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Primary Goals and Objectives of United Nations

Info: 3082 words (12 pages) Essay
Published: 9th Jul 2019

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Jurisdiction / Tag(s): International Law

The united nation is an international organization that was formed in the year 1945 that was immediately after the World War II, as a replacement to the League of Nations, which had experienced a great reduction of its influence in Europe. The United Nations was formed as an organization that would provide a stage for dialogue between the warring countries that was being experienced in the world at that moment. The United Nations has a variety of subsidiary organizations that have helped the organization to be more important that the League of Nations that only served the European countries.

1. What are the primary goals and objectives of the United Nations and to what extent has the United Nations has been able to achieve its objectives?

The United Nations was formed in order to fulfill certain goals and objectives; one of the goals of the United Nations was to ensure that there is a law and order in the world, this is by providing all its member countries with international law, this implies that the conflicting member country’s will be in a position of to be heard in the international law courts that is a subsidiary of the united nations that helps in restoring justice in the entire world (UN News Center paragraph 2).

The other goal of the United Nations is to provide human rights and human assistance this is by providing relief food and help to the people that are in war-torn regions, this may include the Internally Displaced People (IDPs), refugees in camps and civilians in warring countries, they presence of the united nations is felt when the organization give the refugees in countries like Sudan, Ivory coast, Palestine and other countries which are facing ethnic wars with food and water with the aim of relieving the suffering people from hostile treatment, and in the process the organization will have highlighted on the problems that are being faced by the people and will have addressed them this is by providing the people with the basic needs.

The organization other goal is to provide international security, this is when the organization mobilizes its members to supply it with soldiers that will be deployed to regions where the civilians are subjected to constant attacks by the rebels who are against the government of the country, the organization also provides international security this is when the organization monitors the activities of illegal criminal groups and terrorist groups, and in the process the united nations deals with these groups by devising on ways that aim at stopping there actions.

United Nations has the goal of facilitating international social and economic development; this is when the organization is involved in the initiation of projects and at the same time funds them, with the aim of empowering the people of a community economically and socially, an example of the ways in which the United Nations encourage economic and social development is when the united nations funds projects in Africa and Asian countries introduced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as the funds for digging of bore holes, building of schools and dispensaries, construction of roads and also funding women groups, this will automatically result to the people in these regions to be economically empowered thus reducing the chances of poverty amongst the people (UN News Center paragraph 2).

The United Nations also has the goal of ensuring world peace; this is when the organization provides all its members with the platform that enables them to negotiate, this will ensure that there is understanding amongst the countries this is because the countries will be in good terms with each others as they have heard each others views on the conflicting matter.

Ways the United Nations have succeeded in its activities

The organization has been able to achieve in most of its objectives and goals in the recent years, this is clearly seen by the influence it enjoys in the world today, the most one being the introduction of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which has been circulated to all the third world countries with an aim of ensuring all the people in the third world countries have equal assess to opportunity to clean water, telecommunication systems, lighting, education and other basic needs that are seen to be relevant to an individual, this will in the end make the whole world a safe and better place to live in.

On maters of security the international body hasn’t been able to achieve its goals as it expected; this is because it faces obstacles from some leaders who violate the rights of humanity this is by involving in activities that results to the mass killings of humans, as experienced in Ivory Coast where its leaders with political differences denied the united nations to conduct its operations in the country and thus it has failed to fulfill its mandates as the political good will in the country doesn’t support its activities in the country, (Frewen, paragraph 6) it has also been unable to counter terrorism and other international crimes, this is because the terrorists and criminals use sophisticated weapons and styles in conducting there activities .

2. What problems, weakness and challenges confront the United Nations? How does the UN carry out its obligations despite it problems, weaknesses and challenges?

Like any other organization out there the United Nations has problems, weaknesses and challenges that it gets in its ways and thus affects the way it conducts its activities to the extent of loosing its credibility to its members.

One problem that the united nations faces is the inability for the organization to easily reach and provide relief to the affected people that desperately need the relief inform of food and water, this usually occurs because the organization doesn’t have the funds or machineries of reaching the people who need the relief help, this maybe because of lack of roads to the interior parts or even denied the assess or operate rites in the country, (UN News Center paragraph 2) this makes the organization fail to deliver its services to the people at the right time especially after the tsunami attack in Indonesia in 2004.

