Preview

How Effective Is the Un? What Are the Constraints on Its Power. Essay Example

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2462 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Effective Is the Un? What Are the Constraints on Its Power. Essay Example
How Effective Is The UN? What Are The Constraints On Its Power?
The United Nations, (UN) was originally established in 1945 for the purpose to “maintain international peace and security…to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems…and to be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations in attaining these ends.” In assessing whether or not the UN is an effective organisation, it is essential to acknowledge several important features of the establishment. The UN and its organs, to what extent it has failed or succeeded, how heavily the organisation relies upon funding and cooperation of member states, the importance of the Security Council, and constraints that all these factors put on the establishment.

The United Nations is made up of 5 separate organs that each have different responsibilities. These include the Security Council, General Assembly, the Economical and Social Council, International Court of Justice and the Secretariat. The Security Council has the primary responsibility under the Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security. Made up of five permanent members (US, Russia, China, UK and France) who each have veto-power over any resolution and ten temporary members, this council makes decisions on whether or not the UN will intervene in a conflict. The General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief deliberatator, policy-making and representative organ of the UN. Comprising of all 192 members, the General Assembly acts as the discussion forum for any issues, having the ability to make comments or suggestions on any concerns in maintaining international peace and security. The Economc and Social Council acts as the centre for all discussions relating to the international economy or social issues. Its focuses on issues involving education, employment, international culture, living standards and health care. The International Court of Justice is the primary judicary organ

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Basing itself on the fact that one of the fundamental purposes of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security and to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace.( See attachment 1).…

    • 2746 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.…

    • 2346 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finally established on October 24, 1945, The United Nations was the spiritual successor to the failed League of Nations (Histoire). The intention of the United Nations what prevent conflicts between nations such as another World War. The main advancement that the United Nations had over the League of Nations was the Security Council, which consisted of five permanent countries that keep "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”, which basically means that they can use soldiers as a way to prevent conflict…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Another important part of the UN is the General Assembly’s subsidiary body the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The UNHRC was established by the General Assembly as an inter-governmental organisation. It consists of 47 seats of states elected by the General Assembly to help protect and promote better human rights around the world. One of the most effective ways the UNHRC…

    • 2386 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Peace Enforcement

    • 2256 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The U.N.’s charter set out four primary goals: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind . . . ; to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights . . . ; to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained; and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” In order to promote these goals, the organizers established six different bodies. The Security Council, which consists of five permanent members (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China) and ten rotating member countries, was given primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly, to which all members belong, decides budgetary matters and votes on policy issues. The other bodies are the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the Court of Justice, and…

    • 2256 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Temperance Movement

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Temperance Movement occurred in the United States from the 19th to 20th century. The purpose of this movement was to encourage moderate consumption of alcohol or for complete abstinence. This movement was mostly sponsored by women and their children. It was also heard from preachers at the pulpit.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The UN under the guise of being peacekeepers, have used their position to drive chaos and fear; ergo, the UN is a criminal organization (e.g., human trafficking, corruption, terror). UN peacekeepers are essentially free to get away with terrible crimes because they know this jurisdictional gap provides them with impunity. I am of the opinion, that it would behoove the United States to defund specific UN departments and organizations; ergo, the UN needs to quit treating D.C. as a sugar daddy. They have outlived their once useful purpose and now resort to an entrenched, complicit role with corruption and terror. The UN argues that they are all we have and if this is the case, then it is time to employ changes. It is time to awaken from our…

    • 140 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The United Nations is an international organization that fights for world peace, and strives to control international law, international security, economic development, social progress, and human rights. In the United Nation’s preamble, it states the organization is “determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…” and “…to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” However, the U.N. can often be ineffective and it has been an ongoing debate between the world’s leaders whether or not intervention is justified when inhumane acts are committed in foreign lands. Too many human beings have been victims of violence, rape and/or other crimes on the U.N.’s watch all because the organization is not authorized to forcefully intervene in another country. The United Nations Security Council is responsible for preserving peace between nations and even within nations, and when a nation is committing atrocious acts against its citizens, the U.N. and other nations should have the right to intervene militarily to end those abuses.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The five main Allied Nations: Great Britain, China, France, the United States, and the USSR created a committee that permanently was tasked with maintaining peace on a global scale and would be one of the highest assemblies in the United Nations structure, the Security Council (UN Security Council). There are five permanent members and another ten elected members from different countries, each with two-year term limit (UN Security Council). The organization may have started small, but grew rapidly to now include a total of 192 countries as being member states. The states that are not included in the Security Council are in the General Assembly. Each of these states are represented by an ambassador whose responsibilities are to see that their…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In regards to the question stated, there are differing opinions as to whether the UN is now obsolete and unnecessary as a body. In this essay I will discuss both sides of the argument before concluding whether or not the UN is an outdated body.…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The United Nations is still a quite young organization even if we do not see it that way considering all it has done since it began in 1945. Succeeding the League of Nations was not an easy thing to do especially since it was in the midst of World War II. The United Nations was created in order to improve humanity and establish peace between the countries of the world but the question has often been raised if we are doing more bad than good by keeping the United Nations around for future generations. Any relation to peacekeeping has been kept by using their forces in order to have certain countries cooperate with them. Many different decisions for the United Nations were made by the approval of the Security Council that is led by the “Big Five” countries that have veto power over nearly everything. Scandals have raided the United Nations over the years such as the “oil-for-food” program, rumors, and corruption led to serious investigations of them. Regardless of all its problems, the United Nations has done a considerable amount of good in the world.…

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United Nations, founded after World War II in 1945, with the objective to stop wars between countries and provide a platform for dialogue, is the most representative inter-governmental organization of the word. With the goal to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” , one of United Nations’ main purposes was maintaining international peace and security. Peacekeeping has evolved into one of the main tools used by the international community to manage complex crises that pose a threat to international peace and security.…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The United Nations (U.N.) represents almost every nation in the world, with close to 200 member nations. Formed by world leaders a few months after the end of World War II, in 1945, the United Nations set world peace as its primary objective. While international tensions continued to run high throughout the Cold War, the U.N. helped world leaders negotiate differences and avoid another war on the scale of World War II. Over time, the U.N. has evolved - - today, it initiates and sponsors many peace-keeping operations around the world and functions as an international watchdog, regarding things such as the production of nuclear materials. The U.N.'s International Court of Justice, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, World Health Organization and environmental protocols have united the nations of the world on issues of vital importance.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The General Assembly may elect the nonpermanent members of the Security Council and other bodies such as the Human Rights Council. Also it considers reports from the other four organs of the United Nations, assesses the financial situations of member states, and approves the UN budget.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    it is an established part of the international scene and an important arena for international politics. the national interest of the states and frequently well-being of individuals are affected by what goes on in there. the united nations and its family of related agencies is a vast extension of the 19th century effort to come to terms politically with a technologically shrinking ,techonologically endangered world.i believe united nations is not the same as it was forty years ago, and further change is certain in the decades to come.if national leaders and peoples cultivate what Secretary General U Thant once called the "common interests based on our habitation of the same…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays