United Nation & its Organs

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization which was established in 24th October, 1945 after World War-II.United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October every year.

• The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, and is subject to extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna.
• Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development and upholding international law.
• At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The UN is the successor of the ineffective League of Nations.

UN Organs

UN-General Assembly

• The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
• All 193 Member States of the UN are represented in the General Assembly, making it the only UN body with universal representation.
• Each year, in September, the full UN membership meets in the General Assembly Hall in New York for the annual General Assembly session, and general debate, which many heads of state attend and address.
• Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly. Decisions on other questions are by simple majority.
• The General Assembly, each year, elects a GA President to serve a one-year term of office (current President: Maria Fernanda Espinosa).

• Member countries can make voluntary contribution to UNESCO, WHO, UN Programmes and Funds such as Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

United Nation Security Council (UNSC)

• The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security.
• It has 15 Members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members). Each Member has one vote.
• Under the Charter, all Member States are obligated to comply with Council decisions. The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression.
• It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement.
• In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.
• The Security Council has a Presidency, which rotates, and changes, every month.

UN Economic and Social Council

• The UN Economic and Social Council is the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as implementation of internationally agreed development goals.
• It serves as the central mechanism for activities of the UN system and its specialized agencies in the economic, social and environmental fields, supervising subsidiary and expert bodies.
• The General Assembly selects 18 new members for ECOSOC each year for the term of 3 years with a provision that a retiring member can be re-elected (It has 54 Members).
• It is the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development.
• The president is elected for a one-year term (ECOSOC President: Inga Rhonda King)

UN Secretariat

• The Secretariat comprises the Secretary-General (Antonia Guterres) and tens of thousands of international UN staff members who carry out the day-to-day work of the UN as mandated by the General Assembly and the Organization's other principal organs.
• The Secretary-General is chief administrative officer of the Organization, appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council for a five-year, renewable term.
• The UN secretariat is the main source of economic and political analysis for the General Assembly and Security Council; it administers operations initiated by UN's deliberative organs, operates political missions, prepares assessments that precede peacekeeping operations, appoints the heads of peacekeeping operations, conducts surveys and research, communicates with non-state actors such as media and non-government organizations, and is responsible for publishing all of the treaties and international agreements.

International Court of Justice

• The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Its seat is at the Peace Palace in Hague (Netherlands).
• Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice.
• It is the only one of the six principal organs of the United Nations not located in New York (United States of America).
• The ICJ is composed of fifteen judges elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council from a list of people nominated by the national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The election process is set out in Articles 4–19 of the ICJ statute. Elections are staggered, with five judges elected every three years to ensure continuity within the court. The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
• Other existing international thematic courts, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) are not under the umbrella of the ICJ and it is legally and functionally independent from United Nations.

Trusteeship Council

• The Trusteeship Council was established in 1945 by the UN Charter, under Chapter XIII, to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that had been placed under the administration of seven Member States, and ensure that adequate steps were taken to prepare the Territories for self-government and independence.
• By 1994, all Trust Territories had attained self-government or independence.The Trusteeship Council suspended operation on 1 November 1994.
• By a resolution adopted on 25 May 1994, the Council amended its rules of procedure to drop the obligation to meet annually and agreed to meet as occasion required -- by its decision or the decision of its President, or at the request of a majority of its members or the General Assembly or the Security Council.