United Nations Day
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 24 2011 -

United Nations Secretariat Building at New York City

To day the United Nations Organisation or UNO will become 67 years old. The term 'United Nations' was first coined by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1942 when a group of 26 nations pledged to continue to fight together the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan and Italy. The UNO started taking shape when in June 26, 1945, representatives of 50 member states signed the United Nations Charter.

Poland also signed the Charter later to become one of the original 51 member states. And when on October 24, 1945, China France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States ratified the Charter, the United Nations Organisation officially came into being.

Even before this, an entity called the League of Nations was formed after the First World War in 1919 with the objective of promoting international cooperation and peace and security, so that another world war is prevented. But that was not to be and the Second World War broke our necessitating the formation of a more effective international body.

The United Nations Organisation was established with four mains objectives in mind, viz,
To keep peace throughout the world; To develop friendly relations among nations;
To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people,
to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and
to encourage respect for each other's rights and freedoms;
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

Policies and programmes which falls within the purview of this broad framework is deliberated, discussed and framed in the General Assembly which presently comprises of 193 member states.

The Assembly has regular sittings from September to December every year as also if and when required. The General Assembly approves the budget of the Organisation and decisions on important questions are taken by two-third majority of the Assembly.

Another important organ of the UN is the Security Council which has as permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States and ten other non-permanent members for a term of two years. The Security Council is primarily tasked with the responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

It is mandatory on the part of each member of the United Nations to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter. Besides these two, the other organs of UN are the Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.

One of the most important activities of the United Nations is the maintenance of International peace and security and conflict resolutions. Since its birth in 1945, the UN has helped end many regional conflicts, bringing about peace settlements in 170 such cases.

With conflicts taking place all over the globe over the years, Peacekeeping operation has become one of the most significant activity of the UN. So far it has launched these operations at such disparate places as Somalia, Haiti, Cambodia, Israel-Lebanon, Afghanistan.

As of February 2009, there have been 63 UN peacekeeping operations since 1948, with sixteen operations ongoing, starting with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation to the newly created state of Israel.

Though the peacekeepers have helped contain many an inflammable situations even at the cost of their lives, recently there have been accusations of some peacekeepers being involved in rape and sexual abuse of children.

This is really unfortunate and competent authorities should take a serious look into this issue. Besides, peacekeeping, the United Nations bring succor to the victims of conflict, to the refugees by providing them humanitarian aid and rehabilitation. It is also involved in fighting poverty, providing access to livelihood to people, in education, preserving cultural heritage and in many other areas.

In recent times, there is a call for reform in the United Nations, to make it more representatives, especially in the composition of the Security Council. The concerted move by India, Japan, Brazil and South Africa for their inclusion as permanent members of the Security Council considering their growing economic clout deserves to be considered seriously.

For too long, the 'Big Five' have decided the fate of the world using its Veto Power to thwart the aspirations of the majority of the people in this planet exemplified most starkly by America's use of it to shield Israel in number of occasions.

As we celebrate the UN day, let this foremost world body become truly representative, democratic and effective in carrying out its mandate.