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United Nations

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

   United Nations

   Organisation des Nations Unies
   Organización de las Naciones Unidas
   الأمم المتحدة
   联合国 (聯合國)
   Организация Объединённых Наций

   Flag of the United Nations
   Flag of the United Nations

   Map of UN member states and their dependencies as recognized by the UN
   Map of UN member states and their dependencies as recognized by the UN
   Formation 24 October 1945
   Type International organization
   Headquarters International territory on Manhattan Island, New York City
   Membership 192 member states
   Official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
   Secretary-General Flag of South Korea Ban Ki-moon
   Website http://www.un.org/
   The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
   The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

   The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated
   aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international
   security, economic development, social progress and human rights
   issues. It was founded in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations
   Charter by 50 countries, replacing the League of Nations, founded in
   1919.

   The UN was founded after the end of World War II by the victorious
   Allied Powers in the hope that it would act to intervene in conflicts
   between nations and thereby avoid war. The organization's structure
   still reflects in some ways the circumstances of its founding. The five
   permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has veto
   power on any UN resolution, are the main victors of World War II or
   their successor states: People's Republic of China (which replaced the
   Republic of China), the French Republic, the Russian Federation (which
   replaced the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the United Kingdom,
   and the United States of America.

   As of 2007, there are 192 United Nations member states, encompassing
   almost every recognized independent state. From its headquarters in New
   York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive
   and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each
   year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, including
   the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council,
   Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additional
   bodies deal with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such
   as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's
   Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most visible public figure is the
   Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon of
   South Korea, who assumed the post on 1 January 2007.

Aims

   The stated aims of the United Nations are to prevent war, to safeguard
   human rights, to provide a mechanism for international law, and to
   promote social and economic progress, improve living standards and
   fight diseases. It gives the opportunity for countries to balance
   global interdependence and national interests when addressing
   international problems. Toward these ends it ratified a Universal
   Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

History

   The foundation of the United Nations
   The foundation of the United Nations
   Wartime poster of the United Nations
   Wartime poster of the United Nations
   Stamp of the GDR version of the UNO
   Stamp of the GDR version of the UNO

   The United Nations was founded as a successor to the League of Nations,
   which was widely considered to have been ineffective in its role as an
   international governing body, in that it had been unable to prevent
   World War II. Some argue that the UN's major advantage over the League
   of Nations is its ability to maintain and deploy its member nations'
   armed forces as peace keepers. Others see such "peace keeping" as a
   euphemism for war and domination of weak and poor countries by the
   wealthy and powerful nations of the world.

   The term "United Nations" (which appears in stanza 35 of Canto III of
   Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage) was decided by Franklin D.
   Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during World War II, to refer to the
   Allies. Its first formal use was in the 1 January 1942 Declaration by
   the United Nations, which committed the Allies to the principles of the
   Atlantic Charter and pledged them not to seek a separate peace with the
   Axis powers. Thereafter, the Allies used the term " United Nations
   Fighting Forces" to refer to their alliance.

   The idea for the UN was espoused in declarations signed at the wartime
   Allied conferences in Moscow, Cairo, and Tehran in 1943. From August to
   October 1944, representatives of France, the Republic of China, the
   United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union met to
   elaborate the plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Estate in Washington, DC.
   Those and later talks produced proposals outlining the purposes of the
   organization, its membership and organs, and arrangements to maintain
   international peace and security and international economic and social
   cooperation.

   On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organizations
   began in San Francisco. In addition to the governments, a number of
   non-governmental organizations were invited to assist in drafting the
   charter. The 50 nations represented at the conference signed the
   Charter of the United Nations two months later on 26 June. Poland had
   not been represented at the conference, but a place had been reserved
   for it among the original signatories, and it added its name later. The
   UN came into existence on 24 October 1945, after the Charter had been
   ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council—Republic
   of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United
   States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.

   Initially, the body was known as the United Nations Organization, or
   UNO. However, by the 1950s, English speakers were referring to it as
   the United Nations, or the UN.

