United Nations
The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization made up of
states; most but not all countries are members. It was founded on October
24, 1945 in San Francisco, California, following the Dumbarton Oaks
Conference in Washington, DC, but the first General Assembly, with 51
nations represented, was not held until January 10, 1946 (held in Central
Hall Westminster, London). Before World War II, there existed a somewhat
similar organization under the name of League of Nations, which can thus be
considered the UN's precursor. UN membership is open to all "peace-loving
states" that accept the obligations of the UN Charter and, in the judgment
of the organization, are able and willing to fulfill these obligations. The
General Assembly determines admission upon recommendation of the Security
Council. As of September 2002 there were 191 members.
Background and history
The idea for the United Nations was elaborated in declarations signed at the
wartime Allied conferences in Moscow and Tehran in 1943. United States
president Franklin Delano Roosevelt suggested the name "United Nations" and
the first official use of the term occurred on January 1, 1942 with the
Declaration by the United Nations. During World War II, the Allies used the
term "United Nations" to refer to their alliance. From August to October
1944, representatives of France, the Republic of China (now on Taiwan), the
United Kingdom, the United States, and the USSR met to elaborate the plans
at the Dumbarton Oaks Estate in Washington, D.C. Those and later talks
produced proposals outlining the purposes of the organization, its
membership and organs, as well as arrangements to maintain international
peace and security and international economic and social cooperation. These
proposals were discussed and debated by governments and private citizens
worldwide.
On April 25, 1945, the United Nations Conference on International
Organizations began in San Francisco. In addition to the Governments, a
number of non-government organisations, including Lions Clubs International
were invited to assist in the drafting of the charter. The 50 nations
represented at the conference signed the Charter of the United Nations two
months later on June 26. Poland, which was not represented at the
conference, but for which a place among the original signatories had been
reserved, added its name later, bringing the total of original signatories
to 51. The UN came into existence on October 24, 1945, after the Charter had
been ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council -
Republic of China, France, USSR, United Kingdom, and the United States - and
by a majority of the other 46 signatories.
[Nyc-un-building.jpg] UnitedÊNations headquarters, view from EastÊRiver
The U.S. Senate, by a vote of 89 to 2, gave its consent to the ratification
of the UN Charter on July 28, 1945. In December 1945, the Senate and the
House of Representatives, by unanimous votes, requested that the UN make its
headquarters in the U.S. The offer was accepted and the UN headquarters
building was constructed in New York City in 1949 and 1950 beside the East
River on land purchased by an 8.5 million dollar donation from John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. UN headquarters officially opened on January 9, 1951. The
land is now considered international territory. Under special agreement with
the U.S., certain diplomatic privileges and immunities have been granted,
but generally the laws of New York City, New York State, and the U.S. apply.
In October 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the General Assembly,
expelling the Republic of China and replacing the China seat on the Security
Council with the People's Republic of China. It declared "that the
representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the
only lawful representatives of China to the United Nations" and thus labeled
the Republic of China a renegade authority. Multiple attempts by the
Republic of China to re-join the UN have been rejected.
In the 1960s new General Assembly and Secretariat buildings were built in
New York, but there are major agencies located in Geneva, Switzerland and elsewhere.
Arms Control and Disarmament
The 1945 UN Charter envisaged a system of regulation that would ensure "the
least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources."
The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the
Charter and provided immediate impetus to concepts of arms limitation and
disarmament. In fact, the first resolution of the first meeting of the
General Assembly (January 24, 1946) was entitled "The Establishment of a
Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic
Energy" and called upon the commission to make specific proposals for "the
elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major
weapons adaptable to mass destruction."
The UN has established several forums to address multilateral disarmament
issues. The principal ones are the First Committee of the UN General
Assembly and the UN Disarmament Commission. Items on the agenda include
consideration of the possible merits of a nuclear test ban, outer-space arms
control, efforts to ban chemical weapons, nuclear and conventional
disarmament, nuclear-weapon-free zones, reduction of military budgets, and
measures to strengthen international security.
