UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION (UNO)

Structure:
1. What ist the UNO?
2. Purposes of the UNO
3. History of the UNO
4. General Assembly
5. Security Council
6. The Secretariat
7. International Court of Justice
8. Economic and Social Council
9. Peacekeeping mission
10. Achievements of the UNO
11. Why can’t the UN be active in the Ukrainian conflict?
12. Sources

1. What is the UNO?
• Intergovernmental organisation established to prevent war
• 193 member countries (except: Vatican City and North Korea)
• Headquarters in New York City, USA

2. Purposes of the UNO
• Provide international peace and security
• Cultivate harmonious relations between all nations
• Achieve cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character
• Be the centre of a harmonised world

3. History of the UNO
• Founded on 24 October 1945
• First conference has been attended by 51 nations in Westminster Central Hall London, UK on 24 January 1946
• Intentions: shelter future generations from war, enforce human rights and achieve equal rights for all nations

4. General Assembly (GA)
• Called “the world parliament”, main body of the UNO
• All 193 Members are represented and each person has one vote
• Decisions are made by as soon as there is a two-third majority
• Members meet once a year
• Main function: dealing with all international political issues, which come under the UNO-Charta (preventing war, enforce human rights, etc.)
• Elects the non-permanent Members of the Security Council, UNO-Secretary and judges for International Court of Justice

5. Security Council (SC)
• UNO‘s most powerful instrument
• Exists to ensure international peace and security
• 15 members, 5 of them are permanent (USA, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France)
• Non-permanent members are elected for two years
• Permanent members of SC have veto power when it comes to decisions!

6. The Secretariat
• Current UN-Secretary: Ban Ki-moon (since 2007)
• Gets elected by the general assembly for 5 years
• Administrative function:
- gives a presentation about all problems in the world (once a year)
• Can concentrate SC’s attention on matters which can threat the worldwide peace and security (influence their decisions)

7. International Court of Justice
• Judicial organ of the UNO
• Based in The Hague, Netherlands
• Consists of 15 judges, which are elected by the GA and SC for 9 years
• Has an independent position in the UNO
• Can only be active in disputes between two countries that have recognised their jurisdiction

8. Economic and Social Council
• Consists of 54 nations
• They meet once a year
• Tasks:
- raising the general standard of living
- giving recommendations to GA to help solving economic and social (mainly health) problems
• Germany is a member until 2017

9. Peacekeeping mission
• Protect civilians in hazardous countries
• Keep a strict watch on elections
• Assist the disarmament
• Protect and promote the human rights
• Assist in restoring the rule of law in developing countries

10. Achievements of the UNO
Food aid
• Food has always been a significant problem regarding to the increase of population in the 21st century. With its organisation the World Food Program (WFP), the UNO feeds 104 million people in over 80 countries every year.

Aid refugees
• The UNHCR program is another success of the United Nations.
Since 1949 the UNO helped over 17 million asylum-seekers.
Right now they try to protect and assist 700 000 people who fled from the conflict in Syria.

Protecting Children
• Another program which has succeeded until now is the United Children’s Fund (UNICEF). With the help of UNICEF, the number of deaths for children under the age of 5 has decreased from almost 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011.

Running Elections
• By protecting elections, the UNO managed, with support of an international community, to overthrow Saddam Hussein\'s government and installed a system with which the new government has been completely elected by Iraq citizens.

Fighting Aids
• The UN decreased the number of people who died from AIDS from 2.3 million in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2012

11. Why can’t the UN be active in the Ukrainian conflict?
• Russia has veto power for decisions in the Security Council, which makes it impossible for the UN to help the Ukraine.
12. Sources
Internet:
• http://www.un.org/en/index.html (Retrieved 14 December 2015)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations (Retrieved 14 December 2015)
• http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/gallery.jsp?query=category:ECOSOC (Retrieved 15 December 2015)
• http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/krim-ukraine-russland-krise-im-news-ticker-steinmeier-warnt-russland-vor-rueckkehr-zum-kalten-krieg_id_3719329.html (Retrieved 15 December 2015)
• http://92newshd.tv/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/UN1.jpg (Retrieved 16 December 2015)