What the Heck is the UN?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2024
- I don't know why I decided to do this on the second day of Pizzamas! I guess I just got really curious about what the heck the UN is.
And I'd just like to congratulate humanity on not having done World War II again for the last 78 years. Good work! Keep it up! PLEASE OH PLEASE KEEP IT UP.
Pizzamas Continues!! www.pizzamas.com
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prosecuting war crimes isn't actually done (usually at least) by the ICJ! rather it is done by the International Criminal Court, which isn't a part of the UN. it's also located in the Hague though, so I understand the confusion.
The Hague is more in charge of settle international disputes of terrain and borders, mostly. Also you can sue a country, being another country, because that first country did something silly that you didn't like
and also of course the ad hoc international tribunals like ICTY -- also in the Hague.
yea, public international law ... doesn't really work haha
Except US, because US doesn't do war crimes. And there is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Notably the ICC straight up doesn't include America, who signed up, then realised that it might result in them being punished for any war crimes they committed, so withdrew their signature again.
@reganator5000 Not only that, Congress passed a law informally known as the Invade the Hague Act that gives the president the to do anything necessary to retrieve personnel from the Hague including an invasion if necessary.
"John I'll see you on Tuesday" lol Hank got so excited about the UN that he forgot it was Pizzamas
Tomorrow, Hank, "I'll see you tomorrow".
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To be fair, he will see John on Tuesday
It's always Tuesday somewhere.
@@bingo784no it isn't.
My dad worked at the UN before i was born and he still talks about how good their food court is.
That’s really what we wanna know
@@eveningpianobut it is the most important part, given that UN truly is useless and doesn’t do anything
@@eveningpiano I actually find it very reassuring that somebody is taking that seriously; probably one of the last places we'd want to have _anyone_ be 'Hangry'.
I can attest to this fact! Got to visit one of the other big UN locations in Europe in Geneva last year (probably where Hank was thinking John would go) and their cafeteria was amazing. (The view of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc was a nice touch too.)
Makes sense any
This video is so good that it's easy to forget that hank has a mustache.
This video is so much better with Hankstache
Hank out here giving Anthony Fantano a run for his money
@@geoff5623 Nooooooo!!!!
Look out Noah Samsen, Eddy Burback, and Anthony Fantano... The hankstache grows stronger by the day.
I think it adds to, like, the history teacher vibe.
PSA: If you have an even somewhat technical background, it is not as hard to do a UN internship as you might think! Many roles in engineering and data science go unfilled because mostly poly-sci majors apply. Current and recent grads encouraged to apply.
My brother who is a data scientist did one and still speaks very highly of it.
aren't a lot of them unpaid?
Thank you!
Looked into it cause I was interested, and oof yeah, looks like United Nations interns are unpaid.
We are in the MIDDLE of the story! That is so important. The story isn’t behind us as completed history, and we don’t need to throw everything away to start a new story. We are in the midst
remembering the Irish who were left to die by the UN in the belgian congo
Yes! And this thought needs to be applied to a lot of systems and inequity in the world. We're in the middle of construction, we ain't finished yet!
Don't worry if you find the UN confusing, I studied it for my university degree and was in Model UN and still, years later, do not understand all the inner workings of its sprawling bureacracy. This of course is made more confusing by how different the UN is from what people expect it to be, and how far it has moved away and expanded from its original purpose for forming.
I'm ready to read a 100 page dissertation on the UN in the form of a TH-cam comment. Don't leave us hanging.
MUNs rock! its endertaining and gives you a speck of how politics works and stuff.
The UN is an organization meant to prevent nuclear war... everything else the UN does is a bonus...
the UN left irishmen to die in the Belgian Congo, awful organisation
Currently in international law class at college. Already took the class on the UN. Still don’t understand a dang thing lol
This Pizzamas is extra fun since there isn't the hard set 4 minute video rule, so it's like we're getting an even longer Pizzamas
It's a Pizzamas miracle!
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The name of The Hague gets a lot weirder. For one I just want to clarify that "The Netherlands" is not really called "The Netherlands" in Dutch but rather just "Nederland" (Although if you wanna get weirder it technically is a part of The Kingdom of the Netherlands which in Dutch is "Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" where Nederlanden is in fact plural).