The other problem the United Nations encounters is the lack of its own military personnel and equipments; this is a problem that has made the organization fail to fulfill its mission of restoring peace and order in the world, the organization lacks its own military officials that will help it restore law and order in the world, (The Stanley Foundation paragraph 1) the shortage of the military officials have made it difficult for the organization to deploy soldiers in places with hostile rebels an example is the deploying of united nations soldiers in countries like Afghanistan and Sudan which are mostly in war.

The organizations inability to make own independent decisions is another challenge that the organization, this is because the countries in the top United Nations Security Council will influence the final decision of the organization this is because the members in the security council will opt to decide on a decision that will be of interest to them, (Holmes, paragraph 2-3) without considering the results of the decision, as in the case of the united states invasion into Iraq, the united nations was in a position to stop the war but it never did anything to stop America from invading Iraq as it considers the united states a major contributor to its activities.

Ways United Nations overcomes its challenges

The organization has managed to overcome its challenges by conducting many annual general meetings with the attempt of asking for its members to support its activities this has helped the organization receive support from its members as they have been asked to help the organization achieve its mission (Frewen, paragraph 2-3).

The organization has also received funds from almost all of its 192 members; the members have also provided the organization with military man-power that have helped the organization to disarm up to 400,000 ex-combats, the military officials come from 118 members and this has resulted to the organization achieving its objectives.

3. Discuss the functions organization and composition of the Security Council of the UN?

The Security Council of the United Nations has various functions; the first function of the Security Council is to ensure that there is peace and security amongst the member countries this is experienced if the organizations are given the mandate of making a solid decision known as the United nations security council resolutions, these resolutions will ensure that there is peace amongst the member states as they will be the ones that will be governing the way the united nations will be running its security matters, (Vaughan et al, pgs 50-69) the security council will be in a position to make the final decision that will be the stand of the united nations that is after they convene and decide on the action and stand of the organization on matters pertaining to security.

The Security Council is made up 15 members, with 5 occupying the permanent membership and the other 10 been non-permanent, the permanent including United States of America, Britain, China, France and Russia, and the 10 current non-permanent members includes Australia, Gabon, Bosnia, Japan, brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, Uganda and Lebanon, a position that these countries hold for a period of two years, to pave way for other countries to be in the security council, in which the member states are voted into the council depending on the regions of the members. (Vaughan et al, pgs 50-69) The permanent members hold veto powers over the other subsidiary members, this makes them the permanent members to be in the position of blocking the implementation of the resolution that has been earlier been discussed by the other members.

4. What are some of the concerns of New States (developing countries) regarding the membership of Security Council and how are the concerns addressed?

There are several concerns that have been raised by the developing countries regarding the membership of the United Nations Security Council with some of the concerns included the increase of the numbers of permanent members of the security council, and checking of the veto powers of the permanent members.

In matters related to the increase of the permanent members countries from the G4 were likely to join the security council occupying to increase the numbers of permanent members from being 5 to 9 members and the most likely countries to join the security council on permanent basis includes Germany, Brazil, India and Japan. In maters concerning the veto powers the developing countries are urging the united nations permanent members should not make there own decisions without consulting with the other non-permanent members of the security council this is experienced when the permanent members use there powers to rule on certain issues without consulting the other members (Köchler paragraph 14).

The developing countries concerns have brought ideas that were aimed at increasing and restructuring of the Security Council this is by increasing the numbers of the members of the Security Council to be 24 members and an increase in the numbers of permanent and non permanent members with increased and renewable terms for the nonpermanent members.

5. Will/Is mankind better or worse off with the UN or without?

In my own view I believe that the United Nations is playing a very important role in making a better world and without it as an international organization the world wouldn’t be as its is today, the United Nations has been able to intervene in hostile situations that saw the innocent suffering civilians being treated or living in poor dangerous conditions as a result of conflict and wars, natural disasters and poverty.

The United Nations main objective is to provide peace in the entire world this is what makes the United Nations a very strong organization that will ensure peace is in the world, this is when it identifies the regions that is affected with the citizens exposed to threats of being exposed to inhuman treatment, (Frewen, paragraph 5)in the process the united nations will chip in and provide the people exposed in inhuman activities with the required help that will relieve them of the problems they were facing, and this is one of the reasons that United Nations has become one important organization that provides humanitarian relief to the world.

