The United Nations

             The United Nations

Evgeniia Medvedkova

Prague, 21.05.2015

Ralph Johnson Bunche, an American political scientist, academic and diplomat, said: «The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world». Does the United Nations meet the expectations or not? Is it a successful or failure international organization? How does the United Nations improve itself or it does not do that at all? These questions are going to be answered in the following work.

The United Nations is an international organization which was created in order to maintain and strengthen an international peace and security, develop friendship between the states, implement the international cooperation in economic, social, cultural and other areas. This organization was created after the Second World War at conference in San Francisco in 1945. At the beginning of its existence there were 51 states. Now it has 193 Member States. As for structure, the United Nations consist of six main components, which are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and the Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat. The UN's Chief Administrative Officer is the Secretary-General. At the present time this position is held by Ban Ki-moon. Official languages of the United Nations are English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.

The United Nations was founded on such principles as equality of all members, peace solutions of disputes, abstention from threats of use of force. However, the UN has no right to interfere with internal affairs of the state. Exception is cases when such intervention is required for peacekeeping. According to the UN's Charter, the Security Council is permanent body, which is most responsible for the world peace. Later such specialized organizations as UNESCO, WHO, ILO, FAO, UNICEF were created under the auspices of the United Nations. Their powers, functions and activity allow capturing all set of the issues entering competence of the international organization. All peaceful states which are ready to accept all obligations and conditions represented in the Charter of the UN can become members of the United Nations. These obligations concern with rules of conduct of the states in a peaceful time and in the conditions of some conflicts which could happen on the international scene. 
 
During its existence the United Nations’ bodies have been coping with many great political, economic and other issues in the field of international relations. First of all, it is an important thing to touch issues which were after the Second World War. It could show that the organization started to work successfully immediately. The first issue is the establishment of control over atomic energy. In 1946 the General Assembly founded the commission for consideration of the problems which concerned with opening of atomic energy, and other ones connected with it. The second one is the regulation and the reduction of armaments and armed forces. In 1946 at plenary session of General assembly Molotov, the head of the delegation of the USSR, made the offer on general reduction of armaments. It was provided successfully. The third one is the struggle with the promotion of a new war. In 1947 Vyshinsky , the head of the delegation of the USSR, at the second session of General assembly made the offer on fight against instigators of new war. The are some other issues: the principle of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council, the Greek issue(1946), the Spanish issue(1946), the Indonesian issue(1946), the incident in the Strait of Corfu(1947), the Palestinian issue(1946). Moreover, the UN assists developing countries, develops a system of international law and fights against terrorism and extremism.

 
In addition, there are represented other issues from the different parts of the planet which were solved successfully by the United Nations. As for Africa, there were the supporting of independence of Namibia, the mission in South Sudan (2011). It was a mission In Asia and in the Pacific Ocean of supporting Afghanistan. Moreover, the UN contributed to the signing of a peace treaty between Indonesia and Portugal in 1999. In Europe this organization coped with problems in Cyprus, resolved the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. In 1992-1995 the UN helped Croatia to restore peace and security. The civilian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina was protected by the UN as well. In North and South America the UN solved problems in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the Middle East the United Nations settled the Arab-Israeli conflict. Moreover, it resolved the issue in southern Lebanon and Iraq.

At the present time, according to information from the official web-site of the organization, the United Nations cope with such missions: mission of restoring a secure and stable environment in Haiti, mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, mission in Liberia (support for the implementation of the Peace Process), stabilization mission in Mali (supporting political process and helping stabilize Mali), mission in Kosovo (promoting security, stability and respect for human rights in Kosovo), mission in the Republic of South Sudan (protecting civilians, monitoring human rights and supporting implementation of cessation of hostilities agreement), interim Force in Lebanon (monitoring cessation of hostilities and helping ensure humanitarian access to civilian population), operation in Côte d'Ivoire (protecting civilians and supporting the Government in DDR and security sector reform), interim Security Force for Abyei (demilitarizing and monitoring peace in the disputed Abyei Area), hybrid operation in Darfur with African Union  (protecting civilians, facilitating humanitarian aid and helping political process in Darfur), peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (contributing to a political settlement in Cyprus), helping to bring stability in the Middle East, observer Group  
in India and Pakistan (observing the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir).

 
In spite of the fact that the United Nations solve various problems around the world this organization faces a number of problems and difficulties, for example, the Security Council often has difficulties with timely decision-making. One of the concrete examples is problem for the Security Council to make the decision on immediate actions in response to the threat of terrorism which interfaced to possibility of distribution of weapons of mass destruction. One more no less important problem is that the United Nations has no physical ability to action. Actually, the main problem of the United Nations is lack of new reforms. Thus, there are other problems such as expansion of jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, problems with status and functions of Council for Guardianship, budget of the UN, problem with national structure of the United Nations’ personnel, huge number of bulky useless structures.

As for plans and aims, the United Nation has Millennium Declaration (2000), where it is represented the most valuable missions for the near future. Some targets, especially in the field of development, formulated specifically indicating the dates. Most of them are going to be achieved by the year of 2015 and 2020. They are some of missions: the elimination of poverty and hunger, the achieving of universal primary education, the reduction of child mortality, the fight against HIV and AIDS (also against malaria and other diseases), the ensuring environmental sustainability, the improvement of a global partnership for poor countries’ development. General Secretary of the United Nations regularly reports on the actual implementations of the commitments in his reports and speeches.

 
To sum up it should be said the United Nations is rather a success than a failure. The United Nations did a lot. However, in order to cope with future problems, issues and keep the world in the peace it needs new good reforms. The events of the XXI century showed merits and demerits of the United Nations. They also testify that the world community faced new forms of threat which will demand new forms of action, reaction and cooperation. The United Nations is the international organization, first of all, which is responsible for the world and safety on the planet. It is the center which coordinates foreign policy of the states, and the solution of many important problems directly depends on it. If the United Nations is able to show obvious readiness for adaptation and updating of own mission, it will be able to give confidence for countries and for people in particular and to get support of the governments and the people of all countries of the world. And it is guarantee of successful future of the United Nations.

                                                      Bibliography  
1) Official web-site of the United Nations  
http://www.un.org/en/index.html 
2) Vijay Mehta, Article « How effective is the UN in Peacekeeping and mediating Conflict?», University of St Andrews, Scotland (27th March 2008) 
3) Fomerand, Jacques (16 September 2009). The A to Z of the United Nations. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press

4) Document: United Nations Millennium Declaration. (2000) Available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/Millennium.aspx