UN Related Organizations
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UN Related Organizations
Related organizations are similar to the specialized agencies, but they have more independence. They do not report to the UN political bodies, though their work may be the subject of UN debates, and they are run under the rules of their own founding documents.
- World Trade Organization: When the UN was first created, along with the World Bank and the IMF, the member states wanted to create a third organization dealing exclusively with trade. Unfortunately, even though the states drafted a charter for an International Trade Organization (ITO), several states, including the U.S., refused to ratify the charter and the ITO was dead before it was even properly started.
While all of this was playing out politically, some states adopted the several rules of the ITO in a provisional agreement, expecting these rules to serve as a makeshift measure until the ITO came into existence. When the ITO failed, their ‘provisional’ agreement, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, became the prevailing multilateral international trade agreement until the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995.While this makes the WTO a relatively young international organization, its history stems from the trade negotiations handled previously under GATT. The WTO currently describes its duties as:- Administering and acting as a forum for trade agreements;
- Settling trade disputes;
- Reviewing national trade policies; and
- Assisting developing countries in trade policy issues, through technical assistance and training programs.
- IAEA: Inspired by U.S. President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech to the UN General Assembly, work drafting the statute of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) began in 1955. When the statute was concluded in 1957, the IAEA assumed its role as the world’s forum for cooperation in the field of nuclear science. The IAEA defines its work in three pillars: nuclear verification and security, safety, and technology transfer. It works not only to ensure that nuclear weapons are not proliferated among states, but it also assists in the peaceful uses of nuclear technology, such as nuclear medicine and energy projects.A key document of international law operating under the auspices of the IAEA is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT holds stable the number of “legal” holders of nuclear weapons to five declared States, which coincides with the permanent seat holders of the UN Security Council—China, France, Russia, the U.S., and the U.K.
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