Membership Of The United Nations : Germany

A major aim of German foreign policy is to strengthen the role of the United Nations as the principal institution of the community °f nations. Only this will enable the world organization to respond adequately to such global challenges as conflict prevention, the population explosion and environmental protection. This applies especially to ‘he Secretary-General of the United Nations, who snould be placed in a stronger position to mediate in Preventing conflicts. ^ multilateral orientation of the Federal Republic of ermany has been a consistent feature of its foreign Poi|cy since 1945. Already in the early 1950s Ger-many joined subsidiary organizations of the United Nations; in 1973 it became a full member.

For decades this membership was a cornerstone of the Federal Republic’s peace, security and human rights policies. With the German initiatives prompting the drafting of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (1980), the adoption of a resolution of the General Assembly on international cooperation to avert new flows of refugees (1986), and the institution of the office of a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1993), Germany has made a substantial contribution in the United Nations to international security and increased respect for human rights. The same is true in the area of disarmament and arms control, where German efforts led to the creation of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, which furnishes information concerning movements of conventional weapons.

The high esteem in which the Federal Republic of Germany is held by the U.N. membership at large as a result of its strong commitment and active role was reflected among other things in its three-time membership of the Security Council (1977/78, 1987/88 and 1995/96). Germany has declared its willingness to assume greater political responsibilities as a permanent member of the Security Council as well, especially in regard to the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations. It has demonstrated this willingness through its many different forms of participation in peacekeeping operations of the United Nations in recent years (in Cambodia, Somalia, former Yugoslavia and Guatemala, for instance). Germany is the third largest contributor to the United Nations and is now a seat of the U.N. as well: Since 1 July 1996 the United Nations Volunteers have been domiciled in Bonn.