The Role of the un

During the period of superpower rivalry, along with its peacekeeping operations, the UN also established several committees on disarmament and was involved in negotiating treaties to ban nuclear weapons in outer space and the development of biological weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has helped to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons by inspecting nuclear installations to monitor their use. The United Nations has played a wider role in the transition to statehood in a few critical regions. It has been a major forum through which newly independent states have begun to participate in international relations. Many global problems have been considered in a series of special UN-sponsored conferences, including the World Conference of the International Women's Year (1975), the Conference on Human Settlements, or Habitat (1976), the Conference on Desertification (1977), the World Summit for Children (1990), the International Conference on Population and Development (1994), and the World Summit on Social Development (1995).

The United Nations is not a world government; rather, it is an instrument through which nations can cooperate to solve their mutual problems. Whether they do cooperate and use the UN creatively depends on how both their governments and their peoples view relations with others and how they envision their place in the future of humankind.

Veto, ['vi:tqV] executive power to abrogate or kill a measure that has been passed by a legislative body. Under the Constitution of the United States, a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Congress of the United States is needed to override the president's veto. In the case of a so-called pocket veto, a bill fails to become law when the president does not sign it and Congress adjourns within ten days after submitting it to the president. The governors of most U.S. states have veto powers. The monarch of the United Kingdom has veto power, but it has not been exercised since 1708. In the Security Council of the United Nations, each of the five permanent members has veto power over substantive matters.

Welfare, public assistance programs that provide at least a minimum amount of economic security to people whose incomes are insufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living. These programs generally include such benefits as financial aid to individuals, subsidized medical care, and stamps that are used to purchase food.

Welfare State ["welfeq'steIt] (політ. "держава загального добробуту") (із системою соціального забезпечення, безкоштовного навчання и т. п.) is a term sometimes applied to a country in which the government assumes major responsibility for the social welfare of the people.

Woman Suffrage, ['sAfrIdZ] right of women to share on equal terms with men the political privileges afforded by representative government and, more specifically, to vote and hold public office. Organized woman-suffrage movements emerged only after suffrage had been won by large groups of the male population following the democratic revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. See Women's Rights.