So The Hague in Dutch is called Den Haag which you may find weird if you know a little bit of Dutch because "Den" is not actually a real translation of "The" but (as I understand it) it is a remnant of what used to be a valid word for "The". It gets weirder because Den Haag is still not officially the name of the city but it is just what people generally call it (and as of the 90s the municipal government itself generally does too), but the official name is 's-Gravenhage.
Also: when you mention The Hague outside of the Netherlands, as in this video, people generally think you're referring to the international court of justice but if you're talking about Den Haag within the Netherlands people will often assume you're talking about the national government of the Netherlands which is for some reason entirely housed within Den Haag rather than Amsterdam despite Amsterdam being our official capital.
Ye Olde Hague?
hahaha, I just info dumped something similar 😄
Where is the name “‘s-Gravenhage” from then / what does it mean?
@@grahamrich9956 it comes from Des Graven hagen I think. So, the counts' hedges? Not fully sure there
Edit: ah, somebody said forest. That makes sense
@@pattheplanteryes! Ye Hague is basically the most fitting translation.
Also, the original name - 's Gravenhage - literally means Th' Count's Hedge, which implies: The Count's private hunting grounds, enclosed by a hedge.
honestly having a chapter on the UN in my 6th grade history class was great and has proven so useful over the years. probably the most useful thing i learnt from middle school
We were told about the origin of it but that's about it
I learned more about it from the web game NationStates than from school lol
If I had a class like that, it's been long lost in the ol' noggin. Maybe it would be best to have that in the curriculum more than once in a K-12 type beat
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@@WSWC_have you ever needed to know any details about the UN? If not, why make school kids study it twice.
@@stevechance150 yes(?)
Hank, since you're someone who 'knows things' for your job, I really appreciate you being able to say "I didn't actually know this!". You're such a good role model and we need a lot more of those in the world.
hank probably doesnt know about the irish who were left to fend for themselves in the belgian congo at Jadotville
Admitting you don’t know is so powerful, it allows you to find out and bring someone along for the journey
@@don_chanLIVEkickass movie tho
UNESCO does a lot more than just the world heritage sites. They're the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. They facilitate international cooperation in research and education, and on the cultural side they don't just do world heritage sites, they enshrine all unique aspects of human culture that are important to a lot of people. So, for example, the ancient practice of falconry is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list and gets the same sort of weight as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
That's so interesting, I had never heard of the intangible part!
There are some interesting discussions to be had about the value of the World Heritage sites: the first is a concept called "UNESCOcide" (which I covered in architectural theory classes), where a place is forced to freeze exactly as it is and cannot evolve to meet the changing needs of the people who live there, effectively killing the reality of the place in order to preserve an image; and the second is that UNESCO sites are extremely unevenly distributed, with rich, white countries extremely over-represented, and post-colonial countries generally having primarily or exclusively the sites of their colonial oppression recognised.
Not sure what the conclusion from me sharing these things is, but if you're interested in UNESCO, you might be interested in looking up those things :)
That's so cool!!! Thank you for bringing this extra bit of knowledge to us!
Not really doing a good job, since Russia has occupied and destroyed dozens of UNESCO heritage sites in Ukraine and they haven't really even gotten a strongly worded letter as punishment.
I have no idea what my life would he had I not found this channel over a decade ago. A world without nerdfighteria is not a world I want to live in.
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The United Nations Security Council also shares an acronym with the main fighting force of the Halo Games (UNSC) which has caused on several occasions various media organizations to show the games logo instead of the actual UN logo.
Do you have an example of this, this sound’s hilarious
Given the "professionalism" and care shown by so many "journalists" in this century, I fully believe you.
The Hague, or Den Haag in dutch, really just means the forest, and the name or variants of it have been used for well over 500 years. Officially it is still called 's-Gravenhage, meaning The Count's forest. Another place with a similar naming convention is 's-Hertogenbosch, which means The Duke's forest. Lots of rich people owning forests back in the dutch olden days
It is really funny to see 's-Hertogenbosch mentioned because when I was working on a language model last year for a college assignment it was the first entry in the database we were using to train the model. I had never heard of it before and didn't expect to again but here it is! Cool to learn this naming convention!
I’m just glad to have learned about ‘s-Hertogenbosch literally 24 hours ago thanks to the series Jet Lag the Game lol
Netherlands has forests?
