Introduction
The UN is variably rated as the world’s most powerful and prominent organization that has continued to play a significant role in shaping the world’s events. The United Nations is an international organization that traces its origins from the Second World War. The name United Nations was first used by the US President Franklin Roosevelt during the whole period of the Second World War to refer to their wartime alliances. The UN as an international organization emerged from the declarations that were signed at the war time alliance conference in Moscow and Tehran in 1943.
In 1944, representatives from China, France, UK, USSR and the US met for a conference in Washington, and the conference was directed for proposing the purpose of the organization, its membership, the organs and the plans for the organization to promote international peace, security as well as the international economic and social cooperation. The proposals gave the name of the new international body as the UN and stated that its purpose would be to maintain international peace and security. The organization was also to develop friendly relations amongst the nations and solve the economic, social and humanitarian problems. The UN was also to act as a centralized body where all the nations would direct their actions for the benefit of the whole world (Murphy, 2006).
Main body
The UN has various administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice. The UN has its basis on the General Assembly, which is its main deliberative body. The General Assembly is where representatives of all states sit together and address various pertinent issues affecting and shaping world events and pass resolutions. It holds several meetings annually under a leader, who is selected from all the member states. All the member states have the opportunity to address meetings during the first two weeks of the conference after the Secretary-General makes the first statement. Important issues, such as issues related to peace and security, admission/suspension/expulsion of members or budgetary matters, are discussed and voted. Votes require two-thirds majority for the election to the Security Council. The main role of the General Assembly is to coordinate a variety of developmental programs by other autonomous agencies (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2008).
The UN Security Council is the body that is responsible for the maintenance of peace and security among states. It holds the absolute authority and has the power of making firm decisions that the member governments have agreed to perform under the UN Charter, Article 25. Its decisions are known as the United Nations Security Council resolutions (Thakur, 2006). There are five permanent members of the Council, the US, UK, France, Russia and China, and ten nonpermanent members that rotate every two years. Substantive Security Council resolutions require nine votes from the 15 member states. But a “no” vote by any permanent member defeats the resolution, and it is called “Veto” power (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2008). In general, the most important role of the Security Council is to keep international peace and security and restore peace where there is none.
The secretariat organ of the UN is charged with the duty of providing the UN body with information, studies and the facilities that may be required to conduct meetings. It also carries out any tasks that may be directed by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the UN Economic and Social Council or other UN bodies. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General, who can be described as the “president of the world” (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2008). The Secretary General helps to resolve international disputes, promote peacekeeping operations, organize international conferences, acquire information on implementations of the Security Council decisions, and consult the member governments on various other issues. The position of the Secretary General has always been viewed as one lacking traditional forms of power yet he has been called to provide the moral voice on the international matters. The moral authority of the office requires that the officials therein should hold the moral and religious value necessary to address issues and responsibilities that may come up with the position (Thakur, 2006).
Other than the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) also helps in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development. It has a total of 54 members that are elected by the General Assembly. It gathers information on the economic sectors and offers advice for the member states in addition to offering recommendations on related issues. On the other hand, the International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the UN and came into being in 1945 through the UN Charter and commenced its functions in 1946. It is charged with the sole duties of sentencing those who have committed criminal offenses under the international law, including war crimes and genocide (Murphy, 2006). All these administrative bodies, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council and the International Court of Justice, enhance the UN system by providing it with appropriate services for its effectiveness in worldly affairs.
One of the most important functions of the UN is to maintain peace and security. In cases where there is war, the UN sends its peacekeeping troops after the Security Council’s approval. The peacekeepers are expected to enforce peacekeeping agreements and evacuate civilians who would happen to be in danger. The UN’s major goal of helping nations solve conflicts was proved very difficult during the Cold War in 1947-1991, when the world was on the verge of a 3rd World War (Thakur, 2006). At the end of the Cold War, the UN became the organization with the mandate to calm conflicts and strives for the world’s peace and cooperation. The peacekeeping forces are generally known as the “blue helmets,” and they received the Nobel Peace prize in 1988 for their dedicated missions in maintaining world peace (Murphy, 2006).
Although the theory suggests that the UN peacekeeping is recognized for its great importance and success, the UN, in fact, has received some criticisms in its role of maintaining peace, which has been referred as a failed agenda. This is because it is perceived to have failed in various instances that include; failed to prevent the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, failed to calm the Second Congo War and provide humanitarian aid, failed to stop the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre and also failed to deliver food to the starving people in Somalia.
