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How is the UN structured and what is its role?

• The UN was established on the 24th of October 1945 by 51 countries, following World War 2.
• Today the UN members are nearly every nation, 191 states.
• The purposes of the UN as set forth in the UN charter are:
• To maintain international peace and security
• To cooperate in solving international economic, cultural, social and humanitarian problems
• To develop friendly relations among nations
• To promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms
• To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
• The UN consists of six principle organs, including the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the General Assembly and the Secretariat.

• The Security Council is made up of 15 members, 5 of which are permanent, UK, US, Russia, China and France. (The winners of WW2) The other 10 are elected by the General Assembly for two year terms.
• It is primarily responsible for maintaining international peace and security.
• To maintain international peace and security the council firstly tries to settle disputes peacefully and, in the event of fighting, to secure a ceasefire. On rare occasions the council has authorized member states to use “all necessary means”, including collective military action.
• The council also sends out peacekeeping missions.

• The General Assembly is where all UN member states are represented.
• The Assembly makes decisions on all key issues, such as international peace and security, admitting new members and the UN budget.

• The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) coordinates the economic and social work of the UN
• ECOSOC is recognised as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations. As such it plays a key role in fostering international cooperation for development.

To what extent is the UN successful?

• The UN isn’t a world government and shouldn’t be judged as such.
• It has “a unique combination of attributes which places it in an unrivalled position to assist in the diplomatic settlement of acute international conflicts”
• Unique and valuable as it contains nearly universal membership
• It provides the opportunity to hold legitimate diplomatic meetings or discreet direct discussions, to states who otherwise have no formal relations or “cannot afford to be seen talking to each other”
• The UN is important multilaterally, as “The UN is a ‘doer’ as well as a forum for negotiation (Berridge)

• Security Council
  • By constituting of only 15 members the Security Council remains small, and so decision making is swifter and more efficient.
  • Unlike most other UN institutions the Council is able to enforce its decisions on all member states, thus making them more effective.
  • Since 1949, 36 peacekeeping operations have been launched with varying success. In Somalia they were unsuccessful, the troops had to pull out due to the level of violence, and it is still in the grips of many warlords. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was a successful mission, whose aim was successfully reached with the full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
  • Mandates issued by the Council are often unclear, so UN peacekeeping forces are unable to operate effectively.
  • Missions have been criticised, as a failure to obtain the consent of all parties, which can “undermine the UN’s involvement by jeopardizing its neutrality” (Mingst and Karns), this, they argue, makes it “a tool of the great powers, especially the United States)

• General Assembly
  • Unlike the Security Council, the General Assembly does not have the ability to force action by any state, it can only make resolutions, which may or may not be carried out by its members.
  • One commentator said that the Assembly is a “good organ for symbolic politics of agenda setting, and achieving majorities in support of resolutions” and is also vital as a place where smaller countries get heard.
  • Smaller states have a numerical majority in the Assembly, resulting in resolutions favouring them being passed, but without crucial support from stronger states, which results in the resolutions being unsuccessful.
  • This “crucial sector of the world’s international assembly” is a large, and hence not as quick and efficient as the Security Council, body with no legislative power, and no power to enforce its resolutions.
  • The Assembly is also criticised for attempting to tackle too broad a range of issues, which results in an overloaded agenda, and hence issues not getting as much attention as is realistically needed.

• ECOSOC
  • It is considered to be a vital link between the UN and civil society, but due to expansion to the UN, many sceptics say that ECOSOC is left with “an unmanageable task” (Mingst and Karns)

• Development
  • One of the central mandates of the UN: the promotion of higher standards of living, full employment and conditions of economic and social progress.
  • To reach these ends, programmes and funds have been established
  • This ‘welfare network’ constitutes 70% of the work of the UN.
  • Examples of the most successful programmes, which are said to reflect the success of the UN on a whole include:
• The UNDP (UN Development Programme), a large provider of grants for sustainable human development worldwide.
• UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund), active in over 160 countries, areas and territories with programmes focusing on immunization, health care education and nutrition.
  • Criticisms of the UN Welfare Network are centred around “‘politisation, poor conditioning, bureaucratic incompetence and underfunding.” (Berridge)
  • It is argued that some agencies have “intensely political…agendas” (Berridge), which has resulted in the UN’s neutrality itself being questioned.
  • “Since the mid-1980s the UN has been afflicted by an acute cash crisis” (Berridge) which has resulted in the Council imposing “savage spending restrictions” (Berridge)

