At the last minute the term United Nations was substituted for Associated Powers.

Transcription

1 Origin of the UN: Unit 6 World Order Lesson 3: Structure Of The United Nations Organisation 1 NOTES In 1942 during WW2 Churchill visited the USA. While there he signed the Joint Declaration of the Associated Powers (USA Britain, USSR, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the Dominican Republic, ElSalvador, Greece, Guatamala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.) At the last minute the term United Nations was substituted for Associated Powers. In this document the nations declared a common purpose to defend life, liberty, independence, religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands... In pursuance of the above aims they agreed to co operate in the defeat of Hitlerism. Out of this wartime declaration came the post war UNO. It's laudable objectives soon became hijacked by people with other aims. Humanism To understand the UN you need to understand what humanism is. Humanists believe that there is no God. They believe that belief in God is harmful as well as wrong. Darwinian evolution is linked with humanism. Evolution is the explanation for the existence of the universe that allows Humanism to do away with the concept of God. The final humanist objective is socialist world government with a humanist elite in control. The vision is for nationalisation of all industry, and then dissolution of national identity as each government becomes subordinate to the super-government. The UN is the ideal organisation through which people with these ideas can work and humanists have used the UN to the full. The UN s objectives (as outlined in the second manifesto) and that of the American Humanist Association are very similar and high profile members of humanist associations have played prominent parts in the UN. There are hundreds of humanist organizations in the world, most of which operate on a local level, but many operate on an international level through the UN. This is particularly evident in UNESCO, indeed the Philosophy for UNESCO was drawn up by the prominent Humanist Julian Huxley. (see below) Structure of the UNO Watson has a good chart on p.32. If you do not have Watson find a chart elsewhere e.g. on-line. 1 Information about the humanist ideals of the UN in general and UNESCO in particular comes from In the Minds of Men: Darwin and the New World Order by Ian T. Taylor third edition TFE Publishing 1991.

2 Look at the chart and identify specifically: b. General Assembly c. Security Council d. UNESCO e. other organs b. General Assembly one vote per member meets in September, additional sessions can be called scrutinizes all UN work much work done through committees languages: English, Russian, French, Chinese, Spanish c. Security Council Role: to carry out General Assembly's decisions and deal with all threats to peace can meet at once in a crisis At first there were 11 members. This was increase to 15 in 1965 There is a mixture of permanent and elected seats Permanent members: USA, Britain, USSR, France, China (=Taiwan until 1971) Other members elected for two years Any decision required 7 votes (later 9) and important decisions must be approved by the great powers. i.e. the Big Five have a veto. Powers which enable Security Council to act effectively: The Security Council has the right to: call for sanctions (usually economic) request provision of armed forces which act as UN forces (states have the right to act singly or together in their own defence until the Security Council Acts) d. UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Org. founded to campaign against illiteracy, promote education. But promotes secular humanism, its philosophy was drawn up by Julian Huxley prominent secular humanist. Huxley states that the philosophy for UNESCO should be evolutionary in background: It is essential for UNESCO to adopt an evolutionary approach... the general

3 philosophy of UNESCO should, it seems, be a scientific world humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background... Thus the struggle for existence that underlies natural selection is increasingly replaced by conscious selection, a struggle between ideas and values in consciousness... From the evolutionary point of view, the destiny of man may be summed up very simply: it is to realize the maximum progress in the minimum time. This is why the philosophy of UNESCO must have an evolutionary background and why the concept of progress cannot but occupy a central position in that philosophy. The moral for UNESCO is clear. The task laid upon it to promote peace and security can never be wholly realized through the means assigned to it - education, science and culture. It must envision some form of world political unity, whether though a single world government or otherwise, as the only certain means for avoiding war. Huxley then proposes the dissolution of national sovereignty and then goes on : The unifying of traditions into a single common pool of experience awareness, and purpose is the necessary prerequisite for further major progress in human evolution. Accordingly, although political unification in some sort of world government will be required for the definitive attainment of this stage, unification in the things of the mind is not only necessary also but it can pave the way for other types of unification... Pause to consider what unification in the things of the mind exactly means! Since UNESCO s mandate is educational it promotes it s ideas of world government and unification in the things of the mind through schools. An early example (c.1949) As long as the child breathes the poisoned air of nationalism, education in worldmindedness can produce only rather precarious results. As we have pointed out, it is frequently the family which infects the child with extreme nationalism. The school should therefore use the means described earlier to combat family attitudes. (a quote from UNESCO publication for teachers.) In 1980 the general conference of UNESCO in Belgrade adopted a resolution to include the principles of a New World Information and Communication Order. This was an attempt to bring the world s television and radio news media together under an umbrella which it was claimed was for the purpose of maintaining the freedom of the press. The true reasons for this organization became clear when it was then suggested that UNESCO would license journalists. It became evident that this was a step towards censoring reporting that did not follow UNESCO s secular humanist agenda. USA and Britain withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 because it

