A community is a social or political unit which has a shared important characteristic like place, norms, culture, religion, values, customs or identity.
Communities can be in a country, village, town or neighborhood (rural, suburban or urban), or can be in a virtual space through media communication platforms.
Community can manifest a people’s identity, practice, and roles in social institutions like family, home, work, government, society etc. It could also refer to local, national or international communities.
The United Nations is under our mirror in this article.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that works to maintain peace in the world, uphold friendly relations between states, promote international cooperation and galvanize global action. It originated as a successor to the League of Nations – a mere barking dog – with the core aim of ending and preventing war.
Formed by 193 member states – nearly all of the world’s sovereign states at that time – it met in April 1945 in San Francisco for a conference where the states drafted the Charter of the United Nations, which was adopted in June 1945. The aims expressed in the Charter are to maintain peace, protect human rights, deliver human aid, promote sustainable development and uphold international law.
The United Nations has its headquarters in New York and also has a presence in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and the Hague. The major organizations of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, and the Trusteeship Council. The United Nations also has specialized agencies such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNESCO and UNICEF. The United Nations is headed by a Secretary General.
UN successes and failures
Some of the achievements of the United Nations include:
The UN has been very successful in keeping peace in the world.
It has solved many international conflicts.
It has stopped fights from growing to big wars.
It is actively involved in peacekeeping missions across the globe.
Failures of the UN include:
Inability to prevent many conflicts.
Its handling of the cold war.
Insufficient attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Allegations of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Alleged support for Palestinian militancy.
The failure of the UN to stop the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
The failure of UN to stop the Bosnia fiasco and the balkanization of the former Yugoslavia.
By and large, the United Nations has performed credibly in bringing peace to the “community of man” and more can be done.
In the united community of nations, an injury to one is an injury to all.
By Godfrey Selbar