• Human Rights and fundamental freedoms
  • Another key role
  • According to David Whittaker, in his book UN in the Contemporary World, human rights have been promoted and protected through “Declarations, covenants and campaigns” as well as monitoring, enquiry and enforcement bodies, worldwide research and teaching and training programmes.
  • Since 1945 30 million refugees, fleeing form persecution, oppression and war have been assisted and protected due to encouragement, from the UN, for states to accept and help resettle asylum seekers.
  • Due to lake of funds and the relative inadequacy of the monitoring, enquiring and enforcement instruments, they have still been many atrocities against human rights, in countries such as Rwanda, which is a member of the UN. This shows that although the UN tries it has been unable to prevent these atrocities even in countries that are supposed to listen and obey the UN.

• Arms control and disarmament
  • Another key role
  • The UN has “served as a continuing source of pressure for disarmament” (Price and Zacher, The UN and Global Security) since its establishment in 1945
  • In 1952 the UN Disarmament Commission was created, and since then the General Assembly has passed many resolutions calling a ban on nuclear weaponry and “equating such use with crimes against humanity” (Price and Zacher).
  • In 1957 the UN set up the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor and control the use of nuclear energy, and since then prohibition of nuclear weaponry has been secured in a number of areas, including Antarctica, Outer Space, the Sea Bed and the South Pacific.
  • In 1968 the Non-Proliferation Treaty was ratified
  • Nuclear testing has been limited by treaties in 1972 and 1992
  • The UN has failed to limit the acquisition of increasing numbers and types of nuclear weapons by the declared nuclear powers.
  • It has also failed preventing all vertical proliferation too. For example India and Pakistan failed to sign the NPT and have since tested nuclear weaponry.
  • The UN has been unsuccessful in stopping proliferation let alone disarmament.

How could the UN be improved?

• Security Council
  • Membership of the Security Council could be expanded and diversified to accord more with representative equals. Virtually all member states agree to this proposal. However the key is to increase the number of members for geographical legitimacy, whilst keeping the council small enough to be quick and efficient.
  • Increase the number of permanent members – veto for new permanent members – gives equivalent power to new members, adds economic and geographical representation to the most powerful part of the UN.
  • Make all members non-permanent – all equal votes and elimination of veto – radical reform meets need for geographical representation and more democracy.
  • Strengthening the capacity of the Secretary General to utilize force and pre-planned enforcement measures, including the authority to dispatch unarmed rapid deployment forces after ‘crisis’ has broken out. This gives more ability to the SG to solve problems.
  • Regular consultation meeting with other states and ‘interested parties’ could usefully link the Security Council and General Assembly. Meetings not always held in New York

• General Assembly
  • SG Annan recommended in 2005 :
    • streamlining the Assembly agenda, committee structure and procedures
    • strengthening the role and authority of its president
    • enhancing the role of civil society; a small group of competent people who could feed in useful counsel from time to time
    • establishing a mechanism to review the decisions of committees, in order to minimise unfunded mandates and micromanagement of the Secretariat
  • Working the whole year through not once the year, with the help of small, efficient working groups. This would help to solve the overloaded agenda.
  • Closer work with regional and sub-regional organisations like the EU, ASEAN and the Arab League.

• Security Council
  • Consolidated budget and set of controls
  • Prioritizing the agenda, utilizing a timetable, and judiciously using reports
  • Budget controls over UN field operations
  • Guide the overall management of operational activities
  • Expanding ECOSOC so that it can cope with the “unmanageable task” left by the expansion of the UN

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Original content by joker13na.