UN Origin

We explain what the UN is, how it arose and the states that make it up. In addition, its characteristics and the consequences of its creation.

What is the UN?

The United Nations Organization (UN), also simply called the United Nations, It is an international organization currently composed of 193 states.

It was created on October 24, 1945, when the United Nations Charter (approved at the San Francisco Conference in June 1945) was definitely ratified.

The UN He was born in substitution of the Nations Societywhich had been created in 1919 and had failed in its goal of avoiding a new international conflict after World War I.

The Birth of the UN was possible thanks to the agreement reached between the governments of the five winning powers in World War II (1939-1945): United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, China and France.

The declared objectives of the UN are The maintenance of international peace and securitythe promotion of cooperation between nations and the stimulus of Respect for human rights.

See also: consequences of World War II

UN origin

The Atlantic letter (1941)

The idea of ​​establishing a more effective collective security system than that of the Nations Society (which had failed in its objective of guaranteeing international peace and security after World War I) was born during World War II (1939-1945).

The Atlantic letter, approved during a meeting held by British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in August 1941, provided for the institution of a broad and permanent general security system.

The reasons why the Nations Society created in 1919 were several: on the one hand, the failure of this institution had been so evident that its reconstitution would have crumbled international confidence; On the other hand, the Soviet Union (USSR), which had been expelled from the Nations Society in 1939 after its aggression in Finland, strongly opposed its reconstruction. It was evident that It was necessary to create a completely new institution.

The United Nations Declaration (1942)

The subsequent steps occurred with the United Nations Declaration, approved in Washington on January 1, 1942, in which The signatories promised to elaborate a peace and security system for the postwar world. The first signatories were the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China and another twenty -two nations or governments in the exile of countries occupied by the axis forces.

The project to create an international organization received Soviet support During the journey made by the US secretary of state, Cordell Hull, to Moscow in 1943. Then at the Tehran Conference, in which the first leaders of the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt), the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill) and the Soviet Union (Iosif Stalin) participated, This idea was reaffirmed.

The conferences of Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta (1944-1945)

In the Dumbarton Oaks Conferenceheld between August and October 1944, representatives of The United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and China approved a project draft for the new international institution.

The great nations reserved the right to set the foundations of said organization. It was also agreed that the four participants in the conference and France would be the permanent members of the future Security Council.

At the Yalta conference, held in February 1945, some of the conflict points between the powers were resolved:

• Ukraine and Belarus, in addition to the Soviet Union, would be considered full members of the organization.
• The permanent members of the Security Council (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France and China) They would always have the right of veto In all types of resolutions, except in the procedure.

The “great three” (Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill) agreed in Yalta that “A United Nations Conference must be summoned to meet in San Francisco, United States, on April 25, 1945, to prepare the letter of this organization”.

See also: World War II Peace Treaties

The United Nations Charter

San Francisco Conference

Between April 25 and June 26, 1945, the United States was held in San Francisco, the United States United Nations Conference on International Organization. There, delegates from fifty nations met with the objective of establishing the internal structure of the United Nations Organization.

During the Convention the members of the Security Council were defined: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and China. In addition, his veto power was ratified. In this way the power of these countries in the new international order was consolidated.

The fruit of the conference was the signing of the United Nations Charter, which established the internal organization, the functions of the General Assembly, of the Security Council and the formation of the International Court of Justice. The countries invited to the conference had declared war on Germany and Japan during World War II and, therefore, were considered worth participating in the debates about the international post -war order. There were only four states that did not meet this requirement and were invited for different reasons: Argentina, Denmark and the Soviet Republics of Belarus and Ukraine.

The letter states the objectives and principles of the UN.

Goals

The objectives are four:

• Maintain international peace and security.
• Promote friendly relationships between nations.
• To carry out international cooperation in the solution of international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems, and in the development and stimulus of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
• Serve as a center to harmon the efforts of nations to achieve these common purposes.

PRincipios

The principles are seven and affirm the following:

• The organization is based on the sovereign equality of all its members.
• All Member States will comply with the obligations contracted in accordance with the letter.
• Members will fix their international controversies by peaceful means and without endangering peace, security or justice.
• Member States will refrain, in their international relations, to resort to the threat or use of force against other states.
• The members will lend to the United Nations all the kind of aid in any action that they exercise in accordance with the letter, and will not help any state against which the organization was exercising preventive or coercive action.
• The United Nations will make states that are not members of the organization lead according to these principles as necessary to maintain international peace and security.
• No provision of the Charter will authorize the organization to intervene in matters that are the internal jurisdiction of the states.

