Organizing Internationally: Georges Abi-Saab, the Congo Crisis and the Decolonization of the United Nations

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 601-619
Author(s):  
Umut Özsu
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
World War ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Narrative Reconstruction ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Congo Crisis

Abstract Why and how have ‘Third World’ international lawyers engaged with the law of international organizations? This article considers Georges Abi-Saab’s 1978 work The United Nations Operation in the Congo 1960–1964, an important but largely forgotten intervention in debates about the power and authority of the United Nations (UN) at the height of the post-World War II wave of decolonization. Fusing careful analysis of the legal rules and instruments that underwrote UN operations during the Congo crisis with a narrative reconstruction of the accompanying political and diplomatic negotiations, Abi-Saab’s book examines the organization’s involvement in the conflict following Congo’s formal independence from Belgium in June 1960, both during and after Dag Hammarskjöld’s tenure as UN Secretary-General. This article takes up Abi-Saab’s account of Hammarskjöld’s role in, and management of, the crisis. It demonstrates that Abi-Saab understood the Secretary-General’s office to be not only hedged in by significant ‘constitutional’ constraints on publicly justifiable action but also uniquely equipped to coordinate competing interests and facilitate collective action. It also demonstrates that this dual understanding of the Secretary-General – both ‘legalistic’ and overtly ‘political’ – informed Abi-Saab’s commitment to developing international law in and through international organizations.

1. The best hope of mankind? A brief history of the UN

2015 ◽  
pp. 8-25
Author(s):  
Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The United Nations

The International Peace Conference in 1899 established the Permanent Court of Arbitration as the first medium for international disputes, but it was the League of Nations, established in 1919 after World War I, which formed the framework of the system of international organizations seen today. The United Nations was created to manage the world's transformation in the aftermath of World War II. ‘The best hope of mankind? A brief history of the UN’ shows how the UN has grown from the 51 nations that signed the UN Charter in 1945 to 193 nations in 2015. The UN's first seven decades have seen many challenges with a mixture of success and failure.

scholarly journals A Transition of Internationalisms: Britain, the United States, and the Formation of the United Nations Information Organization during World War II

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Giles Scott-Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Public Information ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Agency ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Nations

The United Nations Information Office (UNIO), dating from 1942, holds the distinction of being both the first international agency of the embryonic UN network and the first to hold the United Nations label. Run from 1942 to 1945 from two offices in New York and London, these two were merged at the end of World War II to form the UN Information Organisation, and subsequently transformed into the Department of Public Information run from UN headquarters in New York. This article adds to the history of the UN by exploring the origins and development of the UNIO during 1940–41, when it was a British-led propaganda operation to gather US support for the allied war effort. It also examines the UNIO from the viewpoint of the power transition from Britain to the United States that took place during the war, and how this reflected a transition of internationalisms: from the British view of world order through benevolent imperialism to the American view of a progressive campaign for global development and human rights.

Introduction: The Search for Meaning in Defeat and Victory

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Barak Kushner
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
East Asia ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
The Political ◽  
Search For Meaning ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Political Spectrum

World War II dragged on in East Asia for three more months than in Europe, where the Allies declared victory on May 8, 1945. The formation of the United Nations was announced in San Francisco on June 26, 1945, and soon it became clear that Japan’s imperial demise would be entirely different from the Nazi collapse. World War II fractured the political spectrum in East Asia: the result was a cacophony of groups vying for postimperial authority in a situation where nothing was preordained and where no result was inevitable....

scholarly journals Introduction: Looking Back to Look Forward

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-283
Author(s):  
Margaret P. Karns
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
First Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Member States ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Looking Back

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 1945 invites us to look back at the achievement of creating this new organization even before the guns had fallen silent in World War II. It also prompts us to ask: Where is the organization today? How well has it fulfilled and is it still fulfilling the high ideals of its Charter? Even more importantly, how confident can we be that what has grown into the complex UN system will not just survive but also provide its member states and the peoples of the world with the organizational structures, resources, and tools needed to address twenty-first century challenges?

International Labor Organization

1947 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-357
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Labor Organization ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Working Relationship ◽  
World War ◽  
Intergovernmental Organization ◽  
International Labor ◽  
The United Nations

As a result of an agreement concluded with the United Nations, the ILO became the first intergovernmental organization created before World War II to be integrated into the framework of United Nations. The 29th Conference of the ILO effected a revision of the Constitution in order to facilitate a working relationship with the United Nations.