I remember this because New York has the neighborhood of Flatbush, which was originally "Vlacke Bos," or "flat forest." Plus it's cognate with "bush," I.E. "the wild country beyond the cities."
wait, the UN being in New York isn't common knowledge? As a European, that feels like an important part of the New York mythos
@simonkemfors I thought so, too!
@@user-mg1gs4lz7b mythos doesn't just mean fictional. It can also mean reputation/discourse re: a topic, the cultural cachet of something like Hollywood, etc
Yeah. The UN + Wall Street (+ being really big city) is how NYC is the capital city of the planet. I thought this was common knowledge?
I live 6 hours from New York, and I thought the UN was based somewhere in Europe. New York feels too American to be representing the world.
As a European, I learned it in my 20s. I probably also had learned it before, but just forgotten, I guess. I learned it when researching more about how passports work
My first introduction to the UN was The Rescuers Down Under (or possibly The Rescuers, they blend together in my brain), so when I saw Johns video yesterday, I was like, "The countries have name tags, just like in the movie!"
Those are such lovely movies
@@HolaMindy They are! So beautiful and kind, with nice humor.
The UN should start each meeting with the countries of the world song (updated) by Yakko Warner. (Rob Paulsen)
@@MonkeyJedi99 YES! 🤣 We had a cassette tape with songs from the Animaniacs. So 90's kid.
I don't know exactly where in pop culture I got my mental image of the UN from, but I was also surprised to see how exactly it matched the real place in the video.
It’s so funny how in English people don’t refer to organisations as organs. It’s just so common in Portuguese
“Bodies” is much more common for some reason
"Organ" being common slang for male genitalia kinda makes it feel weird to use for serious political/government entities, if you're not TRYING to be sarcastic or defamatory.
Just watching this video I realized that it's the same word for organ and organ lol
@@MrSplic3rI wanna learn! Where is this slang used? Is it USA based? Is it universal, or is there an age group?
@@janmelantu7490I thought I was fluent until I tried to think of a word in English equivalent to organ but couldn’t. Thanks for the help❤
Daily reminder that the US passed what is colloquially referred to as the "Hague Invasion Act" which allows the US to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court".
They were afraid the ICC would go after GW and company.
No means are either necessary or appropriate except providing them with a good lawyer, so that is alright. Right? I suppose Tony Blair was also covered by this International Crime organisation?
Is that really how you English people spell den Haag wtf... that's real interesting 😂
Yes, it sucks that the US sucks sometimes. It's a complicated place and our democracy is messy at best. Hopefully we can keep it on the rails long enough to stop fighting prosecution for war crimes. A US that tipped over into a fully fascist state would be a horror to make WW2 seem like an agreeable summer afternoon.
@@BadOompaloompa79 Yeah.
_looks worried_
You'll probably never see this, but hi from a nerdfighter who works at the UN! It was so cool to see nerdfighteria intersect with my work this week! Loved John's speech 😊
my favourite historical part of the UN is when they left irishmen to fend for themselves at Jadotville during the belgian congo then treat them as criminals after surrendering
FYI, when the UN was formed Albert Einstein was very upset that it was gutless. He really wanted a world government authority that would force all countries to follow it's rulings to prevent fighting between countries. On a side note the book Einstein his Life and Universe by Walter Isaccson is a fantastic book.
The pax romana said 'fight and we will kill you'. The pax UNa says 'fight and we will send you a strongly worded letter'. Seems to be mostly working though. Very little war about the place, historically speaking.
The best accolade for the UN? "It's better than The Council of Nations".
@@LikelyToBeEatenByAGrueevery member of the Security Council has spent nearly all the time since the founding of the UN at war with other smaller nations or each other. Dozens of nations in the UN are at war right now, multiple of them involving genocides.
thats wild from a wife beater like albert einstein, no wonder he was so totalitarian
My personal favorite part of the UN have always been UNICEF, who's main office is also in New Work, which is HILARIOUS, considering the fact that they do not ratify the Children's Rights, despite the fact they have signed the contract..
This is making me realize how awesome my middle school model UN experience was. Because I thought these interworkings were something most people just knew. Thanks for explaining and reminding me Hank!
