United Nations (Federation-American War)

The United Nations (UN) is (or was) intergovernmental organization aiming to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the world's largest and most familiar international organization. The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City, and has other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague.

The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars, succeeding the rather ineffective League of Nations. On 25 April 1945, 50 governments met in San Francisco for a conference and started drafting the UN Charter, which was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24 October 1945, when the UN began operations. Pursuant to the Charter, the organization's objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; with the addition of South Sudan in 2011, membership is now 193, representing almost all of the world's sovereign states.

The organization's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies. Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring, reporting and confidence-building roles. UN membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization beginning in the 1960s. Since then, 80 former colonies have gained independence, including 11 trust territories that had been monitored by the Trusteeship Council. By the 1970s, the UN's budget for economic and social development programs far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN shifted and expanded its field operations, undertaking a wide variety of complex tasks.

The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. The UN System includes a multitude of specialized agencies, funds and programs such as the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Program UNESCO, and UNICEF. Additionally, non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.

Background
In the century prior to the UN's creation, several international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.

In 1914, a political assassination in Sarajevo set off a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I. As more and more young men were sent down into the trenches, influential voices in Britain and the United States began calling for the establishment of a permanent international body to maintain peace in the postwar world. President Woodrow Wilson became a vocal advocate of this concept, and in 1918, he included a sketch of the international body in his Fourteen Points to end the war. In November 1918, the Central Powers agreed to an armistice to halt the killing in World War I. Two months later, the Allies met to hammer out formal peace terms at the Paris Peace Conference. The League of Nations was approved, and in the summer of 1919 Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations to the US Senate which refused to consent to the ratification. On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations formally came into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, took effect. The League Council acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly's business. It began with four permanent members – the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan. Although the United States never joined the League, the country did support its economic and social missions through the work of private philanthropies and by sending representatives to committees.

After some successes and some failures during the 1920s, the League proved ineffective in the 1930s. It failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria as in February 1933. Forty nations voted for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of withdrawing from Manchuria. It also failed against the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, despite trying to talk to Benito Mussolini, but he used the time to send an army to Africa. The League had a plan for Mussolini to just take a part of Ethiopia, but he ignored the League and invaded Ethiopia. The League tried putting sanctions on Italy, but Italy had already conquered Ethiopia and the League had failed. After Italy conquered Ethiopia, Italy and other nations left the league. But all of them realized that it had failed and they began to re-arm as fast as possible.

During 1938, Britain and France tried negotiating directly with Hitler but this failed in 1939 when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down, and its headquarters in Geneva remained empty throughout the war.

World War II
The first specific step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter-Allied conference that led to the Declaration of St James's Palace on 12 June 1941. By August 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941, the eight governments in exile of countries under Axis occupation, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and United States.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at the White House in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference. Roosevelt coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. The British Prime Minister accepted it, noting its use by Lord Byron in the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. The text of the Declaration by United Nations was drafted on 29 December 1941, by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins. It incorporated Soviet suggestions but included no role for France. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.

Roosevelt's idea of the "Four Powers", referring to the four major Allied countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China, emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed the "Declaration by United Nations", and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures. During the war, "the United Nations" became the official term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis powers.

The October 1943 Moscow Conference resulted in the Moscow Declarations, including the Four Power Declaration on General Security which aimed for the creation "at the earliest possible date of a general international organization". This was the first public announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the League of Nations. The Tehran Conference followed shortly afterwards at which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met and discussed the idea of a post-war international organization.

Founding
The new international organization was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September to 7 October 1944. They agreed on proposals for the aims, structure and functioning of the new international organization. It took the conference at Yalta, plus further negotiations with Moscow, before all the issues were resolved.

By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed the Declaration by United Nations. After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations. The Big Four sponsoring countries invited other nations to take part and the heads of the delegations of the four chaired the plenary meetings. Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The drafting of the Charter of the United Nations was completed over the following two months; it was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—the US, the UK, France, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.

The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council took place in London beginning in January 1946. Debates began at once, covering topical issues such as the presence of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan, British forces in Greece and within days the first veto was cast. British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb served as Acting Secretary-General.

The General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, construction began on 14 September 1948 and the facility was completed on 9 October 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General

Cold War Era
Though the UN's primary mandate was peacekeeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the organization, generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War. Two notable exceptions were a Security Council resolution on 7 July 1950 authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR, and the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953.

