 Hello, and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the United Nations. Today, we are going to cover the United Nations formation, the aims, structure, and finishing off with a timeline. This video is really useful, especially if you are studying the UN history as part of your coursework or exam, as I'll get into the details you need to know to get top marks. So let's get started. So first of all, let's see how the United Nations were formed. So the League of Nations preceded the United Nations as the first institutionalized system of international regulatory policymaking, but due to its inability to direct and influence its significant participants, ultimately, it failed. On January 1, 1942, the UN, coined by President Franklin Roosevelt, was first used in the Declaration of United Nations. During the Second World War, representatives of 26 nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together against the Axis powers. The Second World War's demands on governmental policy delayed the United Nations' rise to power as a governing force until peacetime began in 1945. On October 24, 1945, the United Nations officially comes into existence. Representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the UN Conference on International Organization to draw the UN Charter. Both delegates deliberated on proposals worked out by the representatives of China, of the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, along with the United States, between August and October 1944. So the objectives of the UN, according to its Charter, are first of all to maintain international peace and security, then to develop friendly relations among nations on the basis of equality and the principle of self-determination, to foster world-world cooperation in solving economic, social, and cultural, along with humanitarian problems, to promote human rights and fundamental freedom for the people of the world, and to serve as a center where various nations can coordinate their activities towards the attainment of the objectives of the UN. To carry out its functions, the United Nations is structured into six principle organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat. So for the General Assembly, it's the largest organ of the UN. All members of the UN are members of the General Assembly. Each state can send up to five representatives, but is entitled to one vote in the Assembly. This ensures that all the member states have equal status. The General Assembly meets once a year for three months, but special sessions may be held during times of crisis. At the beginning of every session, the Assembly elects a new president. The functions of the General Assembly are as follows. It can discuss any matter affecting international peace and security. It makes recommendations for peaceful settlements of disputes. It passes the budget of the UN. It elects the non-permanent members of the Security Council. It also elects the members of the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council. It admits new members to the UN on the recommendation of the Security Council, and the Security Council and the General Assembly elect the members of the International Court of Justice. Decisions are taken in the General Assembly by a simple majority vote. In some important cases, a two-thirds majority vote is required for taking a decision. Regarding the Security Council, it's the most important and effective organ of the UN. It's the executive wing of the UN. The Security Council consists of 15 members, five of them are permanent members, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. The 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for a term of two years. Each member has one vote. Decisions are taken by a majority vote of at least nine members, including the five permanent members. Each permanent member has the power to reject or veto a decision. This means a negative vote by any one of the permanent members would lead to a consolation of the resolution. The Council is powerless to act if there's such a veto by any permanent member, although it may be supported by all other permanent members. The functions of the Security Councils are, first of all to maintain international peace and security in the world, then to investigate international disputes and become an appropriate methods of settling them, to call on members states to apply economic sanctions against the aggressor and thus to put pressure on the guilty state to stop aggression, and finally the Security Council may take military action against aggressor if required. For the International Court of Justice, it's located in The Hague in Netherlands. It's the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The courts consist of 15 judges from different countries elected by the General Assembly and the Security Council. They are elected for a nine-year term. No two judges can be citizens of the same country. Its functions are to settle disputes brought to it by member nations and to provide legal advice to any organ of the UN on request. The Trusty Ship Council was set up immediately after the Second World War. It was set up to ensure the proper administration and development of those areas of the world that were under foreign rule. The Council was also to take steps to help them attain self-government. By 1994, all trust territories had attained self-government. The Council will now meet only if required to do so. The Economic and Social Council consists of 54 members elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. The Economic and Social Council discusses major economic and social issues. It is mainly concerned with the management of the UN's social, economic, cultural and humanitarian activities. Organizations of the Economic and Social Councils are to promote economic and social progress, to solve problems relating to health, illiteracy, unemployment and more, along to coordinate the function of the agencies of the UN, such as the International Monetary Fund, the International Labor Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and