Membership

   With the addition of Montenegro on 28 June 2006, there are 192 United
   Nations member states, including virtually all
   internationally-recognized independent states.

   The United Nations Charter outlines the rules for membership:

     1. Membership in the United Nations is open to all other
     peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the
     present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able
     and willing to carry out these obligations.
     2. The admission of any such state to membership in the United
     Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon
     the recommendation of the Security Council.

     —United Nations Charter, Chapter 2, Article 4,
     http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/

   Among the notable absences are the Republic of China (Taiwan), whose
   seat in the United Nations was transferred to the People's Republic of
   China in 1971, and the Holy See (administering authority of Vatican
   City), which has declined membership but is an observer state.
   A world map showing the members of the UN. Note that Antartica has no
   government except for a few research bases run by various UN countires.
   A world map showing the members of the UN. Note that Antartica has no
   government except for a few research bases run by various UN countires.

Headquarters

   UN headquarters in New York City
   UN headquarters in New York City

   The United Nations headquarters was built on an 18 acre site in New
   York City purchased with a donation to the UN by John D. Rockefeller,
   Jr. in 1946 . Though it is in New York City, the land occupied by the
   United Nations headquarters is international territory . Its borders
   are First Avenue west, East 42nd Street south, East 48th Street north
   and the East River east. FDR Drive passes underneath the Conference
   Building of the complex.
   UN European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
   UN European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

   Prior to 1949, the UN used various venues in London and New York State.
   There are also major UN agencies in Geneva, The Hague, Vienna,
   Montreal, Copenhagen, Bonn, and elsewhere.

   As the main UN building is aging, the UN is in the process of
   negotiating to build a temporary headquarters designed by Fumihiko Maki
   on First Avenue (Manhattan) between 41st and 42nd Streets for use while
   the current building is being expanded. NewsMax reported in March 2007
   that the UN planned to begin a renovation of its complex, starting
   2008. The Capital Master Plan is projected to last almost 10 years and
   could cost close to $2 billion.

Financing

   The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from
   member states. The regular two-year budgets of the UN and its
   specialized agencies are funded by assessments. 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), with
   adjustments for external debt and low per capita income.

   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%. The U.S. is the only member that meets the ceiling. In addition
   to a ceiling rate, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or
   'floor' rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget. Also, for the least
   developed countries (LDC), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied.

   The current operating budget is estimated at $4.19 billion . The major
   contributors to the regular UN budget for 2006 are United States (22%),
   Japan (19.47%), Germany (8.66%), United Kingdom (6.13%), France
   (6.03%), Italy (4.89%), Canada (2.81%), Spain (2.52%), and China
   (2.05%). Some member nations are in arrears on their payments, most
   notably the United States (see United States and the United Nations).

   Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget (such as
   UNICEF and UNDP) are financed by voluntary contributions from member
   governments. Most of this is financial contributions, but some is in
   the form of agricultural commodities donated for afflicted populations.

Languages

   The UN has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
   Russian and Spanish. The Secretariat uses two working languages,
   English and French.

   Five of the official languages were chosen when the UN was founded, and
   Arabic was added in 1973. There is controversy over whether the number
   of official languages should be reduced (for example to English only)
   or expanded. In 2001, Spanish-speaking countries complained that
   Spanish does not have equal status compared to English. There is also
   pressure to add Hindi as a seventh official language. There is strong
   resistance against downgrading the status of French.; every
   Secretary-General so far has spoken French and the apparent difficulty
   of current Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to do so fluently in his first
   press conference was considered a faux pas.

   The UN standard for English language documents (United Nations
   Editorial Manual) follows British usage. The UN and all other
   organisations part of the UN system use Oxford spelling. The UN
   standard for Chinese (Mandarin) changed when the Republic of China
   (Taiwan) was succeeded by the People's Republic of China in 1971. From
   1945 until 1971 traditional characters were used, and since 1971
   simplified characters have been used.