6. What is the role of national culture, national values and ideals, national power and globalization in undermining the goals and purposes of the UN?

The different cultural believes and practices ideas, values and globalizations are undermining the goals and purposes of the United Nations, globalization has been as resulted of technology, this is when the improved technology that has made it easy for terrorists to conduct there activities, thus disrupting peace in the world this is because the terrorists are able to communicate with each other at distant places, they can talk with each other and then arrange on the way forward that they scan perform there activities thus destructing the peace in the world.

National culture is another issue that makes the United Nations unable to achieve its goals this is when the cultures of the country states that it isn’t a good to receive relief food from other people or an organization, this to some extent has resulted to some member countries objecting the activities in there countries this renders the organization useless as it can’t perform its duties.

The use of Veto powers by the Security Council permanent members has made it difficult for the United Nations to perform its key role this is when the countries will use there powers to invade or conduct activities that are against the wishes of the union an example is when America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan when the claim that the countries were sponsoring terrorism therefore causing more terror in the world (Gold, pg 20-58).

7. the use of an international issue or conflict, assess the failure or success of the performance of the UN.

Trying to clearly cut whether the United Nation has been successful or a failure is a hard nut to crack lest cases such as how conflicts were handled are brought to light. Even after such issues are brought to light, it is apparent that UN was successful and at the same time failed. This is because there are those in one side that strongly believe that the organization has enjoyed successful performance with minimal failures while on the other hand, some are of the opinion that the whole thing should be done away with and man will be better off without UN (Jaïr 10). It is worth noting from the on-set that United Nation does not work in isolation with other stakeholders, thus its success or failure is dictated by how the corporation between it and other relevant stakeholders ensued.

To determine or asses whether UN has succeeded in its quest of maintaining international peaces, it is rational to find out if indeed the mission has been realized. There are instances where UN did manage to bring lasting peaces in a number of countries. In the wake of 2007/2008 post election violence in Kenya, former UN boss Kofi Annan was sent to broker peace between President Mwai Kibaki and ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga. A national accord was signed which called for power sharing that helped quell the problem that left close to 1,500 people dead and thousands displaced.

In Sudan for instance, UN has been successful as it has fought for humanitarian rights. The organization has lobbied for resources from other stakeholders aimed at providing shelter, food and other relief’s to the large number of displaced individuals. Similarly, it has been ion the forefront in repatriating and resettling refugees as well as displaced individuals.

On the other hand, it has failed in its mandate of bring peace. For instance, in 1994, Rwanda experienced genocide that left close to 900,000 people killed. The organization failed to respond in time. This was arrived after comparing UN and US Military Ops Distance Runner and Support Hope. The former used $600 million for a period of six month and 0.5 million people lost their lives while the former used $147.8million for the same period and rescued 150 Americans plus other although 500,000 lost their lives. The mission in Sierra Leone also failed (Jaïr 32).

8. In what ways can the nature of collective security (regional alliances etc) constitute a threat to global peace and security?

It has been argued that unity is strength; with this notion countries have joined their resources in the quest of forming blocs that aim at fostering economic, environmental and more importantly political stability. Although collective security or regional alliance also known as regionalism was formed with positive intentions, it has been proved that the synergy that result from such collectiveness may pose a threat to global peace. The system or the arrangement makes countries or states to be concerned about security of others whereby they join a collective response to a threat to existence of peace (Goldstein Et al. 290). Historically, one of the reasons that led to world war one back in 1914 was collective security coupled with militarism. Currently, when nations engage into such initiatives, it my trigger others who do not share same objectives to also follow suit. This in the long run can create tension between such groups leading to them fighting for superiority that might spill into war.

Similarly, it is no doubt that although all countries or states can collectively condemn a breach of or threats to peaces from another state, there are likelihoods that such a country has ‘friends’ who will definitely support her (Goldstein Et al. 300). The result is formation of alliances to counter one another which is a threat to global security and peace. The bad blood between and among such countries are in fact detrimental to the global economy, environment, social and political aspects.

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International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally accepted in relations between nations. International law is studied as a distinctive part of the general structure of international relations.

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