.
The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of other signatories.
The United Nations was established as an organization to maintain world peace. It was to this partly by imposing sanctions against those who broke the peace and partly through programs to remove what were thought to be the causes of war-poverty, suffering and ignorance. Today, the United Nations has 189 members, nearly all of the world's states.
United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October each year (UN Brief History-Web).
The Decision making-making structure of the United Nations was set up by the victorious powers to make them the core of the organization and the guardians of peace. The members of the United Nations are represented in a General Assembly, each with one vote. This is democratic, although it does give undue voting power to tiny countries. However, the allies added to this General Assembly another body, the Security Council. This body must also agree to any significant action of the UN, and each of the World War II victors (The United Sates, France, Britain, Russia and China) was made a permanent member of the Security Council. Ten other states rotate on and off the council for terms of two years each. Not only were the victors made permanent members of the Security Council, but each was given and individual veto over its decisions. That is, each of the five permanent members was given the right to veto significant actions of the UN.
The Executive leader of the UN is the Secretary General, an individual elected by the general Assembly for the term of five years. The present Secretary-general is Kofi Annan of Ghana, who was elected in 1997. The Secretary -general manages the operations of the UN but works most effectively persuading rather than pushing. Some secretaries-general have been effective world diplomats; others have been primarily managers of the organization.
