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 After
the horrors of World War II, the United
Nations was created in 1945 to provide
a forum for nations to work out their
problems in a peaceful way, and to help
the global community strive together to
create a better world for all. The League
of Nations had been established more than
3 decades before for much the same purpose,
but it had failed to prevent the Second
World War from occurring; a global conflict
that resulted in the death of 60 million
people. This time, leaders hoped to address
some of the issues that had doomed the
League of Nations to failure. For one
thing, the United States and the Soviet
Union, the world's two biggest powers,
had not participated in the League of
Nations. This time the most powerful nations,
the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain,
China and France, would share equally
in being permanent members of the Security
Council, the highest authority of the
new organization. Another issue that was
addressed was that member states would
provide armed forces to the United Nations
to serve as peacekeepers, whereas the
League of Nations could only try to persuade
member states not to resort to violent
aggression through boycotts and other
economic and social sanctions.
The
term 'United Nations' was coined by US
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to
describe the Allied countries in World
War II. It was first officially used in
the Atlantic Charter that 26 countries
signed on January 1, 1942 to pledge to
continue fighting together against Nazi
Germany and Japan. In 1943, world leaders
met in Russia to discuss replacing the
failed League of Nations with a new international
organization for peace. Representatives
from 51 nations met throughout 1945, and
on October 24, 1945 the United Nations
Charter was ratified at the first session
of the United Nations General Assembly
in London. The UN met in Lake Success,
New York from 1946 to 1952, until United
Nations Headquarters moved to its current
location on international territory in
Manhattan, New York.
Today
there are 193 member states in the United
Nations - nearly every country in the
world participates. The UN is made up
of six main divisions (known as organs)
and a number of specialized agencies,
with offices all around the world. The
six organs of the UN are: the Security
Council, which includes the five permanent
members and ten rotating members, and
is charged with maintaining peace and
security; the General Assembly
is made up of all member states, who share
equal representation, and it creates recommendations
for member states on issues of mutual
concern in the form of General Assembly
Resolutions; the Economic and Social
Council promotes international cooperation
on economic and social development issues;
the Secretariat, headed by the
UN Secretary-General, serves the other
primary organs and carries out the programs
and policies they decide; the International
Court of Justice is the primary judicial
organ that settles international disputes
according to international laws and treaties;
and the United Nations Trusteeship
Council was set up to look after the
interests of former colonial countries
until they had become independent with
their own governments, which they all
now have done, leaving this organ of the
United Nations inactive.
Some
of the specialized UN agencies include
the World Health Organization,
concerned with international health issues;
the World Food Programme, the largest
humanitarian organization addressing world
hunger, which feeds 90 million people
each year; UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization),
which promotes peace and security through
international collaboration in education,
science and culture; UNICEF (United
Nations Children's Fund) which provides
humanitarian and developmental assistance
to children and mothers; the UN Refugee
Agency, that protects and assists
the world's more than 21 million refugees;
and the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights,
which works to protect the human rights
that are guaranteed under international
law and outlined in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. 
For
more than 65 years since its founding,
the United Nations has shone as humanity's
greatest hope for a more peaceful, just
and sustainable world. It has helped to
promote human rights, freedom and democracy,
erase poverty and hunger, improve health
and education, and urge the governments
of the world to work together in peace.
However, the UN can only do what governments
allow it to do. Across the globe, a people's
movement has been growing to convince
governments to help the UN in its goals,
to reform the UN by making it more democratic,
and to allow the UN to work more closely
with civil society in solving the planet's
problems. People's Assemblies have convened
at the UN and in local gatherings around
the world. United Nations Day is celebrated
on October 24, commemorating the anniversary
of the adoption of the United Nations
Charter on October 24, 1945. United Nations
Day is the perfect opportunity to highlight
the important achievements for a better
world that the UN has won for all humanity
and to support the people's movements
to make it more democratic and effective.
UN.org
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