UNITED+NATIONS

=UNITED NATIONS=

// The United Nations // 10 rotating members – elected by General Assembly to serve for 2 yrs with 5 bought on each year. Geographic distribution of the 10 nonpermanent members has been mandated as: five from African and Asian states; one from Eastern European states, two from Latin American and Caribbean states, and two from Western European and other states. Only P5 members can veto resolutions
 * 1) Why was the UN set up? UN set up to reflect power structures that emerged from WW2
 * 2) List the 5 members of the Security Council? How many rotating members sit on the Security Council? 5 permanent members –P5 - France, GB, US, USSR, China.
 * 1) In 2006, there were 192 member states, how many are there in 2012? 193 (Sth. Sudan)
 * 2) List the aims of the UN
 * To keep the peace throughout the world
 * To develop friendly relations between nations
 * To work together to help people live better lives
 * To be a centre for helping nations achieve these aims
 * 1) List the principles of the UN
 * All member states have sovereign equality
 * All member states must obey the charter
 * Members must try to settle their differences by peaceful means
 * Members must avoid using force or threatening to use force
 * The UN may not interfere in the domestic affairs of any member
 * Members should try to assist the UN
 * All member-states should encourage non-members to follow UN principles

UN Structure
 * 1) Complete the details for the 6 major organs of the UN.

__
 * General Assembly ||


 * Economic & Social Council ||


 * Secretariat ||


 * Trusteeship Council ||


 * International Court of Justice ||

//Scan the UN structure//
 * Security Council ||

//The General Assembly// Each member has 1 vote & decisions are taken by a majority or 2/3 vote. The assembly has 6 main committees – 1st Committee – is concerned with disarmament, outer space, political & security issues. 2nd Committee – is concerned with economic & financial issues 3rd Committee – is concerned with social, humanitarian and cultural issues. 4th committee – is concerned with decolonisation 5th Committee – is concerned with the administrative & budget matters of the UN 6th Committee – is concerned with international legal issues.

Assembly has little influence because its resolutions are non-binding and it cannot force action by any state.

The Security Council – most important branch, role is to maintain international peace & security. Decisions are binding on all UN members. May require UN members to apply sanctions/organise peacekeeping forces. Role includes peaceful settlement of disputes & action to counteract threats to international peace. The Secretariat – responsible for administration of the UN, 44,000 staff, led by Sec. General – Ban Ki-Moon (Sth Korea). Staff must answer to UN over any gov’t. or outside authority. The Economic & Social Council – Comes under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, formulates policy recommendations relating to international & social issues. Overseas UN bodies dealing with development & social issues. The International court of Justice – Determines disputes between member states. Based in the Hague, comprises 15 elected judges. Participation in proceedings is voluntary but once undertaken the rulings are obligatory.


 * 1) 6 specialised agencies that control specific activities helping to establish world standards. – IMF, the World bank, the world Health Organisation, the UNHCR, the UN Environment program, the food & Agricultural Organisation.

1.How many member states are in the UN - 193 2.Which are the newest members? – Sth Sudan 2011; Serbia 200; Switzerland 2002;Timor – Leste 2002;Tuvalu 200. 3.How many members were there when the UN charter was signed – 51 states in 1945 4.How many states are members of the Security Council? 15 Who has veto power and what is it? The P5 have veto power 5.What are the official languages of the UN? Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish 6.How is the UN funded? The [|United Nations Headquarters] resides in international territory in New York City, with further main offices at [|Geneva], [|Nairobi], and [|Vienna]. The organization is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by their [|gross national income] (GNI), The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be overly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a 'ceiling' rate, setting the maximum amount any member is assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments to reflect current global circumstances. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied.[|[59]] In addition to the ceiling rates, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or 'floor' rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget. Refer to the table for major contributors. What problems might this cause? Top 10 donators may feel they have greater power to influence decisions 7.Explain how the UN works.The **United Nations** (**UN**) stated aims are facilitating cooperation in [|international law], [|international security], [|economic development], [|social progress], human rights, and achievement of [|world peace]. The UN has 6 branches (organs) to carry out its missions. It is funded by member states and resolutions of the General Assembly often need to go to the security Council to be passed.
 * Review & Revise**