   English is an official language in 52 of UN's member states, French in
   29, Arabic in 24, Spanish in 20, Russian in 4, and Chinese in 2.

Organizational structure

   The United Nations system is based on five principle organs : (1) UN
   General Assembly, (2) UN Security Council, (3) UN Economic and Social
   Council, (4) UN Secretariat, and (5) International Court of Justice.

UN General Assembly

   UN General Assembly.
   UN General Assembly.
   Interior of the Security Council chambers.
   Interior of the Security Council chambers.

   The UN General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the United
   Nations. It is made up of all United Nations member states and meets in
   regular yearly sessions. As the only UN organ in which all members are
   represented, the assembly serves as a forum for members to discuss
   issues of international law and to make decisions regarding the
   functioning of the organization.

UN Security Council

   The UN Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security
   among nations. While other organs of the United Nations only make
   recommendations to member governments, the Security Council has the
   power to make decisions that member governments must carry out under
   the United Nations Charter. The decisions of the Council are known as
   United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

   The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of five
   permanent seats and ten temporary seats. The permanent five are China,
   France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. These members
   hold veto power over substantive but not procedural resolutions
   allowing a permanent member to block adoption but not debate of a
   resolution unacceptable to it. The ten temporary seats are held for
   two-year terms with member states voted in by the UN General Assembly
   on a regional basis. The presidency of the Security Council is rotated
   alphabetically each month.

   The Security council has been criticized for being unable to act in a
   clear and decisive way when confronted with a crisis. Recent examples
   include the Iranian nuclear program and the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
   The veto power of the five permanent members has been cited as the
   cause of this problem. The makeup of the security council dates back to
   the end of World War II, and this division of powers no longer
   represents the state of the world. Critics question the effectiveness
   and relevance of the Security Council because enforcement relies on the
   member nations and there usually are no consequences for violating a
   Security Council resolution.

Activities

Conferences

   The Berlin born polar bear Knut will be the official mascot animal for
   the Conference on Biological Diversity held in Bonn 2008. He is the
   symbol figure for global climate change.
   The Berlin born polar bear Knut will be the official mascot animal for
   the Conference on Biological Diversity held in Bonn 2008. He is the
   symbol figure for global climate change.

   The countries of the UN and its specialized agencies — the
   "stakeholders" of the system — give guidance and decide on substantive
   and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each
   year. Governing bodies made up of member states include not only the
   General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and the Security
   Council, but also counterpart bodies dealing with the governance of all
   other UN System agencies. For example, the World Health Assembly and
   the Executive Board oversee the work of WHO.

   When an issue is considered particularly important, the General
   Assembly may convene an international conference to focus global
   attention and build a consensus for consolidated action. Recent
   examples include:
     * The UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit)
       in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, led to the creation of the
       UN Commission on Sustainable Development to advance the conclusions
       reached in Agenda 21, the final text of agreements negotiated by
       governments at UNCED;
     * The International Conference on Population and Development, held in
       Cairo, Egypt, in September 1994, approved a programme of action to
       address the critical challenges and interrelationships between
       population and sustainable development over the next 20 years;
     * The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in
       September 1995, sought to accelerate implementation of the historic
       agreements reached at the Third World Conference on Women;
     * The Second UN Conference on Human Settlements ( Habitat II),
       convened in June 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey, considered the
       challenges of human settlement development and management in the
       21st century.
     * ICARA 2 or ICARA II: International Conference on Assistance to
       Refugees in Africa established in 1984.

