The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to faci-letate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achieving world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue.
There are currently nearly 200 member states, including nearly every recognized inde-pendent state in the world. From its headquarters on international territory in New York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, primarily:
- The General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly);
- The Security Council (decides certain resolutions for peace and security);
- The Economic and Social Council (assists in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development);
- The Secretariat (provides studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN);
- The International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ).
Additional bodies deal with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF). The UN`s most visible public figure is the Secretary-General, currently Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who attained the post in 2007. The organization is financed from assessed and volun-tary contributions from its member states, and has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The UN was founded as a successor to the League of Nations, which was widely consi-dered to have been ineffective in its role as an international governing body, as it had been unable to prevent World War II. The term United Nations was first used by Winston Chur-chill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the 1942 Declaration by United Nations, which united the Allied counties of WWII under the Atlantic Charter, and soon became a term widely used to refer to them. Declarations signed at wartime Allied conferences in 1943 espoused the idea of the UN. Those and later talks outlined the organization`s proposed purposes, membership, organs, and ideals in regards to peace, security, and cooperation.
On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San-Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter of the UN. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946. According to the Charter, the UN is to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights.
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Active vocabulary
1. to facilitate cooperation -
syn. to promote
2. to maintain peace -
syn. to preserve
3. to provide a platform for dialogue
4. human rights
5. to promote respect for human rights
6. international security
7. to achieve world peace
8. UN member-states- -
9. UN headquarters -
10. The UN Charter
11. The UN General Assembly-
12. The UN Secretary General
13. The UN Security Council
14. Economic and Social Council
15. International Court of Justice
16. public figure-
17. to attain a post
18. successor -
19. aim -
syn. purpose, target, objective, goal
20. to fight against .
21. to settle disputes by peaceful means (peacefully)
22. to settle disputes through negotiations
23. non-interference in the internal affairs
24. the use of force- ( )
25. to espouse the idea
