Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

became a member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

on November 19, 1946. Sweden has historically contributed with political leadership; politicians and diplomats such as Dag Hammarskjöld, Folke Bernadotte, Alva Myrdal and Margot Wallström and others have all played important roles in the development of the UN organization. Sweden is one of few member nations which meets or exceeds United Nations humanitarian aid spending target of 0.7% of GDP. In 2017, Swedish aid spending amounted to 1.4% of its GDP. The country has held a non-permanent seat in the Security Council four times, most recently between 2017 and 2018.

History

Sweden joined the United Nations in 1946 and participated alongside other early member nations in the adoption of the UN

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...

on 10 December 1948. Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte was unanimously appointed "United Nations Mediator in Palestine" for the Security Council in the

Arab-Israeli conflict The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

between 1947 and 1948. The first official mediator in UN history, Bernadotte achieved an initial truce during the subsequent

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

and laid the foundation for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. His participation in mediation talks was criticized by the

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i government for stating that the Arab nations were reluctant to resume fighting in Palestine and that the conflict now consisted of "incidents". Bernadotte was assassinated on 17 September 1948 by members of

Lehi Lehi (; he, לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל ''Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi'', "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang,"This group was known to its friends as LEHI and to its enemie ...

, a militant Jewish

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

group. On 7 April 1953, Chairman of the Swedish delegation to the General Assembly Dag Hammarskjöld was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding the first Secretary-General,

Trygve Lie Trygve Halvdan Lie ( , ; 16 July 1896 – 30 December 1968) was a Norwegians, Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Nygaardsvold's Cabinet, N ...

. Hammarskjöld was sworn in on 10 April and he was unanimously reelected for a second term on 26 September 1957. On 18 September 1961, while en route to negotiate a cease fire between UN forces and Moise Tshombe's

Katangese Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba, a ...

troops in

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

, Hammarskjöld's Douglas DC-6 airliner crashed with no survivors in

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

. The death of the Secretary-General sparked a succession crisis within the UN, as there was no line of succession in place and the Security Council had to vote on a successor.

Membership in the Security Council

Sweden has held a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council four times since its entry in 1946, roughly once every 20 years: * 1957–1958 * 1975–1976 * 1997–1998 * 2017–2018

References

Footnotes

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