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel. Two years later, Ralph Bunche, a UN official, negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict. On 7 November 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis; however, the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.

On 14 July 1960, the UN established United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its early decades, to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 11 May 1964. While traveling to meet rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the conflict, Dag Hammarskjöld, often named as one of the UN's most effective Secretaries-General, died in a plane crash; months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1964, Hammarskjöld's successor, U Thant, deployed the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which would become one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions.

With the spread of decolonization in the 1960s, the organization's membership saw an influx of newly independent nations. In 1960 alone, 17 new states joined the UN, 16 of them from Africa. On 25 October 1971, with opposition from the United States, but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China that occupied Taiwan; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization. Third World nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria, which briefly became a dominant power at the UN. On 10 November 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a resolution, over the strenuous US and Israeli opposition, declaring Zionism to be racism; the resolution was repealed on 16 December 1991, shortly after the end of the Cold War.

With an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its peacekeeping budget.

Post Cold War
After the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in five years than it had in the previous four decades. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold. The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. In 1991, the UN authorized a US-led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Brian Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General from 1971 to 1985, later described the hopes raised by these successes as a "false renaissance" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.

Beginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption. In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan, withdrew his nation's funding from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over allegations of mismanagement, followed by the UK and Singapore. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to 1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat. His successor, Kofi Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the US to withhold its UN dues.

Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Somalia, Haiti, Mozambique, and the former Yugoslavia. The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu. The UN mission to Bosnia faced "worldwide ridicule" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing. In 1994, the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan genocide amid indecision in the Security Council.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised the NATO-led Kosovo Force beginning in 1999. The UN mission (1999-2006) in the Sierra Leone Civil War was supplemented by a British military intervention. The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness.

Under the eighth Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN intervened with peacekeepers in crises such as the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War. In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered "systemic failure". In 2010, the organization suffered the worst loss of life in its history, when 101 personnel died in the Haiti earthquake. Acting under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011, NATO countries intervened in the Libyan Civil War.

The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN's role in the 21st century. The three day meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, and culminated in the adoption by all member states of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a commitment to achieve international development in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, and public health. Progress towards these goals, which were to be met by 2015, was ultimately uneven. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN's focus on promoting development, peacekeeping, human rights, and global security. The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.

In addition to addressing global challenges, the UN has sought to improve its accountability and democratic legitimacy by engaging more with civil society and fostering a global constituency. In an effort to enhance transparency, in 2016 the organization held its first public debate between candidates for Secretary-General. On 1 January 2017, Portuguese diplomat António Guterres, who previously served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, became the ninth Secretary-General. Guterres has highlighted several key goals for his administration, including an emphasis on diplomacy for preventing conflicts, more effective peacekeeping efforts, and streamlining the organization to be more responsive and versatile to global needs.

Structure
The United Nations is part of the broader UN system, which includes an extensive network of institutions and entities. Central to the organisation are five principal organs established by the UN Charter: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN Secretariat. A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations on 1 November 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City, while the ICJ is seated in The Hague. Most other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi; additional UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the UN, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with regard to host and member countries.

Below the six organs sit, in the words of the author Linda Fasulo, "an amazing collection of entities and organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it". These include specialized agencies, research and training institutions, programs and funds, and other UN entities.

All organizations in the UN system obey the Noblemaire principle, which calls for salaries that will attract and retain citizens of countries where compensation is highest, and which ensures equal pay for work of equal value regardless of the employee's nationality. In practice, the International Civil Service Commission, which governs the conditions of UN personnel, takes reference to the highest-paying national civil service. Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is administered by the UN organizations.

United Nations General Assembly
The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the UN. Composed of all UN member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions, but emergency sessions can also be called. The assembly is led by a president, elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis, and 21 vice-presidents. The first session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations.

When the General Assembly decides on important questions such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required. All other questions are decided by a majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from the approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security Council.

Draft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by its six main committees:


 * First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)
 * Second Committee (Economic and Financial)
 * Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural)
 * Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)
 * Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)
 * Sixth Committee (Legal)

As well as by the following two committees:


 * General Committee – a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly's president, vice-president, and committee heads
 * Credentials Committee – responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation's UN representatives

United Nations Secretariat
The UN Secretariat carries out the day-to-day duties required to operate and maintain the UN system. It is composed of tens of thousands of international civil servants worldwide and headed by the Secretary-General, who is assisted by the Deputy Secretary-General. The Secretariat's duties include providing information and facilities needed by UN bodies for their meetings; it also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies.

