The United Nations

The United Nations was created after the Second World War to maintain peace and security: the Charter was signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and entered into force on 24 October, which is why 24 October is UN Day; there were 51 original members. Today 193 states are members, Uzbekistan joined on 2 March 1992, and the headquarters is in New York. Its aims are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among states, cooperate on economic, social and humanitarian problems, and promote respect for human rights. There are six principal organs: the General Assembly (all members, one vote each), the Security Council (5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected for two years; the permanent ones are the USA, Russia, China, the UK and France), the Economic and Social Council (54 members), the Trusteeship Council (its work has been suspended since 1994), the International Court of Justice (15 judges, in The Hague) and the Secretariat (headed by the Secretary-General). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948 (30 articles; that day is Human Rights Day); a declaration is a recommendation, whereas a convention is a binding international treaty for the states that join it. For children there is the 1959 Declaration and the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989, under which a child is a person under 18, while UNICEF has helped children since 1946.