United Nations

• united nations was the first post war IGO formed in 1945 to establish a peaceful and fair world, its role in global governance has continued to grow
• United Nations has 5 permanent members and 10 temporary members that changes every 2 years, security council is there to vote on decisions as to how UN should respond to situations that threaten global peace and security
• United Nations agencies and organisations:

  • environmental - United Nations framework convention on climate change in 1922, international treaty to get members to tackle climate change
  • socio-economic - UN development programme aimed to reduce poverty and UN refugee agency supporting vulnerable groups
  • political - UN security council who maintain global peace and security
• 2 ways UN can protect human rights are?

  • economic sanctions e.g. trade embargoes
  • military intervention e.g. peacekeeping forces
• UN intervention in DRC Congo

  • 1998, conflict between rival ethnic and political groups in DRC broke out, each side supported by neighbouring countries, over 5 million lost their lives between 1998 and 2008
  • UN security council called for ceasefire and warned countries not to get involved but were ignored e.g. Zimbabwe sent over 10,000 troops into DRC
  • UN set up peacekeeping mission to help groups come to agreement and hold democratic elections, 19,000 peacekeeping troops deployed
  • resolved conflict in some areas but human rights abuse continued in east DRC
  • 2013, Intervention Brigade set up
• some UN members act independently to intervene with failing states

  • e.g. a coalition led by the USA and UK intervened in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 - they argued intervening in these failed states will prevent global rise in terrorism maintaining global stability
  • Russia has carried out its own interventions, providing military support to Syrian government to fight rebels
  • by acting without security council's approval it has undermined geopolitical relations between countries