In practice, the UN has been involved actively in supporting the World Security Forum that took place in the United Arab Emirates, a major international conference on the effects of the global catastrophes and disasters. The UN is also involved in the disarmament, which refers to the regulation of weapons that are held by nations, and it is also included in the UN charter of 1945. It is focused in reducing the use of human and economic resources in the creation of armaments. Discussions on the issue of armaments have been directed towards the banning on the testing of the nuclear weapons, outer space arms control, banning of chemical weapons, reduction of military budgets and the enactment of measures that would strengthen the international security (Jasper, 2001). In general, the UN’s role in providing security is faced with a lot of challenges, even though it is dedicated to meaningful missions and effective services.
The UN performs another important role of promoting the respect for all human rights. It has a legal framework that acts on the complaints of human rights violation. In this regard, it is actively involved in technical assistance as a measure to free and fair elections, improve the judicial structures, draft constitutions, train human rights officials and transform armed movements into political parties. It has offered tremendous support in elections in the countries with little democracy, such as Afghanistan and East Timor. It also supports the women’s rights in participating in political, economic and social life within their countries. In 2007, the General Assembly made a declaration of the protection of the rights of indigenous people around the world. This declaration indicates that the rights of the indigenous individuals, including the rights for culture, language, education, identity, employment and health, should be fully respected. The declaration also encourages the growth of the indigenous institutions, cultures and traditions. Moreover, it prohibits the discrimination of indigenous people and promotes their active participation in issues that are related to their past, present and future. The UN also provides humanitarian services to people whom may suffer during the periods of famine and war and in cases of natural disaster. The humanitarian activities include providing food, water and shelter (Seitz, 2000). These services and activities all help in promoting the respect for human rights in the whole world.
The UN also performs the role of providing support for social and economic development. For example, the UN formulated the eight conditions, called the Millennium Development Goals, which all the 192 member states have agreed and committed to strive to achieve by the year 2015. It promotes the development of developing nations through various agencies, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are autonomous agencies within the UN framework.
Despite the UN’s thorough and specialized policies and procedures, it has experienced a difference in the theory and practice. Several challenges have always hampered the achievement of the MDGs. This is studied by looking at the different organizations that are within the UN umbrella and how they perform their duties. One of the greatest challenges the body is facing is the lack of enough resources thus leading to a constricted budget (Seitz, 2001). The General Assembly is forced to reduce the costs on the overall resources and on the administrative and management tasks. The limited resources have led to a lack of proper execution of its duties in peacekeeping, human rights and development. The limited resources are therefore only used for the most urgent needs. Development, being one of the pillars of the UN, has recently not been well-reflected within the budget since the organization has to attend to more pressing issues other than improving on areas that need to be developed. This has called for the strengthening the UN with incorporation of comprehensive reforms and stronger development machinery (Jasper, 2001). Lack of development within the budget also affects the role of solving conflicts and providing security in international laid agendas. This is because the most appropriate way for the UN to address such conflicts is to pay attention to the rates of poverty and underdevelopment in most states that experience the conflicts. In reality, without adequate resources, the UN cannot be able to address the development-related program.
Meanwhile, the UN also has experienced other non-monetary challenges that leave large gaps between its theoretical policies and the actual execution of duties. Its policies are often politically influenced especially by developed nations that are not only the major fund donors but also the major role players. The countries, where the UN may direct its objectives, may also be politically challenged by the leaders of individual states. For example, the responsibilities of the UN in providing humanitarian services for poor countries have always remained politically challenged. Willingness to provide humanitarian interventions largely lies with the individual states, and if they are not willing to cooperate with the international body, it becomes a major challenge (Seitz, 2001).
In theory, repercussions of cases, such as humanitarian displacements are addressed by some UN agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioners of Refugees, that take the responsibility of addressing the root courses of conflicts in various states. The UNHCR points out that there are various protection gaps that are within the framework of providing humanitarian services in international community. Conflicts within the nations do occur because of various factors, such as issues that are related to poverty and gaps between the rich and the poor nations, and some of the factors are largely state-controlled. The UN may face challenges in performing its duties since some countries are reluctant to have their indigenous problems exposed to the international community, and this makes it very difficult for the UN to make recommendations or suggestions on various solutions for those states (Jasper, 2001).