4 "politicised virtually every subject it deals with... exhibited hostility towards the basic institutions of a free society... and... demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansionism." 2 e. Other organs: i.. Secretariat: similar to that of L of N controlled by the secretary General ii. Secretary General method of appointment: recommended by the security council appointed by the General Assembly for a five year term may bring before the security council matters which threaten peace All the UN Secretary Generals have been men of ability from lesser powers iii. International Court of justice 15 judges chosen jointly by the Security Council and the General Assembly one third of them retire every three years functions similar to those of the L of N Permanent Court UNO member nations agree to accept its findings BUT some members have reservations about being bound in this way e.g. disputes between Britain and members of the Commonwealth are excluded. iv. Trusteeship Council continues the work of the L of N Mandates Commission prepares colonies for independence made new arrangements with nations that had mandates after WW2 e.g. USA took over Japan's mandates. most territories overseen by the Trusteeship Council moved smoothly to independence. v. International Labour Organisation (as in L of N) vi. World Health Organisation (WHO) vii. Universal Postal union (UPU) viii. International Bank ix. International Monetary Fund x. United Nations Children's Emergency Fund xi. World Food Council xii. and many more... 2 Britain returned to UNESCO in 1997, the USA returned in 2002.

5 6. Difference between the L of N and the UNO a. differences in structure See chart on p.32 of Watson OR if you have found two separate charts elsewhere make your own comparison. The charter of the UNO had 111 articles and was more substantial than that of the L of N UNO had the same basic framework as the L of N UN Mandates Council = L of N Mandates Commission UN Economic and Social Council more comprehensive than that of the L of N Secretariat similar to that of L of N BUT In the League of Nations all decisions had had to be unanimous. In the General Assembly of the UNO a simple majority and a two thirds majority for major decisions is adequate. This enables the UNO to act more effectively in times of crisis that the L of N had done. b. other differences The ideals of the UNO were similar to those of the L of N: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war to re affirm faith in fundamental human rights to engender respect for international law BUT Aimed to learn from the mistakes of the L of N It was independent of peace treaties unlike the L of N It was not regarded by the defeated powers of WW2 as an instrument for their punishment However the Great Powers took care to preserve their interests and influence: they had permanent seats on the Security Council. WRITTEN WORK 1. Describe the structure of the United Nations Organisation (UNO). In what ways does the structure of the UNO differ from that of the League of Nations? 2. Describe the membership and working of : (a) the United Nations General Assembly (b) the Security Council (c) UNESCO

6 Explain three ways in which the UNO is different from the League of Nations. These questions are similar. Answer either 1 or 2 but make sure you could answer both. Additional questions in a more recent style: 3.List the main agencies for the economic and social work of the United Nations Organisation and outline the type of work which each undertook. Indicate the main reasons why the United Nations Organisation has been more successful than the League of Nations. [Has it? Yes there has been no WW3 but there have been many other wars. Freedom and democracy are still not available to most people. This is a badly framed question. Better would be to what extent...] From now on always do your essays using the join-the-dots-without-looking method. Check your essays against you notes after writing and add anything you have forgotten. Remember PPE for the second half.