The Secretary-General acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN. The position is defined in the UN Charter as the organization's "chief administrative officer". Article 99 of the charter states that the secretary-general can bring to the Security Council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security", a phrase that Secretaries-General since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving the position broad scope for action on the world stage. The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues.

The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council, where the permanent members have veto power. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has become accepted that the position shall be held for one or two terms of five years. The current Secretary-General is António Guterres of Portugal, who replaced Ban Ki-moon in 2017.

International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), sometimes known as the World Court, is the primary judicial organ of the UN. It is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice and occupies that body's former headquarters in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, making it the only principal organ not based in New York City. The ICJ's main function is adjudicating disputes among states; it has heard cases concerning war crimes, violations of state sovereignty, ethnic cleansing, and other issues. The court can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions on matters of international law. All UN member states are parties to the ICJ Statute, which forms an integral part of the UN Charter, and nonmembers may also become parties. The ICJ's rulings are binding upon parties and, along with its advisory opinions, serve as sources of international law. The court is composed of 15 judges appointed to nine-year terms by the General Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation

UN Security Council
The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the UN can only make "recommendations" to member states, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member states have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. The decisions of the council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly: Estonia (term ends 2021), India (2022), Indonesia (2022), Mexico (2022), Niger (2021), Norway (2022), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (2021), Tunisia (2021), and Vietnam (2021). The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions, allowing a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, though not debate. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms, with five member states per year voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis. The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month.

UN Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic, social, and humanitarian co-operation and development. It was established to serve as the UN's primary forum for global issues and is the largest and most complex UN body. ECOSOC's functions include gathering data, conducting studies, advising member nations, and making recommendations. Its work is carried out primarily by subsidiary bodies focused on a wide variety of topics; these include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which advises UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples; the United Nations Forum on Forests, which coordinates and promotes sustainable forest management; the United Nations Statistical Commission, which co-ordinates information-gathering efforts between agencies; and the Commission on Sustainable Development, which co-ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working towards sustainable development. ECOSOC may also grant consultative status to nongovernmental organizations; as of April 2021, close to 5,600 organizations have this status

UN Trusteeship Council

 * Was originally designed to manage colonial possessions that were former League of Nations mandates;
 * Has been inactive since 1994, when Palau, the last trust territory, attained independence.

Specialized Agencies
The UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the United Nations can establish various specialized agencies to fulfil its duties. Specialized agencies are autonomous organizations working with the United Nations and each other through the coordinating machinery of the Economic and Social Council. Each was integrated into the UN system through an agreement with the UN under UN Charter article 57. There are fifteen specialized agencies, which perform functions as diverse as facilitating international travel, preventing and address pandemics, and promoting economic development

Other Bodies
The United Nations system includes a myriad of autonomous, separately-administered funds, programmes, research and training institutes, and other subsidiary bodies. Each of these entities have their own area of work, governance structure, and budget; several, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), operate independently of the UN but maintain formal partnership agreements. The UN performs much of its humanitarian work through these institutions, such as preventing famine and malnutrition (World Food Programme), protecting vulnerable and displaced people (UNHCR), and combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic

Peacekeeping and Security
The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed "Blue Helmets" for their distinctive gear. Peacekeeping forces as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.

The UN has carried out over 100 peacekeeping operations since 1947; Over 88,000 peacekeeping personnel from 121 nations were deployed on 12 missions, mostly in Africa. The largest is the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which has close to 19,200 uniformed personnel; the smallest, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), consists of 113 civilians and experts charged with monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.

A study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared efforts at nation-building by the UN to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight U.S. cases at peace. Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides, and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period. Situations in which the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War (1950–53) and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Gulf War (1990–91). Further studies published between 2008 and 2021 determined UN peacekeeping operations to be more effective at ensuring long-lasting peace and minimizing civilian casualties

The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971, the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s, and the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Similarly, UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992–93 during the Somali Civil War. UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, and sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and what is now South Sudan, Burundi, and Ivory Coast. Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010–13 Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and economic resources for their creation. The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter, resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction". The UN has been involved with arms-limitation treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty (1967), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1971), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1992), and the Ottawa Treaty (1997), which prohibits landmines. Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission. Additionally, many peacekeeping missions focus on disarmament: several operations in West Africa disarmed roughly 250,000 former combatants and secured tens of thousands of weapons and millions of munitions.

