UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Assignment

UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW - Assignment Example Its formation was with an aim of with promoting dignity and good international relations, uphold good environmental efforts and ensure peace through disarmament policy1. However, the recent Liberia crisis that led to ousting of its leadership has raised growing concern about the commitment of U.N in fostering peace. Throughout period, the Rwandan genocide continued the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conflicts among many other examples have painted a bad picture of the ability of U.N to upheld peace2. The military action in Libya that led to increasing loss of lives and rise in humanitarian crisis was a big blow to the United Nations goal of sustainability of peace. In this paper, I examine historical functions of United Nations in Africa and beyond. The continued effort to ensure peaceful coexistence in Africa and the historical background of the United Nations and peacekeeping missions in Africa will form the basis of this essay. In addition, I argue that there have been many controversies. Peacekeeping has been ratified by the Charter of the United Nations as an important strategy that gives the Security Council powers to take collective action to ensure peace prevail. There are two primary means of promoting peace through the United Nations, firstly the troops that comprise representatives from member countries is set to undertake the mission. In other incidences, the United Nations authorizes regional bodies such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), African Union and other regional bodies to undertake peaceful settlement of peace. Today, Africa is the biggest source troops to the peacekeeping missions. Coincidentally, Africa has seen the worst history of civil unrest, destabilization of the government over the past three decades. African continent bore the greatest brunt of peacekeeping mission. As early as 1960-64, Congo experienced severe civil unrest leading to intervention by the UN through formation of United Nations