The reform of Security Council sanctions Coursework

The reform of Security Council sanctions - Coursework Example â€Å"Chief responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security lies with the Security Council. It is therefore essential to its legitimacy that its membership reflect the state of the world.† French President Chirac’s address to the United Nations General Assembly The United Nations is by far the largest and most popular international government organization. The existence of the United Nations owes itself to years behind the Second World War. It should be noted that even before the United States came into the Second World War, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had consented in the eighth point of the Atlantic Charter that a â€Å"permanent system of general security† ought to go operational after the war. In 1943, the Moscow conference of Foreign Ministers established that a new international organization should be put into place to regulate issues after the war. From them, delegates of 50 countries assembled in San Francisco in the months of April and May 1945 and laid groundwork for what we can now call the United Nations1. Therefore and from all intents and objects, the United Nations was a result of the mayhem that resulted from the wars. The main explanation for the existence of the United Nations was to foster a common world order in which mutual cooperation and understanding between nations would ensure world peace. Since June 1946 when the first United Nations Charter was officialised, membership into the organization has prided itself with rising membership and it can now boast of 191 members. What was a herald to the United Nations was the unfortunate League of Nations that saw it incompetent to face one of the world’s greatest challenges – world peace. Since 1945, world order has altered and there exist varying perspectives of what is construed by peace, law and order. These challenges have been taken up by the Security Council, but it has proven that there is an extensive fissure between practice and reality. Constituting itself as a unified system of governments, the United Nations has attempted to bring all member states under one covering of understanding, though the vest differentiation in international perspectives and outlooks signals opposing views with regards to the issue of acting as a unified whole. In an attempt to ensure world security, the Security Council has been given the mandate of responsibility in accordance with the United Nations Charter for the upholding of international peace and security. All 191 members of the United Nations are bound by the charter to accept and implement the decisions of the Security Council. Therefore, the Security Council is an adjudicating body, while the member states are subjects to laws adjudicated by the Security Council. The activities of the Security Council have not been very smooth. The first paralysis was the commotions from the cold war, leading to the polarity of most of the member states. Currently comprising 15 United Nation Member States, with 5 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), having veto powers, which has cost the Security Council much more than what the cold war did. Keep in mind that the veto power is often upheld as a tool to obstruct the actions of other veto members. The 10 remaining members act with no veto powers and their membership is allocated as follows: two seats each to Asia, Latin America, Western Europe; one seat to Eastern Europe and three seats to Africa. Thus, the Security Council wants and equal representation and participation of all the various regions of the world. What Is Liability Of The Security Council? The main objective of the Security Council is to foster peace and security. In an attempt to ensure that this turns out to be what the member states seek for, the Security Council makes use of mediation, peacekeeping in addition to enforcement with regards to Chapter VI of the UN Charter. Since the Second World War, many peacekeeping missions, mediation as well as enforcement missions have been