The History of United Nations | Summary of UN

The first international organization was the League of Nations which was formed after the First World War on January 10th 1920. But this organization didn’t prevent the Second World War which led to bigger devastation, which compelled great powers to take a stronger step in this direction. Thus they formed a stronger and promising charter called United Nations Charter which was first signed by 51 nations of the world and thus formed United Nations Organization on 24th October 1945.However, at present they are 193 nations which are part of UNO including India.

The preamble of the United Nations Charter had set forth basic aims for the UN

(a). To save the coming generation from any sort of wars
(b). To restore faith in fundamental Human Rights
(c). To establish respect and justice towards international obligations
(d). Promote a better standard of life

The preamble ensures that there are peace and harmony among the nations of the world. Further, it ensures that armed forces shall not be used except in the case of common interest.

In total, the UN charter has 111 Articles divided into 19 Chapters. (In this Article only important articles shall be discussed).

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

Principles of the United Nations (Article 2)

1. The principle of sovereign equality:
2. The principle of fulfillment t of obligations in good faith
3. The principle of the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means
4. The principle of non-use of the threat or use of force
5. The principle of assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter,
6. The principle of maintenance of international peace and security.
7. The principle of non-interference in domestic matters of nations

Membership of UNO is been divided into two, as per Article 3 Original Membership includes nations which have participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco, or having previously signed the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, sign the present Charter and ratify it in accordance with Article 110 and the second membership is obtained under Article 4 which says any nation could be a member who satisfies the following terms

(i) Must be a State
(ii) Must be peace loving
(iii) Must accept and be willing to carry on all the obligations of the Charter
(iv) Must be able to carry out those obligations

Further, a state may become a member only when recommendation of Security Council (which is an organ of UNO) by majority of 9 members including the 5 permanent members and by election of the General Assembly (which is also another organ of UN) by 2\3rd of majority.

As per Article 7 of the Charter, it gives rise to 6 Organs

(i) General Assembly
(ii) Security Council,
(iii) Economic and Social Council
(iv)Trusteeship Council,
(v) International Court of Justice
(vi) Secretariat.

The composition of General Assembly shall consist of all the member of the UN with not more than 5 representatives of each member. Each member is given one vote. As per article 21 the GA shall adopt its own rule and appoint a president for each session and at present the GA appointed MR. PETER THOMSON as the president for its 71st session. The GA has functions Supervisory Functions, Financial Functions, Elective Functions, Constituent Functions and Deliberative Functions as per Professor Leonard.

The Security Council shall consist of 15 Members of the UN out of which Republic Of China, France, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States Of America are the permanent members. The rest 10 members shall be appointed by GA to be non-permanent members for every 2 years. Each member has one representative. Their primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The presidency of the Council is held by every member for each month. At present India is not a non-permanent of the Council.

The Economic and Social Council shall consist of fifty-four Members of the United Nations elected by the General Assembly. Its main purpose is to regulate social, economic, educational matters. It has established several other institutions to regulate the same like United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNCEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and many others. Mr.Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava was elected 72nd President.

The Trusteeship Council shall consist of the following Members of the United Nations:

(a) those Members administering trust territories
(b) such of those Members mentioned by name in Article 23 as are not administering trust territories; and
(c) as many other Members elected for three-year terms by the General Assembly

International Court of Justice is the prime organ of UN. Members of UN ispo facto become member to ICJ. ICJ consists of 15 Judges which are elected for a term of 9 years and can also be re-elected after the expiry of their term. All the decisions are made by majority.ICJ have jurisdiction which is open for all the states of the world. However, Individuals cannot be a party to the dispute only a state can be a party. ICJ has two types of Jurisdiction one of them is Contentious Jurisdiction which is further divided into Voluntary and Optional Jurisdiction and the second one be Advisory Jurisdiction.

As per Article 97, The Secretariat shall comprise a Secretary-General and such staff as the Organization may require. The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. He shall be the chief administrative officer of the Organization.. The Secretary General of the UN was Mr. Ban-Ki-Moon till 15th November, 2016.