Category United Nations

When India gained independence in 1947, it regarded the already granted UN membership as an assurance of peace and stability. In return, our country has always shown strong interest in the ideals of the UN, and had actively participated in the UN’s specialized programmes and agencies.

India has been a member of the UN Security Council. India has served seven terms in the Security Council, the most recent one being from 2011-12. India was enthusiastic about working against colonialism and the practice of apartheid. In fact, India was among the most outspoken critics of apartheid and racial discrimination in South Africa.

India has significantly contributed to the UN’s peacekeeping mission. Indian troops were sent for the United Nations peacekeeping mission. Indian troops were sent for the United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Korea, Egypt and Congo. In recent years, Indian troops were involved in the missions in Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Liberia, Lebanon and Rwanda.

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In principle, only sovereign states can become UN members. But, India gained UN membership before its independence. India is one among the original members of the United Nations and signed the Declaration of the United Nations in 1944 at Washington DC.

India was not the only member to gain membership before independence. Belarus, the Philippines, and Ukraine too got membership similarly.

Though India, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia were all British colonies, they were given independent seats in the United Nations General Assembly. It was Sir Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar, who signed the UN Charter on behalf of India during the San Francisco Conference on 26 June, 1945.

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Greta Thunberg was a name that filled the newspaper columns last year. Along with a lot of other things, the young climate activist from Sweden is famous for her UN speech.

Greta first became famous when she was 15. Instead of attending school, she protested outside the Swedish parliament holding a placard that said ‘school strike for climate change’ for taking stronger actions against climate change.

Other students soon joined her movement and organized a school strike named ‘Fridays for Future’. This event went international after she participated in the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference.

Greta suddenly rose to world fame when she was featured by Time magazine. Time named her ‘next generation leader’. In 2019, she addressed the UN Climate Action Summit. Greta Thunberg was also nominated for the Noble peace Prize last year.

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‘A race we can win. A race we must win.’ This was the theme for the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. The summit aimed at improving climate action resolved to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to prevent the global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degree Celsius.

A global climate strike was held to pressurize the global leaders into action. Also known as the ‘Global Week for Future’, it was a series of international strikes and protests that demanded action for climate change. The summit took place in September.

However, some countries did not agree to the new proposal. China did not increase its Paris Agreement commitments. India did not agree to reduce its use of coal. US did not even speak in the conference.

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The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE), also known as the Stockholm Conference of 1972 is one of the first major international conferences on environment.

After serious discussions about factors that affect the environment like population growth, and advancing technology, the UN came up with the Declaration on the Human Environment, and the Action Plan for Human Environment.

The action plan contained 109 specific recommendations aimed at achieving its goals. The conference presented environment as a human right. Every human has the right to clean and healthy environment. It talked about the responsibility of humans to manage wildlife and the ecosystem.

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The United Nations held an international convention in 2002 at Johannesburg, South Africa. The World Summit on Sustainable Development was however widely criticized by many environmental groups.

They said that the summit did not produce any productive international agreements; rather it tried to create new timetables for fulfilling Agenda 21 from the Rio Conference, and that took 10 years after its introduction.         

However, the World Summit did make an agreement to restore the world’s depleted fisheries and implemented an action plan. The Johannesburg Declaration was the major outcome of the summit. The declaration was based on the declarations of the Stockholm Conference of 1972 and Earth Summit of 1992.

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In December, 2015, global leaders assembled in Paris to come out with effective solutions regarding climate change. Reducing the emission of gases that major decision taken during the event. This in short sums up the Paris Agreement.

You might already know that the global temperature is increasing. This is due to the release of greenhouse gases, like methane. The phenomenon of global temperature increase is known as global warming.

The Paris Agreement, also known as COP21 was designed to curb the release of greenhouse gases to levels that would prevent global temperatures from increasing not more than 2 degree Celsius. 197 countries signed the agreement and it came into effect by November, 2016.

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Some of the African countries are constantly in the headlines due to the effects of severe drought and famine. We all know the harmful effects of cutting down forests, the lungs of the Earth. Desertification of the Earth would lead to a lot of environmental damage including the loss of the top layer of fertile soil, and drought.

The United Nations has come up with a long- term strategy to deal with the problem of desertification and cutting down the effects of drought. It held a convention to combat desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification in Africa. This strategy was drafted in 1994 and was signed in 1995. This was the result of the direct recommendation of Agenda that we discussed earlier.

To publicise the programme, the year 2006 was declared as the ‘International Year of Deserts and Desertification’.

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In 1997, a second major environmental conference led by the UN happened in Kyoto, Japan. The plan was to save the environment by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The UN wanted the industrialized nations to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Protocol was linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A protocol is an official procedure or a set of rules that the members are supposed to abide by.

After long and difficult negotiations, the developed countries agreed to reduce their emissions by five per cent from the levels of 1990. However, many environmentalists suggested that the emissions had to be reduced at least by 50 per cent.

Though the plan seemed splendid, it was not successful. The Kyoto Protocol was not a treaty and therefore, it was not mandatory to sign it. Moreover, USA, the world’s largest polluter, refused to accept the Protocol.

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In 1983, the UN General Assembly launched a World Commission on Environment and Development. This Commission was assigned to draft a report about environment and climate change along with strategies for sustainable development.

When the Commission reported back to the General Assembly in 1987, it suggested to organize a major worldwide conference on the environment.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit was the result of this. 178 representatives participated in the Summit that was organized in Brazil in 1992. However, no enforcements were made during the summit.

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