Another example of challenges faced by the UN can be found through its peacekeeping efforts. Peacekeeping in Somalia largely depended on the decisions of the government as directed by the former UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan. The UN representatives in Somalia addressed the needs of the finances that were required to expand the peace-building missions. It also offered the humanitarian services to the Somali community and appealed to the international community to offer more support and resources required for the peacekeeping mission in the lawless country (Thakur, 2006). The UN also assessed the bombing damages that occurred in Somalia and urged the state leaders to unite and bring stability in the country. Most of these appeals go unheeded especially after the US failed to bring stability in this war torn country.
The UN is greatly involved in the peacekeeping roles and tries to challenge the nations that do not adhere to the promotion and maintenance of peace. For example, the UN challenged Russia on its credibility as a peacemaker in Georgia’s territorial disputes. This resulted from the bombing of the Georgian reconnaissance aircraft that was destroyed by an air-to-air missile fired from a Russian fighter jet. After investigations, the UN blamed Russia for the mishap, but the Russian government denied it. However, they did not give enough evidence to disapprove the report, and Georgia said that Russia was neutral and that the findings were only a way of removing the Russian troops from the peacekeeping mission in Georgia (Seitz, 2001). Thus it is evident that the UN peacekeeping motives and initiatives are highly challenged by respective governments in the affected states, thereby hampering its efforts.
On the other hand, the US has had a lot of influences on the reforms of the UN. In 1992 for example, Former US President Bill Clinton on his election withheld the US dues to the UN. The UN was constantly involved in the US interventions of peacekeeping operations in areas like Rwanda, Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia. The US and its allies declined to offer any financial and military support besides other strategic backing that was required for the success of the mandates. When the mission failed, the UN, rather than the superpowers like the US, was blamed. After the peacekeeping disasters that followed by the killing of the 18 US rangers, the White House dropped their support for the UN (Jasper, 2001). The focus of the UN shifted from practicing foreign policies to justifying failed US policies. Clinton reacted by saying that the UN had to learn to say “no” to the peacekeeping operations. Clinton then became devoted to block the re-election of the Secretary General at that time, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, by withholding all its dues, leading to arrears amounting to over $1.6 billion. On the other hand, Senator Jesse Helms, who was in control of the foreign relations, gave new attacks on the UN and called for unilateralism. At the end of that decade, there were crises in Kosovo, and the US bypassed the UN and appointed the NATO as the simultaneous legitimator and implementer of the war against Yugoslavia. The act of appointing the NATO and paying no attention to the UN Security Council was a big blow to the credibility of the UN. This whole situation led the UN to being distanced from the strategic activities of the superpower (Murphy, 2006).
The influence of the US on the UN remained tremendous, but it was difficult to force them to honor their dues which caused failure of the world body to carry out its responsibilities efficiently. Clinton stated that unless the UN decided to reform, the US would not pay the dues, which also dented the US body from the global perspective and portrayed its approach as having hostile interests towards reformations within the UN. The position of the US on the objection side of the re-election of Boutros-Ghali only made his supporters firm and made it more difficult to find an appropriate candidate for the position. The influence of the US on the General Assembly and the Security Council greatly undermined the efforts of the peacekeeping roles of the body. Some people believed that the US approach denied the UN its democratic rights and demonstrated unfair global power relationships (Elman, 1999).
At the time when the US and the UN were experiencing these difficulties in achieving beneficial relationship, Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundations emerged to help out not only the UN and the US, but also the relationship per se between the two. Initially, Turner’s UNF, a close associate of Bill Clinton, was seen as the act of using the UN as a pawn for tax-exemption. Turner’s announcement that he would give the UN a gift of $1 billion raised a lot of questions about the nature and the influence of the gift. In practice, the UN itself within its framework of policies is not allowed to receive any funding from any other source apart from its member states. Turner’s money was donated to the UN through a private foundation and nonprofit organization.
