1. Introduction to the UN
Ying zhe

2. What is the UN?
• The united nations is an international organization
established on 24th October 1945 to help stabilize
relationships between countries after the world war. Its
purpose is to maintain peace and security; to develop
friendly relationships between countries, to help solve
global problems and to promote human rights. The
organisation supports countries in a number of ways,
from clearing landmines, helping relief efforts in the
aftermath of disasters and intervening as peacekeepers
in conflict situations. There are currently 16 UN
peacekeeping missions going on worldwide, involving a
total of 114000 people.

4. How do countries become members?
• They have to accept the UN charter, which sets out both
the right and obligations of member countries. In 1945, this
charter was signed by 51 countries. There are now 192
members – almost every country in the world. The only non
members of the UN are the Vatican city ( or holy see),
which is an official observer state; Palestine, also an
observer with a special “non- member entity” status
presented by the PLO; Taiwan, which the UN considers as
part of China; Western Sahara, a ‘non self-governing
territory’ whose status as a sovereign state is in dispute
between mexic and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic republic;
the cook islands and the Niue, which are represented in the
UN by New Zealand.

5. Who are these people?
Former secretary general Kofi Annan Current secretary general Ban Ki Moon

6. • To quote from the letter: Charting a New Horizon
for UN Peacekeeping, " we know that if we fail to
continuously attend to peacekeeping,
international peace and security will suffer.
Where peace operations fail, thousands may die
and hundreds of thousands may be displaced,
inter-state tensions may increase and conflicts
may reignite. But where peacekeeping succeeds,
we can create the conditions for lasting stability
and strengthen the foundations of our shared
security."

8. • Following the extensive destruction and horror
associated with the First World War, the proposed
formation of a league of nations (LON) was a significant
feature of the peacemaking process at the Paris Peace
Conference in 1919. Many statesmen around the world,
most notably president Woodrow Wilson of the United
States of America, had expressed interest in
establishing an international inter- government
organization for the maintenance of world peace and
security.

9. • However, around two decades after being
established the League faded away after being
powerless to stop Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia ( now
ethiopia) and Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. Benito
Mussolini, Italy’s prime minister, quipped that “the
league is very well when sparrows shout, but no
good at all when eagles fall out.” The UN was
established after World War 2 as a successor to the
league.

11. • The general assembly consists of six main committees.
Resolutions passed in these committees provide
important directions and priorities that will direct the
work of bodies established by the Assembly to study and
report on specific issues:
• First committee: Disarmament and International Security
(DISEC)
• Second committee: Economical and Financial (ECOFIN)
• Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
(SOCHUM)
• Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonization (
SPECPOL)
• Fifth committee: Administrative and Budgetary
• Sixth committee: Legal

12. • Decisions on important questions, such as
those on disarmament, international peace
and security, admission of new members and
budgetary matters, require two thirds
majority. Decisions on other questions are by
simple majority; during plenary sessions,
resolutions may be adopted by acclamation,
without objection or without a vote.

13. Task
• So far, we have only been told how the UN
came about, and perhaps for some of those
who joined MUNs, observed how restrictive
the UN is like. We have not been really told
about the flaws of the UN, and so now with
the remaining time do come up with examples
of how the UN has failed and present!

14. My example – Bosnian Massacre

15. What happened?
• In April 1992, the government of the Yugoslav
republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its
independence from Yugoslavia. Over the next
several years, Bosnian Serb forces, with the
backing of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army,
targeted both Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and
Croatian civilians for atrocious crimes resulting in
the deaths of some 100,000 people (80 percent
Bosniak) by 1995. It was the worst act of
genocide since the Nazi regime's destruction of
some 6 million European Jews during World War
II.

16. Stay away if you cannot
stomach photos of dead
bodies and people close to
the stage of death by
starvation.

17. Cannot confirm if this image is that of the Bosnian Muslims, but they were living in
conditions worse than this.

18. Bodies being dug up and given a proper burial place.

19. Thoughts?
• Guiding questions:
• What could have been the reason for the UN not
intervening?
• What did this incident reflect of UN led interventions?
• If I were to take the NATO intervention in Libya and
compare it to the time taken by UN to reach a decision
on Libya, what is the difference between these two
bodies? (Clue: UN is ultimately a bureaucratic and
peace keeping force.)
• What is lacking in the UN in general?

20. Questions?