Aims of United Nations Organization is international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars, succeeding the ineffective League of Nations. On 25 April 1945, 50 governments met in San Francisco for a conference and started drafting the UN Charter, which was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24 October 1945, when the UN began operations.
Background and Birth of the United Nations Organization:-
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. Currently made up of 193 Member States, the UN and its work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.
Demand of War Aims:
The failure of the League of Nations was evident, when World War II broke out in September 1939. Since the beginning of the war, peoples all over the world wanted the democracies (which were fighting against Nazism and Fascism) to declare their war aims.
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
In 1941, President F. D.Roosevelt declared that every nationality had the right to nationhood. He also spoke of the celebrated Four Freedoms:
- Freedom of speech and expression.
- Freedom of religion.
- Freedom from want; and
- Freedom from fear.
In upholding these Four Freedoms, Roosevelt was upholding roman rights:and the dignity of man.
The Atlantic Charter:
President F. D. Roosevelt and Winston. Churchill (the Prime Minister of Britain) declared the war aims of the Allies through the famous Atlantic Charter on August 14, 1941. The Atlantic Charter is as significant as the Fourteen Points of President Woodrow Wilson.
The Charter stated:
- The Allies seek no aggrandizement of any type.
- Territorial changes will be according to the wishes of the people.
- Peoples have the right to choose the type of government.
- The Allies will try to provide all states access On equal terms to trade and raw materials.
- They will try to bring about the fullest collaboration among nations in the economic field.
- After the Nazi tyranny is destroyed, they hope to establish peace, which will give safety and security to all nations.
- Such peace should enable all men to transverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.
- All nations of the world must give up the use of force.
Adoption of UN Declaration:
These eight points were very noble or even pious. On January 1, 1942 representatives of 26 governments adopted the United Nations Declaration based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter. In October 1943, a declaration regarding the need to have an international organization was made at Moscow by the Foreign Secretaries of the USA, the UK, the USSR and China.
Difference between Words and Deeds:
The leaders of Western democracies applied a double standard, one for the East and an7 other for the West. The Afro-Asian countries were not put on a par with Western countries, and the Atlantic Charter was not applied to them. Indians felt humiliated, when they were told that it was not applicable to India.
Dumbarton Oaks Conference:
On October 7, 1044 at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in the USA a plan drawn up by the USA was placed before the representatives of England, the USSR and China. It was decided at this Conference that a new plan to establish an international organization to maintain peace and prevent war should be submitted to the governments of all the United Nations. The plan envisaged the establishment of a new eleven Member body known as the Security Council, which would have &t its disposal armed forces to be used effectively against a nation, which would go against world peace.
Talks on Security Council at Yalta:
The new plan which held out substantial hope before the world was given very wide publicity. The new international organization was not to be tooth leas like the League of Nations; for it was to have military power to coerce a nation violating the principles of the UN Charter. The Security Council of the U.N.O was to have more power than the League Council.
Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill held a conference at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the voting procedure in the Security Council.
On February 11, 1945 it was decided at Yalta that a plenary conference of the United Nations would be held at San Francoise on April 25, 1945 to follow up the plan drawn up at Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta.
San Francisco Conference:
As decided earlier, a conference was held at San Francisco, and at ten plenary sessions delegates from fifty nations were present. At 400 committee meetings, details about the future international organization were drawn up.
Adoption of the UN Charter:
On June 25, 1945 at a plenary session, the Charter of the United Nations was unanimously adopted by fifty-one nations. The UN Charter is a long document consisting of a Preamble and 111 Articles.
The U.N.O had a background of about four years of preparation.
Aims and Principles of the United Nations Organization:
On 1 January, 1942, representatives of 26 Allied countries met in Washington and signed a Declaration of United Nations. The signatories endorsed the principles of the Atlantic Charter. This was the first time that the term United Nations was used.
Preamble to the UN Charter:
The ideals and aims of the U.N.O are given in the Preamble to the United Nations Charter.
Aims, The purposes of the U.N.O are:
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
- To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.
- To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.
- To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
- To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.It is to be noted that the United Nations can achieve success only if the member states cooperate with it. All member countries must abide by the policies and programmes of the United Nations, if the latter is to succeed as a peace-keeping organization.
Read More: The Structure & Functions of the UNO