The close relationship of Turner and the Clinton administration raised legislative and constitutional concerns. It was portrayed as an extension of the interests of certain State Department officials (Jasper, 2001). It raised questions whether the foundation was due to help federal bureaucratic funding roadblocks erected by the congress. The other concern was of political nature and Turner’s funding was questioned to raise threats of undue influence over the policies of the UN and also international relations. From experience the activities that were funded by Turner Foundation were controversial and raised serious concerns on human rights. They were also known of ignoring the US official policies in order to achieve their own political agendas for the foundation. Turner’s gift in this case was to be in the form of Time-Warner stock in ten annual installments. The cost to turner was less than $1 billion since he was to take advantage of the tax write-offs, tax deductions and also avoid estate tax. This meant that he would end up $100 million richer just because of giving out one billion. The fund itself was not going to the UN directly but to the Turner’s private foundation and this was tax exemption under the US law and furthermore had no legal attachment to the UN (Murphy, 2006)
The United Nations foundation is one of the UN advocacy groups and the United Nation cannot be able to pursue all the global issues and challenges across the border on its own. Today the world is much interconnected which calls for the unity among the public and private sectors such as the non-governmental organizations, corporations and various other foundations. The United Nations foundation helps the UN to connect people, ideas and also resources that make it easier to solve the global challenges of the 21st century. It provides fiscal services for the UN agencies and programs. Through its various funding program the UNF has proved to be a major pillar for advocating the extensive UN projects (Murphy, 2006).
The UNF has three major priorities for working with the UN; the first priority involves advocating for US funding for the UN. UNF has a leading strong voice in promoting a fully funded UN, which it does by requesting the US and other contributing governments that support the UN financially to pay their dues fully in time and without conditions. It works with various individuals in the US and also globally in ensuring that the UN has enough funds to face its challenges.
The UNF’s second priority is creating the public support for the UN and is actively involved in mobilizing the community in believing in the UN as a vital organ for solving Global issues. They look for support from all over the countries. They have successfully gained the support of the community for the UN through their online campaigns. The third priority of the UN is supporting the UN communications. This is a priority that involves the effective communication of the UN and other governments. Such communication educates the governments on the role of the UN and the value of its work in the world (Seitz, 2001). They also actively communicate the challenges of the UN to the world governments. They have worked to improve the communications through the creating of websites, creating the UN Radio service, engaging online media outlets and sharing the UN ideas through their multiple blogs. The UNF also holds campaigns to highlight the roles of the UN in peacekeeping, UN reform, climate change, HIV/AIDS and also women empowerment. Through these priorities, the UNF has supported the UN in solving its global challenges and also raising the standards of the UN public image (Childers, 1994).
UNF is involved in solving various global issues which include the attention to climate and energy. The organization recognizes the importance of climate and energy as an important element in human life. In the approach to energy the UNF brings out the cost of relying on the fossil fuels. It therefore works closely with the UN to ensure that the world gets a transition towards a friendlier us of energy for a better and safer climate. In advocating for the transition in climate and energy, the UNF has set the priorities of this agenda which include; securing a global climate agreement, improving energy efficiency and deploying clean energy technologies.
The UNF also deals with global issues that are related to children which are mainly focused on their health. Through the international health programs, UNF has mobilized a multitude of people in strengthening the UN health agencies towards savings children’s lives in many parts of the world (Seitz, 2001). The children health priorities include eradicating polio, reducing the number of deaths resulting from measles and also preventing the deaths that result from malaria.
The UNF is dedicated to promoting sustainable development, which refers to the ability of the individuals to meet their daily needs without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet the same needs. The sustainable development priorities of UNF include promoting tourism, promotion of the community based enterprises and also promoting the ability to access the markets. Sustainable development has also led the UNF promote technology as another global issue. Sustainable development cannot be easily achieved without the need to improve on technology, which comes as a big solution in solving major global issues. Technology priorities within the UN include the disaster relief communications, mobile health for development and the thought leadership and innovation program. (Thakur, 2006).
The UNF also advocates for the empowerment of women and girls in the international view point in bid to reduce the rate of poverty and improve the achievement of social justice. The empowerment of women and girls promotes the gender equality with particular focus on women rights and also the reproductive and sexual health of women. UNF priorities in this case include promoting reproductive health, investing in adolescent girls and strengthening the UN capacity in handling women issues. UNF helps to create a very strong UN in its efforts to address these global issues that promote peace, development, human rights and an environment that is favorable (Jasper, 2001).
UNF actively participates in the global solutions. The global solutions involve the innovative health campaigns, reduction of the carbon emissions, conservation and livelihoods, mobile technology, women’s health and rights and UN advocacy. The health innovative campaigns involve creating awareness, getting resources and also the delivering of vaccines. The main goal of these innovative campaigns is to eliminate malaria deaths, reduction of the measles mortality and the eradication of polio from the world’s map.
