After the Second World War, in October 1945, the United Nations replaced the League of Nations as the world's most important international organization, whose historical mission was to maintain world peace and promote cooperation and exchanges among countries. Initially, the United Nations consisted of 51 founding Member States and gradually expanded to 193 Member States today. In addition, the United Nations includes 65 observers, including 2 observer States, 5 observer entities and 58 observer organizations.
Member States are, in principle, those States that have full sovereignty and can become Members of the United Nations. The 193 Member States of the United Nations are independent and sovereign States, which are clearly distinguished from many other international organizations. Compared to other international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee, these organizations include not only sovereign states, but also regional members, such as Guam in the United States, Hong Kong in China, and the British Virgin Islands.
So, what is a sovereign state? According to international law, sovereign states are those who are not subject to interference or restrictions by other states in domestic and international affairs, and have four major elements: first, they have a fixed population; (ii) a territory with certain boundaries; Effective government; 4. Ability to interact with other countries. The fourth element, which is particularly important, means that sovereign States need to be recognized by the majority of other countries, otherwise they will not be able to engage internationally as independent States and cannot become Members of the United Nations.
Generally speaking, if a country wishes to join the United Nations, it must first obtain a recommendation from the Security Council and then be voted on by the General Assembly. Under the UN Charter, 193 Member States enjoy equal status within the UN and have the right to address the UN General Assembly, elect the President of the UN General Assembly, and nominally elect the Secretary-General of the UN (in fact, the Secretary-General is elected by the Security Council, which is only formally adopted). In addition, Member States could participate in the discussions of six subsidiary committees, including the Disarmament and International Security Committee, the Economic and Financial Committee, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, the Special Political and Decolonization Committee, the Administrative and Budgetary Committee and the Legal Committee. Every Member State has equal voting rights, and the General Assembly requires the consent of more than two-thirds of its Member States for important resolutions and more than one-half of its Member States for general resolutions.
Observer States are those international and regional organizations that have a certain status, including two observer States. Similar to Member States, Observer States can participate in UN affairs and speak at the UN General Assembly, but they do not have the right to vote. Historically, many countries have been observer members of the United Nations, including Italy, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Monaco, etc. Currently, the two observer States to the United Nations are Palestine and the Holy See.
Palestine is located in the Middle East and has a large territorial dispute with Israel. The United States has always refused to recognize Palestinian statehood because it defends Israel's interests. Since the United States is a permanent member of the Security Council and has veto power, Palestine cannot obtain the recommendation of the Security Council and cannot become a full member of the United Nations. The Holy See actually refers to the Vatican, but the country insists on using the Holy See as its official name at the United Nations, not the Vatican City State. It should be noted that the Holy See is considered a sovereign State with no territorial disputes and can apply at any time to become a full member of the United Nations. However, since the Holy See considers the United Nations to be a secular organization that is itself the centre of the Catholic faith, they have chosen not to do so in order not to be bound to a certain extent by the United Nations.
In general, within the United Nations, the main difference between Member and Observer States is the right to vote. However, these rights pale in comparison to the five permanent members of the Council.