International Organisations of Importance
The United Nations:
It is an international organisation headquartered in New York City, USA and founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.
The name 'United Nations' was coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942.
There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The six organs of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.
The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
It was originally created by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 December 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children and mothers in countries that had been devastated by World War II. UNICEF headquarters is in New York City, USA.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
It is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):
It is a specialised agency of the United Nations aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, the arts, the sciences, and culture. It is headquartered in Paris, France and it was founded in 1945.
The United Nations Development Programme:
It is a United Nations organisation tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development.
Headquartered in New York City, it is the largest UN development aid agency, with offices in 170 countries. It was founded in 1965.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC):
It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. There are fifteen members in it, five of them being the permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). It is headquartered in New York City.
World Meteorological Organisation:
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1950.
The World Health Organisation:
It is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. It was founded on April 7, 1948 and it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
International Committee of the Red Cross:
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a humanitarian organisation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded by Henry Dunant in 1863 for helping people affected by conflict and armed violence and promoting the laws that protect victims of war.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO):
Founded in 1919 through the Paris Peace Conference and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it is the first and oldest specialised agency of the UN.
The main aims of the ILO are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
World Bank Group:
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.
Founded in July 1944, in Bretton Woods (USA), it is headquartered in Washington, DC (USA).
189 countries are members of the World Bank group. India was a founding member of the World Bank.
International Monetary Fund:
An international financial institution, founded in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries with the United Nations as its parent organisation.
India joined the IMF on December 27, 1945, as one of the IMF's original members.
The World Bank Group works with developing countries to reduce poverty and increase shared prosperity, while the International Monetary Fund serves to stabilise the international monetary system and acts as a monitor of the world's currencies.
The World Trade Organisation:
The WTO began life on 1 January 1995. The WTO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WTO was born out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was established in 1947.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the only international organisation dealing with the global rules of trade. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC):
The term Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refers to a group of 13 of the world’s major oil-exporting nations. OPEC was founded in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members and to provide member states with technical and economic aid. OPEC is a cartel that aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil on the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries. It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):
It is an international non-governmental organisation founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland.
The World Food Programme:
It is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations. It is the world's largest humanitarian organisation, the largest one focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals. Founded in 1961, it is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO):
Specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to "let there be bread". It was founded in October 1945.
The Commonwealth of Nations:
Generally known simply as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 54 member states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. It is headquartered in London, UK and it was founded in 1931.
The International Olympic Committee:
It is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded in 1894 (2 years before the first modern Olympics was held in Athens, Greece in 1896).
Bank for International Settlements (BIS):
It was founded in 1930 and it is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It is an Organisation of 60 Central Banks of different countries. RBI is among its members.
The mission of the BIS is to serve central banks in their pursuit of monetary and financial stability, to foster international cooperation in those areas and to act as a bank for central banks.
World Economic Forum:
The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by Klaus Schwab.
Asian Development Bank:
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.
From 31 members at its establishment in 1966, ADB has since grown to 68 members—of which 49 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside.
The New Development Bank:
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, the New Development Bank, formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states.
BRICS started in 2001 as BRIC, an acronym coined by Goldman Sachs for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa was added in 2010.
The European Union:
Founded by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe.
The EU grew out of a desire to form a single European political entity to end the centuries of warfare among European countries that culminated with World War II.
The United Kingdom, which had been a founding member of the EU, left the organisation in 2020.
BRICS:
BRICS started in 2001 as BRIC, an acronym coined by Goldman Sachs for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa was added in 2010. Its headquarters is in Shanghai, China.
Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN):
ASEAN, officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is an economic union comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia.
Its member countries are- Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
It was founded in 1967 and its headquarters is in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC):
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organisation of eight countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).
It was established in 1985 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Its headquarters is in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The objectives of SAARC, as defined in its charter, are as follows: Promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improve their quality of life.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC):
BIMSTEC was founded in 1997. Its headquarters is in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand).
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Beijing, China. China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan are its member countries.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO):
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is an intergovernmental military alliance between 28 European countries, 2 North American countries, and 1 Asian country. The organisation implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.
NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
International Court of Justice (ICJ):
The International Court of Justice is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. It settles disputes between states in accordance with international law and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues.
It was founded in 1945 and its location is in Hague, Netherlands.
Interpol:
The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. It is headquartered in Lyon, France.
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA):
Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was established in 2009.
Amnesty International:
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation focused on human rights, founded in 1961, with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom.
Amnesty has grown from seeking the release of political prisoners to upholding the whole spectrum of human rights.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA):
Widely known as the world’s “Atoms for Peace” organisation within the United Nations family, the IAEA is the international centre for cooperation in the nuclear field. It was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
International Solar Alliance (ISA):
Initiated by India, the International Solar Alliance is an alliance of 124 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which come either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The ISA is headquartered in Gurugram, India. In November 2015, Narendra Modi, and the then French President François Hollande jointly laid the foundation stone of the ISA.
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO):
Designed to promote the worldwide protection of both industrial property (inventions, trademarks, and designs) and copyrighted materials (literary, musical, photographic, and other artistic works). Founded in 1967, it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
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