Aim: To promote international co-operation and to create and maintain international order.
Objectives:
Maintaining international peace and security
Promoting human rights
Fostering social and economic development
Protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine
Natural disaster and armed conflict. The UN is the largest, most familiar
Most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the
world.
General Assembly
All 194 Member States of the UN are represented in the General Assembly
Making it the only UN body with universal representation.
Each year, in September, the full UN membership meets in the General Assembly Hall in New
York for the annual General Assembly session, and general debate, which many heads of state
attend and address.
Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new
members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.
Decisions on other questions are by simple majority. The General Assembly, each year, elects
a GA President to serve a one-year term of office.
Security Council
The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of
international peace and security. It has 15 Members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members).
Each Member has one vote. Under the Charter, all Member States are obligated to comply with Council
decisions. The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act
of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends
methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing
sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security. The
Security Council has a Presidency, which rotates, and changes, every month.
Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council is the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and
recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as implementation of
internationally agreed development goals. It serves as the central mechanism for activities of the UN
system and its specialized agencies in the economic, social and environmental fields, supervising
subsidiary and expert bodies. It has 54 Members, elected by the General Assembly for overlapping
three-year terms. It is the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking
on sustainable development.
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting
international economic and social co-operation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, which
are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. The president is elected for a one-year
term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers represented on ECOSOC. The council has
one annual meeting in July, held in either New York or Geneva. Viewed as separate from the
specialized bodies it co-ordinates, ECOSOC's functions include information gathering, advising
member nations, and making recommendations. [97][98] Owing to its broad mandate of co-ordinating
many agencies, ECOSOC has at times been criticized as unfocused or irrelevant.
Trusteeship Council
The Trusteeship Council was established in 1945 by the UN Charter, under Chapter XIII, to provide
international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that had been placed under the administration of seven
Member States, and ensure that adequate steps were taken to prepare the Territories for self-government
and independence. By 1994, all Trust Territories had attained self-government or independence. The
Trusteeship Council suspended operation on 1 November 1994. By a resolution adopted on 25 May
1994, the Council amended its rules of procedure to drop the obligation to meet annually and agreed to
meet as occasion required -- by its decision or the decision of its President, or at the request of a majority
of its members or the General Assembly or the Security Council.
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Its seat is at the
Peace Palace in the Hague (Netherlands). It is the only one of the six principal organs of the United
Nations not located in New York (United States of America). The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance
with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal
questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
Secretariat
The Secretariat comprises the Secretary-General and tens of thousands of international UN staff
members who carry out the day-to-day work of the UN as mandated by the General Assembly and the
Organization's other principal organs. The Secretary-General is chief administrative officer of the
Organization, appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council for a
five-year, renewable term. UN staff members are recruited internationally and locally, and work in duty
stations and on peacekeeping missions all around the world. But serving the cause of peace in a violent
world is a dangerous occupation. Since the founding of the United Nations, hundreds of brave men and
women have given their lives in its service.
The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who serve 9-year terms and are appointed by the General
Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation.
It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, sharing the building with the Hague Academy of
International Law, a private centre for the study of international law. The ICJ's primary purpose is to
adjudicate disputes among states. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state
interference, ethnic cleansing, and other issues. The ICJ can also be called upon by other UN
organs to provide advisory opinions.
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability[1]
8. To develop a global partnership for development[2]
