1. The United Nations A crash course
Initiated this session; new to the EGP-GG-community, finding out how to work with it / As ‘International lawyer’ interested in looking at the world from a international legal and international organisational perspective / In 2020 the UN will exist 75 years; some things it has in common with the EU; people think it is bureaucratic, expensive and that it does not deliver / All of it is true, but it is ony half the story; these organisations are at the mercy of the member states to use theom or not use them for their purposes; memberstate governments use them as scapegoats for being incapable of providing solutions / They can be improved in terms of practical functioning of course, but to make the work we need to influence those taking the decisions / One difference between EU and UN is that the EU is under heavy attack, the UN is ‘forgotten’, not so much in what it does, but the system as such / I wanted to put the organisation back on the agenda.

2. The United Nations – a crash course
Development of International diplomacy as a means of communication between nations, states
Bilateral > multilateral // Ad hoc > permanent
1648 / Peace of Westphalia > ending the ‘wars of religion in Europe’
1815 / The Congress of Vienna > after the Napoleonic wars > leading to a system of regular meetings
1865 / International Telecommunications Union
1874 / Universal Postal Union
/ The Hague Peace Conferences
1902 / Permanent Court of Arbitration

3. The United Nations – a crash course
1919 / After the First World War the creation of the League of Nations at the Peace Conference of Paris as part of the Treaty of Versailles
Objective: “to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security”
Assembly – Council – Secretariat (Geneva) – Permanent Court – International Labour Organisation
Membership: 42 founding members; US and SU absent / mainly European, some Latin American, Asian and African / 58 in 1934
System of ‘Mandates’
Failed to prevent Second World War
Formally dissolved in 1946

4. The United Nations – a crash course
During the Second World War plans were discussed for the creation of a new International Organisation
1941 / The Atlantic Charter (US – UK) on board the USS Augusta
1942 / The Declaration of the United Nations (signed by 26 countries)
1943 / Moscow and Teheran Conference
1944 / Dumbarton Oaks: the structure
1945 / Conference of Yalta: the voting
1945 / Conference of San Fransisco:
Establishment of the United Nations

5. The United Nations – a crash course

6. The United Nations – a crash course
Basic structure: 6 Main organs / Funds, Programmes, Specialized Agencies and others
Main organs: General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, Secretariat
Located in New York, Geneva, Vienna, The Hague, Addis Abeba, etc.
Six official languages
11 Nobel Peace Prizes linked to the UN
Total budget 22 to 25 billion USD /
5.5 for Secretariat, 7 for Peacekeeping activities

7. The United Nations – a crash course
51 founding member-states in 1945 / 76 member-states in 1955 / 117 member-states in 1965 / 144 member-states in 1975 / 159 member- states in 1985
UN played a very important role in the decolonisation-process
185 member-states in 1995 after breakup of SU and Yugoslavia
193 member-states in 2011
Non-members include Taiwan,
Palestine,
Kosovo..

8. The United Nations – a crash course
The General Assembly
All 193 member-states represented: one state one vote
Meets from september to december each year
Plenary sessions, as well as 6 committees
Elects its own presidium per year
Decisions on important questions 2/3 majority
Decisions on other questions simple majority

9. The United Nations – a crash course
The Security Council
Primary responsibillity for peace and security
Decisions binding on all member-states
15 members: 5 permanent, 10 elected for 2 year-periods
Monthly rotating presidency
Substantial decisions require 9 votes
Incl. the concurring votes permanent members
Sweden and Italy, Ukrain, Japan and Kazakhstan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Senegal, Bolivia and Uruguay

10. The United Nations – a crash course
Economic and Social Council
Advancing the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, environmental
54 member-states represented / one state one vote
‘Spider in the web’: coordinates, connects, moves forward, studies, reports, recommends etc.
Functional commissions
Regional commissions
Standing committees; expert groups
Relations with NGO’s: consultative status

11. The United Nations – a crash course
International Court of Justice
Principle judicial organ of the UN; deals with disputes between states
Gives advisory (legal) opinions to other bodies of the UN System
15 Judges serving for terms of 9 years / Judges ad hoc per case
‘High moral character’, qualified for legal position, educated in international law
Not representing their governments
Around 165 cases / 26 Advisory Opinions
Many cases with limited scope: maritime boundaries, frontier disputes, a road along the border, aerial herbicide spraying at the border, seizure of documents and data, diplomatic relations, extradition, etc. / Others more political: armed activities of Rwanda in The Congo, legality of the use of force (Yugoslavia vs the US, nuclear tests (new zealand vs france, / Advisory opinions also both more practical (a complaint filed against the ILO, immunity from legal process for a special rapporteur), but many heavily political (unilateral declaration of incependence of Kosovo, legal consequences of the wall on Palestine territory, legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, western sahara, south african presence in namibia etc.)

12. The United Nations – a crash course
The Secretariat / The Secretary General

13. The United Nations – a crash course
Secretariat
Around / persons working for the UN Secretariat
Around 34 % female staff
Average age around 44
Unrepresented 19 / Underrepresented 42 / Overrepresented 28

14. The United Nations – a crash course
Specialised Agencies, Funds and Programmes
Programmes and Funds / part of the UN System / UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNCTAD, UNEP etc.
Specialized agencies / autonomous entities working with the UN System / World Bank-IMF, WHO, UNESCO, ILO, FAO etc. / Also Telecommunication, Meteorology, Civilian Aviation, Intellectual Property, etc.