UN International Years and Observation Days

   The UN declares and coordinates "International Year of the..." and
   'International Day of the...' in order to focus world attention on
   important issues and remembrance days. Using the symbolism of the UN, a
   specially designed logo for the year, and the infrastructure of the UN
   System is used to coordinate events worldwide, the various years have
   become catalysts to advancing key issues of concern on a global scale.
     * UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
     * UNESCO World Heritage Sites
     * UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
     * United Nations Peace Messenger Cities

Peace and Security

Arms control and disarmament

   The 1945 UN Charter envisaged a system of regulation that would ensure
   "the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic
   resources". The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the
   signing of the Charter and provided immediate impetus to concepts of
   arms limitation and disarmament. In fact, the first resolution of the
   first meeting of the General Assembly ( 24 January 1946) was entitled
   "The Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by
   the Discovery of Atomic Energy" and called upon the commission to make
   specific proposals for "the elimination from national armaments of
   atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass
   destruction".

   The UN has established several forums to address multilateral
   disarmament issues. The principal ones are the First Committee of the
   General Assembly and the UN Disarmament Commission. Items on the agenda
   include consideration of the possible merits of a nuclear test ban,
   outer-space arms control, efforts to ban chemical weapons and land
   mines, nuclear and conventional disarmament, nuclear-weapon-free zones,
   reduction of military budgets, and measures to strengthen international
   security.

   The Conference on Disarmament is a forum established by the
   international community for the negotiation of multilateral arms
   control and disarmament agreements. It has 65 members representing all
   areas of the world, including all known nuclear-weapon states, except
   for North Korea . While the conference is not formally a UN
   organization, it is linked to the UN through a personal representative
   of the Secretary-General; this representative serves as the secretary
   general of the conference. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly
   often request the conference to consider specific disarmament matters.
   In turn, the conference annually reports its activities to the
   Assembly.

Peacekeeping

   External References to UN Security Council Resolutions
     * All UN Security Council Resolutions — listed by year:
     * Security Council Resolutions by country:
          + Cyprus:
          + Iraq:
          + Kashmir 47 (1948):
          + Kosovo: and
          + Sudan ( Darfur):
          + Lebanon :

   UN peacekeepers are sent to various regions where armed conflict has
   recently ceased, or temporarily frozen, in order to enforce the terms
   of peace agreements and to discourage the combatants from resuming
   hostilities, for example in East Timor until its independence in 2001.
   These forces are provided by member states of the UN, and participation
   in peace keeping operations is optional; at this point only 2 nations,
   Canada and Portugal, have participated in all peacekeeping operations.
   The UN does not maintain any independent military. All UN peacekeeping
   operations must be approved by the Security Council.

   The founders of the UN had envisaged that the UN would act to prevent
   conflicts between nations and make future wars impossible. Those hopes
   have not been fully realized. During the Cold War (from about 1945
   until 1991), the division of the world into hostile camps made
   peacekeeping agreement extremely difficult. Following the end of the
   Cold War, there were renewed calls for the UN to become the agency for
   achieving world peace, as several dozen military conflicts continue to
   rage around the globe. But the breakup of the Soviet Union also left
   the U.S. in a unique position of global dominance, creating a variety
   of new challenges for the UN.
   United Nations peacekeeping light armed mechanised vehicle in Bovington
   tank museum, Dorset
   United Nations peacekeeping light armed mechanised vehicle in Bovington
   tank museum, Dorset

   UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived
   from the regular funding scale, but including a weighted surcharge for
   the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all
   peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted
   peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In December
   2000, the UN revised the assessment rate scale for the regular budget
   and for peacekeeping. The peacekeeping scale is designed to be revised
   every six months and was projected to be near 27% in 2003. The US
   intends to pay peacekeeping assessments at these lower rates and has
   sought legislation from the U.S. Congress to allow payment at these
   rates and to make payments towards arrears.

   The UN Peace-Keeping Forces (called the Blue Helmets) received the 1988
   Nobel Prize for Peace. In 2001, the UN and Secretary General Kofi Annan
   won the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and
   more peaceful world." The UN maintains a series of United Nations
   Medals awarded to military service members who enforce UN accords. The
   first such decoration issued was the United Nations Service Medal,
   awarded to UN forces who participated in the Korean War. The NATO Medal
   is designed on a similar concept and both are considered international
   decorations instead of military decorations.

