Introduction to the United Nations

1
Introduction to the United Nations
2
Brief history

• World War 2
• United Nations Conference on International
  Organization
• 1945
• San Francisco
• 50 countries ( Poland)
• Wrote United Nations Charter
• Signed June 26, 1945
• 24 October 1945
• United Nations Day
• Charter ratified by Big 5 and majority of other
  signatories

3
Charter

• The Charter is the constitution of the United
  Nations
• sets out rights and obligations of members
• established structure and procedures

4
Purposes

• Specified in Charter
• Maintain international peace and security
• Collective security
• Develop friendly relations among nations
• Principles of equal rights and self-determination
• Cooperate in solving international economic,
  social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in
  promoting respect for human rights and
  fundamental freedoms
• Be a centre for harmonizing the actions of
  nations in attaining these ends

5
Structure

• Six principal organs of the United Nations
• General Assembly
• Security Council
• Economic and Social Council
• Trusteeship Council
• International Court of Justice
• Secretariat
• Many other agencies, programmes and other organs
• Organization chart www.un.org/aboutun/chart_en.pd
  f

6
The United Nations Family of Organizations

• Made up of
• United Nations Secretariat
• United Nations programmes and funds
• For ex. UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and UN
  Development Programme (UNDP)
• Specialized agencies, organizations, commissions,
  offices, departments, unions, institutes
• Examples World Health Organization (WHO),
  Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Office for
  Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), Department of Public
  Information (DPI), Universal Postal Union (UPU),
  Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
• Each programme, fund, and agency has own
  governing body and budget
• List www.unsystem.org

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Budget

• Budget for two years 2.5-3 billion
• Main source is contributions of member states
• assessed on a scale approved by the General
  Assembly
• fundamental criterion capacity to pay
• determined by considering relative shares of
  total gross national product
• adjusted to take into account other factors
• Members also assessed for costs of peacekeeping
  operations
• Almost as much as general budget