The United Nations

What is the UN The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security It has since grown to 193 countries It is the closest thing there is to a World Government

What’s the UN for? The UN has 4 purposes: To keep peace throughout the world; To develop friendly relations among nations; To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms; To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

How is the UN organized? Like the United States Gov. there are three branches: The Legislative Branch is the General Assembly All members It passes resolutions The Executive Branch is the Security Council and the Secretary General It enforces the Resolutions The Judicial Branch is the International Court of Justice (often called the World Court) It tries people for “Crimes against Humanity” and settles legal disputes between nations

The Security Council The General Secretary of the UN runs it from day to day, the real power is in the Security Council The UN Security council has 15 members. Five are permanent members and have VETO power, they are: The US, UK, France, Russia & China The UN can take no action without the security council voting for it. This is the weak-point of the UN as often one of the permanent members vetoes any action