UN Peacekeepers rape accusations in Congo, Haiti, Liberia, and Sudan

   In December 2004, during the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, at least
   68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia and more than 150
   other allegations have been uncovered by UN investigators, all
   perpetrated by UN peacekeepers, specifically ones from Pakistan,
   Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. Peacekeepers from 3
   of those nations are also accused of obstructing the investigation.
   Also, a French UN logistics expert in Congo was also charged of rape
   and child pornography in the same month.

   The BBC reported that young girls were abducted and raped by UN
   peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince. Similar accusations have been made in
   Liberia and in Sudan.

Successes and failures in security issues

   A large share of UN expenditures addresses 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, produced by the Human Security Centre at the University of
   British Columbia with support from several governments and foundations,
   documented a dramatic, but largely unrecognized, decline in the number
   of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold
   War. Statistics include:
     * A 40% drop in violent conflict.
     * An 80% drop in the most deadly conflicts.
     * An 80% drop in genocide and politicide.

   The Report, published by Oxford University Press, argued that
   international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main
   cause of the post–Cold War decline in armed conflict, though the report
   indicated the evidence for this contention is mostly circumstantial.

   The Report singles out several specific investments that have paid off:
     * A sixfold increase in the number of UN missions mounted to prevent
       wars, from 1990 to 2002.
     * A fourfold increase in efforts to stop existing conflicts, from
       1990 to 2002.
     * A sevenfold 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 elevenfold increase in the number of economic sanctions against
       regimes around the world, from 1989 to 2001.
     * A fourfold increase in the number of UN peacekeeping operations,
       from 1987 to 1999.

   These efforts were both more numerous and, on average, substantially
   larger and more complex than those of the Cold War era.

   In the area of Peacekeeping, successes include:
     * The US Government Accountability Office concluded that UN
       Peacekeeping is eight times less expensive than funding a U.S.
       force.
     * A 2005 RAND Corp study found the UN to be successful in two out of
       three peacekeeping efforts. It also compared UN nation-building
       efforts to those of the U.S., and found that of eight UN cases,
       seven are at peace, whereas of eight U.S. cases, four are at peace,
       and four are not or not-yet-at peace.

   However, in many cases UN members have shown reluctance to achieve or
   enforce Security Council resolutions. Iraq is said to have broken 17
   Security Council resolutions dating back to June 28, 1991 as well as
   trying to bypass the UN economic sanctions. For nearly a decade, Israel
   delayed implementing resolutions calling for the dismantling of Jewish
   communities in "occupied territories". Such failures stem from UN's
   intergovernmental nature — in many respects it is an association of 192
   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:
     * Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the
       killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of security
       council members to approve any military action.
     * 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 U.S./UN
       attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted
       in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
     * Failure to implement the provisions of UN Security Council
       Resolutions 1559 and 1701 calling for disarmament of Lebanese
       paramilitary groups such as Fatah and Hezbollah.
     * Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Peacekeepers from several nations
       have been repatriated from UN peacekeeping operations for sexually
       abusing and exploiting girls as young as 8 in a number of different
       peacekeeping missions. This abuse is ongoing despite many
       revelations and probes by the UN Office of Internal Oversight
       Services. A 2005 internal UN investigation found that sexual
       exploitation and abuse has been reported in at least five countries
       where UN peacekeepers have been deployed, including the Democratic
       Republic of Congo, Haiti, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, and Liberia. The
       BBC carried a similar report, and also cited a member of the World
       Food Programme as an offender.

Human rights

   The pursuit of human rights was a central reason for creating the UN.
   World War II atrocities and genocide led to a ready consensus that the
   new organization must work to prevent any similar tragedies in the
   future. An early objective was creating a legal framework for
   considering and acting on complaints about human rights violations.

