The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organization that works to promote international cooperation and the maintenance of peace among nations. It was established on October 24, 1945 following the catastrophic effects of World War II, in order to prevent similar conflicts in the future. When the UN was founded, it had 51 member states, but today it has 193 members, excluding Palestine and Vatican City. The main mission of the United Nations since its creation has been to promote peace and international cooperation. However, now that the UN is much larger and better funded, with many individual organizations focusing on specific issues such as UNESCO and UNICEF, the UN's mission has become much broader in this regard. which concerns specific issues, such as poverty and women's rights. etc. However, the main objectives of the UN can be summarized by five general points: maintaining international peace and security, promoting sustainable development, protecting human rights, upholding international law, and providing humanitarian assistance and support for peacekeeping in conflict or disaster areas. Personally, I believe that the UN has so far been relatively successful in working on these five main objectives. Compared to the League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN), the impact of the UN has been far more effective and is far more well established globally than the League of Nations ever was . It is inevitable that conflicts will arise, and so it is unrealistic to expect the UN to prevent all conflicts in the world (even if that is their primary goal). However, this does not mean that they no longer fulfill their mission, because the UN still has a considerable impact on world developments today, particularly in developing countries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay One of the major aspects of the UN's mission in recent years has been to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. development set in 2000 following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These Millennium Development Goals were eight international development goals that all 189 Member States (at the time they were set) committed to working towards and achieving by 2015. Each goal had individual specific objectives that were set to track progress over time. The eight goals were: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and women's empowerment, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, guarantee the environment. sustainability and develop a global partnership for development. Obviously, not all of these goals have been achieved worldwide, as many of these problems are still present today in different parts of the globe. However, many countries have made a lot of progress over these 15 years, such as China, whose poor population fell from 452 million to 278 million, and Brazil. In reality, progress towards these goals has not been uniform across the world, as there are huge disparities between countries and continents. For example, in many parts of Africa and the Middle East there is still much work to be done, and the constant conflicts in these regions have also prevented much of the potential work that could have been.