• International organization founded in 1945 after the World War II.
• San Francisco
• Predecessor: League of Nations, created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was disbanded in 1946
• Mission

          1.International peace and security       

2.Developing friendly relations among nations       

3.Promoting social progress

          4.Better living standards and human rights.

1. UN General Assembly

• All member states
• The mandate of UNGA is to discuss, debate, and make recommendations
• Sessions – The assembly meets in Regular session (annually from Sep to Dec), Special session and Emergency Special Session (within 24 hours)
• Appointments – UNGA appoints Secretary General of UN based on the recommendations of UNSC.
• It elects non-Permanent members in Security Council and Members for Social and Economic Council.
• Along with Security Council, it elects Judges to International Court of Justice (ICJ).

2. United Nations Security Council

• The council has 15 members: 5 Permanent – US, UK, Russia, France & China and 10 members elected by the General Assembly for 2-year terms.
• Only UN organ that has the power to make binding decisions on member states.
• The presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically among 15 members every month.
• Voting system in the UN Security Council is rigid.
• Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote.
• Permanent Member States at the Security Council has a special voting power known as the “right to veto”.
• Decisions on procedural matters should have vote of at least 9 of the 15 members and decision on substantive matters require 9 votes and the absence of negative vote by any of the 5 permanent members.
• If any one of the five permanent members cast a negative vote in the 15-member Security Council, the resolution or decision would not be approved.
• Veto powers of P5 countries was used most frequently by Russia, blocking more than 100 resolutions since the council’s founding.
• G4 Nations – 4 countries bids for permanent seats in UNSC. They are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan.

3.UN Economic & Social Council

• It is the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development.
• It coordinates the activities of UN and other organisations working and social and economic issues.
• 54 members, which are elected by the General Assembly for a 3-year term.
• Seats in the council are allocated based on geographical  representation. 11 of them are allotted to Asian states.
• For the nations to be the elected as members of ECOSOC, it needs 2/3rdmajority of UN General Assembly votes.
• Each member of the ECOSOC has one vote and generally voting in the council is by simple majority.
• The President is elected for a one-year term.

4.Secretariat

• It undertakes the day-to-day work of the UN, administering the programmes and policies of the organization.
• It is headed by the Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide.
• UN Secretariat is located in New York City, USA.

5.International Court of Justice

• It is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It is also called as the “World Court”.
• It is seated at the Peace Palace, Hague, Netherlands.
• It is the only principal organ of UN to be not located in New York.
• It settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions to the UN and its specialized agencies.
• It hears cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference, ethnic cleansing, and other issues.
• It is composed of 15 judges elected to 9-year terms of office by the UNGA and the Security Council.
• The judgment is final, binding on the parties and without an appeal.
• Though the rulings of the ICJ are binding, some countries ignored them, as ICJ has no direct means of enforcing its orders.
• There are two types of ICJ jurisdictions.
• Contentious jurisdiction – Resolving legal disputes between consenting states
• Advisory jurisdiction – The UNGA, the Security Council and other specialized bodies of the organization can request the ICJ for an opinion on a legal question.

6.Trusteeship Council

• It was formed to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that had been placed under the administration of Member States, and to prepare the territories for self-government and independence.
• By 1994, all Trust Territories had attained self-government or independence, with the last nation being Palau.
• So, UN suspended its operation on 1994, and it continues to exist only on paper.