   The UN Charter obliges all member nations to promote "universal respect
   for, and observance of, human rights" and to take "joint and separate
   action" to that end. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though
   not legally binding, was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 as a
   common standard of achievement for all. The Assembly regularly takes up
   human rights issues.

   The UN and its agencies are central in upholding and implementing the
   principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A
   case in point is support by the UN for countries in transition to
   democracy. Technical assistance in providing free and fair elections,
   improving judicial structures, drafting constitutions, training human
   rights officials, and transforming armed movements into political
   parties have contributed significantly to democratization worldwide.
   The UN has helped run elections in countries with little democratic
   history, including recently in Afghanistan and East Timor.

   The UN is also a forum to support the right of women to participate
   fully in the political, economic, and social life of their countries.
   The UN contributes to raising consciousness of the concept of human
   rights through its covenants and its attention to specific abuses
   through its General Assembly or Security Council resolutions or ICJ
   rulings.

Human Rights Council

   On 15 March 2006 the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to
   replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights with the UN Human
   Rights Council. Its purpose is to address human rights violations. The
   UNCHR had repeatedly been criticized for the composition of its
   membership. In particular, several of its member countries themselves
   had dubious human rights records, including states whose
   representatives had been elected to chair the commission.

   The new council has stricter rules for peacekeeping membership
   including a universal human rights review and a dramatic increase in
   the number of nations needed to elect a candidate to the body, from
   election-by-regional-slate on the 53-member Economic and Social Council
   to a majority of the 192 member General Assembly.

   On 9 May 2006 elections were held to elect all 47 members to the
   council. Seats are allocated by region: Africa (13), Asian (13),
   Eastern Europe (6), Latin American and Caribbean (8) and Western Europe
   and other (7). Members of the council serve for three year terms, and
   may not serve three consecutive terms .

   While some governments with poor records were elected, such as Cuba,
   Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan, some other rights
   violators that ran for election did not receive enough votes: Iran,
   Venezuela, Thailand, Iraq, and Kyrgyzstan This change in membership has
   been cited as a positive first step for the council .

   There are now seven UN-linked human rights treaty bodies, including the
   Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of
   Discrimination against Women. Secretariat services are provided
   regarding six of those (excluding the latter) by the Office of the UN
   High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Inaction on genocide and human rights

   The UN has been accused of ignoring the plight of people across the
   world, especially in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Current
   examples include the UN's inaction toward the Sudanese government in
   Darfur, the Chinese government's ethnic cleansing in Tibet, and the
   Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

   In the wake of the Rwandan Genocide, the UN and the international
   community in general drew severe criticism for its inaction. Despite
   international news media coverage of the violence as it unfolded, most
   countries, including France, Belgium, and the US, declined to intervene
   or speak out against the massacres. Canada continued to lead the UN
   peacekeeping force in Rwanda, UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda
   (UNAMIR). However, the UN did not authorize UNAMIR to intervene or use
   force to prevent or halt the killing.

Humanitarian assistance and international development

   In conjunction with other organizations, such as the Red Cross, the UN
   provides food, drinking water, shelter and other humanitarian services
   to populaces suffering from famine, displaced by war, or afflicted by
   other disasters. Major humanitarian arms of the UN are the World Food
   Programme (which helps feed more than 100 million people a year in 80
   countries), the High Commissioner for Refugees with projects in over
   116 countries, as well as peacekeeping projects in over 24 countries.
   At times, UN relief workers have been subject to attacks (see Attacks
   on humanitarian workers).

   The UN is also involved in supporting development, e.g. by the
   formulation of the Millennium Development Goals. The UN Development
   Programme (UNDP) is the largest multilateral source of grant technical
   assistance in the world. Organizations—like the WHO, UNAIDS, and the
   Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—are leading
   institutions in the battle against diseases around the world,
   especially in poor countries. The UN Population Fund is a major
   provider of reproductive services. It has helped reduce infant and
   maternal mortality in 100 countries.

   The UN annually publishes the Human Development Index (HDI), a
   comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education,
   life expectancy, and other factors.

