Category Social Sciences

What are the goals of the United Nations?

Apart from promoting peace, the UN does have other goals. The UN works across the world to improve social and economic well-being. In simple words, the UN can be seen as the government of the world, that works around the clock to make our world a better place.

The UN is a meeting point that brings together all the independent nations and gives space for them to work closely.

The UN can also be viewed as a club where the countries can get a membership and enjoy the benefits it provides. The benefits include humanitarian aid, international law, and support at the times of crisis.

 

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Why was the United Nations formed?

The failure of the League of Nations led to the Second World War. With the Second World War came the necessity to establish world peace again.

Along with maintaining world peace, it was important to develop healthy relationships between the countries, promote co-operation in international affairs, and promote and respect human rights. Drawing from the failure of the League of Nations, a stronger foundation was laid this time. A new intergovernmental organisation came into existence to fill the gap left by the League of Nations- the United Nations.

The United Nations successfully brought together the countries of the world that are small and big, rich and poor, and have different social, cultural and political backgrounds. In short, the UN is an organisation of the countries that have agreed to co-operate with one another and settle all the disputes peacefully.

 

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Why did the League of Nations fail?

The Second World War broke out during the active years of the League of Nations. The war itself was the proof of the failure of the League’s primary objective- to prevent future wars.

Most of the members of the League did not involve in the war and remained neutral. But some countries chose to go to war.

Germany formed the Axis Powers together with Italy and Japan. The League was not able to efficiently prevent the aggression of the Axis Powers during the war. Soon, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and some other countries withdrew from the League.

With these major members leaving and other important countries like the US and the Soviet Union staying out of it, the League began to lose its credibility and its offices were dismantled. It stopped functioning altogether in 1946. The United Nations took shape after that.

 

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Which organisation is considered as the forerunner of the United Nations?

The First World War killed around 13 million people and most of Europe was left in shatters. UP President Woodrow Wilson came up with a scheme to stop such events from being repeated.

Thirty countries agreed on a proposal to form a commission that would work to bring international peace. This was the first time the world leaders came up with such an effort and the result was the League of Nations.

The League of Nations was an international organisation that was formed after the First World War. It was founded in 1920 to solve the disputes between countries and stop the possibility of open warfare.

It is the world’s first inter-governmental organisation that worked to maintain global peace. It also worked to stop human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, and to improve global health. Though the League had a significant impact in solving international disputes, it stopped functioning in April, 1946.

 

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Why are the NE States protesting against New Citizenship Act?

The Act has triggered widespread protests in northeastern states where many fears that permanent settlement of illegal immigrants, particularly thousands of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh, will disturb the region’s demography and further burden resources and decrease employment opportunities for indigenous people. It will threaten their language, culture and tradition, they contend.

A large section of people and organizations in the Northeast, especially in Assam and Tripura, have opposed the Act, saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion.

 

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Which states are exempted from New Citizenship Act?

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act does not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. It will also not apply to areas covered under the Inner Line Permit (ILP). Presently, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland fall under the Inner Line Permit.

The ILP is a system introduced for border areas by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. Indian citizens outside such declared areas can visit the places only if they have a permit. They cannot settle in such areas even with the ILP.

Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are not offered citizenship under the new Act. Critics have questioned the exclusion. The Amendment limits itself to the Muslim-majority neighbours of India and, secondly, takes no cognizance of the persecuted Muslims of those countries. According to The Economist, if the Indian government was concerned about religious persecution, it should have included Ahmadiyyas – a Muslim sect who have been “viciously hounded in Pakistan as heretics”, and the Hazaras – another Muslim sect who have been murdered by the Taliban in Afghanistan. They should be treated as minorities.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are Muslim-majority countries that have modified their Constitutions in recent decades to declare Islam their official state religion. Therefore, according to the Indian government, Muslims in these Islamic countries are “unlikely to face religious persecution”. The government states that Muslims cannot be “treated as persecuted minorities” in these Muslim-majority countries. The BBC states that while these countries have provisions in their constitution guaranteeing non-Muslims rights, including the freedom to practice their religion, in practice non-Muslim populations have experienced discrimination and persecution.

Some similar acts for persecuted religious minorities, excluding the majority religion, have been introduced in other secular countries such as United States, case in point being the “Religious Persecution Relief Act, 2016”, which has a similar approach “this bill declares that Syrian nationals who are religious minorities in their country of origin: shall be classified as refugees of special humanitarian concern, shall be eligible for priority two processing under the refugee resettlement priority system”.

 

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