Loved this. Just picked my teens up from school and had a "You know how smart Hank is? I think you guys might already know stuff he just learned- Quiz". Fantastic drive home conversation. Thanks!
In the clip of john giving his TB speech there is a man behind him who enthusiastically claps when he’s done. That man has made my day.
I believe that is a woman and looks to me like a Buddhist monk. I could be wrong.
Third day in a row crying because of a vlogbrothers video. That last sentence, Hank, wow. "We are still in the middle of the story and we don't have to live with the world as it is." That got me. ❤
maybe get ur eyes checked?
Why say that? @@FlanPoirot
I've got tissues if you need them!
@@Laura-kl7vi cause they've been crying 3 days in a row
that's pizzamas for you. all us crying into our tissues wearing john's face in various pizza-like forms.
The whole “organ” situation immediately got 100% better when I started thinking of it as the musical instrument
I was wondering the same thing as Hank about where John was
Hank: It’s a weird way to name a city with a “the” first.
Me while visiting my parents in The Villages, FL: I completely agree.
What about "El Paso?" I don't know how many US news personalities I have heard recently who have called it "The Pass" because they think that it should be translated into English.
Correction: The International Court of Justice doesn't prosecute cases against individuals. That is done by the International Criminal Court, which is not a UN institution, but which confusingly has a similar name and is also located in The Hague.
Way to go! You, Hank, for explaining the UN and you, John, for your TB advocacy and statement at the UN!
thats so cool anyways why did the UN leave irishmen to die at Jadotville?
It was so nice of Hank to yank the focus back in at the end by mentioning TB like that.
It is actually kind of cool how it all works. For instance, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is one of the many UN and Non-governmental Organizations with offices located in Vienna, Austria at the Vienna International Center, largely thanks to former UN Secretary General, with a slightly troubling past, Kurt Waldheim. It does give many energy regulators and experts from around the globe the chance to visit the lovely city of Vienna.
The IAEA handles nuclear accidents.
@@grmpEqweer That is sort of like saying, a hospital handles cancers. But, perhaps you were being glib. The IAEA helps develop international standards for the safe use, monitoring, storage, and disposal of radioactive materials used for generating nuclear power, used in nuclear medicine, used in various industries, etc. IAEA also inspects nuclear facilities around the world, calling on the expertise of the nations with the most advanced programs to assist other nations with less experience. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of collaboration among participating nations in the times I was there.
Aren't they the people who basically said "Russia is torturing Ukrainian nuclear engineers in the nuclear plant they're occupying, and have planted mines to blow the whole place up, but Russia is on the Security Council so where not gonna suggest anybody do anything about that"?
@@andrewdiaz3529 Since IAEA has maintained a presence at Ukraine nuclear power plants throughout the conflict and since the UN does not have troops involved in the war, I am not sure who at IAEA would have made such a statement.
The Trusteeship Council still exists. It just doesn’t do anything and is sitting on a pile of money intended for its mission of decolonization, but no one can agree what to do with it.
And boy do we have some decolonizing left to do!
A 1995 proposal suggested expanding this organ to include environmental protection. I personally see a lot of potential for this organ to also help protect the sovereignty of indigenous nations.
i think they should use the money for reparations, repatriations, and remuneration for formerly colonized states
The mustache STAYS
On the fourth day of Pizzamas, Nerdfighters gave to me
Four Hanklerfish
Three French the Llamas
Two mustachioed Greens
And a terrifying Pizza John Tee!
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"We're still in the middle of the story, and we don't have to live with the world as it is." Another one to add to the quote wall, that is so hopeful and I will repeat it to myself often
I love some impromptu CrashCourse!
Currently doing UN revison for my a-level history homework this is a perfectly timed video
you should look at the 155 irish who were left by the UN with no support against 3000+ people at Jadotville in 1961
YOU KEPT THE STASH?!?!
As someone in chemical industry, two very positive things are a result of the work of the UN. The GHS (Globally Harmonized System) and UN Recommendations on the Transport of Hazardous Goods (UNRTHG).
GHS harmonizes the classification, labelling, and hazard communication through safety datasheets of chemicals. This is implemented in many countries and is why we now have the red and white pictograms on chemicals (in the EU they were orange and black before GHS).