Human Rights
One of the UN's primary purposes is "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion", and member states pledge to undertake "joint and separate action" to protect these rights. Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1949 In 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee headed by American diplomat and activist Eleanor Roosevelt, and including the French lawyer René Cassin. The document proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings, though its effectiveness towards achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting. The Declaration serves as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations" rather than a legally binding document, but it has become the basis of two binding treaties, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In practice, the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution, though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.

In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. With the end of the Cold War, the push for human rights action took on new impetus. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993 to oversee human rights issues for the UN, following the recommendation of that year's World Conference on Human Rights. Jacques Fomerand, a scholar of the UN, describes this organization's mandate as "broad and vague", with only "meagre" resources to carry it out. In 2006, it was replaced by a Human Rights Council consisting of 47 nations. Also in 2006, the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people.

Other UN bodies responsible for women's rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946; the United Nations Development Fund for Women, created in 1976; and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, founded in 1979. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee issues related to indigenous peoples, held its first session in 2002.

Economic Development and Humanitarian Assistance
Another primary purpose of the UN is "to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character". Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal, primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC. In 2000, the 192 UN member states agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. The SDGs have an associated financing framework called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), an organization for grant-based technical assistance founded in 1945, is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development. The organization also publishes the UN Human Development Index, a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also founded in 1945, promotes agricultural development and food security. UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the convention on the Rights of the Child.

The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are independent, specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. The World Bank provides loans for international development, while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries. In Jordan, UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp. The World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication, is another of the UN's largest agencies. In 1980, the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed. In subsequent decades, WHO largely eradicated polio, river blindness, and leprosy. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), begun in 1996, co-ordinates the organization's response to the AIDS epidemic. The UN Population Fund, which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world's largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.

Along with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN often takes a leading role in coordinating emergency relief. The World Food Programme (WFP), created in 1961, provides food aid in response to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million people in 80 nations each year. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950, works to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people. UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals, though the UNHCR's administrative costs are paid for by the UN's primary budget.

Funding
The UN budget before the Dominion War was $3.1 billion, not including additional resources donated by members, such as peacekeeping forces.

The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by its gross national income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income.

The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a "ceiling" rate, setting the maximum amount that any member can be assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to pressure from the United States. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied. In addition to the ceiling rates, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or "floor" rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget ($55,120 for the two year budget 2013–2014).

A large share of the UN's expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed separately from the main organizational budget. The peacekeeping budget for the 2015–16 fiscal year was $8.27 billion, supporting 82,318 troops deployed in 15 missions around the world. UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. The largest contributors for the UN peacekeeping financial operations for the period 2019–2021 are : the United States (27.89%), China (15.21%), Japan (8.56%), Germany (6.09%), the United Kingdom (5.78%), France (5.61%), Italy (3.30%), and Russia (3.04%).

Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, are financed by voluntary contributions from member governments, corporations, and private individuals.

Decline and Disavowal
The Disavowal of the United Nations was a long process from 2019 to 2087 before it was reinstated and succeeded by the United Nations Security Command after the end of the Federation War.

Dominion War
In the year 2019, the Dominion War (As it later became known) broke out between the Russian Federation and the United States of America after the Turkish Invasion of Syria. Almost immediately after the first shots were fired, the United Nations met in a bit of an emergency meeting to discuss the Turkish Invasion of Syria after peace talks failed. The Russians condemned the action of the Turkish Government, and made a plea to the council that the Turkish Military withdraw its forces out of Northern Syria. The United States didn't say much on the escalating situation, given that they had opened the flood gates to allow for the invasion in the first place.

Turkey argued that the United Nations had no authority to settle the dispute in Syria, citing that Turkey had been fighting an insurgency for 40 years prior to this point and that self defense was legally allowed by the Council as rights of war. The United Nations tried to grant United Nations Peacekeepers to the region, but the Russians blocked that real quick like they had done with previous attempts. As the Turkish and Russian Governments continued to have there fallout, eventually a chain reaction would occur that would put the United Nations out of relevancy.

