Q.Mark correct or wrong against each of the following statements about the veto power.
a. Only the permanent members of the Security Council possess the veto power.
b. It’s a kind of negative power.
c. The Secretary-General uses this power when not satisfied with any decision.
d. One veto can stall a Security Council resolution.

The United Nations was created in 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with the primary mission of maintaining international peace and security. The Security Council was designed as the organ with primary responsibility for this task. But the founders — especially the five major Allied powers — were deeply aware that the League of Nations had failed partly because it lacked the muscle to enforce its decisions. They wanted a body that could act decisively, but they also wanted to ensure that no major power could be forced into a military or political commitment against its will. The result was the veto.

Let’s look at the four options one by one.

Option (A) says veto power is “a power of positive voting.” That is misleading. The veto is not about voting for something; it is about blocking a decision. A permanent member can cast a negative vote — a veto — to prevent a resolution from passing, even if the other fourteen members all vote yes. It is a negative, not a positive, power.

Option (C) claims that “all the temporary members of the UNSC have the right to use Veto Power only for two years.” This is incorrect on two counts. First, temporary (non-permanent) members are elected for two-year terms, but they do not possess veto power at all. Second, the veto is not limited by time — it belongs permanently to the five permanent members. So this option confuses the tenure of non-permanent members with the veto privilege.

Option (D) states that “all the members of the UNSC possess Veto Power.” That is false. Only the five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — have the veto. The ten non-permanent members can vote yes or no on a resolution, but their negative vote does not count as a veto; it is simply a dissenting vote that can be overridden if the required majority is met.

That leaves option (B): “After the end of the Second World War, Veto Power is given only to permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to establish peace in the world.” This is the correct description. It captures the historical context (post-WWII), the exclusive grant to the five permanent members, and the purpose — maintaining global peace. The veto was intended to prevent the Security Council from taking action that might drag the world’s most powerful nations into conflict, thereby preserving the fragile post-war order.

When the United Nations was founded in 1945, its Charter laid out a specific institutional architecture. The framers designed six principal organs to carry out the organization's core functions: maintaining international peace and security, fostering cooperation among nations, and serving as a forum for dialogue. These six organs form the constitutional backbone of the UN system.

The Security Council stands as the organ with primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. It has fifteen members, including five permanent members with veto power, and can authorize military action, impose sanctions, and deploy peacekeeping forces. The General Assembly serves as the main deliberative body where all member states have equal representation and vote on resolutions, budgets, and the admission of new members. The Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, functions as the UN's administrative arm, implementing decisions and running day-to-day operations.

The other three principal organs complete the structure: the International Court of Justice (the UN's judicial body), the Economic and Social Council (coordinating economic and social work), and the Trusteeship Council (which suspended operations in 1994 after all trust territories gained independence).

UNESCO—the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—occupies a different position in the UN family. It is a specialized agency, one of fifteen autonomous organizations that work in coordination with the UN but operate under their own constitutions and governing bodies. UNESCO was created in 1946 with its own charter and membership rules. Other specialized agencies include the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. These agencies collaborate closely with the UN and report to the Economic and Social Council, but they are not organs of the United Nations itself.

The birth of the United Nations in 1945 marks one of the defining moments in twentieth-century international relations. The organization came into formal existence on 24 October 1945, when its Charter was ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the other signatories. This followed the San Francisco Conference earlier that year, where representatives from fifty nations gathered to draft the founding document. The timing was no accident: the world was emerging from the devastation of the Second World War, and there was urgent consensus that a new framework for collective security was essential.

Statement I is therefore correct. The year 1945 is the established founding date, and it represents the moment when the international community formally committed to a new experiment in global governance.

Statement II addresses the deeper historical context. The United Nations was not conceived in a vacuum; it was explicitly designed as a successor to the League of Nations, which had been established after the First World War in 1920. The League represented humanity's first serious attempt at creating a permanent international body to maintain peace, but it suffered from critical weaknesses. The United States never joined, major powers withdrew during the 1930s, and the League proved powerless to stop aggression by Japan, Italy, and Germany. By the time war broke out again in 1939, the League had effectively failed.

The architects of the United Nations learned from these failures. They built in mechanisms the League lacked: a Security Council with enforcement powers, permanent great-power membership with veto rights to ensure their continued participation, and a broader mandate covering economic and social cooperation alongside security. The League of Nations formally dissolved itself in April 1946, transferring its assets and some functions to the United Nations. This was not merely a symbolic gesture but a deliberate passing of the torch, an acknowledgment that the new body was taking up the unfinished work of its predecessor.

Statement II is therefore also correct. The United Nations was founded precisely to succeed where the League had failed, incorporating its ideals while correcting its structural flaws.