The UNRTHG is mostly harmonized with GHS, and thus when you classify a chemical using GHS you can fairly easily classify it according to the rules of ADR/ADN/RID/IMDG/ICAO (transport of hazardous goods on land/in-land waterways/rail/sea/air, respectively).
Loving Crash Course UN with your dear ol’ Uncle Hank! ❤❤
Having more, and more engaging material that helps people understand the UN is so critically important for the world. This was great (despite a small error on the ICC vs ICJ), and I'd love to see more. Maybe a crash course on international organizations? Humanitarian, peacekeeping, and development systems? The incredible important SDGs? Take this up nerdfightaria!
for the people who thought the UN was in europe (other than the the hague as mentioned) there is also the UN in Vienna which often had important meetings since lots of countries/leaders didn’t want to go to the US for lots of reasons
As someone who did Model UN in high school over 20 years ago, this video was an absolute delight. I'm glad no one told Hank about motions to extend a caucus.
Honestly as an international relations student this was a pretty damn good primer on the UN. Top marks, Crank Green!
as a model UN girlie, we call the "Economic and Social Council" ECOSOC (pronounced eco-sock). was hoping you'd use that because it's very fun :)
"Eco sock" is coincidentally a very Hank Green-sounding phrase.
I’m having such a flashback to school! My brain still thinks of Kofi Annan when I think of the Secretary General thanks to memorising it for the Civics test 😂
If anyone else was wondering, the Trusteeship council's job was to oversee the administration of the trust territories, which mostly included the former mandate territories from the League of Nations.
Technically the trusteeship council still exists because abolishing it would require amending the UN charter. The council even still has a president, but in 1994 they adopted a resolution to stop meeting annually, and instead meet whenever required
*Hey! Hank looks like Juan Valdez!* 😊
I did Model UN at The Hague in high school 😅 We were Colombia and I designed Juan Valdez official stationery. 😊 Don’t tell anyone but I was probably more excited about Dutch boys & the dance party.
"We're still in the middle of the story and we don't have to live with the world as it is." So hopeful and inspiring.
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Already 0:42 seconds in and I can tell you that ONE thing: My grand parents HATED that period. 😁
"Aim for the moon, and you might hit the stars, ie, don't do world war 3" is a banger line.
not so fun fact: given that a representative from brazil has opened the general assembly ever since 1947. which means 2011 was the first time a woman has opened the un assembly because for a while there, we had an elected woman president
which caused a lot of backlash (edit: from people who didn't want to give up social exclusionary systems) and ultimately led to the rise of fascism and anti social justice movements, but that's literally another video from hank has done in the past
Progress does not cause fascism. It cures it. Your president didn't cause the backlash the fascist being afraid of change did.
@@BadOompaloompa79exactly, progress led to people in power resenting social justice and doing anything to get their privilege back, including a full on fascist uprising
@@BadOompaloompa79Loren is rightly pointing out that *conservative backlash to progress* foments fascism, not progress itself.
I'm pretty sure that mass migration, inflation and the housing/energy crisis led to the rise of right-wing governments since the 2010s and not some random female head of state in an irrelevant South American country LMAO
I find it neat that Brazil is the first country to speak. Seems like an interesting tradition for the most important geopolitical institution.
My favorite nerdfighter phenomenon is watching a TH-cam video and knowing the podcast moment that inspired it lol
"We're still in the middle of the story. And we don't have to live with the world as it is."
I'm. Wow.
"We don't have to live in the world the way it is." Good reminder to keep pushing forward.
“Never accept the world as it appears to be. Always dare to see it for what it could be.”
Ugh, why do I like the ‘stache so much?
Thanks for breaking that down, Hank. I thought the UN was just one big group before.
I don't know quite why, but this moment in time, your and John's actions and contributions and narrative around combating tuberculosis is a great source of comfort to me. You'll surely protest that the 'real' front line fighters have been fighting that war quietly and out of the spotlight for years and decades, and yes, yes, that is absolutely true. But it is very comforting to see people who have gained a following by being skillfull, and witty and passionate turn that to somber purpose. Not just "raising awareness" by tweeting about it and hoping someone else will capitalize on it and do the actual work, but to lever yourself into the company of The Serious People in the pillar-of-the-world organisations. You're this moment in time's Jon Stewarts, and I hope for your success.
And that's why we need Mustache Hank t-shirts for Pizzamas.