Russian Invasion of Turkey
In mid November 2019, the Russians (To Support Syria) launched a massive land, sea, and air invasion of Eastern Turkey. The Russians launched a successful amphibious invasion of Trabzon, Turkey, and invaded through occupying Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The Turkish condemned the Russian invasion on the floor of the United Nations, citing a clear violation of the Montreux Convention of 1936 as upheld by international law. The British, French, and American Governments agreed with Turkey's demands, but the Russians and the Chinese used there veto power to block the resolution.

As a result, Turkey withdrew its membership from the United Nations, and the NATO alliance overwhelmingly passed a resolution to send reinforcements to Turkey. The British, French, and Americans soon began a formal boycott of the United Nations as the situation further began to escalate. Realizing that there wasn't any hope in the council, many members began to leave. The United Nations had failed to prevent conflict between the two sides, and suspended its meetings until further notice.

Aftermath
In the year 2027, after near eight years of war between the United States and Russia, the United Nations met at a temporary headquarters in Zurich (The original United Nations Headquarters in New York was destroyed following the Russian Invasion of the United States). Many of the countries involved had been caught up in the international fight between both sides of the war. Some such as Poland, Finland, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, and several others had been severely damaged beyond belief. US President Joe Biden (Who was finishing a Second Term) Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Wang Qishan, and European Coalition Counselor Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen appeared in front of the United Nations Security Council. Together, all four officially signed the peace accords between the two sides of the conflict.

After the peace between the fighting countries was signed, the United Nations (Under Immense Pressure from the British and French) passed the "United Nations Mission of Economic Stability in Europe Asia and the Americas." Signed by over 30 countries, the United Nations began the process of rebuilding the effected areas. For this, the United Nations created an international military peacekeeping force made up of 22 countries to assist in the distribution of economic and military aid to the effected countries. Although this initially was the plan, it soon became apparent that this was a military occupation of the United States, the Peoples Republic of China, and the Russian Federation.

Occupation
From the years 2026 to 2038, the United Nations disavowal was further exacerbated by what became known as The Great Collapse. The European Coalition, having dealt with Three World Wars in a span of 100 years, had finally had enough with outside politics. With the passing of UNMESEAA (United Nations Mission of Economic Stability in Europe Asia and the Americas) effectively gave the European Coalition near complete control over the United States, the Peoples Republic of China, and the Russian Federation as well as effectively usurping the power of the United Nations.

With the power of the United Nations in the hands of the European Coalition, the European Coalition created the United Nations Special Service Unit made up of soldiers from...


 * The European Coalition (The European Union but including Greenland, Iceland, and Norway)
 * the United Kingdom
 * Morocco
 * West Morocco
 * Senegal
 * Sierra Leone
 * Niger
 * South Africa
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Oman
 * Canada
 * Mexico
 * Columbia
 * Brazil
 * Argentina
 * Bangladesh
 * Thailand
 * The Philippines
 * Australia
 * New Zealand
 * South Korea
 * Japan

This occupation force (disguised as United Nations Peacekeepers) was deployed within the occupied countries. These unofficial United Nations soldiers (Wearing unofficial United Nations markings) were often used in destructive combined arms operations, as well as used in local law enforcement operations. Naturally, this lead to major discontent between the occupiers and the occupied. However the United Nations Special Service Unit was not just used for military action, they were used to positive effects as well.

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (who was in charge of the entire operation and occupation) repeatedly ordered the deployment of a fleet of relief ships to the US, Russia, and China. Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen fully intended to help rebuild all three countries and help them recover from the most destructive conflict in world history up to that point. Naturally (Particularly in the Americas), people were scared of a foreign force setting foot on there soil, but they also understood that without this kind of aid, they couldn't have survived without it.

Despite the economic, humanitarian, and political aid that was offered through the United Nations, it simply wasn't enough. In 2034, the South African Government officially collapsed, and the country crumbled into Civil War between its various ethnic groups. A year later in 2035, the United Arab Emirates collapsed, leading to a massive surge in the prices of oil. The collapse of South Africa and the surge in prices of oil lead to a global economic recession, leading to extreme discontent between the occupiers and the occupied. This further was exacerbated as since the European Coalition had essentially created a single global economy, they were hardest hit by the crisis.

