The formation of the United Nations on the 24th October 1945 was preceded by the drafting and subsequent ratification of the United Nations Charter. It was a result of negotiations between the representatives of the 50 countries that went to war with Hitler’s Germany and imperial Japan. The negotiations and the formation of the UN took place in San Francisco, California, from the 25th April to 26th June, when the Charter was approved. It is a historical fact that one of the 14 members of the Coordination Committee responsible for the formulation of the final text was a Czechoslovak diplomat, JUDr. Ján Papánek. He was the second native of Brezová pod Bradlom who represented the democratic Czechoslovakia at the highest diplomatic forum. The first was JUDr. Štefan Osuský who from 1922 to 1937 was a Vice-Chairman of the Fiscal Commission of the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations which ceased operations on the 20th April 1945.
The most important bodies of the UN can be found in New York. They include the Security Council, the Secretariat, headed by the UN Secretary-General, and the General Assembly. There are also UN offices in Geneva and Vienna. The International Court of Justice is based in The Hague. The UN was founded by 51 countries and today has 193 members. The Slovak Republic became a member of the United Nations on the 19th January 1993. The official languages of the UN are English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish and it is financed by the member states.
After the creation of the United Nations, we all hoped that it would be more effective than its predecessor as a guarantor of collective security and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. However, those expectations have not been met. This is primarily due to the veto power in the Security Council held by members that represent totalitarian regimes, as well as voting in the plenary of the General Assembly in which truly democratic countries are in the minority. Plus, in addition, its resolutions and decisions are not realistically enforceable.
