The role of the United Nations in promoting world order: HSC Legal Studies

What this dot point is asking

In part 2 of the World Order option (Legal Studies Stage 6 Syllabus 2009), students learn about the roles of the nation state, the United Nations, international instruments, courts and tribunals, IGOs, NGOs, Australia's federal government and the media, and about political negotiation, persuasion and the use of force. You must evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures in resolving conflict and working towards world order, and examine the role of sovereignty in assisting and impeding that work.

The UN appears in almost every World Order response. Markers' comments on recent papers note that weaker responses were vague about UN organs, so know which organ does what, what legal force its decisions have, and current examples of success and failure.

The answer

Establishment and purposes

The Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and entered into force on 24 October 1945. The UN replaced the League of Nations, which had failed to prevent aggression in the 1930s because it lacked enforcement powers and the participation of major powers. It began with 51 members and now has 193 (South Sudan, the newest, joined in 2011).

The purposes in article 1 are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations based on equal rights and self-determination, achieve international cooperation on economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and human rights, and be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations. The principles in article 2 include sovereign equality (art 2(1)), peaceful settlement of disputes (art 2(3)), the prohibition on the threat or use of force (art 2(4)) and non-intervention in domestic matters (art 2(7)).

The six principal organs

1. The General Assembly (GA). All 193 members, one vote each (art 18). Important questions need a two-thirds majority. The GA may discuss any matter within the Charter and make recommendations (arts 10 to 14), so its resolutions are generally not binding (soft law), except on internal matters: it approves the budget, elects the ten non-permanent Security Council members and, on the Council's recommendation, admits members and appoints the Secretary-General. It works through six main committees and subsidiary bodies, including the Human Rights Council (47 members, created by GA Resolution 60/251 in 2006), which runs the Universal Periodic Review of every state.

Two mechanisms let the GA respond when the Security Council is deadlocked:

• Uniting for Peace, GA Resolution 377A(V) (1950), used to call the eleventh emergency special session on Ukraine. Resolution ES-11/1 (2 March 2022) deplored Russia's aggression and demanded its withdrawal (141 in favour, 5 against, 35 abstentions).
• The veto initiative, GA Resolution 76/262 (26 April 2022), requires the GA to meet within 10 working days of any veto so the vetoing state must explain itself.

2. The Security Council (SC). Fifteen members: five permanent members with the veto (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) and ten elected by the GA for two-year terms (art 23). It has primary responsibility for international peace and security (art 24) and its decisions bind all members (art 25).

• Chapter VI (arts 33 to 38): the Council can call on parties to settle disputes peacefully and recommend terms.
• Chapter VII (arts 39 to 42): once it determines a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression (art 39), it can impose measures not involving force such as sanctions and arms embargoes (art 41) and authorise military action (art 42). Article 43, which envisaged standing forces for the Council, was never implemented, so the Council authorises member states or coalitions to use force.
• Voting. Procedural decisions need nine votes. Substantive decisions need nine votes including the concurring votes of the permanent members (art 27(3)); in practice an abstention is not a veto.
• Other powers. Referring situations to the ICC (Darfur, Res 1593, 2005; Libya, Res 1970, 2011), creating tribunals (ICTY 1993, ICTR 1994), recommending new members and the Secretary-General, and establishing peace operations and sanctions committees.

3. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

54 members elected by the GA. It coordinates economic, social and environmental work and the specialised agencies, and consults NGOs (thousands of NGOs hold consultative status).

4. The Trusteeship Council

Suspended its operations in 1994 after Palau, the last trust territory, became independent.

