The Strengths and Weaknesses of United Nations

Briefly to UN History

What is the UN?

What are the strengths and Weaknesses?

A lesson of philosophy from the League of Nations failure for the United Nations to understand is very important for the UN founders after the Second World War in 1945.

In August 1941, the British Prime Minster Churchill and US President Roosevelt met and put forth the Atlantic Charter(Tarun Kanti Bose).

Actually, the ideal of the Atlantic Charter between both leaders is still furthered in January 1, 1942. Then the United Nations Declaration was signed not only by Roosevelt and Churchill, but there were also the present of representatives including China and the Soviet Union.

In this regard, the Charter became an ideological and political basis on which the allied powers counted to not only prosecute the war but also contemplate a post-war period.

In 1943, the present of the foreign ministers: Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, and the China's Ambassador in Moscow was the real impetus to the finalization of the shape of the given United Nations in Moscow.

According to the Tarun Kanti Bose's article, post to the meeting of big three, the United Nations Organization was established, aimed at setting up a decentralized UN system with a rang of what were to become the specialized agencies.

In 1943, FAO(the Food and Agriculture Organization) was formed and in the same year, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was established.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was established in Chicago meeting and in 1944, the Bretton Woods conference appeared the foundation of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the IBRD( the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In line with the again Tarun Kanti Bose article, A major conference of the big three together with China was held in Dumbarton Oaks, near Washington in 1944 to describe the significant principles to underlie and infuse the future United Nations.

The next time the United Nations has five permanent members in the Security Council, whom would have the right to veto-holding powers.

Furthermore, the United Nations had three major organs including the General Assembly, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice. And for the idea of Trusteeship Council and the appropriate position of the Social and Economic Council in the UN system were still not obvious in the minds of the leaders in the past, but in 1945, these three ideas were created.

Therefore, the Charter in 1945, was adopted and formed six principal organs including

• General Assembly
• Security Council
• Economic and Social Council
• Trusteeship Council
• International Court of Justice
• Secretariat                                                                                                                                          

1.  General Assembly  

 The General Assembly consists of all members of UN each member enjoys a vote and is entitled to be represented by 5 delegates. The assembly holds its meeting annually in September, however, an early session can be held at the request of Security council.

The Assembly has its president who is elected by the member. The General Assembly consists of four committees:  main committee, general committee, credentials committee, and subcommittee.

• The main committee is divided among seven main committee, which every member state is represented by a delegate including Economic and Financial Committee, Political and Security Committee, Trusteeship Committee, Legal Committee, Administrative and Budgetary Committee, Special Political Committee, and Social and Cultural Committee.

• The General Committee comprises 21 members. Among these 21 members, one is the president; thirteen are Vice-presidents and Chairmen of seven committees. The general committee helps to coordinate the proceedings of General Assembly

• The credentials committee helps to verify the credential of the delegates. It consists of nine members   

•   The subcommittee has Advisory Committee on administrative and budgetary matters and a committee on contribution.

The Functions of GA:

1. To elect non-permanent members of the Security Council
2. To elect judges of International Court of Justice
3. To receive and consider reports for different organs of UN and bring them in notice of Security Council
4. To appoint Secretary General
5. To promote international understanding, friendship and cooperation among nations of the world
6. To discuss matters coming within scope of the UN Charter except those pending before Security Council

 2. The Security Council: 

The Security Council has fifteen members of which five are permanent members and ten members are non-permanent. These non-permanent members are elected by two-third majority of the UN....of these ten, five are from African and Asian countries, two from Latin countries, two from Western Europe and one from Eastern Europe.

The Permanent members of the Security Council are including

1. The United States,
2. The United Kingdom,
3. Russia
4. France
5. China                                                                                                                                              

The Functions of SC:

a.      To maintain peace and security in world

b.     To develop plans for regulation of armaments

c.      To  take aggressive action against any aggression

d.     To recommend the admission of new members

e.      To elect the judges of the International Court of Justice General Assemble

f.       To advise UN to apply economic sanctions against a country or state whose policies are a threat to world peace

A veto in the Security Council: as stated above every major decision the Security Council requires at least 9 to 15 votes.

These nine votes Janis include the positive votes of five permanent members. If any one of the five permanent members says, “No” to a proposal, veto is said to exercise.

3.     Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

In the organ, there have 54 members elected by the General Assembly, who are elected for three years. On the other hand, the President is elected for a year only. The Council holds its session twice in a year. The basic goal is to free the world from fear.

