League of Nations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

League of Nations - Essay Example The founders of the UN — the most significant international organization of our times — took the model of the League as a starting point for the new organization, based on the lessons learned from the experiences of the League (Grigorescu: 36, 38). The League proved to be outstanding in the field of health preventing the spread of diseases. Its agency, the Health Organization later became the World Health Organization. The International Labor Organization started in those days and continues to exist today. It also needs to be pointed out the work done in the Third World to improve the status of women and child slave labor; current issues among the non-governmental organizations and the UN. Drug smuggling was also targeted and in this aspect the League can be considered a precursor taking into account that before WWI only timid attempts were made in this issue. In addition, we need to bear in mind the foundation of the League’s work in this almost unlimited field: the scientific publications (Sweetser: 181).That is to say that the UN followed the structure of the League, inherited a number of agencies, and tried to improve them. The main organs of the League were the General Assembly formed by the Members of the League which main task was to decide on the organization’s policy (Article 3 of the Covenant adopted by the Paris Peace Conference in April 1919)); the Council that included 4 permanent members (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) and 4 (later became 9) others elected by the General Assembly every 3 years.... Drug smuggling was also targeted and in this aspect the League can be considered a precursor taking into account that before WWI only timid attempts were made in this issue. In addition, we need to bear in mind the foundation of the League's work in this almost unlimited field: the scientific publications (Sweetser: 181). That is to say that the UN followed the structure of the League, inherited a number of agencies, and tried to improve them. The main organs of the League were the General Assembly formed by the Members of the League which main task was to decide on the organization's policy (Article 3 of the Covenant adopted by the Paris Peace Conference in April 1919); the Council that included 4 permanent members (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) and 4 (later became 9) others elected by the General Assembly every 3 years; the Permanent Secretariat that prepared the agenda and published reports of the meetings (art.6); and it created the Permanent Court of International Justice (art. 13) which has been previously recommended by the Second Hague Conference but no agreement had been achieved at that time (Donnell: 404). When the UN was constituted the Council became the UN Security Council with the principal allies in WWII as the permanent members (UK, USSR, France, US and China); decisions are bindi ng on all members, but unanimity is not required; the Permanent Court of International Justice became the International Court of Justice; and the General Assembly and the Secretariat remained. With the League, authorization for any action required both a unanimous vote by the Council and a majority vote in the Assembly (art.5) making decisions difficult to