5. The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The principal judicial organ (art 92), with 15 judges in The Hague. It decides contentious cases between states that have consented to its jurisdiction and gives advisory opinions to UN bodies. Members undertake to comply with its decisions (art 94(1)); if a party does not, the other may go to the Security Council (art 94(2)), where a veto can block enforcement. Recent work:

• Ukraine v Russia (Genocide Convention): provisional measures of 16 March 2022 ordered Russia to suspend military operations; Russia did not comply.
• South Africa v Israel (Genocide Convention): provisional measures from 26 January 2024; the merits are undecided.
• The Gambia v Myanmar (Genocide Convention, the Rohingya): merits hearings held from 12 to 29 January 2026; judgment still pending as at September 2026.
• Advisory opinions on Israel's policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (19 July 2024), on the obligations of states in respect of climate change (23 July 2025), on Israel's obligations regarding the UN and other bodies, including UNRWA, in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (22 October 2025), and on the right to strike under ILO Convention No 87 (21 May 2026).

6. The Secretariat. Headed by the Secretary-General, appointed by the GA on the Security Council's recommendation (art 97). The Secretary-General can bring threats to peace to the Council's attention (art 99), which Antonio Guterres did over Gaza in December 2023. Guterres's second term ends on 31 December 2026. The selection of his successor was under way in 2026, with the Security Council's first straw poll held on 30 July 2026; as at September 2026 no candidate had been recommended, so check the outcome before your exam.

Specialised agencies, funds and programmes

The UN system includes 15 specialised agencies, independent organisations created by their own treaties and linked to the UN through ECOSOC, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the IMF and the World Bank Group. Funds and programmes such as UNHCR (refugees), UNICEF, the World Food Programme and UNDP deliver aid. The IAEA reports to the GA and Security Council on nuclear safeguards.

These bodies work mainly through non-legal measures: aid, technical cooperation, monitoring and reporting. They are highly dependent on voluntary funding. The United States' withdrawal from the WHO took effect in January 2026, and in January 2026 it announced withdrawal from 66 international organisations, including 31 UN entities.

Peace operations

Peacekeeping is not mentioned in the Charter; it developed from Chapter VI and VII practice. Its three principles are consent of the parties, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate. Modern "multidimensional" missions protect civilians, support elections and help rebuild institutions.

• Scale. In 2026 there were 11 peacekeeping operations, including MINUSCA (Central African Republic), MONUSCO (DRC), UNMISS (South Sudan), UNIFIL (Lebanon) and UNFICYP (Cyprus), with more than 50,000 peacekeepers serving in 2026. The 2025 to 2026 peacekeeping budget was about US$5.4 billion, and the 2026 to 2027 budget approved by the General Assembly on 30 June 2026 was about US$5.1 billion.
• Cuts. Because of unpaid contributions, in October 2025 the Secretary-General directed missions to cut spending by 15 per cent and repatriate about 25 per cent of uniformed personnel. In August 2025 the Council extended UNIFIL a final time to 31 December 2026 (Resolution 2790), followed by withdrawal.
• Successes. Namibia (1989 to 1990), Cambodia (1992 to 1993) and Timor-Leste, where the Australian-led INTERFET (authorised by Resolution 1264, 1999) was followed by the UN transitional administration (UNTAET) until independence in 2002.
• Failures. Rwanda (1994), where the UN mission was reduced during the genocide, and Srebrenica (1995), where Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in a UN "safe area". These failures led to the Brahimi Report (2000) and helped produce R2P (2005).

The Security Council and the veto in practice

Collective action when the P5 agree.

• Iraq's invasion of Kuwait: force authorised by Resolution 678 (1990).
• Counter-terrorism: Resolution 1373 (2001) bound all states to criminalise terrorist financing.
• Iran: sanctions under earlier resolutions were reimposed in late September 2025 after France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the "snapback" mechanism in Resolution 2231 (2015); China, Iran and Russia dispute that the snapback was valid.
• Gaza: Resolution 2803 (17 November 2025, 13-0, China and Russia abstaining) endorsed a US-backed plan to end the conflict and authorised a temporary International Stabilization Force.
• Iran war: Resolution 2817 (11 March 2026, 13-0-2) condemned Iran's attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan; a rival Russian draft that named no parties failed.

Deadlock when a P5 member or ally is involved.