//How the UN seeks to achieve its aims.//
 * 1) The UN seeks to ‘help people live better lives’. What does this mean? UN attempts to eliminate poverty, disease, and illiteracy in the world, to stop environmental degradation and to encourage respect for each other’s rights & freedoms.
 * 2) What is the connection between aid & the UN? – The UN is a donor and provides aid in the form of World Food program,
 * 3) Briefly describe the options open to the UN when it is responding to threats to international peace & security. –GA can pass resolutions/ send peacekeeping missions/sea blockades, no fly zones & collective military actions/impose economic sanctions and arms embargoes/provides post-conflict peace building by providing social, political, and economic support to prevent the return of violence.

Criticism and controversies
//See also: [|China and the United Nations], [|Israel and the United Nations], [|Soviet Union and the United Nations], and [|United States and the United Nations]// [[|edit]]

Reforming the UN
In recent years there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations. But there is little clarity, let alone consensus, about how to reform it. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, others want its role reduced to humanitarian work. In [|2004] and 2005, allegations of mismanagement and corruption regarding the [|Oil-for-Food Programme] for Iraq under [|Saddam Hussein] led to renewed calls for reform. An official reform programme was initiated by [|United Nations Secretary-General] [|Kofi Annan] shortly after starting his first term on [|January 1], [|1997]. Reforms mentioned include changing the permanent membership of the [|Security Council] (which currently reflects the power relations of 1945); making the bureaucracy more transparent, accountable and efficient; making the UN more democratic; and imposing an international tariff on arms manufacturers worldwide. The US Congress has shown particular concern with reforms related to UN effectiveness and efficiency. In [|November] 2004, the bill H.R. 4818 mandated the creation of a bipartisan Task Force to report to Congress on how to make the UN more effective in realizing the goals of its Charter. The Task Force came into being in January 2005, co-chaired by former [|House Speaker] [|Newt Gingrich] and former [|Senate Majority Leader] [|George J. Mitchell]. In June 2005, the task force released "American Interests and UN Reform: Report of the Task Force on the United Nations," [|[9]] with numerous recommendations on how to improve the UN. On [|June 17], [|2005], the [|United States House of Representatives] passed a bill ([|H.R. 2745]) to slash funds to the UN in half by 2008 if it does not meet certain criteria. This reflects years of complaints about anti-American and anti-Israeli bias in the UN, particularly the exclusion of Israel from many decision making organizations. The US is estimated to contribute about 22% of the UN's yearly budget, making this bill potentially devastating to the UN. The [|Bush] administration and several former US ambassadors to the UN have warned that this may only strengthen anti-America sentiment around the world and serve to hurt current UN reform movements. The bill passed the House in June, and a parallel bill was introduced in the Senate by Gordon Smith on [|July 13] []:. However, a number of leading Senate Republicans objected to the requirement that the US contributions be halved if the UN failed to meet all of the criteria. The UN Management, Personnel, and Policy Reform Act of 2005 (S. 1383), introduced [|July 12], [|2005] into the Senate by Sen. Coleman, Norm [R-MN] and Sen. Lugar, Richard [R-IN], called for similar reforms but left the withholding of dues to the discretion of the President [|[10]]. As of December 2005, neither bill has come to a vote. In September 2005, the UN convened a World [|Summit] that brought together the heads of most member states, in a plenary session of the General Assembly's 60th session. The UN called the summit "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in the areas of development, security, human rights and reform of the United Nations" [|[11]]. Secretary General Kofi Annan had proposed that the summit agree upon a global "grand bargain" to reform the UN, revamping international systems for peace and security, human rights and development, to make them capable of addressing the extraordinary challenges facing the UN in the 21st century. But no such grand bargain emerged. Instead, world leaders agreed upon piecemeal reforms: the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to provide a central mechanism to help countries emerging from conflict; the agreement that the international community has the right to step in when national governments fail to fulfil their responsibility to protect their own citizens from atrocity crimes; a vague promise to create a better UN institution on human rights; and agreement to devote more resources to UN's internal oversight agency. Although the UN member states achieved little in the way of reform of UN bureaucracy, Annan continued to carry out reforms under his own authority. He established an ethics office, responsible for administering new financial disclosure and whistleblower protection policies. As of late December 2005, the Secretariat was completing a review of all General Assembly mandates more than five years old. That review is intended to provide the basis for decision-making by the member states about which duplicative or unnecessary programs should be eliminated. [[|edit]]

