The Rotary Balita no. 782 (October 13, 1955)

1. The United Nations has (April, 1955) 60 Member Countries.
2. It was set up by the United Nations Charter, which was written at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, held at San Francisco from 25 April to 26 June, 1945.
3. It came into being on 24 October 1945, when China, France, the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States and a majority of the other countries which signed the Charter at San Francisco, had sent formal notes to the U.S. State Department in Washington, confirming their signature. 24 October is now United Nations Day.
4. Each Member contributes to the annual budget of the United Nations. The amount is decided by the General Assembly and depends on each country's ability to pay.
5. When States join the United Nations, they promise — among other things — to solve their disputes by peaceful means.
6. All peace-loving States who agree to carry out the obligations of the Charter of the United Nations may become Members of the United Nations.
7. The General Assembly admits new Member countries after they have been recommended by the Security Council. Nine new members have (April 1955) been admitted to the United Nations since it came into being.
8. There are six main bodies which form part of the United Nations: These are called the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat.

General Assembly

9. The General Assembly meets once a year. It can also hold a special session if a majority of its Members, or the Security Council, want one.
10. The Assembly decides important matters by a two-thirds majority vote; other questions by a simple majority. Every vote in the Assembly is equal to every other vote, and there is no "veto."
11. The General Assembly may discuss and make recommendations on all matters that come under the Charter, except that it cannot make recommendations on any question concerning peace and security being considered by the Security Council, unless the Security Council asks it to do so.
12. If the Security Council fails because of the veto to act on a threat to the peace, the General Assembly can make recommendations to Member countries for collective action to maintain or restore peace.

Security Council

13. The Security Council consists of eleven member countries. Five of these are permanent and are named in the Charter; they are China France, USSR, United Kingdom and United States. Six of them are chosen by the General Assembly for two years, after which they may not serve again immediately.
14. The Security Council cannot take any decision, except on questions of procedure, if one of these five permanent members is against it; this is called the "veto,' or the unanimity rule.
15. The Security Council's job is to keep peace; it acts on behalf of all Members of the United Nations.
16. When the Council is recommending measure for settling peacefully a dispute, a Council member if it is a party to this dispute may not vote.
17. The Security Council is organized so as to be able to work continuously.

Economic and Social Council

18. The Economic and Social Council has eighteen members which are chosen by the General Assembly for three years; six of the members retire each year; they may be chosen again and often are.
19. There is no "veto" in the Economic and Social Council; all decisions are taken by a simple majority.
20. The Economic and Social Council helps the General Assembly in its work to improve living conditions and to extend observance of basic human rights.
21. Working with the United Nations are ten separate inter-governmental organizations called special agencies. They are: the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNES- CO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Two further agencies, the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) and the International Trade Organization (ITO) are planned.
22. A Technical Assistance Board coordinates the activities of the United Nations Technical Assistance Administration (TAA) and several specialized agencies under the cooperative enterprise, called the "Expanded Program of Technical Assistance," which helps provide technical skills and knowledge to under-developed countries for their efforts at economic and social development. It is financed from voluntary contributions from some 75 governments which are paid into a special fund. The participants in the program, apart from TAA, are ILO, FAO, UNESCO, ICAO, WHO, ITU and WMO. They share in the voluntary contributions. Also cooperating in the program are the International Bank and International Monetary Fund. They do not, however, draw upon the special fund.
23. The Council has Commissions that deal with particular parts of its work. Three of them are regional economic Commissions which are concerned with special problems in particular areas — Europe, Asia and the Far East, Latin America; the others deal with particular subjects, such as Human Rights or Transport and Communications. They give expert advice to the Council.

Trusteeship Council

24. Another body is the Trusteeship Council which assists the General Assembly in looking after Trust Territories.
25. The Trusteeship Council is made up of Member countries that are administering such Territories, permanent members of the Security Council not administering such Territories and enough other Members elected by the General Assembly for three years so that the number of administering and non-administering members is equal.
26. Trust Territories are territories which have been placed under the International Trusteeship System. They do not govern themselves; the countries which govern them have placed them under the Trusteeship System by individual agreements approved by the General Assembly or, in the case of "strategic areas," by the Security Council.
27. The idea of the Trusteeship System is to look after the welfare of the peoples of the Territories and to help them to develop so that they may govern themselves.
28. At present (August 1954) there are eleven Trust Territories; they are: Ruanda-Urundi (Belgium), Cameroons (France), Togoland (France), Cameroons (United Kingdom), Tanganyika (United Kingdom), Nauru (Australia), New Guinea (Australia), Western Samoa (New Zealand), the Pacific Islands (United States) and Somaliland (Italy). (The names of the countries which administer these Territories are given in brackets.)
29. The Charter allows Members to call a particular Trust Territory which it thinks is important for reasons of defense, a "strategic area." It is then supervised by the Security Council and not by the General Assembly. The Member governing it may close off parts of the Territory for strategic reasons.
30. One of the Trust Territories is defined as a "strategic area"; it is the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands which consists of the Marshalls, Marianas and Carolines.
31. The countries which administer Trust Territories must send annual reports to the United Nations; the United Nations also sends out visiting missions to see for itself the conditions in the Territories.
32. People may send petitions to the Trusteeship Council concerning conditions in the Trust Territories; the Council has dealt with many such petitions.
33. Members which administer Territories which do not fully govern themselves and which have not been placed under the Trusteeship System send information every year to the Secretary-General concerning the economic, social and educational conditions in these Territories. This information is summarized and analyzed by the Secretariat, and these summaries and analyses are considered by a special committee set up by the General Assembly. These Territories are not looked after by the Trusteeship Council.

