The United Nations is an international organization whose objectives are to facilitate support in human rights, economic and social development, international law and security and to attain peace. The United Nations was set up in 1945 just after World War II to stop war and achieve peace. There are presently 192 members in the UN including almost all the sovereign states in the world.
The UN has six important agencies:
- The General Assembly: It is the main deliberative assembly of the UN.
- The Security Council: This organ is for security and to decide certain resolutions for world peace
- The Economic and Social Council: The council assists in international economic and social development and cooperation
- The Secretariat: The Secretariat provides studies, facilities and information required by the UN
- The International Court of Justice: It is the primary judicial organ of the UN.
The United Nations Trusteeship Council: It is currently inactive.
Other prominent organs of the UN are:
World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Human Rights Council.The organization has 6 official languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian and English. Its head quarter is situated in international territory of Manhattan, New York City.
The United Nations is the multilateral Government agency which is globally accepted international jurisdiction for human rights legislation. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the most respected body of the United Nations with regard to human rights. United Nations govern human rights primarily with the help of two of its important wings, United Nations Security Council and United Nations Human Rights Council. In the United Nations there are many committees for safeguarding different human rights treaties.
Functions of the UN as human rights and humanitarian assistance: The need of human rights was one of the major concerns to create the UN. One of the objectives of the organization was to make a framework for acting on violations of human rights. The United Nations charter obliges each member nation to promote global responsibilities for human rights.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Human rights issues are regularly taken up by the Assembly.
The United Nations and its subsidiary organizations are central in implementing and upholding the principles stated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN has contributed significantly worldwide in training human rights officials, improving judicial structures, technical assistance in providing fair and free elections, drafting constitutions, and it also transformed the armed movements into political parties. The UN has also supported women’s rights in total participation in social, economic and political life of the countries with relative issues. The United Nations Human Rights Council was set up in 2006 with the purpose of monitoring violations of human rights and the council is the replacement of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
The Human Rights Council has 47 members where each serves for three years terms and no one will serve 3 continuous terms. It has stringent rules to be the member of the council and it is applicable to the global human rights and a candidate to the body is necessary to be approved by the majority of the General Assembly. United Nations is supporting for development also e.g. Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The UNDP is the greatest source of fund for development. The United Nations promotes development of human through its several different organs. Human Development Index (HDI) is published by the UN to rank the countries on the basis of poverty of human, literacy of human, education of human and life expectancy of human etc. The UN and its specialized organs gets funds by assessment on the basis of regular two years budget and they get voluntary contributions from their member nations. The UN has current operating budget for two years estimated at $4.19 billion.