I find it interesting how the judges in Den Haag have a term limit, but the security council is allowed to have countries on it permanently which has arguably done more harm than good in many smaller war situations that were used by those very members as a proxy.
The UN does have a bunch of things in Geneva, Switzerland. But none of the big six organs you describe. A lot of other things, though, including the WTO, WHO, UNHCR (which you mentioned)...
As others have pointed out, they also have a presence in Vienna, and also in Nairobi. And then more spread out presence, well, all over the place (with a handful of agencies headquartered here and there)
So, I have a PhD. I often say that a doctorate basically just means that you know how to learn. That describes Hank to a tee, right? So if Hank doesn't have an honorary doctorate by now, why not? I'm always so impressed with how he can digest information rather quickly and pass it on in a meaningful way that others can understand (often with humor) - that's some serious skills. A big part of it is the intellectual virtue of curiosity, which he blends with a good amount of humility (like CS Peirce said, you're more likely to arrive at truth when you admit you could be wrong). Some institution of higher learning really needs to officially recognize all that, I think. If none has already.
Yes!
I'm studying the United Nations for a school project and this video was very helpful! Saved me hours of researching.
The UN would be better if the countries actually took it more seriously.
It would also be cool if there were rules for getting kicked out of it for being terrible.... Not sure how many would be left if did but still
@@dissonanceparadiddlepart of why it works as good as it does is because you can’t just throw countries out.
@@dissonanceparadiddleat least we could kick out countries who stop following the guidelines that allowed them to join.
Like feels basic to me? Why is this so hard for politicians? (I know why, I want to wallow in how much I disagree tho)
I think this kind of applies to most things though. "If everyone just did what we said there'd be less conflict." Not saying you're wrong, or that the UN is bad, but it's not a unique situation.
which is basically the complete opposite of what the UN is about ..... like, what are you saying@@dissonanceparadiddle
Thank you for making this video. I love learning all the awesome random things. Even you just sharing personal and random research. I love that you are so excited about it.
a council that did its job and then dissolved itself is such a foreign concept to me
You bros are mighty cool: all sciency and smart and inspirational and informative and damn good guys! As for Pizzamas, I have no idea how that works but COUNT ME IN.
As much as I’m happy to make the world a better place I miss the variety of content we used to get with vlogbrothers.
Everybody's allowed to be interested in one pressing concern for a while. That's good and healthy. It's hard to jump around without really dealing with the big thing that's worrying you.
"Those very chill folks who did whole-ass War Crimes" made me spit my coffee, thanks Hank
My mom introduced me to these videos. We take care of my grandma who has dementia. It’s beautiful to see people caring for the elderly.
I could listen to your voice all day long and never tire of you speaking.
This pizzamas, I'm thankful for long hank green videos on topics he's not qualified to tell us about but is more qualified than we are
Some notes about WWII vestiges, and some other historical curiosities:
The name "United Nations" itself is a vestige of the WWII Allies. The document a country signed to become one of the Allies was titled "Declaration by United Nations."
The UN Charter still contains provisions that say, more or less, "Allies' remaining WWII business and subsequent peacekeeping doesn't need Security Council permission, until they tell the UN they're done." Those provisions are dead letters at this point, but amending the UN Charter is almost impossible, so they're probably going to be on the books for a while.
Early in the process of morphing the WWII Allies into the UN, there were definitely ideas about it being more, well, united, which went as far as a proposal to put all nuclear weapons under international control. But human beings gotta jockey for power, so instead of a standing transnational peacekeeping authority we got a standing international talk shop, occasional international peacekeeping authority, and no way an ICJ judgement is ever going to be enforced against any of the Permanent 5.
In terms of UN law, the People's Republic of China got the permanent seat because the General Assembly has the authority to decide whose credentials to recognize. After decades of lobbying from the outside and several failed votes, the PRC finally got a resolution through the Assembly that said their delegates were from the real China, and the ones previously sitting were merely "the representatives of Chiang Kai-Shek."
The General Assembly subsequently used the same authority to squint at all the apartheid-era South African credentials and say, "Ennnnnh, I dunno. Does that look OK to you? Kinda looks fake to me."
Unlike the case of China, Russia using the USSR's permanent seat is *not* something the General Assembly ever took a vote on. Boris Yeltsin sent a memo that said it was going to happen, and everybody decided to let it be.
