THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

•It was established in 1946.•Only countries, not individuals, can take cases before the Court.•Once a country agrees to let the Court act on a case, it must agree to comply with the Court’s decision.•As of June 2013, the ICJ had delivered 92 judgments on disputes between states.

COMPOSITION• It has fifteen judges who are elected by the General Assembly and the

Security Council.• No two judges can come from the same country.• Nine judges have to agree before a decision can be made.• . All the judgments passed by the Court are final and without appeal.

SOME IMPORTANT DECISIONS TAKEN BY THE ICJ

•In 2004, the Court unanimously reaffirmed that Israel’s construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory violates international law.•In 2002, the Court ruled on the border dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon, placing the main territory under dispute

THE SECRETARIAT

•The Secretariat,headed by the Secretary General, consists of an international staff working at the United Nations.•Headquarter is based in New York united states.•Its duties includes from administering peacekeeping operations to mediating international disputes or surveying social and economic trends and problems.•The Secretariat is responsible for servicing the other organs of the United Nations.•The United Nations Headquarters was designed to serves delegations, who represent the 192 current Member States and who send more than 5,000 persons to New York each year for the annual sessions of the General Assembly.

FUNCTIONS•To gather and prepare background information on various problems so that the government delegates can study the facts and make their recommendations. • To help carry out the decisions of the United Nations.•To organize international conferences.•To interpret speeches and translate documents into the UN’s official languages

How is the UN Secretary-General appointed?

• The Secretary-General is appointed for a period of five years by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. There have been eight Secretaries-General since the UN was created. The appointment of the Secretary-General follows a regional rotation.

UNITED NATIONS WORKING FOR PEACE

• MAIN AIM OF UN IS TO MAINTAIN PEACE IN THE WORLD AND UPTO SOME EXTENT IT HAS BEEN SUCESSFUL AS WELL.

Has UN stopped any war?On many occasions, the UN has provided a

mechanism to help defuse hostilities, for example, the Berlin crisis (1948-1949), the

Cuban missile crisis (1962) and the 1973 Middle East crisis. In each of these cases, UN

intervention helped prevent war between the super-powers.