The Conference on Disarmament is the sole forum established by the
international community for the negotiation of multilateral arms control and
disarmament agreements. It has 66 members representing all areas of the
world, including the five major nuclear-weapon states (the People's Republic
of China, France, the Russian Federation, the U.K., and the U.S.). While the
conference is not formally a UN organization, it is linked to the UN through
a personal representative of the Secretary-General; this representative
serves as the secretary general of the conference. Resolutions adopted by
the General Assembly often request the conference to consider specific
disarmament matters. In turn, the conference annually reports on its
activities to the General Assembly.
Human Rights
The pursuit of human rights was one of the central reasons for creating the
United Nations. World War II atrocities and genocide led to a ready
consensus that the new organization must work to prevent any similar
tragedies in the future. An early objective was creating a legal framework
for considering and acting on complaints about human rights violations.
The UN Charter obliges all member nations to promote "universal respect for,
and observance of, human rights" and to take "joint and separate action" to
that end. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though not legally
binding, was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 as a common standard of
achievement for all. The General Assembly regularly takes up human rights
issues. The UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), under ECOSOC, is the primary
UN body charged with promoting human rights, primarily through
investigations and offers of technical assistance. As discussed, the High
Commissioner for Human Rights is the official principally responsible for
all UN human rights activities (see, under "The UN Family," the section on
"Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights").
The U.S. considers the United Nations to be a first line of defense of the
principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is
also a means by which those principles can be applied more broadly around
the world. A case in point is support by the United Nations for countries in
transition to democracy. Technical assistance in providing free and fair
elections, improving judicial structures, drafting constitutions, training
human rights officials, and transforming armed movements into political
parties have contributed significantly to democratization worldwide.
The United Nations is also a forum in which to support the right of women to
participate fully in the political, economic, and social life of their countries.
Democracy in the UN
Now, there is a claim for UN reform to obtain more democracy. I.e. Inocencia
Arias, Spanish ambassador in UN, indicates that UN has democracy deficit,
like the veto in the UN Security Council. Examples are the attack of Kosovo
outside the auspices of the Security Council because of the suspicion of a
possible Russian veto, the U.S. veto to re-election of Boutros
Boutros-Ghali, etc. Another deficit is the lack of representation for
citizens of democratic countries via direct election of the members of the
UN General Assembly, which otherwise occurs in the European Parliament and
the national parliaments.
International Conferences
The member countries of the UN and its specialized agencies - the
"stakeholders" of the system - give guidance and make decisions on
substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout
each year. Governing bodies made up of member states include not only the
General Assembly, ECOSOC, and the Security Council, but also counterpart
bodies dealing with the governance of all other UN system agencies. For
example, the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board oversee the work
of WHO. Each year, the U.S. Department of State accredits U.S. delegations
to more than 600 meetings of governing bodies.
When an issue is considered particularly important, the General Assembly may
convene an international conference to focus global attention and build a
consensus for consolidated action. High-level U.S. delegations use these
opportunities to promote U.S. policy viewpoints and develop international
agreements on future activities. Recent examples include:
* The UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, led to the creation of the UN Commission
on Sustainable Development to advance the conclusions reached in Agenda
21, the final text of agreements negotiated by governments at UNCED;
* The World Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo,
Egypt, in September 1994, approved a program of action to address the
critical challenges and interrelationships between population and
sustainable development over the next 20 years;
* The World Summit on Trade Efficiency, held in October 1994 in Columbus,
Ohio, cosponsored by UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
the city of Columbus, and private-sector business, focused on the use
of modern information technology to expand international trade;
* The World Summit for Social Development, held in March 1995 in
Copenhagen, Denmark, underscored national responsibility for
sustainable development and secured high-level commitment to plans that
invest in basic education, health care, and economic opportunity for
all, including women and girls;
* The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in
September 1995, sought to accelerate implementation of the historic
agreements reached at the Third World Conference on Women held in
Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985; and
* The Second UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), convened in
June 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey, considered the challenges of human
settlement development and management in the 21st century.