   The UN promotes human development through various agencies and
   departments:
     * World Health Organization (WHO) eliminated smallpox in 1977 and is
       close to eliminating polio.
     * World Bank / International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are
       independent, specialized agencies and observers within the UN
       framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were initially
       formed as separate from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement
       in 1944.
     * United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
     * United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
     * United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
       (UNESCO)
     * United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
     * United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

   On 9 March 2006, Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Central
   Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for those in the Horn of Africa
   threatened with starvation.

   UN also had an agency called the World Food Council with the goal of
   coordinating national ministries of agriculture to help alleviate
   malnutrition and hunger. It was suspended in 1993.

Treaties and international law

   The UN negotiates treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the
   Law of the Sea to avoid potential international disputes. Disputes over
   use of the oceans may be adjudicated by a special court.

   The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the main court of the UN.
   Its purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states. The ICJ began in
   1946 and continues to hear cases. Important cases include:
     * Congo vs. France, where the Democratic Republic of Congo accused
       France of illegally detaining former heads of state accused of war
       crimes; and Nicaragua vs. United States, where Nicaragua accused
       the United States of illegally arming the Contras (this case led to
       the Iran-Contra affair).

     * In 1993, in response to "ethnic cleansing" in the former
       Yugoslavia, the UN Security Council established the International
       Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In 1994, in response
       to the Rwandan genocide, the council established the International
       Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The jurisprudence of these two courts
       established the current understanding of rape committed in
       furtherance of an armed conflict as a war crime.

     * In 1998 the General Assembly called a conference in Rome to
       establish an International Criminal Court (ICC), where it adopted
       the "Rome Statute". The ICC became operational in 2002 and began
       its first case in 2006. It is the first permanent international
       court charged with trying those who commit the most serious crimes
       under international law including war crimes and genocide. The ICC
       is functionally independent of the UN in terms of personnel and
       financing, but some meetings of the ICC governing body, the
       Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, are held at the UN.
       There is a "relationship agreement" between the ICC and the UN that
       governs how the two institutions regard each other legally.

     * In 2002, the UN established the Special Court for Sierra Leone in
       response to the atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil
       War.

   There is also a SCIU (Serious Crimes Investigation Unit) for East
   Timor.

Reform

   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. There
   have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council's membership
   to be increased to reflect the current geo-political state (that is,
   more members from Africa, South America and Asia). Renewed calls for
   reform came in 2004 and 2005, after allegations of mismanagement and
   corruption of the Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Bureaucratic inefficiency

   The UN has been accused of inefficiency and waste due to its cumbersome
   and excessive bureaucracy. During the 1990s the United States,
   currently the largest contributor to the UN, gave this inefficiency as
   a reason for withholding their dues. The repayment of the dues was made
   conditional on a major reforms initiative. In 1994 the Office of
   Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by a ruling of the
   General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog. A reform program
   has been proposed, but has not yet approved by the General Assembly.

Oil-for-Food Programme

   The Oil-for-Food Program was established by the UN in 1996. Its purpose
   was to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food,
   medicine, and other humanitarian needs of ordinary Iraqi citizens who
   were affected by international economic sanctions, without allowing the
   Iraqi government to rebuild its military in the wake of the first Gulf
   War. It was discontinued in late 2003 amidst allegations of widespread
   abuse and corruption. The former director, Benon Sevan of Cyprus, first
   was suspended, then resigned from the UN, as an interim progress report
   PDF (3.67  MiB) of a UN-sponsored investigation led by Paul Volcker
   concluded that Sevan had accepted bribes from the Iraqi regime, and
   recommended that his UN immunity be lifted to allow for a criminal
   investigation.

   Under UN auspices, over $65 billion worth of Iraqi oil was sold on the
   world market. Officially, about $46 billion was used for humanitarian
   needs. Additional revenue paid for Gulf War reparations through a
   Compensation Fund, UN administrative and operational costs for the
   Programme (2.2%), and the weapons inspection programme (0.8%).

