World Affairs: The United Nations
Introduction
The United Nations (UN) was established as an international organization on 24 October 1945 having several functions. The UN operations and membership are both extended worldwide. UN headquarters is in New York City and has other regional offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish are the official languages of the member countries.
The UN's predecessor was the League of Nations that kept peace and cooperation between the nations of the world. The organization gets its finance from member states voluntary contributions, and it has six fundamental bodies. The General Assembly as the primary contemplative Assembly, the Security Council that offers solution for security and peace, the organ for promoting socio-economic development and co-operation internationally. The Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat that contribute to information and efficiency needed by the organization, the International Justice Court in the judicial organ and the UN Trusteeship Council. World Bank, World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNESCO, and UNICEF are its system agencies. The most prominent officer of the UN is the Secretary-General and Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean holds the office since 2007.
After the devastation of the Second World War in 1945, the UN was formed for one purpose: the maintenance of international peace and security. The organization ensures this mission by preventing conflict, helping member countries in conflict make peace, and providing conditions that allow peace to prevail. The operations should promote the efficiency of the other for them to be effective. The international peace and security are the responsibility of the UN Security Council.
Also, the organization aims at achieving international collaboration in finding solutions to the economic, cultural, social, or charitable character that are global problems. Moreover, the UN promotes and encourages human right respect and freedom for everyone irrespective of one’s culture, race, ethnicity, or religion with the focus on improving the well-being of individuals and sustains development. The UN encourages global development that enhances economic opportunities, prosperity, environmental protection and a better social welfare that has contributed to the understanding that sustainable development is the best way forward for improving people's lives globally.
Protection of human rights through legal measures and on-the-ground activities is the guiding doctrine of the Organization. Established conditions maintain justice and respect for the obligations coming from accords and other sources of international law. Supporting international law is the key component of the organization's work, which is done in different ways such as tribunals, courts, and by Security Council to approve missions of peacekeeping. Other approaches include authorizing the use of coercion when the international peace and security is threatened among others, powers provided by the UN Charter, which codifies the important doctrines of international relations.
Delivering humanitarian aid is another objective of the UN. It is achieved by coordination of humanitarian relief operations upon occurrences of natural and human disasters that are beyond the shelter capacity of the individual nations alone. Deployment of new UN peacekeeping operation is determined by the Security Council through different steps including initial consultation, technical assessment of the field, and resolution of the Security Council. Others include the appointment of a senior directive officer for the peacekeeping operation, planning and deployment and finally reporting to the Security Council where the reports are viewed and updated until the mission is complete.
Historical Achievements
The UN has achieved major accomplishment over the past. The cultural agency of the UN, UNESCO considers individual world heritage sites that it preserves and protects. Such site is the area around Giza pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt. Construction of an eight-lane highway south of the Sphinx in 1995 threatened the site's architecture and the pyramids. UNESCO issued an expert mission to meet with the authorities of the government about diverting the highway to which the authorities obliged saving the Pyramids.
Also, the UN helped eradicate smallpox. UN agency WHO that led the global effort to eradicate smallpox declared the disease after thirteen years of immunization campaign. The agency was able to this from the start of 1967 by isolating the victims from the population during the period of infection after learning that man could spread the disease. Two-pronged needle developed by Wyeth Laboratories was used by WHO to deliver the vaccine.
Protection of the ozone layer was also one of the achievements of the UN. The UN's Environmental Program financed a conference that had 24 states pledging to take necessary actions against the ozone layer that was deteriorating in 1987 that produced the Montreal Protocol after almost five years of talks. It was determined that chlorofluorocarbons compounds were destroying the ozone layer that helped protect the earth from the dangerous radiations of the sun. An agreement was reached to reduce the emission of CFCs on a large scale.
The UN had the objective of supporting non-violence by nuclear weapons means. The disqualification resolution that was put forward in the UN General Assemblies and examined by the members of the Security Council contributed to the establishment of the 1968 treaty on non-use of nuclear weapons. This led to the achievement and promotion of arms of control.
