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Organization of The United Nations…. What You Need to Know. Six Organs of the United Nations. General Assembly (GA) Security Council (SC) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) International Court of Justice (ICJ) The Secretariat The Trusteeship Council. General Assembly.
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Organization of The United Nations… What You Need to Know
Six Organs of the United Nations • General Assembly (GA) • Security Council (SC) • Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) • International Court of Justice (ICJ) • The Secretariat • The Trusteeship Council
General Assembly • The main deliberative body of the UN • 192 member states • It has the power to debate any issue brought before it • Resolutions passed by GA are not legally binding. They only carry moral weight. • The work of the GA is divided between six committees that handle different issues • 1st Disarmament and International Security • 2nd Economic and Financial • 3rd Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural • 4th Special Political and Decolonization • 5th Administrative and Budgetary • 6th Legal
Security Council • 15 members • 5 permanent (Big Five): United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China • 10 non-permanent (2 year terms): Austria (2010) Burkina Faso (2009) Japan (2010) Costa Rica (2009) Mexico (2010) Croatia (2009) Turkey (2010) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (2009) Uganda (2010) Viet Nam (2009) • Non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and are not eligible for immediate re-election. Source: http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_members.html
SC representatives must be present at UN HQ at all times • Only current members can vote • SC can use sanctions, investigations, mediation, and military action to resolve international disputes • In order for a SC resolution to pass, 9 Council members must vote in favor of it with none of the permanent members voting against it. • Other SC Duties: nominates secretaries general who is then voted in by GA; deploys military observers or peacekeeping troops to areas of conflict • Established two international criminal tribunals in early 1990’s: former Yugoslavia and Rwanda • Any UN member state may bring an international dispute before the Council Source: http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/
Economic and Social Council • 54 member states (three year terms) • Coordinates the economic and social related work of the UN and specialized agencies and organizations • Focuses solely on issues of economic and social development • Work with NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) Source: http://www.un.org/ecosoc/
ECOSOC Cont. • Seats on the council are allocated based on geography • Coordinates activities of subsidiary bodies, functional commissions, standing committees, regional commissions, and expert bodies • Operations of ECOSOC account for 70% of the total amount of personnel and financial resources of the UN • UN Budget 2009 $4,170,000,000
ECOSOC Cont. • Members are elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the Council are allotted based on geographical representation with fourteen allocated to African States, eleven to Asian States, six to Eastern European States, ten to Latin American and Caribbean States, and thirteen to Western European and other States.
More ECOSOC Websites • http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/ • http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/subsidiary.html • http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/unagencies.html
International Court of Justice • Located in The Hague, The Netherlands • Principle legal organ of the UN • Settles legal disputes between states • Gives advice on legal questions to other UN organs • 15 judges of different nationalities elected to nine-year terms • Elected by GA and SC Source: http://www.icj-cij.org/
Secretariat • Takes care of the everyday functions to keep the UN running • Headed by the Secretary General Source: http://www.un.org/en/mainbodies/secretariat/
Secretary General • Current – Ban Ki Moon • Chief Administrative officer of the United Nations • Head of the Secretariat
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations • Ambassador Susan Rice • Head of the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York Source: http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Trusteeship Council • Somewhat irrelevant • Established to help Trust territories become independent nations • Last trust territory: Palau
Want to know more… • Go to… http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart_en.pdf