THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

THE
CHALLENGES OF
THE UNITED
NATIONS
FAZONILA, FRANCHESKA LEIGH B.
What We Will
Learn Today
Key Terms
What is the United Nations?
Four Main Goals
Principle Organs
Functions of the Principle Organs
Challenges of the United Nations

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

Key Terms
Veto - a constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a law-making body.

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance); an integral military alliance between
30 North American and European countries. It implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on
April 4, 1949.

Military Intervention - the deliberate act of a nation or a group of nations to introduce its military forces
into the area of an existing controversy.

Coalition of the Willing - a group of nations agreeing to act together, especially with military
involvement.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

Key Terms
Decolonization - a process by which a country becomes independent of the colonizing country.

Member State - a country that belongs to a political, economic, or trade organization; a state that is a
member of an international organization, a federation, or a confederation.

Humanitarian Support - an act intended to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity
during and after man-made crisis and disasters caused by natural hazards, as well as to prevent and
strengthen preparedness for when such situations occur.

Trust Territories - a non-self-governing territory placed under an administrative authority by the

Trusteeship Council of the United Nations.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

What is the United Nations?
The United Nations (UN) is a global diplomatic Headquartered in New York City,
and political organization to international peace the United Nations also has regional offices in
and stability. The United Nations was Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. The official
established on the 24th of October 1945, languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
following the horrific events of World War II. Russian, and Spanish
Following its predecessor the League of Nations
which disbanded in 1946. Other important objectives of the UN include
developing friendly relations among countries
Although, its formation was due to the pledge of based on respect for the principles of equal
26 nations which were at war with the Axis rights and self-determination of people.
powers at the time. These nations had agreed to
use their full resources against the Axis and
agreed not to make a separate peace.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

What is the United Nations?
However, with regards to its objective of And during this time, much of Africa, Asia, and
maintaining international peace and security the Middle East were ruled by colonial powers.
and its commitment to economic and social Extensive post-World War II decolonization in
development, the UN constitutes a very different these areas increased the volume and nature of
organization. political, economic, and social issues that
confronted the organization.
During the first 45 years, the Cold War tensions
between the United States and Soviet Union With the end of the Cold War in 1991, renewed
largely affected the UN's security functions. This attention and appeals to the UN had appeared,
made it hard for the UN to intervene. along with the new challenge of establishing
practices and functions, particularly in areas of
conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

THE UNITED NATION'S FOUR MAIN GOALS

GOAL #01 GOAL #02 GOAL #03 GOAL #04

Maintain international Develop friendly Achieve international Be a center for

peace and security. relations among cooperation in solving harmonizing the
nations. international actions of nations in
problems. the attainment of
these common ends.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

 PRINCIPLE ORGANS

T HE GENERAL T HE T RUSTE ESH IP

A S S EMB LY COUNCI L

T HE S ECURITY T H E I NT E RNATIONAL
C OUNCI L COURT OF JU S TI C E

T HE ECONOM IC AND T HE S ECRETA RI AT

S OCI AL COUNCI L

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

 the only body which ALL members of the United Nations are
represented.
primary role is to discuss issues and make resolutions.

has NO POWER to enforce its resolutions or to compel state

The
action.
exercises deliberation, supervisory, financial, and elective

General functions relating to any matter relating to the UN Charter.

decisions on other matters are simply done by a majority vote.

Assembly important decisions – such as budgetary matters, and peace
and security issues – require a two-thirds majority vote.

the Assembly elects a President each year from among five

regional groups of states.

due to the large size of the Assembly and the diversity of the
issues it discusses, it brought about the emergence of
regionally based voting blocs in the 1960s.
 assigned by the UN Charter the primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security.
originally consisted of 11 members - five permanent and six
nonpermanent - elected by the Assembly for two-year terms.
nonpermanent members of the Security Council were elected
The to give representation to certain regions or groups of states.

Security in 1965, and amendment to the UN Charter increased the

council's membership to 15, retaining the original five

Council permanent members and 10 nonpermanent members.

the presidency in this organ is held by each member in rotation
for a period of one month.
each Security Council member is entitled to ONE VOTE.
given the task of determining any threats to the peace, a
breach of the peace, or any acts of aggression.
allowed by the UN Charter to take military action against the
offending country if diplomatic or economic actions prove
inadequate.
 directs and coordinates the economic, social, humanitarian,
and cultural activities of the UN and its specialized agencies.
empowered to recommend international action on the
economic and social issues; promote universal respect for

The human rights; and work for global cooperation on health,

education, and cultural related areas.

Economic most work is performed in functional commissions on topics

such as human rights, narcotics, population, social
and Social development, statistics, the status of women, and science and
technology.
Council originally consisted of 18 members but an amendment in 1965
and 1974 increased the number of members to 54.
members are elected by the Assembly for three-year terms.
four out of five permanent members of the SC have been
reelected continually due to their funding of most of ECOSOC's
budget.
decisions are taken by simple majority vote.
 designed to supervise the government of trust territories and
lead them to self-government or independence.
the trusteeship system invited petitions from trust territories
on their independence and required periodic international
missions to the territories.

