UN System

During World War II, representatives from 26 countries swore to compete with the Axis powers in the Declaration by the United Nations on 1st, January 1942.  After representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America deliberated in Washington D.C. in 1944, representatives of 50 countries participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, in which they made a draft Charter of the United Nations. Finally, it was signed on 26th, June 1945.

The United Nations, headquartered in New York, was officially established on 24th October, 1945 by ratifications by a majority of signed countries, including China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the USA.

The United Nations Charter is the primary document to define the rights and obligations of the Member States and to describe the UN Main Bodies and their procedures in the UN.

The UN Charter has 19 chapters with 111 articles.

Chapter Ⅰ has Articles 1-2 and defines the purposes and principles of the UN, and Article 1 says as below; 

"Article 1

The Purposes of the United Nations are:

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;

3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and

4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends."

Article 2 describes the principles for the organization and its Member States as below;

"Article 2

The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.

1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.

3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

4. 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, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

5. All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.

6. The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.

7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll."

Chapter IV has Articles 9-22 and describes the General Assembly, which is one of the Main Bodies of the UN, including its composition, functions and powers, voting, and procedure. You can read all Chapters and Articles of the UN Charter here. 

The United Nations are composed of six Main Bodies, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. Additionally, the UN System includes 15 specialized agencies, and many programs and funds. At the KGUMUN, we are meeting at the UNDP, which reports to the General Assembly and is one of the programs in the UN system. For more information about the UNDP, please visit (link: BG of UNDP).

Main Bodies

• General Assembly

• Security Council

• Economic and Social Council

• Trusteeship Council

• International Court of Justice

• Secretariat

Funds and Programmes

• UNDP (The United Nations Development Programme)

• UNEP (The United Nations Environment Programme)

• UNFPA (The United Nations Population Fund)

• UN-HABITAT (The United Nations Human Settlements Programme)

• UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund)

• WFP (The World Food Programme)

Specialized Agencies

• FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization) 

• ICAO (The International Civil Aviation Organization) 

• IFAD (The International Fund for Agricultural Development)

• ILO (The International Labor Organization) 

• IMF (The International Monetary Fund) 

• IMO (The International Maritime Organization) 

• ITU (The International Telecommunication Union) 

• UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) 

• UNIDO (The United Nations Industrial Development Organization) 

• UNWTO (The World Tourism Organization) 

• UPU (The Universal Postal Union) 

• WHO (The World Health Organization) 

• WIPO (The World Intellectual Property Organization) 

• WMO (The World Meteorological Organization) 

• WORLD BANK 

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) 

International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)*

International Development Association (IDA)

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)*

Other Entities and Bodies

• UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS)

• UNHCR (The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

• UNIDIR (The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research)

• UNITAR (The United Nations Institute for Training and Research)

• UNOPS (The United Nations Office for Project Services)

• UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)

• UNSSC (The United Nations System Staff College)

• UNU (The United Nations University)

• UN WOMEN

Related Organizations

• CTBTO (The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) 

• IAEA (The International Atomic Energy Agency)

• IOM (The International Organization for Migration)

• OPCW (The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons)

• UNFCCC (The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)

• WTO (The World Trade Organization)

• ITC (The International Trade Center)