The United Nations System and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

The UN is an intergovernmental organization established in the aftermath of the Second World
War under the leadership of the victorious allied states with the aim of universal cooperation and a
common security system.

The founding document of the organization is the United Nations Charter, adopted at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, and its headquarter is in New York.

Turkey was among the first founding members to sign the founding document of this organization.

As of today, the organization includes 193 states.

The objectives of the Organization are enumerated in Article 1 of the Charter

In the Declaration issued by the Organization at the Millennium Summit in 1998, the new goals
of the Organization in the XXI century were listed as freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibilities, and in order to achieve these, the new goals of the Organization were stated as disarmament, poverty eradication, development, environmental protection, human rights, democracy, good governance, protection of vulnerable groups, solving the needs of Africa, and strengthening the Organization.

The UN has a wide range of activities. Among the general activities of the organization, especially
the assistance to underdeveloped countries, is of great importance. The Organization sends experts
to these countries, provides scholarships and training, and delivers health and food supplies.
Among the subsidiary bodies established for this purpose, the UN Development Program plays a
prominent role by providing financial assistance to governments.

Human rights are also one of the areas to which the Organization attaches great importance, and in line with this objective, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was first adopted by the General Assembly in 1948.

The Organization has six principal organs and numerous subsidiary organs established by these
organs. The principal organs are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice. 

Some of the subsidiary organs established by the General Assembly are: International Law Commission, the Commission on Disarmament and Security, Peace-building Commission, Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Human Rights Council, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Commission on Trade and Law, UN Environment Assembly, the UN Administrative Disputes and Appeals Tribunal (which hears employment cases concerning current and former employees of the Organization). Some of the committees and subsidiary bodies established by the Security Council include: Military Staff Committee, the Non-Proliferation Commission, the UN Compensation Commission, Peace-building Commission, the Counter-Terrorism Committee, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

It is composed of representatives of all member states, and each member state has one vote.
Membership is open to all peace-loving states, and admission to membership is by decision of the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council (a recommendation is necessary; see ICJ, the 1950 case of Admission to UN Membership).

The Council is a body composed of five permanent and ten temporary member states.
The permanent members are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, and Russia, considered the successor of the USSR. The other ten members are elected by the General Assembly for a two-year term.

Under Article 24 of the UN Charter, member states recognize that the Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and under Article 25, they agree to carry out its decisions in accordance with the Charter.

The Security Council is the body primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. If it is determined by the Security Council that international peace and security is threatened or breached, or an act of aggression is committed, the Security Council may exercise its authority under Chapter VII of the Charter and adopt binding resolutions containing measures that involve use of armed force.

Although not envisaged in the UN Charter, peacekeeping is another method that has emerged in practice in response to the need to maintain peace and security. Peacekeeping missions, legitimized by reference to the powers of the Council and the General Assembly to take decisions and establish the necessary subsidiary organs for the establishment of peace and security, were initially established with the aim of supervising the ceasefire process that started after a conflict between states, by a neutral international force to be deployed between them.

In this respect, international law offers states two types of settlement: diplomatic procedures and legal remedies.

In a diplomatic settlement, the involvement of third parties in the negotiations is also possible and can take various forms. In the socalled friendly initiative or good offices procedure, a third party encourages the parties to engage with each other and provides an enabling environment for negotiations to take place. In this procedure, the third party does not participate in the negotiations.

In the mediation procedure, a third State or international organization (e.g., the UN Secretary General’s friendly initiative and mediation mandate in the Cyprus conflict; see Council
resolution 367) intervenes, either on request or at its own suggestion, to invite the parties to negotiate and to try to bring their positions closer through proposals (see also General Assembly resolution 65/238 and Council resolution 2171). Thus, in this procedure, unlike friendly initiative, the third party participates in the negotiations and guides the parties with proposals for a solution.

The conciliation procedure, on the other hand, is the examination of the dispute by an international body that makes recommendations for a solution. This procedure has elements of both inquiry and mediation. It is usually conducted by a commission, which includes representatives of the States that are parties to the dispute. 

In the arbitration method, after a dispute arises (sometimes this procedure is agreed in advance in a treaty, see, e.g., Law of the Sea Convention, Article 287), the parties enter into an arbitration agreement to submit it to an arbitrator (arbitral tribunal). This is in the nature of a treaty and contains the subject matter of the dispute, the manner of appointment of the arbitrators, and the applicable legal and procedural rules. The parties are free to choose the arbitrator or arbitrators and may appoint a person of their confidence or persons of their choice from a list drawn up by the Permanent Court of Arbitration established by the 1907 La Haye Convention. Thus, the arbitration process differs from the judicial system in that it allows the parties to appoint arbitrators of their choice and to determine the legal and procedural rules applied by the arbitrator (see also the Model Rules on Arbitral Procedure adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 1262). The decisions of the arbitral tribunal are final and binding.