College of Law

The United Nations in the Field
80 Years Since its Founding
Dr. Ziad Abdulwahab Al-Naimi
College of Law / University of Mosul
The establishment of the United Nations was preceded by an international organization called the League of Nations. It was the first international organization following World War I, from 1919 to 1945. The League was unable to achieve international peace and security and was unprepared to fulfill its required role due to political and economic influences. Its failure and inability to prevent the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) proved fatal. The war ended, marking the end of the League and its era. The victors of the war decided to seek a more inclusive, more representative, and more competent organization, in preparation for the establishment of this organization. This was preceded by numerous international statements issued by major powers, revealing their intention to establish an international organization, such as the Atlantic Declaration of 1941 by US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill. This was followed by the United Nations Declaration of 1942, which mentioned the term “United Nations” for the first time, through 26 countries that declared Their approval of the principles contained in the Atlantic Declaration, followed by the Moscow Declaration of 1943, issued by representatives of the former Soviet Union, the United States of America, Britain, and China, in which they expressed their desire to establish an international body to maintain international peace and security. In the same year, the Tehran Declaration of 1943 was issued by Roosevelt and Stalin for the purpose of achieving a world peace acceptable to the vast majority of peoples. The declarations were followed by international conferences such as the Dumbarton Conference of 1944, the Yalta Conference of 1945, and the San Francisco Conference of 1945, which resulted in the drafting of the United Nations Charter and its signing on June 26, 1945, by fifty countries that participated in the conference, including Iraq. The United Nations Charter became effective on October 24, 1945, and the General Assembly held its first meeting on January 10, 1946, in London, for the organization to come into being after that, and to this day. United Nations Day is celebrated on October 24, as the United Nations General Assembly recommended in 1971 that member states celebrate this day. Charter of the United Nations, October 24, 1945
The Charter of the international organization represents a legally binding treaty to which the majority of the world’s countries have acceded and become parties. These countries are therefore committed to acting in accordance with it, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the international organization. The Charter includes (19) chapters and (111) articles, and has been signed by 50 countries, including Iraq, which is one of the original members of the organization. Furthermore, Iraq participated in the work of the Security Council as a non-permanent member twice: the first time in 1957-1958, and the second time in 1974-1975.
The objectives of the United Nations, as indicated in Article 1 of the Charter, are: to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, and achieve international cooperation. This organization shall be a reference for coordinating the actions of nations and directing them toward the achievement of these common goals. As for the principles of the organization, they are set forth in Article 2 of the Charter, namely: the principle of sovereign equality among all its members, and the principle of good faith in fulfilling the obligations undertaken by them in this Charter. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. All Members shall afford the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes. The Organization shall ensure that non-member states comply with these principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security. Finally, there shall be no interference in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.
The Organization consists of six principal organs: the General Assembly, which comprises all Member States; the Security Council, which includes 15 members, including five permanent members, and is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security (the Organization’s executive body). It has issued approximately 2,573 international resolutions on the maintenance of international peace and security in various situations and for all States; the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat, which carry out the Organization’s daily work. The United Nations has had a succession of Secretaries-General: Trygve Halfdan Lie, Dag Hammarskjöld, U Thant, Kurt Waldheim, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, and the current Secretary-General, António Guterres. The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Its headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands. It is responsible for settling disputes between members and issuing advisory opinions. Finally, the Economic and Social Council is the principal organ for coordinating economic and social action. The United Nations and International Developments
The international organization emerged in the aftermath of World War II. Therefore, its role must address the effects that caused the destruction of countries and the victims of war, as well as the causes that led to it to prevent its recurrence in the future. The Cold War played a role in influencing the work of the organization, through the Security Council’s inability to make important decisions in favor of certain countries due to political influence. This included the veto power, which prevented the Security Council from fulfilling its true role. This led, for example, to the General Assembly adopting resolutions that were at the core of the Council’s work, most notably Assembly Resolution 377 of 1950 regarding the Korean crisis, or what is known as Uniting for Peace. This ideological disagreement affected the Council’s ability to fulfill its required role during the period from 1945 to 1990, followed by the end of the Cold War. Most of the resolutions implemented under Chapter VII, the most important chapter of the Charter, or what some call the “war chapter,” were fully implemented in Iraq in 1990, as well as in countries such as Somalia, Libya, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia.