Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The United Nations

The United Nations came into existence in the year 1945 i.e. the year in which World War II came to an end. The World War Ii had caused great miseries and destruction throughout the world. Cities and towns were ruined and industries destroyed. Hundreds and thousand of people lost their lives and livelihood. Then mankind could understand that waging wars of this magnitude was the greatest folly. It became clearly evident that the next world war would be far more fierce which could destroy the whole of humanity and the world. It was thought that enormours wealth which is spent on wars could be used to bring happiness, prosperity and development for all the nations. It was this very though that gave birth to the establishment of the United Nations.
The first and foremost aim of United Nations Organisation (UNO) known as U.N. is to promote peace and security for every nation by avoiding every kind of war. UNO also made a declaration of human rights which included right of every human being to live as a free citizen and have equal rights to education, travel, worship and no discrimination based on religion or sex. The UNO has been trying very hard to implement these human rights through the active support and cooperation of the member nations. During the last fifty eight years of its existence, UNO, through its most important organ the Security Council, is trying its best to maintain peace among the member countries. It is always ready to listen to the problems of the member countries and tries to sort out them through discussions at various forums. During this period, UNICEF which another agency of UNO is helping various countries in programmes of education of children, in teacher training, in the education of disabled children etc.,
Many countries have been benefited from the works of UNICE. One such programme in India is ‘Anganwadi’ for the development of poor children for their education, health and entertainment. Another important organization of the UNO is the World Health Organisation (WHO) which is helping nations to improve their health services by preventing spread of diseases.
UNO has still on hand various problems with which it started fifty eight years back. These problems are many and varied out of which world peace and security of each nation are the basic problems. Then there are problems of poor health, lack of education, uncontrollable population growth, poverty in many countries and illiteracy. Now everything depends upon how all these problems are tackled. The UNO has taken the lead role in preventing the use of atomic and other destructive weapons. Now there are signs that the world is gradually realizing the dangers in production and piling up of destructive weapons.
The outbreak of war on various occasions has been prevented by U.N.O. A war between England and Egypt over the question of Suez Canal was prevented and it checked the Korean war & Arab – Israel war from turning into a world war. In fact, UNO is the only hope of world peace in the present scenario. It is the efforts of UNO that ceasefire could be achieved between Irag and Iran and thus a decade old war was stopped from turning into a World War. It has also tried to solve the problem of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, though this issue is still lingering on and Pakistan is trying to take advantage of everything and at the same time creating terror in the valley.
Many countries think that UNO is dominated by the US block and it is not able to work impartially. They believe that UNO could not do anything to solve the problem of Vietnam which was attacked by USA in a very severe manner. Also the genocide of East Bengal could not be stopped by it. Even Israel invaded Leabanon and massacred thousands of innocent Palestininians and UNO could not do anything. The big five countries make the working of UNO ineffective by exercising their veto power at the time of crucial decisions. It was only after twenty – five long years of efforts that Red China got its appropriate status in this organization. However, in spite of all such shortcomings, the membership of UNO is increasing with the passage of time and always more & more countries are opting to be member of the UNO. To make it a big success, it requires the help and cooperation of all the member nations. It is essential that membership of the Security Council should be increased so as to give this organization a universal look for welfare of mankind. No single country (USA) should be allowed to dominate the proceedings of this organization. This world power rather should work with a constructive and progressive attitude towards all the nations.

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