Introduction

The United Nations Organisation was born out of the ashes of the League of Nations. The League of Nations came into existence in 1919 to maintain peace in the world following the First Great War. But within twenty years of its existence, another war, more destructive and devastating than the first one, broke out. With the invention of the nuclear weapons, it was realized that another global war could wipe out man from the earth. A need was thus felt by all the people of the world to establish international organisation which would prevent wars and help to settle all disputes peacefully. In consequence the U. N. O. came into appearance on October 24, 1945 embodying in it the deep felt need and desire of the people of the world with different ideologies to exist peacefully. The United States, England, Soviet Russia and China were the five sponsoring nations. The Organisation looks into matters relating to threat to peace through a Council of eleven members called the Security Council”. The sponsoring nations have permanent seats, the others are elected for two years region wise.

The Security Council has several important powers which no other U. N. O. organ had. It proposes the name of the Secretary General; it recommends the acceptance of the new members and the expulsion of the existing members. The objective of the Organisation is the maintenance of the world peace by bringing the nations to a common platform and helping them to iron cut their differences without having recourse to war. But apart from its political aims, the U. N. has ambitions plans for promoting the welfare of the people and for these it has number of subsidiary bodies of which the more important are World Health Organisation, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, U. N. Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organisation, International Monetary Fund and International Labour Organisation. It i. almost a quarter of century since its inception and it is not that in this period the world has been without conflicts and differences. We are, therefore, inclined to wander if the U. N. O. has justified its 32 years of existence. Let us dilate upon its contribution to the international affairs.

Achievements of the U. N. O. in the political field

Generally speaking, the U. N. has demonstrated that an international partner ship among member nations is a workable arrangement to promote peace and security by negotiation, conciliation, mediation, and judicial process. It has also improved the welfare of all mankind, The U. O’s. first objective of course is to save the success generations from the scourge of war”. Though local or “bush conflicts have occurred, a major outbreak has been averted In Congo, it supplied the peace keeping force to perfect the newly independent nation against external aggression and to maintain inter-harmony. It resolved the Suez crisis by agreement on withdrawal of Israel, British and French force; from Egyptian territory. It took collective action by armed forces to throw back Communist aggressors to arrange against South also en Korea and helped to achieve an armistice. It cease fire between Turkish and Greek forces in Cyprus. It couraged establishment of the hot line’, a direct line of communication between the White House and Kremlin to avert any possibility of misunderstanding. It acted during the Indo Pak conflict of 1965. U. N. O. was also effective in solving the problem of Vietnam. When ever the war breaks out in any part of world. U. N. O. is always ready to stop it and to save the humanity from disaster. The Nuclear Test ban treaty was signed by many nations prohibiting all nuclear explosions except those underground.

Its non-political activities

Besides, U. N. Children’s Emergency Fund was established to help children throughout the world. Considering that 45 percent of the world’s children are without schools and two-thirds the world’s children live in utter poverty, it is a very significant step in the right direction. It helped more then 40 formerly dependent States to become Sovereign States. It acted to improve labour conditions and living standards, drafted labour codes and encouraged economic and social stability. It promoted the formation of the Food and Agricultural Organisation to increase food production and nutrition levels and launched the international “freedom from hunger’ campaign. It established the U. N. Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organisation to combat illiteracy and raised the standard of living through science and culture. It helped to form the World Health Organisation to diffuse knowledge of health and nutrition to fight against malaria, smallpox, venereal dis eases, cholera and other epidemic diseases and to promote maternal and child health.

Its failures

It must be said and accepted that the United Nations has not done nearly enough to reach the goals solemnly proclaimed 32 years ago viz, universal peace, prosperity, social justice and life worth living for every human being. The need for international action to bring these to fruition is at least as urgent I now as it was in 1945. We only have to look around us. The scourge or war is still with us. In the field of disarmament, the progress is indeed very limited. Further, there is the frightening prospect of new arms in the field of nuclear weapons, involving anti-missile defense system and missiles with multiple war heads. The chronic problem of colonialism and apartheid have persisted in South Africa. Human rights are being flagrantly violated in different parts of the world. The U.N. has been unable to persuade Israel to realise its illegal hold on Sinai. It is evident that it is a helpless spectator who cannot do anything when two nations are determined to fight with most malicious intentions. Talking about food for all, the U. N. O. watched helplessly Nigeria starving millions of Biafrans to death. These are some of the anomalies besetting its road to success.

Where the trouble lies ?

In spite of these instances of failure we must say that the U. N. has been, by and large, a success. The, trouble really is not fundamentally with the concept of the U. N. but with the state of the world in relation to that concept. It is not only the threat of war which most deeply concerns all of us, but also some of the major problems of our age which can only be solved by international co-operation and action and the solution of which is indispensable to secure an enduring peace. The problem is to reconcile the objectives of the U. N. with national policies and with sovereignty. It is also true that some of the means providing in the Charter to secure these objectives, have not worked out in the manner envisaged by the founding fathers. For example, one of the great innovation in the Charter has until now remained a virtually dead letter. The idea of collective security to some extent has been replaced by regional defense pacts outside the U. N.

Conclusion

Meanwhile, the U. N. has faced some of the novel challenges of the last 32 years by improving a quite unforeseen mechanism, though not peace-enforcing out of peace keeping. It has military units in a non-violent role acting as peace-keepers rather than as soldiers. The U. N. has worked solidly and after effectively to bring about change in many vitally important areas of human activity.