A Visit to the UN

A Visit to the UN

Background on the UN
The UN was created in 1945 as a result of World War II, originally it had 51 member countries and now there are 192 member countries. The point of the creation of the UN was to avoid another world war. After two world wars in 30 years, the international community decided it was time to put together an agent in order to allow for diplomatic negotiations instead of violence. The UN has five official languages: Spanish, Russian, French, English, Chinese and Arabic; and the two main languages are French and English. UN interpreters have to speak a minimum of three or four languages fluency, which must include either English or French. English and French are used as the main languages for interpretation, if a mistake is made through either English or French than the other interpreters for the three remaining languages will also make a mistake in their interpretations. Interpreters are only allowed to work 30 minutes at a time and up to 3 hours a day, since it is such a high stress job. The headquarters of the UN is in New York and there are three additional locations in: Vienna, Geneva, and Nairobi. Each location focuses on a different diplomatic arena. New York focuses on politics. Geneva focuses on human rights. Vienna focuses on security with an emphasis in nuclear energy. Lastly, Nairobi focuses on the environment. The Vienna UN contains many different agencies and divisions in order to insure safety in the international community, such as: UNOID (United Nations Office on Industrial Development), UNOOSA (United Nations Office on Outer-space Affairs), UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes), and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).

IAEA
The IAEA was created as a response to the Atoms for Peace initiative. The main goal of the IAEA is all for the safe and secure use of nuclear technology. The need for the IAEA arose from the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the explosion of two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The existence of nuclear weapons led to the Cold War, in which the United States and the Soviet Union had a nuclear arms race, resulting in the need for an international diplomatic agency to ensure the safe and secure use of nuclear technology. The job of the IAEA is to make sure that uranium ore that is mined is not made to materials that can be used for weapons. However, the IAEA is not involved in disarmament, especially nuclear weapons. It relies on budgetary and extra-budgetary contributions to distribute its services. Budgetary contributions are based on member states payments based on the size of their economy. Extra-budgetary contributions are made by member states to fund projects that they may be interested in. The IAEA’s main role is to monitor fissile material. Member states are split into two categories: NWs (nuclear weapon states) are states that have exploded a nuclear device befor January 1967 and includes: USA, Russia, UK, France, and China. These countries are not subject to IAEA inspections. The second category is the NNWs (non nuclear weapon states) are states that have pledged not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons and must allow IAEA inspections. The incentive for NNW states to join the IAEA is that members of the IAEA will help the country to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The mission of the IAEA can be summed up in 3 pillars: 1) safeguards and verification 2) safety and security 3) science and technology. The first pillar focuses on international accounting to ensure that fissile material is only used for peaceful purposes. The second pillar focuses on safe use of nuclear technology. The third pillar focuses on help and advice with peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

UNODC
The UNODC’s focus is to help member states deal with issues of crime, drugs, and terrorism; unlike the IAEA, the UNODC is a part of the UN. At any one time the UNODC works on 250 projects and works with an annual budget of 100 million US dollars. The UNODC is based on 3 conventions. First, drugs are bad. The use and production of drugs must be controlled and necessary measures must be taken to ensure this. Second, substances should only be used under prescription according to their recognized medical use or for medical research. Third, the drug abuse is the illicit use of drugs, which is based on an assessment of health risks and not on moral judgment. The UNODC also oversees the INCB (International Narcotics Control Board). The INCB is a semi-judicial function to monitor compliance to being a member state of the UNODC. The INCB provides legal and technical assistance to member states. For instance, they help survey the amount of poppy and coca production and help with socioeconomic situations. They also provide and improve the capacities of member state governments to stop the trafficking of drugs. The main point is to reduce the supply and demand of drugs.

Questions:
1. The IAEA preaches nuclear disarmament, do you plan on enforcing this for all nations? This was answered. The IAEA does not involve itself with disarmament of nations especially of nuclear weapons, its job is to make sure enriched uranium is not used to make weapons.
2. What is the main goal of the UNODC? This was answered. The main goal of the UNODC is to help member states deal with issues of crime, drugs, terrorist, and trafficking.
3. What diplomatic methods do you plan on using to stop drug trafficking? This was not really discussed. Our lecture was focused on early prevention methods of drug use through installing an educational program in schools.
4. What drugs are most commonly trafficked and which create the highest revenue? This was also not really discussed; however, I did find a poster that mapped out the proportion of use of each substance: cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamines, and opiates in each region of the world. The percentages differ from region to region. The most commonly used drug in the North American region is cannabis.
5. How does the IAEA feel about nuclear energy? This was answered. The IAEA supports the use of nuclear energy for its efficiency; however, they believe that not all nations have the resources and capacity to instill this type of technology.
6. Is the UN looking for more efficient or alternative ways to dispose of nuclear waste? This was not discussed. The lecture was more focused on the NPT and the prevention of proliferation of nuclear weapons and establishing knowledge for the good uses of nuclear technology.