Recent Achievements
The United Nations has shown support for the rights of women with the Charter of the organization according to its objective of promoting and encouraging the human rights respect and freedom. During the year 2014, the UN Women Ambassador Emma Watson launched the HeForShe campaign. This was the first initiative for gender equality globally, and it was of its kind and scale. It required men to commit themselves to actions that are forms of violence and discrimination to the women and girl child.
The UN has contributed significantly to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The primary agency for HIV and AIDS program was UNAIDS that promoted an accelerated and efficient action on the epidemic of HIV/AIDS globally. UNAIDS released the good news in the July 2014 report that showed a reduced level of new HIV infections in the current century. New HIV infections have decreased, and deaths related to AIDS have been significantly reduced to the lowest and are still determined to achieve better results on the HIV/AIDS.
The WFP, an agency of the UN has addressed hunger and promoted food security. Providing food to almost 90 million people every year, it is the largest humanitarian aid and has reduced the number of starving people globally. Violence in the Central African Republic has led to many people fleeing the state, and the economy has collapsed. As a result, a humanitarian crisis evolved in the year 2014. WFP was aiming at reaching over a million people across the state of CAR with relief. It advocates for food security and individual's well-being during such crisis.
Problems Facing the UN
There have been changes since the establishment of the UN. However, the organization has not adapted according to the 21st Century. For example, the structure is struggling with Ebola and terrorism, but no explicit agreements are being made.
Obsolete Structure
The power players are still the same countries who were the victors of the World War 2: the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France. In fact, the members of the Security Council are mostly from these states. It seems that the Council does not represent the world today. The General Assembly serves all countries, but the body only passes resolutions that are unbending. The powerful countries holding the Security Council shows no signs of offering any power to more countries or deserving countries like Germany, South Africa, India or Japan.
Unwisely Organization
There are many systems, agencies, funds, and programs within the UN some of which are autonomous without a central organization to control all of them. Even the secretary-general may try to oversee them all, but he has no authority to some of them. In fact, the complex framework was blamed for the UN's agency WHO on dealing with the Ebola epidemic. This is because the country directors of WHO in Africa had to report to the regional director of Africa but not to the Headquarters in Geneva. Furthermore, the director of WHO at Geneva does not report to the Secretary-General in New York. This would lead to delays creating huge impacts on the vulnerable population.
Over-increasing Demands
The system is under strain, but it is still requesting for more peacekeeper troops from member states for peacekeeping missions. This has led to the number of peacekeepers rising at a significant rate. However, many of these troops have died while dozens are being kept captive. The growth of refugee has also increased due to many occurrences of humanitarian cases. The refugee agency of the UN is now dealing with over 51 million displaced people, the highest figure since in the UN's humanitarian data. The emergencies are mainly coming from Africa and the Mideast.
Political Bargain
Every member state belongs to a particular group, and it ensures that it is well presented. Sometimes the people who may get the seats may not be qualified, and dictatorship may play in the selection of such individuals.
Ways to Solve the Problems Facing the UN
The problem that UN suffers mostly is implementation. Therefore, it will not be necessary to adopt new doctrines. The Security Council members need to enforce existing obligations to ensure efficiency. States should focus on matters that critically concern the country at hand and provide solutions for them within the shortest period possible before they get worse. Also, the UN should be guided by accountability. This can be about the ever-standing discussions on matters of Security Council. The organization should promote ways to make the Security Council indeed more representative, and the best way may be to include the democratic member states in its service. Promoting equity will also benefit and contribute to the organization's performance. Every country should be heard and taken seriously.
Conclusion
The UN has contributed to diverse achievements around the world. It has ensured that peace prevails around the world and has secured equity around the world. Moreover, it has led to the eradication of major diseases in the world and contributed to the well-being of individuals. Women are now viewed as key components in the company and have positively influenced the development of the economy by ensuring good health standards to children and proper diet. The UN stills aim at achieving more in its operations such as better healthcare, better nutrition, advanced developments in hospital care, considerably reduced cases of internal and international conflicts, reduced number of refugees and events around the world both structural and economic development.
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