Of course, that acquiescence was connected to some other plans and understandings about the post-Soviet world, so, recently Ukraine has expressed a certain interest in whether that seat really is being filled by the USSR as per the UN Charter, or merely by the representatives of Vladimir Putin.
(Fun bonus fact, Ukraine and Belarus were part of the USSR when the UN was founded, but they were both also founding members in their own right. The USSR was pushing for all of its member republics to be in the UN, as a power play, but the US said in that case we'd have to do the same for the states. Just 3 votes and a veto for the USSR was the "compromise.")
The UN is also an excellent model for diplomacy a la model un!!! Wherein high school students (mostly, but there are also uni clubs) represent countries as delegates. I prefer it over debate because it can be really revolutionary for students to have to research and represent policies they don't necessarily agree with; yes, like debate, but I've seen many-an-expansive crises where people overcome oppressive prejudice. It's a highly international hobby and I've been a director for NHSMUN - the national high school model united nations conference, where we have a day at the UN! wahoo! also hell yeah ECOSOC, knockin 'em off since 1945!
i was in One proper mun and found myself on a special cyber espionage task force in 9th grade (seven years have passed and i am now a final year compsci engineering student 👍)
I used to think "The Hague" was a weird name, but there's so many cities and towns with La/El/Los/Las in front and that's not weird at all.
Oh my god I never thought about that! Thanks!
"those very chill folks that did whole ass war crimes" 😂
Hank's enthusiastic "BUT THAT'S NOT GONNA STOP ME" while wearing that mustache gives big "I'LL BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR" vibes (& I'm here for it). 🤣
Wow Cary Elwes from “The Princess Bride” is a Nerdfighter?!?!😍 Oh wait…
Wait what?
@@shellh929 give Hank a black bandit eye mask, a black handkerchief tied over his head and have him rolling down a hill yelling, “AAAAAAS YOUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIISH!” and I think you’ll get it.
@@mysoulcalledlife Sorry I REALLY do not see it. No offense to Hank, but he looks nothing like Cary Elwes, even with the mustache.
@@shellh929 fair enough. I see it enough for the both of us 😂
In this video: Hank tells me he never watched The Rescuers without telling me that he never watched The Rescuers.
FIRST!!! Just kidding, I love that Hank is explaining the UN because I also don’t know much about it. All I know is that Eleanor Roosevelt helped write the universal bill of human rights for children 😂.
Hank!! I love your mustache!! Also, thank you for this very informing and entertaining video❤️
I hope us younger generations decide to give the UN more power and respect than our parents and grandparents did, including some form of armed forces from people in every country around the world, and that we get rid of the Security Council veto power. I think we could really do some great things if we just take collective selves more seriously and get out of our own way.
The point of the veto power is to stop the US, UK, France, Russia and China from starting a nuclear war.
Giving the UN standing military force is actually already in the UN Charter, it’s just that almost immediately after it was put into the Charter, all the countries got cold feet about actually turning over any of their military forces, and so the idea has fallen by the wayside.
The UN is an organization meant to prevent nuclear war... everything else the UN does is a bonus...
why are people so totalitarian, why do you want one world regime
Giving your military to a power you don't have 100% control over? Any strategist worth their salt will call you nucking futs.
I really loved the lamp turning on and off in the background
Ah yes, we love a classic vlogbrothers video that's just following the whims of Hank's ADHD fueled curiosity
For some reason this video hit me more powerfully than most of your videos. Thank you very much and I found it very informative! Especially then part.
When talking about The Hague, it's important to mention the *American Service-Members' Protection Act* . It's also known as the *Hague Invasion Act* .
Basically, if you commit war crimes on behalf of the US government, you can't be tried by the ICC or the US will literally invade the Hague.
Which would give the Netherlands an Article V right under the NATO treaty and obligate the US to attack whoever it is that invaded the Netherlands, which was, the US...
I would guess that all major powers would do this. If Putin got kidnapped to be tried by The Hague, I think the Russian military would do something about it.
US is just letting everybody know what it would do so there'd be no misunderstandings. Points for honesty, I guess.
There are many UN organisations. I spent a few years working for the World Intellectual Property Organisation which is based in Geneva in Switzerland. The UN is huge and does a lot of different international activities.