THE INU INTERNAL STRUCTURE

The United Nations Charter details the internal structure of the UN, which is based on the following organs:

• The Security Council
• The General Assembly
• The Secretariat
• The Economic and Social Council
• The Fiduciary Board of Directors
• The International Court of Justice

The Security Council

The Security Council is the main body and of greater decision of the UN. Its function is Solve all issues related to international peace and security.

Initially it was made up of eleven members, 5 permanent (United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and the Soviet Union) and 6 non -permanent, but from 1966 it rose to fifteen when the number of non -permanent members was increased. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the place of this was occupied by the Russian Federation.

The Security Council adopts mandatory resolutions for Member States. In all important matters, their resolutions are approved With the affirmative vote of nine members (Originally, the affirmative vote had to come from seven members), but provided that that includes the affirmative vote of all permanent members.

The letter introduced, thus, an important innovation in front of the Nations Society, since it allowed the Security Council to adopt mandatory decisions by qualified majority, as long as the permanent members are in that majority. This rule of unanimity of the five great powers is, in practice, A VETO RIGHT and, therefore, an instrument of power of these five states.

Finally, for the maintenance of peace, the Security Council has the ability to Organize an army from the troops provided by the Member States of the organization, as well as imposing economic sanctions on aggressive states or that violate international standards.

The United Nations Peace Forces, known as “Blue Helmers”, conducted numerous interventions to stop armed conflicts, especially in places like Palestine, Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon or Kashmir. These armies are also employed to protect the staff from UN agencies in humanitarian aid missions.

The General Assembly

The General Assembly is the main UN Deliberation Organ And that’s composed of representatives of all Member Stateseach of them with the right to vote. The General Assembly It has broad powers: the election of non -permanent members of the Security Council, the admission of new UN members, the appointment of the UN Secretary General at the proposal of the Security Council, among others.

However, The decisions of the General Assembly only have the character of recommendations. These resolutions must be adopted by the vote of a two -thirds majority of the members present and voters. Decisions on less important issues are taken by a simple majority.

The Secretariat

The Secretary is the United Nations administrative body. Provides its services to the other organs through the administration of programs and policies prepared by them.

At the head of the Secretariat is the Secretary General, who fulfills a coordination work throughout the organization and can have an important political role. The list of who held the position of UN Secretary General is the following:

• Trygve Lie, from Norway (1946-1953), the first to access position
• DAG Hammarskjöld, from Sweden (1953-1961). He died in an plane accident in the Congo while heading a United Nations intervention.
• U Thant, from Burma (1961-1971)
• Kurt Waldheim, from Austria (1971-1981)
• Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, from Peru (1981-1991)
• Butros-gali butros, from Egypt (1992-1996)
• Kofi Annan, from Ghana (1997-2007)
• Ban Ki-Moon, from South Korea (2007-2016)
• António Guterres, from Portugal (since 2017)

Other UN organs

The UN also has Other organs with powers already defined in the United Nations Charter: The Economic and Social Council (coordinator of all the economic and social work of the organization), The Fiduciary Board of Directors (Supervisor of the administration of the territories under the fiduciary administration) and the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague (the main judicial body of the UN, to which all Member States can resort, and even those that are not, to resolve legal disputes).

Finally, some specialized agencies are also coordinated by the UN, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BIRF), the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) and the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO).

Consequences of UN creation

In spite of the expectations put in the creation of the organization, the breakup within the side of the allies with the outbreak of the cold war largely paralyzed the operation of the UN, especially through the use of the right of veto by the great powers faced.

Anyway, the UN had important interventions in facts such as Suez’s crisis (1956). As of the end of the Cold War in 1991, the UN deployed peace and humanitarian aid missions in various regionsand had a leading role in the conviction of war criminals (for example, in former Yugoslavia). In addition, in 1948 he adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

However, the UN was also criticized for its bureaucratic functioning, for its defense of the geopolitical interests of the five powers with the right of veto and for alleged grievances committed by some of its peace forces.

Currently, the UN is made up of 193 Member States And, according to official information, It has negotiated more than 560 multilateral treaties on various topics.

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References

• Fomerand, J. et al. (2022). United Nations. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Kennedy, PM (2007). The Parliament of Humanity: History of the United Nations. Debate.
• United Nations (SF). United Nations History. Official United Nations Site. https://www.un.org/