One of the reasons for the lack of World Wars after the outbreak of World War 2 is because of an organisation created on the 24th of October in 1945, which is now known as The United Nations. The United Nations Organisation (UNO) is an international institution whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
This organisation’s initiative was taken by the 32nd President of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The UN was created to prevent World Wars and to be the successor of the League of Nations, an institution that failed and was recognised as ineffective. 50 Governments met in San Fransisco for a conference to start drafting the ‘UN Charter’ on April 25, 1945, which was adopted later into the year on the 25th of June, officially taking effect on October 24th 1945, the day which we celebrate as ‘UN day’. Now the United Nations consists of 193 countries, with South Sudan being the last country to join. There are 5 permanent members of the UN, those countries are China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA. The UN headquarters is located in New York, USA.
It consists of the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. All of these branches of the UN are to perform and try to maintain one thing, to maintain World Peace. It plays an important role in conflict prevention, using diplomacy and good mediation. Today’s peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security but also to promote political processes, protect civilians, help in the disarmament and reintegration of former soldiers; support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and help in restoring the rule of law and extending legitimate state authority. There are 12 UN peacekeeping operations currently deployed and there have been a total of 71 deployed since 1948. In 2019, the Secretary-General launched the Action for Peacekeeping Initiative (A4P) to restore the joint political responsibility to peacekeeping operations.
Since 1948, the UN has helped end conflicts and foster reconciliation by conducting successful peacekeeping operations in dozens of countries, including Cambodia, Mozambique and Tajikistan. It had conducted many other peace operations, but they still have a long way to go in resolving and bringing World Peace.
-By Leonel Mathew, VIII- B
