UN and It’s Roles

Salaam Alaikum!

My name is Syeda Farwa Hussain and I am in Grade 8A. The UN is something many
people have heard about but they don’t many things about it. Today I will briefly describe what
is the UN and what are its roles. The UN’s most important and significant role is to bring peace
to countries. It has many different projects that all work toward the benefit of humanity. From
UNICEF to the WHO, they all work together to improve the quality of life in developing and
least developed countries. We will discuss what is the UN, how it relates to Islam, a little bit of
history and some of their projects today.

Now let’s review what really is the UN. The UN is an intergovernmental organization
that countries pay in order to become a member. This organization’s main priority is to strive
towards world peace. They have many projects that help strive towards this goal. The UN is run
like a typical democracy; each country states it’s problem, and the other countries figure out
ways to solve it. Also, if the leader of the UN (also known as the Secretary General, according to
a YouTube video by CBC news), or any other country has an idea in order to improve anything,
the UN will cast a vote and find out if the majority is in favor of it or not. This process was used
to initiate different projects that would most likely benefit one country but hurt another.

The UN was officially made after the Second World War in October 24, 1945 (un.org).
51 countries signed to international peace and friendly relations so that no one would start
another World War. Although the United Nations was officially made in 1945, the term was first
used in 1942 when representatives from 26 countries pledged to join their governments to fight
the opposition at the time, the Axis Power. Canada has been a part of United Nations, ever since
it was first established. The UN was made because the leaders there did not want any more
World Wars, so they made this organization to stop this from ever happening again. They wanted
other generation to not go through what they had to go through.
 Some of the projects that we can quickly review are UNICEF, WHO, UNOPS and
UNESCO. First up is UNICEF; this project helps children and adolescents in many countries and
helps protects their rights. Next is the WHO; this project helps to provide medical supplies to all
countries and it makes sure that each country is at a good hygienic level. The third is UNOPS;
this project “helps the UN and its partners to provide peace and security, humanitarian and
development solutions.” (unops.org). The fourth is UNESCO; this project “seeks to build peace
through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture.” (unesco.org).

As we all know, Islam is a very peaceful religion and the UN’s main role is to instill and
maintain peace in all countries. According to Al-Islam.org, “The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S)
said: “Anyone who goes to make peace between two persons, the angels of Allah send blessings
upon him until he returns and he will be given the reward of the Night of Destiny (Laylat al-
Qadr).” This means that if we have peace with people around us, we will get a great reward in
Laylatul Qadr. So, whatever the UN is doing, that goes toward their aims of peace, Islam
approves of it, and in fact, encourages us to be peaceful in any way we can. Countries with any
problems can go to the UN because it is the UN’s duty to help.

Thank you for listening, Salawaat!

BY SYEDA FARWA HUSSAIN 8A