United Nations Organization ~ INFOSCOPE

Map showing the member states of the United Nations[a]

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organisation established on 24 October 1945 to promote international cooperation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organisation was created following World War II to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The UN Headquarters resides in international territory in New York City, with further main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organisation is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.
During World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated talks on a successor agency to the League of Nations, and the United Nations Charter was drafted at a conference in April–June 1945; this charter took effect on 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. The UN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their respective allies, though the organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state Israel in 1947. The organisation's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions in Kuwait, Namibia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo with varying degrees of success.
The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (inactive since 1994). UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The UN's most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Ban Ki-moon of South Korea since 2007. Non-governmental organisations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.
The organisation won the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UN's effectiveness have been mixed. Some commentators believe the organisation to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organisation ineffective, corrupt, or biased.

Background and creation

In the century prior to the UN's creation, several international treaty organisations and conferences had been formed to regulate conflicts between nations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between countries. This organisation resolved some territorial disputes and created international structures for areas such as postal mail, aviation, and opium control, some of which would later be absorbed into the UN. However, the League lacked representation for colonial peoples (then half the world's population) and significant participation from several major powers, including the US, USSR, Germany, and Japan; it failed to act against the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, the 1937 Japanese invasion of China, and German expansions under Adolf Hitler that culminated in World War II.
The earliest concrete plan for a new world organisation began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter. On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organisations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.
The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council took place in Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London beginning 6 January 1946. The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for United Nations Headquarters, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory. Norwegian Foreign Minister Trygve Lie was elected as the first UN Secretary-General.

structure
The United Nations' system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations in 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.
Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries.
Below the six organs sit, in the words of author Linda Fasulo, "an amazing collection of entities and organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it". These include specialised agencies, research and training institutions, programmes and funds, and other UN entities.

Principal organs of the United Nations

UN General Assembly - Deliberative assembly of all UN member states -	UN Secretariat - Administrative organ of the UN -	International Court of Justice - Universal court for international law -

may resolve non-compulsory recommendations to states or suggestions to the UNSC decides on the admission of new members, following proposal by the UNSC adopts the budget elects the non-permanent members of the UNSC, all members of ECOSOC, the UN Secretary General following proposal by the UNSC, and the 15 judges of the ICJ Each country has one vote.	supports the other UN bodies administratively, e.g., in the organization of conferences, writing reports and studies, and the preparation of the budget-plan Its chairperson – the UN Secretary General – is elected by the General Assembly for a five-year mandate and is the most important representative of the UN.	decides disputes between states that recognize its jurisdiction and issues legal opinions Its 15 judges are elected by the UN General Assembly for nine-year terms. It renders judgement with relative majority.

UN Security Council - For international security issues -	UN Economic and Social Council - For global economical and social affairs -	UN Trusteeship Council - For administering trust territories (not currently active) -

responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security may adopt compulsory resolutions has 15 members: five permanent members with veto power and ten elected members	responsible for cooperation between states on economic and social fields coordinates cooperation between the numerous specialized agencies of the United Nations has 54 members, who are elected by the General Assembly to serve staggered three-year mandates	was originally designed to manage colonial possessions that were earlier League of Nations mandates has been inactive since 1994, with the last trust territory (Palau) attaining independence in 1994