Welcome to the Virtual Tour of the United Nations

Suzy: The United Nations is basically an organization that decides on important things about war, terrorism, and situations going on in other countries, right?

Tour Guide: Close, but not quite. The United Nations is an organization that discusses important issues, but there is a great significance to the United Nations that can be found in its name. Would anyone else like to take a guess?

Jason: 'United' means that something is allied or brought together, and 'Nations' are like countries. Therefore, the great significance must be that the United Nations is a union of many nations that decides on important things about the world.

Tour Guide: That's correct. The United Nations is a union of 191 countries that strive to make the world a better place. Within the United Nations, there is an important section called the General Assembly. The General Assembly votes on important matters concerning peace, security, and budgets with a 2/3 vote, and of all other matters with a method called simple majority. Simple majority is when the vote goes to the side with more votes, whether it be by one or by twenty votes.

Rebecca: Who is in the General Assembly? I mean, how do we know that the decisions are made equally between countries? I understand that there is a vote, but who gets to vote?

Tour Guide: That's an excellent question, young lady. The unique aspect of the General Assembly that answers your question is that the General Assembly is made up of one representative from each member nation. Each representative is allowed one vote in all matters that the General Assembly is concerned with.

Allow me to continue with the tour. The United Nations not only makes decisions on important matters, it takes action. Ever since its creation in 1948, the United Nations has left its imprints across the world. Within the United Nations are groups which cover different parts of the world, and various problems that our world faces.

Ricky: I think I've heard of one of these groups. The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. Every Halloween at our school, we can carry around UNICEF boxes to collect money to help children across the world.  On the box, it says, "Twenty-five cents buys enough vitamin A to protect four children from blindness," and "One dollar buys polio vaccines for four children." It's amazing what such a small amount of money can do.

Tour Guide: The United Nations Children’s Fund is a major branch of the United Nations that focuses its attention on the rights of children and improving the lives of children all over the world. Just like there is a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is also a Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states the rights that each and every child is entitled to. 

Graciela: What exactly does UNICEF do to improve the lives of children all over the world? Does it have overall goals, or certain areas concerning the welfare of children that need to be worked on?

Tour Guide: UNICEF has various goals within the eight major issues that it is concerned with. Examples of these issues are the education, health, and nutrition of children. Every child has a right to an education, whether the child be male or female. Throughout history, female children have been deprived of education. It is one of UNICEF’s goals to ensure that this act is discontinued. UNICEF’s goals in the issue of health is to reduce the infant, child, and maternal mortality rates, and to reduce the number of children and teenagers with HIV, the AIDS virus. Nutrition is an important factor in the healthy growth of a child. However, child malnutrition is also very common, and reducing child malnutrition rates is also an important goal for UNICEF.

Jason: My dad was talking about another organization, I think it's called the United Nations Truce Organization?

Tour Guide: You must be talking about UNTSO. UNTSO is the United Nation Truce Supervision Organization. It was established along with the United Nations in 1948, to watch over the Israel/Palestine situation. The day after Israel was born, the surrounding Arab states declared against a state of hostility against Israel. UNTSO’s goal then was to lessen the tensions, just as it is now to lessen tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rebecca: How many of these sub-organizations within the United Nations are there? You’ve mentioned UNICEF and UNTSO, but are there many more that have had a significant role in the development of the world?