• Ukraine. Russia vetoed the draft deploring its invasion on 25 February 2022. The first substantive resolution, Resolution 2774 (24 February 2025, 10-0-5), a short US text calling for a swift end to the conflict, did not name Russia as the aggressor. On the same day the GA adopted ES-11/7 reaffirming Ukraine's territorial integrity (93 in favour, 18 against, 65 abstentions), with the United States voting against.
• Gaza. The United States vetoed ceasefire drafts from October 2023, including on 4 June 2025 and 18 September 2025 (each 14 to 1), saying they did not adequately condemn Hamas or support negotiations. Earlier, Resolution 2728 (25 March 2024) demanding a ceasefire passed when the United States abstained.
• The Strait of Hormuz. China and Russia vetoed a Bahrain-sponsored draft encouraging states to coordinate the defensive protection of shipping (7 April 2026, 11-2-2), saying it was biased against Iran.
• Other examples. Russia's vetoes on Syria after 2011, on renewing the North Korea sanctions Panel of Experts (March 2024) and on a Sudan ceasefire draft (November 2024).

Financial crisis and reform

• Money. Unpaid assessed contributions reached close to US$1.6 billion in late 2025, most owed by the United States. In December 2025 the GA approved a 2026 regular budget of about US$3.45 billion, about 7 per cent lower than the 2025 budget, abolishing about 2,900 positions, under the Secretary-General's UN80 reform initiative (the Secretary-General had proposed cuts of about 15 per cent in resources and 18.8 per cent in posts).
• Security Council reform. Proposals to add permanent or longer-term seats (for example for India, Brazil, Germany, Japan and African states) and to limit the veto have been negotiated in the GA since the 1990s without agreement, because any Charter amendment needs ratification by two-thirds of members including all five permanent members (art 108).
• Pact for the Future. Adopted by the GA on 22 September 2024, it commits states to reform the Council and the international financial architecture, but it is not binding.

Australia and the United Nations

Australia is a founding member. Its Foreign Minister H V Evatt argued at San Francisco for a stronger General Assembly and for limits on the veto, and was President of the GA session that adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. Australia has served five terms on the Security Council (most recently 2013 to 2014) and is a candidate for 2029 to 2030. Australian personnel have served in UN operations since 1947, when Australian officers were among the first UN military observers, in Indonesia. Australia led INTERFET in Timor-Leste in 1999, contributes to UNMISS and UNFICYP, and uses UN processes such as the Human Rights Council, the ICJ (Whaling in the Antarctic, 2014) and UNCLOS conciliation with Timor-Leste.

Evaluating the UN's effectiveness

Judgement. The UN is moderately effective. It promotes world order strongly: it sets norms, provides a forum where even rivals negotiate, and delivers humanitarian aid. It maintains world order only when the permanent members agree, and in 2022 to 2026 they have disagreed about the most serious conflicts, so enforcement has fallen to the GA's recommendations, coalitions of states and the courts. Its financial crisis reduces even what it can do by consent. The fairest judgement is that the UN is indispensable but structurally limited by the sovereignty of its most powerful members.

In one sentence

The UN, through the Charter's prohibition on force, the Security Council's binding Chapter VII powers, the General Assembly, the ICJ and its agencies, is the centre of world order, but the veto, its dependence on members' funding and the refusal of powerful states to comply mean it promotes world order far better than it maintains it.

Try this

Q1. Outline the powers of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. Articles 39, 41 and 42, the binding effect under article 25, and one example of each type of measure.

Q2. Explain the role of the General Assembly when the Security Council is deadlocked. (5 marks)

• What the marker wants. Uniting for Peace, the veto initiative, ES-11/1 or ES-11/7 on Ukraine, and the limit that the GA can only recommend.

Q3. To what extent has the UN responded effectively to a conflict you have studied? (8 marks)

• What the marker wants. A single conflict (for example Ukraine or the 2026 Iran war), the organs involved, resolutions and vetoes with dates, non-legal measures, and a clear judgement.