United Nations?". United Nations. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
  8. ^ "Plea to UN: 'More Spanish please'". BBC News. 2001-06-21. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
  9. ^ "Next U.N. secretary-general flunks first French test with U.N. press corps". International Herald Tribune. 2004-12-14. Retrieved 2007-15-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ "Press Conference by Secretary-General-designate". UN. 2006-12-14. Retrieved 2007-15-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ "Is Ban Ki-moon a franco-phoney?". CBC. 2006-12-14. Retrieved 2007-15-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ UN Charter
  13. ^ Human Rights
  14. ^ "UN creates new human rights body". BBC. 15 March 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "About Us - United Nations". The World Bank. 2003-06-30. Retrieved 2007-08-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
  17. ^ [1]
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  20. ^ [4]
  21. ^ Template:PDFlink
  22. ^ Template:PDFlink
  23. ^ Template:PDFlink
  24. ^ "The Human Security Report 2005". Retrieved 2007-02-08.
  25. ^ Template:PDFlink
  26. ^ Template:PDFlink
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  28. ^ [5]
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  34. ^ "Successful UN Human Rights Council Elections Demonstrate UN Members are Taking Reform Effort Seriously." Open Society Policy Center. 9 May 2006
  35. ^ "International Institutions: UN Reform." Citizens for Global Solutions. 10 May 2006. 1 Aug. 2006 .
  36. ^ "Annex a: Election Result Tables." Open Society Policy Center. 9 May 2006. 1 Aug. 2006 .
  37. ^ Reddy, Shravanti (2002-10-29). "Watchdog Organization Struggles to Decrease UN Bureaucracy". Global Policy Forum. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  38. ^ Annan, Kofi (2005). "In Larger Freedom". United Nations. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  39. ^ F. Stockman, J. Lauria (2005-09-11). "UN faces major hurdles on reform measures". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  40. ^ [11]
  41. ^ http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/www/UNOilForFoodInquiry.nsf
  42. ^ World Health Organization (2006). "What are we looking for?". WHO Employment Site. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ Gotcher, Dean. "U. N. Watch: UNDERSTANDING HOW THE HEGELIAN DIALECTIC IS TRANSFORMING THE WORLD TO BRING IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER" (Newsletter). Interviewed by Joan Veon. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)

Further reading

  • "Think Again: The United Nations", Madeleine K. Albright, Foreign Policy, September/October, 2004
  • Hans Köchler, Quo Vadis, United Nations?, in: Law Review, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, College of Law, May 2005 Online version
  • An Insider's Guide to the UN, Linda Fasulo, Yale University Press (November 1, 2003), hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN 0-300-10155-4
  • United Nations: The First Fifty Years, Stanley Mesler, Atlantic Monthly Press (March 1, 1997), hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0-87113-656-2
  • United Nations, Divided World: The UN's Roles in International Relations edited by Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury, Oxford University Press; 2nd edition (January 1 1994), hardcover, 589 pages, ISBN 0-19-827926-4
  • A Guide to Delegate Preparation: A Model United Nations Handbook, edited by Scott A. Leslie, The United Nations Association of the United States of America, 2004 edition (October 2004), softcover, 296 pages, ISBN 1-880632-71-3
  • "U.S. At War - International." Time Magazine XLV.19 May 7, 1945: 25-28.

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