Successes and failures in security issues
A large share of UN expenditures address the core UN mission of peace and security. The peacekeeping budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year is approximately $5 billion (compared to approximately $1.5 billion for the UN core budget over the same period), with some 70,000 troops deployed in 17 missions around the world. The //[|Human Security Report 2005]// [|[12]], produced by the Human Security Centre at the [|University of British Columbia] with support from several governments and foundations, documented a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses over the past decade. The Report, published by [|Oxford University Press], argued that the single most compelling explanation for these changes is found in the unprecedented upsurge of international activism, spearheaded by the UN, which took place in the wake of the Cold War. The Report singles out several specific investments that have paid off [|, p. 9]: These efforts were both more numerous and, on average, substantially larger and more complex that those of the Cold War era. However, in many cases UN members have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. In 2003, the US led the invasion of [|Iraq], in the face of strong disapproval by a majority of members. For nearly a decade, Israel defied resolutions calling for the dismantling of settlements in the [|West Bank] and [|Gaza]. Such failures stem from UN's intergovernmental nature — in many respects it is an association of 191 member states who must reach consensus, not an independent organization. Even when actions are mandated by the 15-member Security Council, the Secretariat is rarely given the full resources needed to carry out the mandates. Other serious security failures include:
 * A six-fold increase in the number of UN missions mounted to prevent wars, from 1990 to 2002
 * A four-fold increase in efforts to stop existing conflicts, from 1990 to 2002
 * A seven-fold increase in the number of ‘Friends of the Secretary-General’, ‘Contact Groups’ and other government-initiated mechanisms to support peacemaking and peacebuilding missions, from 1990 to 2003
 * An eleven-fold increase in the number of economic sanctions against regimes around the world, from 1989 to 2001
 * A four-fold increase in the number of UN peacekeeping operations, from 1987, to 1999
 * Failure to prevent the 1994 [|Rwandan genocide], which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of the security council members, the US, the British and the French governments in particular, to approve any necessary military action [|[13]].
 * Failure by [|MONUC] ([|UNSC] Resolution 1291) to effectively intervene during the [|Second Congo War], which claimed nearly five million people in the [|Democratic Republic of Congo] (DRC), 1998-2002 (with fighting reportedly continuing), and in carrying out and distributing [|humanitarian aid].
 * Failure to intervene in the 1995 [|Srebrenica massacre], despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 [|Dutch] peacekeepers to protect it.
 * Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in [|Somalia]; the food was instead usually seized by local warlords. A US/UN attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 [|Battle of Mogadishu].
 * Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. It is reported that peacekeepers from several nations sexually abuse and gang-rape girls as young as 12 in DRC. This abuse is reportedly widespread and ongoing despite many revelations and probes by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. [|[14]][|[15]] A 2005 internal UN investigation found that similar sexual abuse had been reported in five other countries where UN peacekeepers were deployed, including [|Burundi], [|Ivory Coast], and [|Liberia]; UN peacekeepers were at that time deployed in 16 countries. [|[16]]