The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the world's largest international organization. The UN is headquartered in New York City, and the organization has other offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague, where the International Court of Justice is headquartered.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. Its powers as outlined in the United Nations Charter include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The UNSC is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on member states.
The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 78th session, its powers, composition, functions, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter. The UNGA is responsible for the UN budget, appointing the non-permanent members to the Security Council, appointing the UN secretary-general, receiving reports from other parts of the UN system, and making recommendations through resolutions. It also establishes numerous subsidiary organs to advance or assist in its broad mandate. The UNGA is the only UN organ where all member states have equal representation.
The member states of the United Nations comprise 193 sovereign states. The United Nations (UN) is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. All members have equal representation in the UN General Assembly.
The United Nations General Assembly has granted observer status to international organizations, entities, and non-member states, to enable them to participate in the work of the United Nations General Assembly, though with limitations. The General Assembly determines the privileges it will grant to each observer, beyond those laid down in a 1986 Conference on treaties between states and international organizations. Exceptionally, the European Union (EU) was in 2011 granted the right to speak in debates, to submit proposals and amendments, the right of reply, to raise points of order and to circulate documents, etc. As of May 2011, the EU is the only international organization to hold these enhanced rights, which has been likened to the rights of full membership, short of the right to vote.
The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of the French name, was a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti that was in operation from 2004 to 2017. The mission's military component was led by the Brazilian Army and commanded by a Brazilian. The force was composed of 2,366 military personnel and 2,533 police, supported by international civilian personnel, a local civilian staff and United Nations Volunteers.
Reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) encompasses five key issues: categories of membership, the question of the veto held by the five permanent members, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and its working methods, and the Security Council-General Assembly relationship. The Member States, regional groups and other Member State interest groupings developed different positions and proposals on how to move forward on this contested issue.
The United Kingdom is a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The ambassador and permanent representative of Australia to the United Nations is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of Australia to the United Nations in New York. The position has the rank and status of an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and is the lead Australian representative to the UN, although that role is also shared with representatives present at the United Nations Office in Geneva, the United Nations Office in Vienna and the United Nations Office at Nairobi, and the delegations to UNESCO and the United Nations Agencies in Rome. Australia is a charter member of the United Nations and has sent representatives to New York since 1946.
Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations and participates in all of its specialized agencies. Brazil is among the twenty top contributors to United Nations peacekeeping operations, and has participated in peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East, the former Belgian Congo, Cyprus, Mozambique, Angola, and more recently East Timor and Haiti. Brazil has been regularly elected as a non-permanent member to the Security Council since its first session in 1946 and is now among the most elected UN member states to the UNSC. Brazil was voted to become a member of the 15-country UN Security Council for a two-year term, in 2022-23.
India was among the charter members of the United Nations that signed the Declaration by United Nations at Washington, D.C., on 1 January 1942 and also participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco from 25 April to 26 June 1945. As a founding member of the United Nations, India strongly supports the purposes and principles of the UN and has made significant contributions in implementing the goals of the Charter, and the evolution of the UN's specialised programmes and agencies.
The European Union (EU) has had permanent observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974, and has had enhanced participation rights since 2011. The EU itself does not have voting rights but it is represented alongside its 27 members, one of which, France, is a permanent member of the Security Council.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission for South Sudan, which became independent on 9 July 2011. UNMISS was established on 8 July 2011 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1996 (2011).
Indonesia officially became the 60th member of the United Nations on 28 September 1950, in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 86 two days before, and the United Nations General Assembly resolution number A/RES/491 (V) on the "admission of the Republic of Indonesia to membership in the United Nations", less than one year after the independence of Indonesia's by the Netherlands at the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in the Hague.
The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The foreign relations of the State of Palestine have been conducted since the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. Since the Oslo Accords, it seeks to obtain universal recognition for the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. As of 31 July 2019, 138 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states officially recognize the State of Palestine.
The permanent representative of India to the United Nations is India's foremost diplomatic representative to the United Nations. The permanent representative is the head of the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York City.
The permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's foremost diplomatic representative to the United Nations. The permanent Representative is the head of a diplomatic mission to the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. The permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations has headed the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations since Afghanistan became a UN Member State on 19 November 1946.
The Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations is the formal title of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan delegation to the United Nations (UN). Afghanistan officially joined the United Nations on 19 November 1946 as the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
