Portal:Politics/Selected article/2006, week 52

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity. It was founded in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations Charter by 50 countries, replacing the League of Nations founded in 1919.

The UN was founded after the end of World War II by the victorious allied powers in the hope that it would act to prevent and intervene in conflicts between nations and make future wars impossible or limited. The organization's structure still reflects in some ways the circumstances of its founding, which has led to calls for reform. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has veto power on any UN resolution, are the main victors of World War II or their successor states: People's Republic of China (which replaced the Republic of China), France, Russia (which replaced the Soviet Union), the United Kingdom, and the United States.

As of 2006, there are 192 United Nations member states, including virtually every internationally recognized independent country. From its headquarters in New York City, the UN's member countries and specialized agencies give guidance and decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as counterpart bodies dealing with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most visible public figure, and the representative head, is the Secretary-General, currently Kofi Annan. On 13 October 2006, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was approved by the United Nations General Assembly as the world body's eighth secretary-general and the first Asian to hold the post since 1971; Ban will assume the post on 1 January 2007.