Financing
The UN system is financed in two ways: assessed and voluntary contributions
from member states. The regular two-year budgets of the UN and its
specialized agencies are funded by assessments. In the case of the UN, the
General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment
for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each
country to pay, as measured by national income statistics, along with other factors.
The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be overly
dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a
'ceiling' rate, setting the maximum amount any member is assessed for the
regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly agreed to revise the scale of
assessments to make them better reflect current global circumstances.
As part of that agreement, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25 to
22 percent; this is the rate at which the U.S. is assessed. The U.S. is the
only member that pays this rate; all other members' assessment rates are
lower. Under the scale of assessments adopted in 2000, other major
contributors to the regular UN budget for 2001 are Japan (19.63%), Germany
(9.82%), France (6.50%), the U.K. (5.57%), Italy (5.09%), Canada (2.57%) and
Spain (2.53%).
Special UN programs not included in the regular budget (such as UNICEF,
UNDP, UNHCR, and WFP) are financed by voluntary contributions from member
governments. In 2001, it is estimated that such contributions from the US
will total approximately $1.5 billion. Much of this is in the form of
agricultural commodities donated for afflicted populations, but the majority
is financial contributions.
U.S. Arrears
For many years the United Nations has had problems with members refusing to
pay the assessment levied upon them under the United Nations charter. Many
states have at times refused to pay their dues for various reasons, but the
most significant refusal in recent times has been that of the United States.
The US pays more dues than any other member nation, as well as hosting the
UN building in New York. This puts the United States in a very unique
position. For a number of years the United States Congress has refused to
authorise payment of the United States' significant UN dues, in order to try
to extract reforms from the organization and a reduction in the US assessment.
The United States and the United Nations after much dispute, negotiated an
agreement whereby the United States would pay a large part of the money it
owes, and in exchange the United Nations would reduce the assessment rate
ceiling from 25% to 22%.
The reduction in the assessment rate ceiling was among the reforms contained
in the 1999 Helms-Biden legislation, which links payment of $926 million in
U.S. arrears to the UN and other international organizations to a series of
reform benchmarks.
U.S. arrears to the UN currently total over $1.3 billion. Of this, $612
million is payable under Helms-Biden. The remaining $700 million result from
various legislative and policy withholdings; there are no current plans to
pay these amounts.
Under Helms-Biden, the U.S. paid $100 million in arrears to the UN in
December 1999; release of the next $582 million awaits a legislative
revision to Helms-Biden, necessary because the benchmark requiring a 25
percent peacekeeping assessment rate ceiling was not quite achieved. The
U.S. also seek elimination of the legislated 25 percent cap on U.S.
peacekeeping payments in effect since 1995, which continues to generate
additional UN arrears. Of the final $244 million under Helms-Biden, $30
million is payable to the UN and $214 million to other international
organizations.
UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from
the regular scale, but including a surcharge for the five permanent members
of the Security Council (who must approve all peacekeeping operations); this
surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less
developed countries. In December 2000, the UN revised the assessment rate
scale for the regular budget and for peacekeeping. The peacekeeping scale is
designed to be revised every six months and is projected to be near 27% in
2003. The U.S. Administration intends to pay peacekeeping assessments at
these lower rates and has sought legislation from the U.S. Congress to allow
payment at these rates and to make payments towards arrears.
Total UN peacekeeping expenses peaked between 1994 and 1995; at the end of
1995 the total cost was just over $3.5 billion. Total UN peacekeeping costs
for 2000, including operations funded from the UN regular budget as well as
the peacekeeping budget, were on the order of $2.2 billion.
Communications
The six official languages of the United Nations include those of the
founding nations: Chinese, English, French, Russian. In addition, two widely
spoken tongues -- Arabic, Spanish -- were added later. All formal meetings
are interpreted at least in these official languages. And all official
documents, in print or online, are translated in all six languages.