In 2037, the European Coalitions Economy hit a severe economic recession. The EC soon found itself unable to sustain its occupation of the three countries, but not even itself. The UNMESEAA officially came to an end in 2038. The European Coalition soon followed, dissolving in 2039, and the NATO alliance fallowed after that in 2040. The world was truly a different world.

New Nations
In the year 2039, following the beginning of The Great Collapse, many countries around the world had taken the opportunity to merge and capitalize on there own resources and consolidate power. The first of these state mergers occurred in South America, with the countries of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. These three South American Nations through the process of the Dominion War and the Great Collapse had found themselves more economically and politically aligned than ever. Given the economic hardships that was facing the world, it had become apparent that they could join forces to have a chance at survival.

On June 2nd, 2039, after nearly three years of planning, the nations of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile after campaigning for over two years got the majority vote needed. Together, these three countries united together to form a new country. This country would be called the "Federation of the Americas" the first of its kind since Gran Columbia. This new state with a new constitution, new military, and new economy almost immediately took international stage, and it caused a rift to other countries to try and catch up.

In 2041, the Peoples Republic of China gained two new additions to its country, when the nations of Laos, Cambodia, and Mongolia officially voted to join the Peoples Republic of China. In 2043 (After two years of Civil War), the United Korean Republic was officially formed on the Korean Peninsula. In 2045, the Russian Federation gained brand new members with when Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan officially voted to join the Russian Federation. In 2046, the nations of Sudan and South Sudan officially united into the new United Kingdom of Sudan as an absolute monarchy.

With these new states that were being formed, the membership of the United Nations changed drastically in the largest geopolitical shift since the fall of the Soviet Union. The United Nations Security Council although received its biggest change in 2055, when the first untied European State was officially formed under the new European Federation. As a result of the formation of the European Federation, the United Nations lost two of its permanent members, and as a result the United Nations found itself with only four permanent members. However, the United Nations soon found itself a new fifth member, when the Federation of the Americas assumed that role.

Reykjavik Accords
Despite these new states that were being formed, the economic decline was still evident. With the rapid spread of a Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in 2048, the increasing decline of the international great powers, the United Nations found itself in a very precarious position. The economic and political situation in some countries around the world, coupled with the distrust that had built up against the United Nations, lead to increasing ineffectiveness to a level not before seen since the League of Nations. For this reason, the United Nations assisted in some help from an unlikely source.

In 2050, the United Nations signed in a new mandate. The new mandate and treaty would officially become known as the Reykjavik Accords, signed in Reykjavik, Iceland between the members of the United Nations. The accords officially established Private Military Corporations as legal private entities that could operate under contract or by nation to assist in humanitarian aid, human rights, and political stability. The drawback was that it legally allowed these companies to purchase equipment to a certain degree. This loophole in the system allowed for corporate power to grow unchecked, allowing for East India Company level operation.

As a result of the Reykjavik Accords, one company in particular, SPIRE Corporation, grew to become the largest international corporation in the world. The company grew from a bioengineering firm formed by CEO Jason Taylor in Edinburgh, Scotland, to becoming a technological advancer of the modern world. SPIRE Corporation grew to possess the worlds largest standing army in the world, and sometimes entire nations relied on its services to survive.

War against SPIRE Corporation
In the year 2060, SPIRE Corporation (Having the international reputation that it did) was officially admitted onto the seat of the United Nations Security Council. It was hoped that this would help in rebuilding the reputation of the United Nations and that it would help provide peace and security. Instead, this would be the beginning of the most interesting conflict to ever strike on Earth.

During the ceremony, SPIRE Corporation CEO Jason Taylor showed his true colors. He announced his formal succession from the United Nations, withdrew his companies membership, and walked out. Just hours later, SPIRE Corporation fired the first shots by launching a preemptive strike against the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China, launching attacks against major cities within both nations. This preemptive strike gave SPIRE Corporation the necessary time it needed to takeover large amounts if territory in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. SPIRE Corporation also decided to attack the Federation of the Americas for good measure.

The United Nations met in a bit of an emergency panic. This was the first time in history that a true global wide conflict wasn't being fought against any major country, but a corporation. Four days after the initial opening strikes, the United Nations passed an emergency resolution declaring war against SPIRE Corporation. For the first time in history, all of the worlds major powers had found themselves fighting on the same side of a great global conflict. However, despite the combined arms of the United Nations, the War against SPIRE Corporation lasted for a total of four years before the company was officially defeated and dismantled.