The consisted of states administering trust territories, permanent

members of the Security Council that did not administer trust
Trusteeship territories, and other UN members elected by the Assembly.
met once a year.
Council each member had ONE VOTE.
decisions were taken by a simple majority vote of those
present.
in 1994, the council terminated its operations with the
independence of the last remaining trust territory, Palau.
the council may meet on the decision of its president or on a
request by a majority of its members, by the General Assembly,
or by the Security Council.
 more commonly known as the World Court.
the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, though its
origins predate the League of Nations.
the court's decisions are binding.
its broad jurisdiction encompasses "all cases which the parties
The refer to it and all the matter specially provided for in the

International Charter of the United Nations or in treaties and conventions in

force."
Court of states may not be parties to a dispute without their consent,

Justice though they may accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the

court in specified categories of disputes.
the 15 judges of the court are elected by the General Assembly
and the Security Council voting independently.
no two judges may be nationals of the same state.
the judges are to represent a cross section of the major legal
systems of the world.
judges serve a nine-year term and are eligible for reelection.
The Hague is the seat of the World Court.
 the secretary-general is elected for a five-year renewable term
by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly and by the
recommendation of the Security Council and the approval of its
permanent members.
the secretary-general usually comes from small, neutral
countries.

The the secretary-general serves as the chief administrative officer

at all meetings and carries out any functions that those organs
Secretariat entrust to the Secretariat.
the secretary-general also oversees the preparation of the UN's
budget.
the secretary-general often serves as a high-level negotiator,
being both the chief spokesperson for the UN and the UN's
most visible and authoritative figure in world affairs.
responsible for preparing numerous reports, studies, and
investigations, in addition to the major tasks of translating,
interpreting, providing services for large numbers of meetings,
and other work.
 the staff is to be recruited mainly on the basis of merit, as per
the Charter.
some members are engaged on permanent contracts, but
others serve on temporary assignment from their national
governments.
in both cases, they must take an oath of loyalty to the United
The Nations and are NOT PERMITTED to receive instructions from
member governments.
Secretariat some 9,000 people on its staff are permanent experts and
international civil servants rather than political appointees of
member states, which attributed to the Secretariat's influence.
The Challenges of
the United
Nations

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

The Challenges of the UN
With the broad scope of activities and goals, the
United Nations naturally face numerous
challenges, the more notable ones on peace and An example of this issue is the threat of China
security. With the UN functioning mainly and Russia to veto any action meant to
because of the voluntary cooperation from intervene in the Kosovo War in the late 1990s.
states, if one state refuses to cooperate, the While the NATO decided to intervene in the war,
UN's influence will be severely restricted. which proved successful, the issue of the UN
being powerless against the veto power of the
With the biggest challenge of the UN focused SC's P5 remained to be a problem.
more on issues related to security, the veto
power that the five permanent members of the
Security Council became an issue.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

The Challenges of the UN
A similar event happened in Syria, with the Despite these problems, the Security Council places
country undergoing a civil war. As the country high importance on military intervention. While the
was an ally of Russia, a member of the SC's P5, UN Security Council had been wrong on issues of
the threat of a veto to any SC resolution against intervention, it had also made right decisions.
Syria had arose.
An example was the incident in 2001 wherein the
Because of this, it had shown the UN's low United States claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass
influence in a conflict that resulted to over destruction (WMD) to which the UN SC members of
220,000 people dead and 11 million people Russia, China, and France had vetoed. As a result, it
displaced. forced the US to lead a small "coalition of the willing"
with its allies. And it was discovered that there were
no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

 OTHER CHALLENGES OF THE UN
GEOPOLITICAL AGGRESSION AND LEGACIES OF MILITARY INTERVENTION
INTRANSIGENCE A ND REGIM E CHA NGE
Conflicts are becoming protracted by intense rivalries Framed as interventions to counter terror, save civilians or
between global powers and regional powers as they remove rogue regimes, in case after case military intervention
support proxies to wage war overseas. and regime change have failed to bring lasting stability or to
defeat fundamentalist groups.
THE PRACTICE OF RELABELLING
CONFLICTS AS COUNTER -TERROR PA NIC OV ER FORCED DIS PLA CEM ENT
STRUGGLES As desperate people flee conflict zones, the impact of forced
When leaders use the pretext of counter-terror to crush displacement is hitting neighboring countries hardest and they
dissent and political opposition, it escalates violent conflict are coping as best as they can.
rather than reducing it.

STRUGGLING HUM A NIT A RIA NIS M

The UN and others are making large efforts, with inadequate resources, to assist the
victims of conflict. Unfortunately, they are not yet good enough at defending
humanitarian values, working for prevention during crisis or empowering those affected
by humanitarian crises to take the initiative.

The Challenges of the United Nations Presentation

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

P RE S EN TE R: F A ZO N ILA