more. The Secretariat is the principal administrative department of the UN. It is headed by the Secretary General appointed by the General Assembly. On the recommendation of the Security Council for a term of five years, they can be re-elected. The staff of the Secretariat is appointed by the Secretary General. They are chosen from among the 192 member countries. It holds a key position in the administration of the affairs of the UN. They organize conferences, oversees peacekeeping operations, drafts reports on economic and social trends, prepares studies on human rights, mediates in international disputes and prepares budget estimates. It is to be noted that the United Nations can achieve success only if the member states cooperate with it. All member countries must abide by the policies of programs of the United Nations, illiteracy and labor is to succeed as a peacekeeping organization. So with the addition of South Sudan in July 14, 2011, there are 193 UN member states, including all undisputed independent states apart from Vatican City. The UN Charter outlines the rules for membership. So first of all, membership in the UN is open to all other peace-loving states that accept the obligations contained in the prison charter and in the judgement of the organization are able and willing to carry out these obligations. Then the admission of any such state to membership in the UN will be affected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Finally, in addition, there are two non-member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly, the Holy See which holds sovereignty over Vatican City and the state of Palestine. The Cook Islands and Nayou, both states in free association with New Zealand are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their full treaty making capacity recognized by the Secretariat. Then onto a timeline of key UN events. In March 56, the Suez Canal War was fought primarily between Egypt and Israel. The Security Council ordered Israel to withdraw from Egypt. Great Britain and France vetoed this. This issue was then handled by the General Assembly. The UNEF was established which remained on the border until 67. To prevent the Suez Canal from being nationalized, Great Britain, Israel and France invaded Egypt. The United States opposed the attack and condemned it at the United Nations. U.S. pressure ultimately forced the invading armies to withdraw from Egypt. After the incident, the UN Emergency Force was created and placed in Egypt to protect the canal and keep the borders at peace while a political settlement is being worked out. Most of the peacekeepers were deployed on the Sinai Peninsula along the Egyptian-Israeli border. On March 67, after continued dispute over the ownership of land, Israel launched strikes against Arab nations leading to the Six-Day War. The Security Council called for a ceasefire and drew up Resolution 242. It was signed by all involved in the war, but the Arabs and Israelis interpreted it differently. However, the UN did succeed in getting an exchange of prisoners. On November 1974, the UN General Assembly granted observer status to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. On March 1979, the USSR invaded and occupied Afghanistan. The Security Council called on the USSR to withdraw. The USSR vetoed Security Council Resolution. In a major defeat to their governing powers, the UN were unable to do anything. On April 95, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 986, beginning the Iraqi All-For-Food Program. The program was intended to bring humanitarian relief to the people of Iraq. It was fraught with corruption. Following Iraq's liberation, it was discovered that Saddam Hussein diverted as much as $5 million of the aid to his personal bank accounts and more than $10 billion was misspent. High-ranking UN officials, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's son, have since been accused of corruption. The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN's role in the 21st century. The three-day meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history and culminated in the adoption by all member states of the Millennium Development Goals. A commitment to achieve international development in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality and public health. Progress towards these goals, which were to be met by 2015, was ultimately uneven. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN's focus on promoting development, peacekeeping, human rights and global security. The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. The India-Pakistan disputed over the ownership of Kashmir valiantly renewed itself in 2002. The clashes were made worth as both nations possessed nuclear weapons, UN no success to date. The tensions continued to escalate over the ensuing two decades, leading to a standoff between the two nations in 2019 with the UN still unable to engage with the solution. On March 2003, after the UN failed to act on Bush's warnings the previous year, the United States led a coalition into Iraq. On January 2010, the Haiti earthquake caused between 100,000 and 300,000 deaths, leading to the most UN personal deaths of any tragedy in their history. On January 2017, Portuguese diplomat Antonio Guterres, who previously served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, became the 9th Secretary-General. He has highlighted several key goals for his administration, including an emphasis on diplomacy for preventing conflicts, more effective peacekeeping efforts and streamlining the organization to be more responsive and versatile to global needs. So that's all for the United Nations. If you found this video useful, give it a thumbs up and do subscribe to our channel where we offer free material that you can use as part of your studies to really get a better grasp of specific areas you might find challenging. Make sure to visit our website where you'll find useful revision guides, model answers and tools to get top marks. Thank you for listening!