The International Court of Justice

34. The International Court of Justice is composed of fifteen judges, no two of whom may be nationals of the same State, and meets at The Hague in Holland. The judges are elected by the Security Council and the General Assembly, voting separately but at the same time.
35. The job of the Court is to consider all cases referred to it. Only States may be parties in such cases. It also gives advisory opinions when asked to do so by the General Assembly, the Security Council or other authorized bodies of the United Nations or specialized agencies.
Secretariat
36. The Secretariat takes care of all the administrative matters of the United Nations. It does the office work of the Organization.
37. It works all year round, serving all parts of the Organization and carrying out the programs and policies laid down by them.
38. The members of the Secretariat are from many different nations; they do not represent their countries but form an "independent" international civil service under the Secretary-General.
39. At the head of the Secretariat is the Secretary-General, who is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. Under the Charter he has some political as well as administrative responsibilities. Trygve Lie, of Norway, was the first Secretary-General of the United Nations; Dag Hammarskjold, of Sweden, is the present Secretary-General.

A few of the U.N.'s Activities

40. The United Nations sends investigation bodies to study on-the-spot situations in troubled areas, so that it may have first-hand information when recommending the steps to be taken,
41. The United Nations itself takes measures to end disputes; for example by appointing a group or a person to help the opposing sides, to agree (as in the cases of Palestine, Indonesia and Kashmir).
42. If international peace is threatened or broken, or some country has committed an act of aggression, the United Nations may take collective measures to maintain or restore peace, as it did in the case of Korea.
43. The United Nations tries to secure agreement for regulating and reducing armaments and armed forces. A Disarmament Commission under the Security Council is working out plans for this as well as for eliminating weapons of mass destruction and for the disclosure and verification of information on existing armaments and armed forces.
44. During 1954, the United Nations Technical Assistance Administration, together with the seven specialized agencies which also participate in the Expanded Program of Technical Assistance to under-developed countries, had some 1,600 experts in the field. Since the beginning of this program in July 1950, over 5,000 experts, drawn from about 70 different nationalities, have gone out to serve in more than 75 countries. During the same period, over 5,000 fellowships and scholarships for study abroad have been awarded to the nationals of more than 100 countries. Training facilities for these fellows and scholars have been provided by 98 host countries.
45. For its part, the United Nations through its Technical Assistance Administration gives, partly under a program financed from its budget and partly under the Expanded Programs, expert technical advice in the fields of economic development, public administration and social welfare to countries which ask for it. Fellowships, pilot projects, regional training and demonstration centres and seminars are also offered to train nationals of the requesting countries in these fields. During 1954, some 630 persons from 71 countries and territories had been awarded fellowships and scholarships for training abroad in 41 host countries, and 265 experts from 44 different nationalities appointed for 48 countries and territories.
46. The United Nations works to further the observance of basic human rights; it has proclaimed a Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard for all peoples and all nations; a convention for the prevention and punishment, as a crime under international law, of "genocide" (the killing of groups of people belonging to a particular race, nationality or religion) was drawn up by the United Nations and came into force in January 1951.
47. The United Nations gives aid and protection to refugees through the Office of its High Commissioner. To help Palestine refugees in the Near East it has established a special fund, and a special agency — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
48. The United Nations works to improve the status of women. Its Commission on the Status of Women makes recommendations for granting women political and legal equality, equal educational opportunities and equal pay for equal work. A convention to grant women equal political rights with men was drawn up and came into force on July 7 after six countries had accepted it. By the middle of August fifteen countries has accepted it.
49. The United Nations runs a world-wide system of control over dangerous drugs, such as opium and cocaine.
50. Though UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), the United Nations provides food supplements and supplies for mass health campaigns and material and child welfare projects in underdeveloped areas of the world. Beneficiaries of the major programs assisted by UNICEF in more than 90 countries during eight years' operations include: over 90 million tested for tuberculosis and over 36 million vaccinated; over 24 million examined for yaws, bejel and syphilis and over 6 million treated; 23.5 million protected against malaria and other insect-borne diseases; 15.5 million recipients of UNICEF milk and other diet supplements. UNICEF has provided basic equipment for some 5,500 mother-child welfare centres and is helping to establish plants for local production of antibiotics and vaccines and of milk and other foods. It also gives emergency assistance in disasters. Recipient governments match, and in many cases exceed UNICEF allocations.