United Nations

From ArticleWorld

The United Nations (UN) is an internal organization. The definition it gives itself is: "global association of governments facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity." Nowadays it has 191 country members, numbering all of them except from Vatican City and the Republic of China.

History

The first person to use the term “United Nations” was Franklin Roosevelt. During World War II he mentioned it as referring to the Allies. On January 1, 1942 the Declaration by the United Nations was signed and it was pointed towards the fact that all allies will not sign peace treaties with the Axis powers. During the next years several alliances and talks between different groups of countries were held or signed. This laid the need of an organization that would incorporate as many states as possible. It all led to the first UN Conference on International Organizations, held on the 25th of April, 1945. 50 nations were present and their talks led to the signing of the Charter of the United Nations two month later. The “birth date” of the United Nations organization was October 24, 1945. Since then several modifications were established and all its member countries became a part of it.

Headquarters

The birth of such an international organization like the United Nations immediately needed a central headquarters building. It was built in New York and the building process finished in 1950. The official opening was on January 9, 1951 and the building and land it is on is not a part of United States property. Other headquarters can also be found in Geneva, Montreal, Bonn, The Hague and others.

Finances

As expected the money needed for running such an operation was a problem in the beginning. Nowadays it is not because of the two methods of financing developed: donations by members and assessment. A normal budget, calculated on a period of 2 years is financed by assessment. An inner organization called The General Assembly will assess the needed sum of money and how much a member country needs to pay. The process of determining the amount is done with the analysis of several factors based on the financial power of each state. Donations will back different UN programs that are self financed. Examples can be given in UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR and WFP. The country that both donated the largest amounts of money and that pays the most after assessment is the United States of America.