CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2020

LE MONDE 75 YEAR ANNIVERSARY UNITED NATIONS
THE UNITED
NATIONS (UN)
is the largest, most familiar,
most internationally
represented and most
powerful intergovernmental
organization in the
world. The UN aims to
maintain international
peace and security, develop
friendly relations among
nations, achieve
international cooperation
and be a center for
harmonizing the actions of
nations (cf. Charter of UN
Chapter I).
The UN is headquartered in
New York - other main
offices are located in
Geneva, Nairobi and
Vienna. The International
Court of Justice is located
in The Heague.
A view of the Secretariat
building at United Nations
Headquarters.
Secretary-General
António Guterres (left)
converses with Deputy
Secretary-General
Amina Mohammed.
Foundation: was founded
in 1945. The UN Charter
was signed 26 June 1945
and entered into force 24
October 1945.
Membership: 193 Member
States - 2 observer states
Each of the 193 states is a
member of the General
Assembly. States are
admitted to membership in
the UN by a decision of the
General Assembly upon the
recommendation of the
Security Council.
Secretary-General:
António Guterres
Deputy Secretary-General:
Amina J. Mohammed
Staff: The UN Secretariat
had 37.505 staff as at
31.12.2018
Budget: The UN
Secretariat budget for
2020 is $3 billion.
This does not include UN
peacekeeping which has a
separate budget. The
approved budget for UN
Peacekeeping operations
for the fiscal year 1 July
2019 - 30 June 2020 is
$6.5 billion.
It should have been all about the 75th anniversary
of the biggest and most important intergovernmental
organisation in the world, yet it turned
out being a warning. His face was serious, he seemed
very concerned: António Guterres, UN Secretary-
General, gave a very clear statement at the end of
March about the status quo of the current world
spanning situation: “Covid-19 is the greatest test we
have faced together since the formation of the United
Nations. This human crisis demands coordinated,
inclusive and innovative action from the leading
economies. Yet, a lack of leadership and differing
national approaches had helped spread the virus.“
The UN chief also called for “an immediate coordinated
health response to suppress transmission
and end the pandemic” that “scales up health capacity
for testing, tracing, quarantine and treatment,
while keeping first responders safe, combined with
measures to restrict movement and contact.”
The Secretary-General also underscored that developed
countries must assist those less developed,
or potentially “face the nightmare of the disease
spreading like wildfire in the global South with millions
of deaths and the prospect of the disease ree-
merging where it was previously suppressed.”
A new period began
75 years ago, when World War II ended, a new
time period began and most of the important leading
countries agreed on the fact that something important
has to be done, that worldwide conflicts like
WW II could never happen again.
Then US-President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met and
created the idea of an intergovernmental organisation.
The UN was established with the aim of preventing
future wars, succeeding the ineffective
League of Nations, an international diplomatic
group developed after World War I. In April 1945,
50 governments met for a conference in San Francisco
and started drafting the UN Charter, which
was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24
October 1945, when the UN began operations. Pursuant
to the Charter, the organisation‘s objectives
include maintaining international peace and security,
protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian
aid, promoting sustainable development, and
upholding international law. At its founding, the
PHOTOS: UN PHOTO/ESKINDER DEBEBE; MANUEL ELIAS; YUTAKA NAGATA
UN had 51 member states; this number grew to 193
in 2011, representing the vast majority of the
world‘s sovereign states. The organisation is financed
by assessed and voluntary contributions
from its member states.
The UN is headquartered on international territory
in New York City – other main offices are in Geneva,
Nairobi, Vienna and The Hague.
At its founding, the UN had 51 member states;
this number grew to 193 in 2011, representing the
vast majority of the world‘s sovereign states.
The organisation‘s mission to preserve world
peace was complicated in its early decades by
the Cold War between the United States and Soviet
Union and their respective allies. Its missions have
consisted primarily of unarmed military observers
and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring,
reporting and confidence-building roles. By
the 1970s, the UN‘s budget for economic and social
development programmes far outstripped its spending
on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War,
the UN shifted and expanded its field operations, undertaking
a wide variety of complex tasks.
In 1971, the Security Council held a closed meeting to consider the question of the recommendation for the
appointment of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Discussing a document, in the foreground, are (left to
right): Abdulrahim Abby Farah (Somalia), George Bush (United States; later US-President), Carlos Oritiz de Rozas
(Argentina) and Agha Shahi (Pakistan).
un.org
unov.org
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Cercle Diplomatique 2/2020
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