What is/has been the role of the United Nations regarding ethnic conflicts?

I think the best use of the UN is as a forum. It doesn't have powers, shouldn't have powers or a budget. Members could pay dues for maintaining a meeting hall, preferably outside the United States . Countries could gather to speak openly about disputes of any nature. Members would be called upon to give verbal advice only. Countries should be responsible for their own business Membership should require a love thy neighbor attitude not a spirit of colonialism.

well we spend around 1.6billion dollars to be part of the un and other international groups. and what do they do? oh yeah talk about things no one cares about and makes laws no one follows

The UN has been instrumental in the past in combating ethnic conflict in a number of ways. The first way has been with policy writing that countries dealing with conflict have been able to refer to in order to determine how to handle ethnic conflict. The second way the UN has helped is by sending the "blue soldiers," or the UN peacekeeping troops, into areas to protect certain "hot spots," in order to prevent blood-shed and the dangerous escalation of conflicts that can lead to world-wide concern. The third way has been a sort of economic "punishment" in the form of sanctions against perpetrating countries. And finally, the UN has helped to open lines of communication and has furnished peace talks. One area of the world that has seen a good deal of conflict is Yugoslavia. Both World War I and II were initiated in this region. The impact of these two world wars is what actually led to the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Now, there continues to be work to be done; today we are witnessing devastating ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia once again, which again has the potential to lead to another world war. In this situation, the UN has stepped in and is now running Kosovo, even though according to international law, this territory still belongs to Yugoslavia. This action has helped to defuse some of the tension in this region. The UN also intervened in a region once known as Ruanda-Urundi. In 1962, the UN stepped in and divided this region into two independent states, Rwanda and Burundi. This was done in an attempt to calm the ethnic conflict that this region was experiencing, yet in retrospect, many agree that the division of this region could have been a mistake. Many people died in this region despite the UN's peacekeeping efforts. A last example of an area that is experiencing ethnic conflict today, and what the UN has done to try to combat that conflict, is Palestine and Israel. Palestinian refugees who wish to return to Israel are being held at bay. The Israelis do not want to let any of the Palestinian refugees return to Israel because they fear that that action would lead to the end of the state of Israel. However, the UN General Assembly created the "principle of return," in Resolution 194, which was passed in December of 1948, which may help some Palestinians to be able to return to Israel. The Israelis may some day be willing to endorse the principle of return too, because it is the Israelis who would determine where, how, over what period, and in what numbers the right of return would be exercised.