UN’s 77th-Anniversary

About the principal organs of the United Nations

• General Assembly:
  • It can be loosely called the parliament of the United Nations Organisation.
  • Some decisions like budget, admission of new members and peace and security are taken by two-thirds majority to be passed. Other decisions require only a simple majority.
• United Nations Security Council:
  • It has the primary responsibility of maintenance of peace and security in the international community.
  • It comprises of 15 members, which can be divided in 2 categories:
    • Permanent members: 
      • Also called as the P-5 members. 
      • It is comprised of US, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. 
      • They have veto powers, which essentially means that passing of a decision in the UNSC must have each P5 member’s concurrence.
    • Elected Members: 
      • There are 10 non-permanent members. They are elected by the General Assembly and have a tenure of 2 years each.
• Economic and Social Council:
  • It is responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization.
  • ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations System.
  • The Council consists of 54 Member States, which are elected yearly by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. 
• Trusteeship Council:
  • It is established to help ensure that trust territories were administered in the best interests of their inhabitants and of international peace and security.
  • The trust territories:
    • Most of them former mandates of the League of Nations or territories taken from nations defeated at the end of World War II—have all now attained self-government or independence, either as separate nations or by joining neighbouring independent countries.
• The International Court of Justice
  • The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court. 
  • It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. 
  • The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
  • Role and Responsibilities: 
    • The Court settles legal disputes submitted to it by States, in accordance with international law.  
    • It also gives advisory opinions on legal questions referred by authorised UN organs and specialised agencies. 
    • Judgments in disputes between States are binding.  
    • The Court decides disputes between countries, based on the voluntary participation of the States concerned. 
    • If a State agrees to participate in a proceeding, it is obligated to comply with the Court’s decision.
• UN Secretariat:
  • The secretariat is the UN’s executive arm. 
  • The secretariat has an important role in setting the agenda for the deliberative and decision-making bodies of the UN (i.e., the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and Security Council), and the implementation of the decision of these bodies. 
  • The secretary-general, who is appointed by the General Assembly, is the head of the secretariat.

The Global South

• The Global South has traditionally been used within intergovernmental development organizations –– primarily those that originated in the Non-Aligned Movement­ ­–– to refer to economically disadvantaged nation-states and as a post-cold war alternative to “Third World.” 
  • However, in recent years and within a variety of fields, the Global South is employed in a post-national sense to address spaces and peoples negatively impacted by contemporary capitalist globalization.