The GK section of various entrance tests like IIFT, SNAP and XAT have enough number of questions on Static GK. As a start, Let me try to summarize some important facts regarding the UNO.

Prior to the UNO, there was an organization called as The League of Nations. This was formed as a result of the Paris Peace Conference. At its greatest extent it had 58 members.

The term ‘United Nations’ was first coined by Franklin D.Roosevelt and it was first used officially on 1st January 1945 when 50 nations signed the Atlantic Charter.The ‘UN Charter‘ was adopted at the San Francisco Conference on 25th June 1945. The United Nations Organization came into existence officially from 24th October 1945.

Currently UNO has 193 member nations. The 193rd member nation was South Sudan. India was a founding member of the UNO and joined the same in October 1945.

The UNO has the following five major organs with it’s headquarters at New York, USA.

1. The General Assembly [193 members. Current President(68th session): John.W.Ashe. India’s Vijayalakshmi Pandit headed the 8th session ]

2. The Security Council [5 Permanent Members (USA, UK, France, China, Russia) and 10 Non-permanent members(for a 2 year period)]

3. The Economic and Social Council [54 members. President : Nester Osorio Londono]

4. The Secretariat

5. The International Court of Justice[15 judges elected by General Assembly. HQ : Hague]

A sixth organization, Trusteeship Council had suspended its operations in 1994 since the independence of Palau

Ban-Ki-moon(South Korea) is the current Secretary General of the UNO. The First Secretary General was Trygvie Lie (Norway).

Specialized Organs of the UNO (Location-wise with their respective heads)

Geneva, Switzerland

1. International Labor Organization. (Guy Ryder (UK))

2. International Telecommunication Union (Hamadoun Toure (Mali))

3. World Health Organization (Margaret Chan (Hong Kong))

4. World Intellectual Property Organization (Francis Gurry (Australia))

5. World Meteorological Organization(Michel Jarraud(France))

6. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Mukhisa Kituyi(Kenya))

Rome, Italy

1. Food and Agricultural Organization (Jose Graziano De Silva (Brazil))

2. International Fund for Agricultural Development (Kanayo.F.Nwanze(Nigeria))

3. World Food Programme (Ertharin Cousin (USA))

Washington D.C, USA

1. International Monetary Fund (Christine Lagarde(France))

2.World Bank (Jim Yong Kim(USA))

Vienna, Austria

1. International Atomic Energy Agency( Yukiya Amano (Japan))

2. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Kandeh Yumkella (Sierra-Leone)

Paris, France

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization(Irina Bokova (Bulgaria)

New York, USA

United Nations Children’s Fund (Anthony Lake(USA))

London, UK

International Maritime Organization (Koji Sekimizu(Japan))

Madrid, Spain

World Tourism Organization (Taleb Rifai (Jordan)

Bern, Switzerland

Universal Postal Union (Eduoard Dayan(France))

Montreal, Canada

International Civil Aviation Organization (Raymond Benjamin(France))

UNO has designated 2013 as International Year of Water Cooperation and International Year of Quinoa.

UNO has designated 2014 as International Year of Small Island Developing States , International Year of Crystallography and International Year of Family Farming

I hope this article covered pretty much ab0ut the UNO. Good luck for IIFT !