United Nations

Prepared by: Jun Rex H. Halique

 Purposes of the
United Nations
1. Maintain international peace
and security;
2. Develop friendly relations
among nations;
3. Achieve international
cooperation in solving
international problems;
4. To be a center for
harmonizing the actions of
nations in the attainment of
these common ends
(Heywood, 2011).
 Organs of the United Nations

Security Council Secretariat General Assembly

Trusteeship Council International Economic and Social

Court of Justice Council
 Security Council
Composed of 15 members.

The Big Five (or P-5) – the USA,

Russia, China, the UK and France
– are permanent ‘veto powers’,
meaning that they can block
decisions made by other
members of the Council.

The other 10 members are non-

permanent members elected for
two years by the General
Assembly (Heywood, 2011).
 Security Council

It is charged with the

maintenance of international
peace and security.

Responsible for the UN’s role as

negotiator, observer,
peacekeeper and, ultimately,
peace enforcer.
 Security Council

Has the power to pass legally-

binding resolutions, to suspend
or expel members, to impose
economic sanctions and to take
military action to maintain or
restore peace and security.
 The Secretariat

Headed by the Secretary-

General, who functions as the
public face of the UN as well as
its chief administrative officer.

Appointed by the Assembly on

the recommendation of the
Security Council for a five-year,
renewable term (Heywood,
2011).

UN Secretariat Building, New York

 The Secretariat
Secretary-General deals with a
multifaceted bureaucracy staffed
by civil servants from myriad
states and cultures, and tries to
maintain the UN’s
independence, often in a
context of rivalry amongst P-5
states.

Secretaries-General have some

capacity to influence the status
and policy direction of the
organization.
UN Secretariat Building, New York
 The Secretariat
This services the other principal
organs of the UN and
administers the programmes
and policies laid down by them.

Its main activities are located in

the UN’s headquarters in New
York, however, it has offices all
over the world and a total staff
of about 40,000.

UN Secretariat Building, New York

 Antonio Guterres
1995-2002 - Prime Minister of
Portugal

2005-2015 - UN High
Commissioner for Refugees

2017- 2021 – Secretary General of

United Nations (gh.undp.org.)

UN Secretary-General-António Guterres
 Secretary Generals of the
United Nations

Trygve Lie Dag U Thant Kurt Waldheim

(Norway) Hammarskjöld (Myanmar) (Austria)
(Sweden)

1946-1952 1953-1961 1961-1971 1972-1981

 Secretary Generals of the
United Nations

Javier Perez Boutros Kofi Annan Ban Ki-moon

de Cuellar Boutros-Ghali (Ghana) (Korea)
(Peru) (Egypt)

1982-1991 1992-1996 1997-2006 2007-2016

General Assembly

This is the main deliberative

organ of the UN, sometimes
dubbed the ‘parliament of
nations’.

Consists of all members of the

UN, each of which has a single
vote (Heywood, 2011).
General Assembly
The Assembly can debate and
pass resolutions on any matter
covered by the Charter, and has
a specific responsibility to
examine and approve the UN’s
budget, determine the
members’ contributions, and
elect, in conjunction with the
Security Council, the UN
Secretary-General and the
judges of the International Court
of Justice.
General Assembly
Important decisions in the
Assembly must be carried by a
two-thirds majority, but,
crucially, these decisions are
recommendations rather than
enforceable international law.

The Assembly neither has a

legislative role nor does it
oversee or scrutinize, in any
meaningful sense, the Security
Council or the Secretariat
 Economic and
Social Council
This consists of 54 members
elected by the General
Assembly.

Its chief role is to coordinate the

economic and social work of the
UN and the UN family of
organizations (Heywood, 2011).
 Economic and
Social Council
This involves overseeing the
activities of a large number of
programmes, funds and
specialized agencies. These
include the so-called ‘three
sisters’ – the World Bank, the
IMF and the WTO – and also
bodies such as the International
Labour Organization (ILO), the
World Health Organization
(WHO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
 Economic and
Social Council
Specialized agencies.

These include the so-called

‘three sisters’ – the World Bank,
the IMF and the WTO – and also
bodies such as the International
Labour Organization (ILO), the
World Health Organization
(WHO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
 Economic and
Social Council
The expansion of the UN’s
economic and social institutions
occurred largely along
functionalist lines, bodies being
created or further developed as
specific economic and social
problems emerged.
 International
Court of Justice
Composed of 15 judges, elected
for terms of office of nine years
by the United Nations General
Assembly and the Security
Council (Heywood, 2011).

Seat of ICJ, Peace Palace, Hague, Netherlands

 International
Court of Justice
It is the principal judicial organ
of the United Nations.

It is charged with settling legal

disputes between States and
giving advisory opinions to the
United Nations and its
specialized agencies.

Seat of ICJ, Peace Palace, Hague, Netherlands

 Trusteeship
Council
The Trusteeship Council was
established to provide
international supervision for 11
Trust Territories and to make
sure that adequate steps were
taken to prepare the Territories
for self-government or
independence (Heywood, 2011).
 Trusteeship
Council
Its activities was suspended in
1994, when Palau, the last of the
original 11 trust territories,
gained its independence.
 Peacekeeping
is defined by the UN as ‘a way
to help countries torn by conflict
create conditions for sustainable
peace’ (Heywood, 2011).
 Peacekeeping
It is a technique designed to
preserve the peace, however
fragile, where fighting has been
halted, and to assist in
implementing agreements
achieved by the peacemakers.
 Peacekeeping
‘Traditional’ or classical
peacekeeping amounts to
monitoring and observing the
peace process in post-conflict
situations, with peacekeepers
being deployed after a ceasefire
has been negotiated and with
no expectation of fighting
except in the case of self-
defence.
 Peace-Building
is a long term process of
creating the necessary
conditions for sustainable peace
by addressing the deep rooted,
structural causes of violent
conflict in a comprehensive
manner (Heywood, 2011).
 Peace-Building
It is a phase in the peace
process that occurs after
peacemaking and peacekeeping
have been completed.

Peace-building as long-term
conflict resolution involves a
wide range of strategies,
economic, political and social as
well as military.
 Peace-Building
Peace-building activities:
economic reconstruction,
repairing or improving the
economic and social
infrastructure, de-mining, the
demobilization and retraining of
former combatants, the
reintegration of displaced
peoples, establishing community
organizations, and revising
governmental arrangements or
’statebuilding’.