   Also implicated in the scandal was Kofi Annan's son Kojo Annan, alleged
   to have illegally procured UN Oil-for-Food contracts on behalf of the
   Swiss company Cotecna. India's foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was
   removed from office because of his role in the scandal.

   The Australian government set up the Cole Inquiry in November 2005 to
   investigate whether the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) breached any laws
   with its contracts with Iraq during the Oil-for-Food Programme. AWB
   paid Saddam Hussein's regime almost $300 million, through a front
   company called 'Alia', to secure wheat contracts to Iraq. Australia's
   Prime Minister (John Howard), Deputy Prime Minister ( Mark Vaile), and
   Foreign Minister ( Alexander Downer) denied knowing about such bribes
   when they were called to testify before the inquiry. It has been
   suggested that although the Australian Government did not monitor AWB
   effectively enough to stop the bribes, the UN should have been more
   forceful in requesting the Australian Government to investigate. The
   Cole Inquiry is scheduled to report on 24 November 2006.

Reform programme

   An official reform programme was begun by United Nations
   Secretary-General Kofi Annan soon after starting his first term on 1
   January 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.

   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".
   Kofi Annan had proposed that the summit agree on 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. World leaders agreed on a compromise text with such notable
   items as:
     * 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 fulfill their
       responsibility to protect their citizens from atrocity crimes;
     * a Human Rights Council (created 9 May and becoming operational 19
       June);
     * an agreement to devote more resources to UN's Office of Internal
       Oversight Services;
     * several agreements to spend billions more on achieving Millennium
       Development Goals;
     * a clear and unambiguous condemnation of terrorism "in all its forms
       and manifestations";
     * a democracy fund;
     * an agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council due to the
       completion of its mission.

   Although the UN member states achieved little 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 programmes should be eliminated.

Millennium Development Goals

   The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 192 United
   Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015.
   The Borgen Project estimates that $40 to 60 billion each year is needed
   to achieve all eight goals.

   The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000,
   commits the states to:
    1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
    2. Achieve universal primary education;
    3. Promote gender equality and empower women;
    4. Reduce child mortality;
    5. Improve maternal health;
    6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
    7. Ensure environmental sustainability;
    8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Personnel policy

   The UN and its agencies are immune to the laws of the countries where
   they operate, safeguarding UN's impartiality with regard to the host
   and member countries. Hiring and firing practices, working hours and
   environment, holiday time, pension plans, health insurance, life
   insurance, salaries, expatriation benefits and general conditions of
   employment are governed by UN rules and regulations. This independence
   allows agencies to implement human resources policies which may even be
   contrary to the laws of a host- or a member country. For instance, a
   person who is otherwise eligible for employment in Switzerland, where
   the International Labour Organization (ILO) has its headquarters, may
   not be employed by the ILO unless he or she is a citizen of an ILO
   member state.

Smokers

   There is a smoking ban within the UN headquarters, but some member
   nations allow smoking in their UN embassies. Moreover, users of illegal
   drugs are ineligible for employment in the UN.

Same-sex marriages

   Despite their independence in matters of human resources policy, UN
   agencies voluntarily apply the laws of member states regarding same-sex
   marriages, allowing decisions about the status of employees in a
   same-sex partnership to be based on nationality. They recognize
   same-sex marriages only if the employees are citizens of countries that
   recognize the marriage. Some agencies provide limited benefits to
   domestic partners of their staff.

Model United Nations

   An educational activity called the Model United Nations has grown
   popular in schools worldwide. The programme (usually) has students
   simulate a body in the UN System to help them develop skills in debate
   and diplomacy. Conferences are held by colleges and high schools.
   Committees typically included are General Assembly committees, ECOFIN
   committees, the Security Council, and a large range of specialized
   committees such as a Historical Security Council or the Senior
   Management Group. Students debate topics that the UN addresses and try
   to represent their country's views to reach a solution.

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