| The United Nations Organization, UNO is an international organization created for maintaining and strengthening international peace and safety and developing cooperation between the states.
The UNO’s activities and structure were developed during World War II by leading member countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition.
The Secretariat of the United Nations ensures functioning of the UN bodies and engages in the publication and distribution of UN materials, storage of archives and accomplishes registration and publication of the international contracts of member states of the United Nations.
The Secretary General is the head of the UN secretariat, who is appointed by the General Assembly according to the recommendations of the Security Council for a period of 5 years with reelection possibility for a new term.
The International Court of Justice is the main judicial body of the UN. The court consists of 15 independent judges who act individually and are not the representatives of any state. They cannot take up any other professional assignments. While discharging judicial duties, members of bench use diplomatic privileges and immunities.
The economic and social council:
The council accomplishes the functions of the United Nations in the sphere of economic and social international cooperation. It consists of 5 regional commissions:
United Nations economic commission for Europe (ECE);
United Nations economic commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP);
United Nations economic commission for Western Asia (ESCWA);
United Nations economic commission for Africa (ECA);
United Nations economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
UN member states:
The 50 states which signed the UN Charter at the conference in San Francisco on June 26, 1945 and also Poland are the original member states of the UNO. During 1946-2006, 141 more states (actually many states have become member-states of the UN during this period, but the figure is less due to the withdrawal of some states such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia owing to the division into independent states) have become member states of UN.
For functioning of the bodies, official and working languages are identified in the UN system. The list of these languages is defined in the procedural rules of each body. All primary documents of the UN including the resolutions are published in these official languages. Stenographic reports of sessions are published in working languages and speeches, made in any official language, are translated on the reports.
UN official languages:
English;
Arabic;
Spanish;
Chinese;
Russian;
French
If the delegation wishes to speak in a language which is not an official language, then the delegation should provide an oral or translated copy of the speech in one of the official languages.
The UN budget assessment is a process in which all member states of the UN are involved. The budget is moved forward by the Secretary General of the United Nations after consulting the bodies of the organization and on the basis of their requirements. Subsequently, the suggested budget is analyzed by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary questions consisting of 16 members and the Committee for Programs and Coordination, consisting of 34 members. Recommendations of these committees are sent to the Administrative Budgetary Committee of the General Assembly, which includes all member states and which once again thoroughly analyzes the budget. At last, the budget is presented to the General Assembly for final consideration and approval.
The United Nations charter was the first contract in the history of international relations, which assigned the obligations of states to observe and respect fundamental laws and the freedom of people.
When the United Nations Organization was founded it is mentioned in the first line of the preamble of the Charter of United Nations, that, "We the people of United Nations, are determined to relieve the future generations from the disasters of war, which has brought inexpressible grief to mankind twice in our life, and aspire to once again confirm belief in the fundamental laws and freedom of people."
The primary principles of the International Cooperation are also fixed in the United Nations Charter:
Sovereign equality of all member states of the United Nations;
The peaceful Settlement of International disputes;
Refrain in international relations from the threat or use of force or its use in any manner, inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations;
Non-intervention of the United Nations in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of any state, etc.
The statute of the International court is part of the Charter.
Declarations and conventions of UN:
Unlike the UN Charter, conventions of the United Nations need not be accepted by members of the organization. Any country can both ratify any agreement. The most famous conventions and declarations of the UN:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948;
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948;
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966;
The Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968;
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989;
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992. It came into force and was ratified by the Russian Federation in 1994
The Kyoto Protocol, accepted in 1997, open for signing in 1998, ratified by the Russian Federation in 2004;
The UN Millennium Declaration, 2000.
The UN declarations are prepared in the form of appeals and recommendations and as a matter of fact, are not agreements. |
October 24 is United Nations Day. It was established in 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly as the day that "shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United nations and to gaining their support for" its work.
The United Nations organization was founded in 1945 after World War II, with aims of facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achieving world peace.
