United Nations - Organization

Organization

The United Nations' system is based on five principal organs (formerly six – the Trusteeship Council suspended operations in 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory); the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice.

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main United Nations Headquarters located on international territory in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world.

The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. The Secretariat uses two working languages, English and French. Four of the official languages are the national languages of the permanent members of the Security Council (the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a de facto official language); Spanish and Arabic are the languages of the two largest blocs of official languages outside of the permanent members (Spanish being official in 20 countries, Arabic in 26). Five of the official languages were chosen when the UN was founded; Arabic was added later in 1973. The United Nations Editorial Manual states that the standard for English language documents is British usage and Oxford spelling, the Chinese writing standard is Simplified Chinese. This replaced Traditional Chinese in 1971 when the UN representation of China was changed from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China (see China and the United Nations for details).

Principal organs of the United Nations
UN General Assembly
- Deliberative assembly of all UN member states (each country has one vote) -		 UN Secretariat
- Administrative organ of the UN - its chairman is the UN Secretary General -		 International Court of Justice
- Universal court for international law (based in The Hague) -
  • may resolve non-compulsory recommendations to states, or suggestions to the UNSC (not a Parliament)
  • decides on the admission of new members, on proposal of the UNSC
  • adopts the budget
  • elects the non-permanent members of the UNSC, all members of ECOSOC, on the proposal of the UNSC the UN Secretary General, and the 15 judges of the ICJ
  • supports the other UN bodies administratively, e.g. in the organization of conferences, writing reports and studies, and the preparation of the budget-plan
  • its chairman - the UN Secretary General - is elected by the UN General Assembly for a five-year mandate and is the most important representative of the UN
  • beside its headquarters in New York City it has three main offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna
  • decides disputes between states that recognize its jurisdiction and creates legal opinions
  • the 15 judges are elected by the UN General Assembly for nine years. It renders judgement with relative majority
  • parties on the ICJ can only be countries, however no international organizations and other subjects of international law (not to be confused with the ICC)
UN Security Council
- For international security issues -		 UN Economic and Social Council
- For global economical and social affairs -		 UN Trusteeship Council
- Was administering trust territories (currently not active) -
  • responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security
  • the most powerful organ of the UN, as it may adopt compulsory resolutions
  • its decisions include peacekeeping- and peace enforcement-missions, as well as non-military pressure mediums, such as trade embargos
  • has 15 members: five permanent members with veto-power, and ten elected members
  • responsible for cooperation between states on economic and social fields (raising the general standard of living, solve economic, social and health problems, promotion of human rights, culture and education, as well as humanitarian aid)
  • therefore it has established numerous functional and regional commissions
  • also coordinates the cooperation with the numerous specialized agencies of the United Nations
  • has 54 members, who are elected by the UN General Assembly to serve staggered three-year mandates
  • was originally designed to manage colonial possessions that were earlier League of Nations mandates
  • is inactive since 1994, with the last trust territory (Namibia) attaining independence in 1990

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