The Second World War (1939-1945)
Senior 6 · History (Languages)
The Second World War (1939-1945)
Lesson 4 of 5
25 min
The League of Nations had failed to prevent a second world war. Before that war was even over, the Allies tried again. Delegates of 50 states signed the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco on 26 June 1945, and it came into force on 24 October 1945, now marked each year as United Nations Day. Rwanda became a member on 18 September 1962, less than three months after independence. As you study the UN, keep asking one question: what did its founders change, having seen why the League failed?
Definition
Charter of the United Nations: the UN's founding treaty, which sets out its purposes, its organs and the duties of members.
Veto: the power of any one of the five permanent members of the Security Council to block a decision on matters of substance by voting against it.
Peacekeeping: the deployment of international troops, police and civilians, with the consent of the parties, to help keep a ceasefire or carry out a peace agreement.
Article 1 of the Charter gives four purposes: to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations based on equal rights and the self-determination of peoples; to achieve cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights; and to be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations.
Figure 1. The six principal organs. The Security Council, unlike the League's Council, can take decisions binding on all members, including the use of force.
| League weakness | UN answer |
|---|---|
| The United States stayed out | The US and the USSR were founding members, with permanent seats |
| Unanimity paralysed decisions | Majority voting, except the veto of the five permanent members |
| No military means | The Security Council can authorise force and set up peacekeeping operations |
| Mandates with little oversight | A Trusteeship Council with the declared aim of self-government or independence |
| Achievements | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| No third world war; a forum where rivals keep talking | The veto has blocked action in many crises, from the Cold War to recent wars |
| Peacekeeping operations on every continent since 1948 | Depends on members for troops and money; operations can be too small or too late |
| Supported decolonisation; membership grew from 51 to 193 states | Africa has no permanent seat on the Security Council |
| Human rights standards (the Universal Declaration, 1948; the Genocide Convention, 1948) | Great powers have acted without its approval, as in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 |
| Health, food and refugee work: the WHO led the eradication of smallpox, declared in 1980 | Failed to prevent or stop the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and the Srebrenica genocide in 1995 |
Rwanda's history shows both faces of the UN. As a trust territory (1946 to 1962) Rwanda was under UN supervision on its way to independence. In April 1994, as the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi unfolded, the Security Council reduced its peacekeeping mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) instead of reinforcing it, a failure the UN itself later acknowledged. In November 1994 the Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sat in Arusha until 2015. Today Rwanda is one of the largest contributors of personnel to UN peacekeeping missions.
United Nations, "How 193 Countries Work Together" (about 2 minutes). This is the UN's own account of itself: as you watch, note what it chooses to stress, and compare it with the weaknesses column above.
Warning
The General Assembly cannot order; the Security Council can. General Assembly resolutions are recommendations. Only the Security Council takes decisions binding on all members, which is why the veto matters so much.
Tip
P5 = C-F-R-U-U. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States: the five permanent members, the victors of 1945.
Important
Discuss. Should Africa have a permanent seat, with a veto, on the Security Council? What would change, and who would oppose it?
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the diagram, the tables, the analysis and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