The change of climate that leads to carbon emissions has cost the world politically and economically through global warming. These emissions have lead to sever spells of drought and increased spreading of diseases. This leads the UNF to negotiate for a global climate change agreement that would mitigate these effects. It also seeks to improve the energy efficiency since this would enable the saving of money and other resources besides reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. It also advocates for clean energy technologies that would allow for climate change. UNF works closely with UN in order to support the clean energy enterprises and also the realization of clean affordable, renewable energy sources (Seitz, 2001).
Conservation and livelihood solution of the UNF involves the preservation and protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. This helps to build communities that can be able to preserve the world’s heritage which can be enjoyed by future generations. To achieve this objective, it promotes the conservation of sustainable tourism, promoting the community based enterprises and also promoting the market access for local and international producers. In bid to improve the health facilities, UNF is focusing its solutions toward the mobile technology. This helps to re-unite families and also improve on the emergency response mission during major crises (Jasper, 2001). The main mobile technologies the UNF focuses on include the disaster relief communication, mobile health for development and the thought and leadership & innovation program. Other global solution that UNF tries to achieve include the solutions related to the women’s health and rights such as promoting the reproductive and maternal health, investing in adolescent girls and strengthening the UN capacity in their approach. The final UNF solution involves advocating for the UN. This deals with the US funding for the UN, building of the public support for the UN and also supporting the UN communications. Through this global solutions, UNF has brought a major impact in decreasing child mortality, renewed future energy, preserving world heritage, health data & disaster relief and also empowering women & girls (Seitz, 2001).
The UNF has various impacts in the world. In a decade it has been able to establish more than 300 programmatic partnerships, worked with more than 100 governments in the world and also over 40 UN agencies. The efforts on the health program have helped save millions of children lives through the prevention and treatment measures advocated by the UNF (Thakur, 2006). They have also helped the developing countries in erecting sustainable energy enterprises. The new energy approaches will help to transform the economic and the environmental future as well as the quality of life for the individuals, local and international community. UNF sustainable development program have facilitated for the conservation and sustain the word’s natural heritage. The technological solutions have led to the improvement on the health care facilities in the world and also improving the disaster responses during emergency. UNF therefore has had a great impact in creating a stronger ad effective UN through its various support program.
The United Nations Association (UNA) is also a strong advocacy group that supports the UN. It is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to support the UN in its ideas and also its humanitarian services to the American people. It is involved in the educational and humanitarian campaigns such as education in urban schools, clearing mine fields and also supporting children living with HIV/AIDS. It stresses the importance of the leadership of the United States within the UN (Murphy, 2006). Its main mission is educating, inspiring and mobilizing the Americans to support the principals and vital work of the United Nations, strengthening the United Nations System, promoting constructive United States leadership in that system and also the achievement of the goals of the UN charter. Its main program in supporting the UN include the Adopt-A-Minefield, Global class rooms, global policy programs UNSA-USA campaigns, UNA-USA Alliance and the Washington Liaison and Advocacy Programs. It is through these UNA-USA programs that the US supports the UN in solving the challenges that may arise (Thakur, 2006).
The UN has been challenged on its implementation of the millennium development goals. The General Assembly has not been able to co-ordinate and integrated follow-ups on the achievement of this goals. One of the main problems that faces the UN in its effort to accomplishment, is the lack of commitment by the member states to honor their dues and also political influences on its funding by the super powers (Childers, 1994). It is quite realistic that most African countries cannot be able to achieve these goals due to lack of enough funds. It is tricky for the UN on the other hand to the influence of the major donors on its funding. The achievement of millennium development cannot be realized by most nations without the funds required for development
Conclusion
United Nations has all along had a very unstable relationship with the US due to the political pressure of conforming to their reforms within the UN. This has destroyed the foreign relations that should have been changed in order to enable the UN tackle its problems more significantly. However, with the election of Senator Barrack Obama it is expected that the existing foreign relations will improve and the US will be more supportive of the UN without any strings attached. The expected change within the foreign policies in the US might improve the relationship between UN and US
Works cited
- Craig Murphy. History of the United Nations Development Program me. Cambridge university press, 2006
- Erskine Childers. Challenges to the United Nations. China, Library of Congress, 1994
- Jim Elman. The United States and the United Nations. United States department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, 1999
- John L Seitz. Global Issues: an introduction. Wiley Blackwell, 2001
- Ramesh Thakur. The United Nations, peace and security: collective security to the responsibility to protect. Cambridge: University press, 2006
- William F. Jasper. The United Nations Exposed. John Birch Society, 2001