The Functions of ECOSOC:

a.      To foster respect for human right

b.     To promote and encourage cooperation among member countries or States of UN

c.      To help to maintain dignity of man free of all social evils

d.     To work to establish a prosperous world order based on justice

e.      To submit draft conservations to General Assembly which are then sent to member states for implementation

4.     The International Court of Justice

It is the principal judicial of UN. It consists of fifteen judges from fifteen different nations. In the election of these judges, General Assembly and Security Council elect them. It has its headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands.

The Two Major Functions of ICJ:

a.      Give advisory opinion on legal matters to UN

b.     Decide the dispute between member states with their consent

5.     Trusteeship Council (TC)

The members of Trusteeship Council are the permanent members of the Security Council and the members from the nations who administer trust territories. It holds its member twice in a year in addition to a special session if requires.

The Function of TC:

a.      To help General Assembly and the Security Council in pulling off its duties with regard to trust territories.

6.     Secretariat

The Secretariat consists of Secretary General and International staff appointed by him the Secretary General is appointed Vice General Assembly on the asking the Security Council for five years.

§  From 1946-1953, first Secretary General, Trygve Lie, Norway

§  From 1953-1961, second Secretary General, Dag Haminarskjoeld, Sweden

§  From 1962-1970, third Secretary General, U Thant, Burma

§  From 1970-1981, fourth Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim, Austria

§  From 1982-191991, fifth Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Peru

§  From 1992-1996, sixth Secretary General, Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali, Egypt

§  From 1997-2006, seventh Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Ghana

§  From 2007-2016, eight Secretary General, onwards Ban Ki Moon, South Korea, and

§  From 2017- today, ninth Secretary General, António Guterres, Portugal

 The Functions of Secretary General:

a.      It acts as chief administrative officer of an organization

b.     It acts as Secretary General in all meetings of General Assembly and Secretary Council and the Trusteeship Council

c.      It brings any matter that threatens international peace in knowledge of Secretary Council

In conclusion, on the other hand, the political Strengths and Weaknesses of the UN are drawn from three sources:

a.      The Structure of UN,

b.     The functional dynamics of the UN over the last six decades and the ancillary processes,

c.      The products of international politics during the post-Second World War period.

Actually, the strengthening of position of the regional organizations such as the EU, ASEAN, SAARC, OAS, etc., would not only reduce the political points of dispute between the countries of the region, but also enhance all round cooperation amongst them.

In the strengths, they are seen the functional political strengths of the United Nations both in reach and substance more than the structural political strengths.

In this regard, the UN has two distinct features of functional dynamics, which gave strength to it.

a.      In the Chart, it has taken a holistic perspective, defining the functional domain of the UN in various fields: the Maintenance of International Peace and Security, The Peace-making activities, and the Peace-building activities, and especially encompassing the social, economic, educational, and cultural fields, which peach is built on a sustainable basis.

b.     The UN always consists of a high responsibility to deal with such problems to an existing agency or creating a new organization, which is exemplified by the creation of the agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Besides this, the system of United Nations also comprises its weaknesses related to the International questions that reveal some important weaknesses including

1.   The new contemporary global challenges in jeopardizing its solidarity and effectiveness, the spread of security threat like transnational terrorism and illicit arms trade, the limits of the Security Council’s action, the limits of the UN’s security system to assure peace and international stability.

According to the many observers, they said, the main deficiency of the UN’s security system has in the lack of an international army. Initially, the founders planned to build a military structure under the direct control of the Security Council in order to successfully implement the common military actions to restore peace.

Not only the UN military structure would have had an outstanding destructive capacity compared to the national armies, but it would have also required a relevant financial commitment of its member states.

2.     The lack of the democratic mechanism and accountability that affects the whole its structure

3.     The absence of a mechanism to empower the Judgments to the International Court of Justice.

In fact, when the ICJ was established, it was agreed that states would have had to accept the Court’s jurisdiction in order to allow it to judge their controversies. The consequences of two circumstances: a). No world government could force states to respect and enforce the judgments of the ICJ, and b). Being states jealous of their independence and powers, they prevented any attempt to limit their sovereignty. In this point, no mechanism to assure the respect of the Court’s decisions was provided, and especially, the implementation of its judgments still rests on the willing of the member states.

Finally, the United Nations should reform its structure and other mechanism.

 

By The International Relations