Artigenda
United Nations Day
When: Annually, October 24.
Resolution 2782, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, is a day commemorating the founding of the United Nations. The day refers to the day the UN was founded in 1945.
World War II
The United Nations Day die we kennen sinds 1972 was niet de eerste dag met deze naam. De eerste keer dat er sprake was van een “United Nations Day” ging het alleen niet om een relatie met de VN, want die organisatie bestond op dat moment nog niet. Dit evenement vond plaats tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog op 14 juni 1942. Het was een militaire parade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (30 January 1882 – 12 April 1945) conducted this military parade and it was mainly for morale. It was more to emphasise cooperation between the Allies.
The day only became official in 1971. Yet the day did not go unnoticed in the years before. Previously, stamps were issued in honour of the founding of the United Nations, for instance, and cultural events took place. The current interpretation of the day has been a model for other countries. They have made it their national day. Several governments decided that there should be a local edition of United Nations Day in the countries. In other cases, it came about thanks to an initiative of the people themselves.
What is the United Nations?
The United Nations, abbreviated to UN, is an international organisation that saw the light of day in 1945. Its founding involved 51 countries. It wanted to follow up on an earlier cooperation between countries. That was the League of Nations, which existed between 25 January 1919 and 20 April 1946. So there was an overlap between the two organisations. Although the League of Nations had largely disintegrated before World War II. At its peak, the League of Nations had 58 member countries. At its inception, it had 42 countries.
The League of Nations did not get key countries on board. For instance, the United States was not a member of the organisation, which was the case when the UN was founded. The Soviet Union was suspended in 1939 because it invaded Finland. Earlier, some South American countries left the union in the 1920s. In the 1930s, Japan (after the invasion of Manchuria and its condemnation by the League of Nations in 1931), Germany (1933, after the League of Nations’ desire to reduce Germany’s army) and Italy (1936, after the invasion of Abyssinia, today’s Ethiopia) followed.
World War II caused countries to think about new cooperation, and it was felt that the League of Nations had no place in it due to the many political conflicts and limited opportunities. Hence, they decided to create a new organisation. That became the UN. The organisation’s offices were established in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi. Of those four offices, the New York office is its headquarters.
Sub-organizations
Besides the main organisation, the UN has numerous sub-organisations, including the International Court of Justice, the development programme – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Children’s fund – UNICEF, the International Food and agriculture organisation FAO, the International Organisation for education, culture and science – UNESCO, the world health organisation – WHO and the international organisation for women and women’s rights – UN Women.
Besides these organisations, there are of course two other important bodies the organisation has. These are the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
Not all countries
Think of the UN as the international cooperation between countries. Not all countries, because there are member states that chose not to be members or member states that were not allowed to be members.
Vatican City has only an observer role within the UN. The government of Palestine applied to become a member, but it was refused. The Palestinian Authority has been granted only observer status. In 2014, it looked like Palestine would get more than that, only this was eventually stopped thanks to a veto by the United States. You can read more about this in this article by Reuters.
Then there are the states about which there are international problems when it comes to recognition. They have not been granted status within the UN. These are:
- Abkhazia.
- Kosovo.
- Northern Cyprus.
- Somaliland.
- Taiwan.
- Transnistria.
- Western Sahara/Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
- South Ossetia.
Nagorno-Karabakh
One republic is missing from this list, namely Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Upper Karabakh). This was an enclave of Armenian residents within Azerbaijan until September 2023. In September of that year, the Azerbaijani government decided to invade the enclave, following the deaths of four soldiers. After a short offensive, the enclave fell into the hands of Azerbaijani forces, putting an end to it. Until September 2023, this enclave was not included by the UN as a separate representation. Moreover, international recognition of the enclave was not the case before September, as the consensus was that this would not allow permanent peace between the two countries (Armenia and Azerbaijan).
Myths about membership
Contrary to popular belief, there are myths about the membership of two countries. Then it concerns the membership of North Korea and Switzerland. Both countries would not be members of the people’s organisation. This is incorrect, as both countries are simply members of the UN.
For Switzerland, it claims neutral status in many cases. For instance, the country is not a member of the European Union, nor are there any plans to join. For a long time, the country had observer status (1946 – 2002). At the 57th General Assembly in 2002, the country formally joined the UN. Incidentally, that did not mean that the country did not comply with most UN resolutions before then. You can read more about this in this archived post on the country’s accession.
So what about North Korea? Internationally, the country is not one of the most popular countries right now. At least, not for Western countries. Things are better with neighbouring China when it comes to relations.
The fact that we in the West do not know much about North Korea does not mean that the country would automatically not be a member of the UN. Recognition of North Korea followed before the Korean War broke out. That took place between 1950 and 1953. The UN recognised North Korea through Resolution 195 on 12 December 1948. Only did that automatically equate to membership? Not, as it gave the country observer status. Together with neighbouring South Korea, North Korea applied to become a full member in 1949. Permission was not granted, probably because the South Korean request was blocked by the Soviet Union.
The war followed and then there was no recognition at all. Observer status was withdrawn until the 1970s. It was only in 1973 that the country regained this status. It was not until September 17, 1991, that North Korea became a full member of the United Nations.
Did any countries leave?
While the League of Nations was active, countries decided to break away from this organisation. What about the United Nations? Did any countries leave? Sure, some countries decided to cancel membership. This happened during the regime of President Sukarno of Indonesia. It happened on 7 January 1965 in response to what the president described as too much American influence on the people’s organisation. This fitted within a policy he had been pursuing since 1964. An anti-American policy. The departure did not last long, as in August 1966 Sukarno decided to reverse the decision.
Website
As is the case for all important days endorsed by the UN through resolutions, this day also has its website. This website can be found here.
