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What has the United Nations done?
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True or false? Since its start in 1945, the United Nations has more than doubled its original membership of 51 countries.
Since its start in 1945, the United Nations has been on a mission to save people from the suffering of war, spread human rights and justice, and help people around the world live healthy, peaceful lives. Phew! That’s no small challenge... Despite its grand goals, we don’t always see the impact of the UN in our daily lives. So what has the UN done?
At its beginning, the UN has just 51 member countries. It struggles to grow and to take steps towards its mission. Two powerful members, the USA and the Soviet Union, are fighting against each other in the Cold War. They often stop the UN taking action by voting “no” to ideas the other side supports. For a long time they also try to stop each other’s allies joining the UN.
Finally, in 1955, the UN agrees on sixteen new members. From here it continues to grow, and by the early 1960s it’s double its original size. The UN’s different agencies — groups that carry out the UN’s work — multiply too. The World Food Programme starts in 1961. In 1965, the UN Development Programme begins, helping people build better lives for themselves.
The UN’s World Health Organization, meanwhile, announces an ambitious plan to get rid of a serious global disease called smallpox. The UN is getting bigger and busier, but this does not lead to peace around the world. Much of Africa experiences famine and civil war. In the Middle East, disagreements over borders, oil and the role of foreign powers cause years of fighting. And the USA and Soviet Union take their conflict into space.
They race to launch satellites and rockets to show off their military strength. Twenty years in, is the UN failing in its mission? Slowly, the UN does achieve some important victories. In 1979, the World Health Organisation announces smallpox is gone. Women’s rights are getting more and more attention, and the UN passes an agreement to work towards equality between men and women in work and daily life.
As the Cold War draws to an end in the late 1980s, the USA and Soviet Union begin to find things they can agree on. Their friendlier relations on the Security Council make it easier for the UN to approve more peacekeeping operations. Much of this work is carried out by UN soldiers and civilians called peacekeepers. Peacekeepers work to end conflict in a region and help put new systems in place, like fair elections. Between 1989 and 1994, the UN increases its peacekeepers from 11,000 to 75,000.
In the second part of the 1990s, concerns about climate change are growing. The UN realises it hasn’t been doing enough in this area. At a meeting in Kyoto, Japan, members agree on tough new rules to reduce carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses in the air. As the year 2000 approaches, the UN wants to take decisive action across the world to tackle poverty, disease, poor education, environmental problems and discrimination against women. They create the Millennium Development Goals, to be met by 2015.
Important progress is made in every area, and by 2015 most people feel the goals are at least partly achieved. Today, the UN is working on 17 new development goals for 2030. The UN’s growing efforts to share responsibility for world problems have helped reduce wars, poverty and protect human rights since World War Two. The organisation doesn’t always function smoothly, and not everything the UN has tried has worked. But it’s clear that UN cooperation solves issues that would be impossible for countries to solve alone.