ABSTRACT
The aim of the present chapter is mainly to present the background for what we think should be the core of the new United Nations institutional framework, that is, the General Assembly and two of its main organs: the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council. The Security Council and the Secretariat and their mutual as well as respective relationships with the three above-mentioned ‘principal organs’ will be dealt with in chapter five. Therefore, the purpose of the present chapter will be to present the background for the General Assembly and its main organs, namely, how the present arrangements work. In so doing, we see that, even though the Assembly is the democratic and genuinely representative organ of the whole United Nations entity, the fact remains that it is neither efficient nor relevant and, moreover, does not have the role it deserves in the present United Nations order. As far as the two of its main organs are concerned, a distinction has to be made between ECOSOC and the Trusteeship Council: indeed, if the latter has obtained positive and highly useful results in its assigned area, that is, decolonization, the former has developed into a rather cumbersome body, plagued with institutional problems, and has been highly inadequate and inefficient in its role as a coordinating body within the United Nations system in the area of economic, social and related matters.