Disavowal
Following the defeat of SPIRE Corporation, the United Nations override the the Reykjavik Accords, dismantling the ability for Private Military Corporations to become the way they did. However, the treatment from the United Nations following the European-Iranian War, and now starting another global conflict the world had finally had enough of the United Nations.

In 2066, over 100 members of the United Nations officially withdrew there delegations and formally left the organization. Most notably in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America, these members left without almost no regard for the old system. The United Nations further had it worse, when the Peoples Republic of China and Russian Federation withdrew there permanent memberships, leaving only three permanent members behind (The United States, European Federation, and Federation of the Americas). The biggest blow is when Switzerland left the United Nations, and formally withdrew its delegation.

By 2068, 66% of the United Nations members had formally withdrawn there delegation and had left. The three permanent members that remained (The Federation of the Americas, United States, and European Federation) found themselves in an increasing predicament. Inevitably, in a two out of three vote by the permanent members, it was officially decided to dissolve the United Nations. The United Nations had been around for almost 120 years, and had become a major influence in geopolitics. Now, all it was was just a memory in the history books. Or was it?

Reinstatement and succession.
In the year 2087, the world was a mess (To put it mildly). After twelve years of conflict on a global scale, hundreds of millions dead, entire cities wiped out, and entire geography changes, the Federation-American War had officially come to an end. The Federation of the Americas the worlds largest superpower and the worlds largest economy, was now officially dismantled. The United Nations Security Command had found itself victorious over the United Earth Regime, but it had come at a cost, with 1.2 Billion people dead. Indeed, the world was in a mess. Realizing what was at stake, it was decided that they needed to dig something out of the grave, and bring it back to life.

The United Nations was officially reinstated, with the official signing occurring in Zurich Switzerland a mere one month after the Federation War had ended. The founding members, the United States of America, European Federation, Russian Federation, Peoples Republic of China, and the United Korean Republic were now the official permanent members of the new United Nations. This time though, unlike the original United Nations, this one was to stay.

The New United Nations (As it was called) would become an official intergovernmental organization. The United Nations Security Command (The group that won the Federation War) would become the backbone of this new United Nations. The United Nations Security Command would become the military of the group, an official standing army of sorts. Finally, and for the first time in human history, a single global economy would be established between its members. These monumental achievements had never been seen before in the history of mankind, a level of unity that for decades only people could dream of.

The New United Nations immediately went to work establishing the new world order. The first act of the New United Nations was to establish a treaty on banning Kinetic Energy Missile systems and other weapons of warfare. The new UN then began the process of repopulating the destroyed areas of Europe and the United States (Who virtually had been wiped off the face of the Earth in the War). The Final Process would be the prosecution of Federation Leadership for there roles in the Federation War. These trials would end as expected, and most leaderships of the Federation of the Americas were found guilty of there attributed crimes.

Current Status
As of the year 2100, the turning point of the 22nd Century, the United Nations remains the sole superpower on Earth. However, this official United Earth Style Government is facing severe problems. The Federation War caused over a trillion USD Dollars worth of damage, making it the most destructive conflict the Human Race has ever known. In the aftermath of the war, the Russian Federation had found itself as the driving force behind the New United Nations. The Russian Federation had found itself the largest economy on the planet, the world had become increasingly dependent on Russian based trade. But, that wasn't the worst part.

The Federation War (Thanks to Kinetic Energy Missile Technology), had completely decimated entire regions of the Earth, and had changed the geography and weather patterns of the Earth in the process, and not for the better. Across the world, large toxic rain storms decimated ecological life. In the United States, large dust storms and crop blights had become prominent, leading to the United States Government having to dig into its food reserves until new ones could be established. The Earth was slowly becoming a nightmare to live on as the needs of the planet were now greater than she could supply.

As of the year 2100. The United Nations has officially set up a manned colony on Mars and the Moon, and have begun the process of Solar System Colonization. The Outer Space Treaty of 1969 had become officially abolished, along with many other treaties as a result of this conflict. This is the first time that humanity has begun interstellar colonization across the Solar System. Who knows where its gonna take them next.