Use this comment as a "nice hankstache" button
I learned more about the UN in seven minutes than I have my whole life. Thanks, Hank.
This makes me want them to do a video on the International Police or Interpol for short. How the hell do they work? Are they like the supreme court for all of police in the world? Can they override and have authority over any person in custody and rule they are released? Please make a vid explaining everything
No. Nothing like what you are thinking. They are for dialogue between police of different countries, setting some common standards where they can, holds databases, sharing when some country or court has issued some notice about someone, giving training and just providing a forum for things to happen between the individuals. Also, it dates back to 1923. I guess technically if someone tries to stab an interpol agent in some country they could arrest the person in the act of doing it but that is normally true of just about anyone who is in the process of being attacked in the act like that, and they would have to immediately let the cop in whatever country it is do the rest of the process. They do issue their own travel documents.
They’re more of a collaborative group, trying to get various countries’ police forces to work together
One caveat to how things are difficult to get through the General Assembly: Over 80% of draft resolutions are adopted without a vote, meaning that there's complete consensus among members. Usually texts will be reworked a ton before even going to the floor so no one disagrees enough to force a vote, which is generally seen as undiplomatic. There are a bunch of exceptions though.
Yeah the UN is confusing and there's the CSIPM which is the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism where we have a voice and everything does move slow but voices are heard and important change can happen. Proud of ya john!
Quite a comprehensive, easily digestable explanation of the UN! Thank you - I'm sure this will inform many!
Personal opinion but the sooner russia gets kicked out of the UN the sooner the rest of the world can start getting on with fun stuff and crafts and baking and things .
As someone who only knew vaguely what the UN actually was the fact it includes russia is mind blowing 💀
I feel like kicking Russia out would cause a world war 😭
I feel like kicking Russia out would cause a world war 😭
@@eveningpianoI mean, it makes a lot of sense that they are at least in some way a part of it. They were once a superpower, and they're a big recognized nation. But it's a bit ridiculous that they continue to be such a large part of it. Like the veto power in the Security Council being the biggest problem (also China has that, that seems like some level of problem)
They're in the security council so it would be easier to start an entirely new replacement to the UN than it would be to kick them out. The UN is intended to be a forum for all countries. Its predecessor, the league of Nations, was toothless because several major powers were not members. Despite their military incompetence and weak economy Russia is undeniably a major power because they have the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
I'm so glad videos don't have to be under 4 minutes anymore!! I can't imagine not getting this whole video!!
Palestine 🇵🇸😭😭😭😭
One of the awesome (and FUN!) ways to get familiar with the structure of the UN is if there is a Model United Nations event/program/group near you!
It was one of my after school activities and I got to attend the Model UN conference in our state with 500 other students (our schools group actually represented Russia.. 2016 was a different time)
It is both very educational, has you wrangling with big concepts, and was also just an amazing time. Highly recommend it to anyone still wondering what the UN really does. (Or of you’re argumentative, enjoy politics, improv and wearing formal wear..)
Regarding the name of the Hague @4:05
Both 's-Gravenhage and The Hague are correct names for the city where the Dutch government sits. The municipality itself uses the name The Hague in most cases, except in official documents like birth and marriage certificates, where 's-Gravenhage is used. The name Den Haag is the oldest form and first appeared in a charter from 1242. It referred to the enclosed hunting grounds where a hunting lodge was built by Floris V. In the fifteenth century, the name des Graven hage (the count's hunting grounds) emerged, which better suited the city's status. From the seventeenth century, 's-Gravenhage became the name used in official documents, while The Hague remained more commonly used in everyday language. In 1990, the municipality decided to adopt the name The Hague in their new house style, as it aligned with everyday language usage and foreign names like La Haye (French) and The Hague (English). However, The Hague is still used in official documents such as birth and marriage certificates.
Just came home from a seminar on international law and the UN-security council and saw this. Great video! No big mistakes (aka no mistakes that I notised)
In case I haven't said it before Hank, I Love your office shelves. I hope they turned out like you wanted because they are beautiful.
UN resolutions also provide templates for good laws member nations can adopt. Ethiopia may not have the funds to research effective trade policies, but the UN does and can help member states create better long term policies and laws that promote economic well-being, regional stability, and ultimately more peace.