United Nations Organization (U.N.O.)
The U.N.O. was formed in 1945 after the end of the Second World War. After the bitter experience of two world wars in 25 years, the necessity for forming a United Nations Organisation, with greater powers than the League of Nations, was discussed first at Adumbration Oaks Conference in October 1944. It was finally put into shape by the delegates of 51 nations assembled at San Francisco on the 26th June, 1945. At present almost all the countries of the world are its members. Every year 24th October is celebrated as the U.N. Day throughout the world. The headquarters of the U.N. is in New York.
The U.N.O. is a committee of nations. The original need was for a world body to strive and keep peace in the world after the end of the Second World War The brains behind the big move were the Big Three—Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. A conference was called at San Francisco which was attended by all the Allied Powers. It prepared a charter of international peace—the Atlantic Charter. Ironically enough, the Atlantic Charter was hammered ‘home on the Pacific coast of San Francisco ! The official languages of the U.N. are English, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Spanish. The working languages are English and French only.
The first committee of the U.N.O. was the Security Council. It had five permanent members–the U.S.A., Russia, United Kingdom, France and Nationalist China–who were equally vested with the right of veto over any question, so that unless and until all these five Powers agreed upon a question, it could not be carried through in the Security Council. That precedent continues right up to now. Only that China is not the Communist China represented there, but the China of Chiang Kai-Shek in Formosa. The seating of Communist China and the Unseating of Formosa has been one of the most burning topics in the U.N.O.
The other units of the U.N.O. are the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice and Trusteeship Council. Each member-nation is represented in the General Assembly but the Security Council has only 11 members of which the five are permanent and the rest elected by the General Assembly by rotation.
Another wing is the International Court of Justice appointed by the General Assembly at The Hague. One of the most popular wings of the U.N.O. is U.N.ES.C.O. (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) which is headquartered at Paris. The U.N.O. itself has its headquarters at New York.
The U.N.O. shares great responsibilities without having equally great powers. It has done a solid job in Korea, Indo-China, Suez and the Congo in preventing major international conflicts and maintaining peace and order in the afflicted countries. The biggest achievement of the United Nations since it’s existence is that it has prevented the repetition of the holocaust of Second World War which left an estimated 30 million people dead. It has successfully intervened in regional and global conflicts to stop the outbreak of another war. The Indo-China War, The Arab-Israel War and the super power confrontation in Cuba in 1961 bear ample testimony to the significant role played by the United Nations in its peace-keeping efforts. Indian troops have played a great part in the all these theatres of conflict and clash. In other fields, the U.N.O. has equally proved beneficial to humanity. It is trying to give man freedom from ignorance and disease also. Various UN agencies such as UNESCO and ILO, have contributed a good deal in alleviating the lot of the world’s unprevileged people. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and UN Peace Keeping forces have brought succour to millions of people affected by regional conflicts and wars.
It has been proposed that the U.N.O. should have an army of its own and it should also be entrusted with legislative powers for the whole world. But this dream is still to be fulfilled. The U.N.O. has become a hot-bed of politics. Only the sanity in the world leaders can save this organization as well as the humanity.
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