International Penal and Penitentiary Commission

1950 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-544
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Recent Meeting ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Prevention Of Crime ◽  
Nations System

First established at the International Penitentiary Congress of London in 1872, the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission was organized as it now exists by constitutional regulations adopted in 1880, confirmed in 1886, and revised in 1926, 1929, 1946 and 1948. Eleven international congresses have been convened, the last in Berlin in 1935; and the commission held its most recent meeting in Bern in August of 1949. The commission took as its terms of reference responsibility for promoting exchanges of views among expert penologists of all countries in order to develop standards and advise as to the development of progressive methods of preventing crime and treating offenders: The expenses for 1949 were estimated at 121,400 Swiss francs ($28,365), payable by the members at a ratio of 170 Swiss francs ($39.64) per one million inhabitants. By a resolution of October 16, 1948, the commission and other major international organizations concerned with the prevention of crime and treatment of offenders agreed on the various aspects of the field in which each would work and on cooperation with the United Nations. ILO, WHO, and UNESCO were among the specialized agencies which agreed to the resolution. A later resolution on cooperation with the United Nations, adopted by the commission in August 1949 was reviewed by ECOSOC which, in turn, requested the United Nations Secretary-General to coatinue consultations with IPPC with a view toward its integration in the United Nations system.

Africa, the United Nations, and Third Generation Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-133
Author(s):  
Derrick M. Nault
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
World War ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
International Body ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

Chapter Four assesses Africa’s contributions to ‘third generation’ rights—‘solidarity’ or ‘group rights’ that emerged in tandem with decolonization after World War II. It traces the genealogy of three such human rights incorporated into the mandate of the United Nations (UN) from the 1950s to 1980s—the right to self-determination, the right to racial non-discrimination, and the right to development—arguing that African political lobbying proved decisive for the recognition and codification of these interrelated rights at the UN. Through writings and speeches critical of colonialism, racism, and global inequality; cultivating alliances with non-African Third World nations; and making the United Nations a more inclusive and representative international body, African leaders, it is shown, helped redefine human rights at the UN in ways that continue to reverberate in our own era.

UNAMID: A Path Towards Hybrid Peacekeeping?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Thó Monteiro ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
African Union ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Hybrid Operation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Definition Of

ABSTRACT In 2007, the United Nations - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) was established as the first joint peacekeeping operation (PKO) of the United Nations (UN), with the African Union (AU) in Darfur, Sudan, which became known as the first hybrid PKO, bringing together two of the largest international organizations and taking over AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan). In this paper, we want to understand the purpose of this bilateral relationship, since this hybrid operation opened a window of opportunity for future operations to adopt this typology. Firstly, the responsibility of managing certain conflicts is distributed among other regional organizations, giving them more autonomy and responsibility. Secondly, the “burden” – human and financial – of the UN is somehow eased. To this end, we will gather and process the data relating to the strengths and weaknesses of this PKO typology, with the help of a SWOT analysis, to find clues and bring evidence to light that demonstrate the possibility of this model being replicated in future situations, while respecting the due differences inherent to each mission and each country and region. We concluded that the hybridization of more PKOs could be a reality, albeit dependent on a greater investment by regional organizations in adapting to UN procedures, namely through diverse types of training. In addition, it will always be necessary a prior and careful analysis regarding the implementation of a PKO of this typology, with a concrete and clear definition of the roles of each organization. KEYWORDS: hybrid peacekeeping; United Nations; peacekeeping operations; UNAMID; African Union.

Fulfilling the Sacred Trust

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Heiss
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Developing World ◽  
World War ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Agent Of Change ◽  
Political Norms ◽  
Global Influence

This book explores the implementation of international accountability for dependent territories under the United Nations during the early Cold War era. Although the Western nations that drafted the UN Charter saw the organization as a means of maintaining the international status quo they controlled, newly independent nations saw the UN as an instrument of decolonization and an agent of change disrupting global political norms. The book documents the unprecedented process through which these new nations came to wrest control of the United Nations from the World War II victors that founded it, allowing the UN to become a vehicle for global reform. It examines the consequences of these early changes on the global political landscape in the midst of heightened international tensions playing out in Europe, the developing world, and the UN General Assembly. The book puts this anti-colonial advocacy for accountability into perspective by making connections between the campaign for international accountability in the United Nations and other postwar international reform efforts such as the anti-apartheid movement, Pan-Africanism, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the drive for global human rights. Chronicling the combative history of this campaign, the book details the global impact of the larger UN reformist effort. It demonstrates the unintended impact of decolonization on the United Nations and its agenda, as well as the shift in global influence from the developed to the developing world.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document