Endangered institution

Let’s have a bit of history today as we turn back the hands of time to trace the beginnings of the embattled United Nations now experiencing life-threatening convulsions. And hope to learn some lessons from it.

The year was 1944, in the month of August when the world was reeling from the devastating effects of the second world war which was then winding down.The leaders of four countries – Roosevelt of the United States, Churchill of the United Kingdom, Stalin of the U.S.S.R and Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalist China, then known as the "big four" – met at Dumbarton Oaks, District of Columbia to discuss tentative proposals for the organization of a world body of "peace loving" states.

The following year, on April 25,1945 a United Nations conference on International Organization was convened at San Francisco, California.This conference was called to write a charter based on the Dumbarton Oaks proposals. At the conclusion of the conference on June 26, 1945, the charter it drafted was signed. Four months later or on October 24, 1945,when the "big four" and France as well as a majority of the other 46 signatories had deposited their ratifications of the charter, the worldwide organization formally came into existence.The primary objective is the maintenance of international peace and security.It is also dedicated to the "development of friendly relations among nations based on the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and the achievement of international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character".

There were 51 original member-states coming from Europe, America, Australia, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. The Philippines was one of the originals. So were the US, UK, and Iraq, the main protagonists in the ongoing war. Spain was not one of them.

The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat. The more important organs appear to be the General Assembly, Security Council, and the Secretariat.They have something to do with the maintenance of international peace and security.

But the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security is lodged on the Security Council which has originally eleven members, five permanent and six non-permanent.The five permanent members are China, France, the United Kingdom, United States and U.S.S.R, now Russia.The non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms based on equitable geographical distribution.The council is authorized to investigate any dispute which might threaten international peace and security,and to make recommendations for its peaceful settlement. On substantive matters like the investigation of any dispute and the application of sanctions,seven affirmative votes including the concurrence of the five permanent members are required. A permanent member may thus exercise the veto power as France did in case of Iraq resulting in a stand-off on the issue of using force as a sanction. In fact because of this veto power, the general assembly, in Nov. 1950 in the case of the Korean war when Russia (USSR) exercised its veto power, adopted the Uniting for Peace resolution by which it assumed additional responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security, on initiative of the US This resolution provided that the assembly should take action with reference to a threat or breach of peace should the Security Council fail to exercise its primary responsibility in that field. Apparently, the US could have done the same in the case of the France veto on Iraq, but it did not.

The General Assembly is the only body on which all members are represented.Although a member can send five representatives, each has only one vote.It exercises supervisory, financial, elective and deliberative functions.Decisions on substantive questions are taken by a majority or two-thirds vote depending on the importance of the issues involved.

The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General who is the Chief Administrative Officer of the UN. He also has a significant political role because he is specially charged with bringing before the UN any matter that threatens or violates international peace and security.

The UN charter explicitly says that "it is based on the sovereign equality of its members;disputes are to be settled by peaceful means;members undertake not to use force or the threat of force in contravention of its purposes; each member must assist the organization in any action it takes under the charter; and the organization shall not intervene in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of any state except to take enforcement measures" (Art 2). Apparently these basic principles have been thrown out the window in the ongoing Iraqi war.There is every reason to fear therefore that the UN has become an endangered institution whose days may be numbered.

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