UN Flashcards
headquarters UN
New York
members UN
193 countries
mandate UN
to end international war, and to promote social and economic development
key structure UN
6
- UN General Assembly (plenary body)
- UN Security Council
- Economic and Social Council
- International Court of Justice
- Maribund Trusteeship Council
- Secretariat (with Secretary-General)
key obligations to the UN
- give up the use of force except for self-defense
- must carry out SC decisions
- can conclude no treaty that contradicts the UN Charter
UN as forum, actor and resource
FORUM: annual meetings of the UNGA
ACTOR: issues statements and resolutions
RESOURCE: resolutions are symbolic resources with which states/actors can influence global perception of the issues that interest them
UN Charter
- signed in 1945 in San Francisco
- forms something like a constitution for the international system
- empowering and constraining on governments
- principle and practice need to be understood together: interpreting the Charter is important
UN Charter amendment
- art. 108
- requires approval of the P5 and 2/3 majority in the UNGA
Principle v. Practice of the UN
aspirations of the UN often result in compromises between the aspirations and practical reality of power differences and competing views
P5 SC
Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union the UK and the US
UN SC members
P5
10 rotating with 2 year terms
Rotating members are shared among/by the regional groups:
- African Group 3
- Asia-Pacific Group 2
- Eastern-Europe Group 1
- Latin America and the Carribean Group 2
- Western and Other Group 2
UN SC voting
- P5 have veto powers on everything accept procedural matters
- 9/15 affirmative votes
Moribund Trusteeship Council
supervising any people and territories that have been placed under trusteeship with the UN (colonial undertone)
UN Obligations under the Charter
- Art. 2 limits the UN’s power by recognizing domestic domain of states (non-intervention on ‘‘essentially domestic’’ matters)
peacekeeping
negotiated between UN and the state, UN must leave if the state revokes its consent
UN intervention operations / UN peace-enforcement
response to a threat to international peace and security by the UNSC
Commitments of states to the UN
member-states are committed to obligations of the UN Charter, but also to any new obligations created by UN organs as they carry out their mandates
GA’s limited powers
can only make recommendations to states and the Secretary General
only decisive power: UN budget
GA resolution 377 ‘Uniting for Peace’
- 1950
- GA claims the right to hold special emergency sessions to create peacekeeping missions if the UNSC fails to ensure security and peace
- argument: SC has primary responsibility to ensure internatinoal peace and security, this implies that there is a ‘‘secondary or subsidiary’’ authority
- special emergency session has to be called within 24h after the vote of the SC
- proces: 7 SC (no veto) members have to vote for it, or a simple majority of the UNGA
- really hard to establish an actual peacekeeping mission: negotinating, legitimating, legally justifying, resourcing, implementing
SC legal authority
- binding on member-states
- authority to determine what is(n’t) a threat to international peace and security
- can make new legal obligations on states via resolutions
UNGA meetings
- General Debate in September: all state heads hold speeches
- regular schedule through the year
- emergency special sessions
plenary organ
organ where everyone can participate (every member is represented)
Structure UN GA
- subsidiary organs (committees that do the work: prepare, read)
- Councils
- Joint Inspection Unit
- UN Dispute Tribunal (administrative)
- seating arrangement: alphabetically + rotating
Joint Inspection Unit
report to the GA, looks at cross-cutting issues and to act as an agent for change across the UN system
+ oversees spenditure
UNGA decision making
important issues: 2/3 majority
- incl. peace and security, election of members of the UNSC and ECOSOC, acceptance of new members, suspension of membership, budgetary isses
other issues: simple majority
GA committees
6
- Disarmament and International Security Committee
- Economic and Financial Committee
- Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
- Special Political and Decolonization Committee
- Administrative and Budgetary Committee
- Legal Committee
function UNGA committees
prepare draft statemetns and draft resolutions + report back to the plenary meeting
resolutions are always introduced/altered by the committees before it enters the GA
work focussed on finding compromise
UN budget
- GA decides on general budget
- seperate budget for peacekeeping missions
- members pay max. 22% of the total budget
- 128 least paying countries together pay 1.3% of the budget -> technically this is a 2/3 majority -> poorest countries could decide on the entire budget -> unsettlement among richer countries -> 1986 informal agreement
1986 informal agreement on consensus about the budget
ACABQ proposal -> 5th Committee (2 readings) -> UNGA Plenary decision
ACABQ
Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions
‘nuclear option’ UN budget
if member-states are more than 2 years behind on their payment, they shall have no vote in the UNGA (this article is rarely invoked)
France and SU on the peacekeeping missions in the Middle East and Congo
found them outside of the UNGA’s jurisdiction -> refused to pay costs as it weren’t legitimate expences of the UN
*meant they could lose their vote in the UNGA, but the UNGA decided to operate by consensus rather than by formal votes
UN Membership procedure
- Formal application by state
- Secretary-General
- UNSC: 9/15 (P5 can veto)
- UNGA: 2/3
Different types of UN membership
decided upon by the UNGA
- Member States (193)
- Non-member observers (Holy See and Palestine), have the right to speak and vote on procedural matters
- IGOs with observer status (e.g. AU, OAS, League of Arab States)
- Enhanced observer status (specific rights of the EU since 2011: submit and amend proposals, circulate documents)
CASE: membership request by Palestine
1974 non-state observer status
2011 request full membership
- vetoed by US
Palestine did get membership in UNESCO (US left) and the ICC (2014)
2012: request for observer status accepted by the UNGA
UN Regional Grouping System goal
coordination among states (time consuming to let everyone speak)
!it has grown: influence on the election of the Secretary-General: every elections another group puts forward another candidate
Regional Groups UN
5
- African Group (54 countries)
- Asia-Pacific Group (53 countries)
- Eastern-Europe Group (23 countries)
- Latin America and the Carribean Group (33 countries) = aka GRULAC
- Western and Others Group (28 countries) = aka WEOG
