United Nations: A Place For Peace

While in Switzerland, we did some research on the United Nations (UN) and thought it would be really interesting to go and see what we were reading about. We went on a guided tour of the UN and learned and saw many interesting things.

The four objectives of the UN are:

1) To keep peace throughout the world;

2) To develop friendly relations among nations;

3) To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;

4) To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

The United Nations was created after World War II in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally, Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States, created the “League of Nations”, a similar organisation but sadly, it failed.

The Allies decided to make the UN after World War II because they wanted a place where countries could come and talk about their issues instead of fight about them. They also did not want to have another world war.

Today the UN helps out around the world and there are a large number of committees who are ready to give assistance to those who are in need. For example, when there is a natural disaster like a tsunami, aid will come and bring things such as food, tents and clean water. They provide food for 90 million people in 75 countries around the world. The UN gives needles to 58% of the worlds children saving 2.5 million lives every year. They also keep peace with 120,000 peacekeepers in 16 places on 4 continents and protect human rights.

The UN in Switzerland receives some unique gifts from every country. For example, a carpet in the UN hall is a gift from the Philippines and is made out of coconut shells. There are a number of statues and paintings around the building from 193 countries who are members of the UN. I think it is really nice that all of the countries give gifts.

One of my favourite parts of walking through the building was going in all of the different rooms. I especially liked three rooms in particular. One was a conference room with a lot of seats and earphones. The official languages of the UN are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish so the people need translation.

Another room I enjoyed was the Human Rights conference room. The ceiling was decorated by Miquel Barceló from Spain. The ceiling was meant to look like the bottom of the ocean turned upside down.

The last room is in the former League of Nations palace. One painting was five figures holding each others arms symbolizing the five continents coming together for peace.

We learned a lot of new things about the UN and I think it is a great organization to make the world a better place. The UN would work even better if all of the countries of the world came together to talk out their issues instead of fighting.