United Nations | Peace, dignity and equality <BR> on a healthy planet

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

Natural resources and the environment hold tremendous peacebuilding potential. From economic recovery and government revenues to sustainable livelihoods and the restoration of basic services, the way natural resources are managed and governed can either fundamentally support or undermine peacebuilding objectives. The United Nations strives to ensure that action on the environment is part of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding strategies. There can be no durable peace if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods and ecosystems are destroyed.

A Nepalese peacekeeper plants a tree outside UNAMID Headquarters in El Fasher, Sudan.

Photo:UN Photo / Albert Gonzalez Farran

World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution in Kaya, Burkina Faso.

Aid agencies call for urgent action to prevent famine in hunger hotspots

6 November 2020 — People in four food insecurity “hotspots” inside Burkina Faso, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, need help urgently to avoid sliding into famine, UN humanitarians said...

A 3-year-old girl receives a vaccine shot at a community health centre in Beijing, China.

‘Emergency action’ needed to prevent major polio, measles epidemics

6 November 2020 — Globally, millions of children are at a heightened risk of polio and measles – dangerous but preventable diseases – amid disruptions to vital immunization programmes due to the...

Samples are tested by scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute as the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus continues.

Ahead of global health assembly, WHO stresses need for solidarity, preparation

5 November 2020 — The COVID-19 pandemic can be defeated through science, solutions and solidarity, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, underlining one of its core messages...

UN Sustainable Development Goals

17 Goals to transform our world

The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries — poor, rich and middle-income — to promote prosperity while protecting the planet.

ActNow Campaign

The ActNow campaign aims to trigger individual action on the defining issue of our time. People around the world have joined to make a difference in all facets of their lives, from the food they eat to the clothes they wear.

Decade of Action

With just 10 years to go, an ambitious global effort is underway to deliver the 2030 promise—by mobilizing more governments, civil society, businesses and calling on all people to make the Global Goals their own.

Student Resources on the SDGs

Learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals! On our student resources page you will find plenty of materials for young people and adults alike. Share with your family and friends to help achieve a better world for all.

Goal of the Month

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Zero Hunger

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

More about the UN Sustainable Development Goals

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United Nations

Featured stories from across the United Nations and our world-wide family of agencies, funds, and programmes.

What you need to know about a COVID-19 vaccine

A vaccine for COVID-19 will be a critical tool for helping bring the pandemic under control when combined with effective testing and existing prevention measures. Experts around the world are working hard to accelerate the development and manufacturing of a safe and effective vaccine. Here are answers to some of the most common questions: When will a COVID-19 vaccine be ready? How is the COVID-19 vaccine being developed? Will a coronavirus vaccine be safe? Get the answers to these and more.

COVID-19: Remittance Flows to Shrink

As the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis continues to spread, the amount of money migrant workers send home is projected to decline 14 percent by 2021 compared to the pre COVID-19 levels in 2019, according to the latest estimates published in the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. The foremost factors driving the decline in remittances include weak economic growth and employment levels in migrant-hosting countries, weak oil prices; and depreciation of the currencies of remittance-source countries against the US dollar.

colored pencils, one of them with a worried face

Stop violence and bullying at school

School violence and bullying including cyberbullying is widespread and affects a significant number of children and adolescents. Almost one in three students has been bullied by their peers at school at least once in the last month and a similar proportion were affected by physical violence. UNESCO has declared 5 November the first annual International day against violence and bullying at school including cyberbullying, recognizing that school-related violence in all its forms is an infringement of children and adolescents’ rights to education and to health and well-being.

screen from video game featuring climate actions

Climate Action Super Hero

Climate change is a menace to our world. Our league of superheroes are taking action now and they want YOU to join them!

Space, shelter and scarce resources

As the pandemic surges, data visualization shows how displaced people have to contend with extreme overcrowding and limited access to basics such as soap and water.

Response to Typhoon Goni

Typhoon Goni left several towns inaccessible and destroyed thousands of homes in the Philippines. WFP is working with UN sister agencies to gauge the food, shelter, electricity and emergency telecommunication requirements of survivors.

What’s on stage tonight?

Today, the works of almost no living composers are performed on global opera stages. Is granting exclusive rights to new opera works actually excluding them from the stage?

Banding together to re-root the Jamaican ginger industry

For many, Jamaican ginger beer, ginger tea or ginger biscuits are a household staple. This Caribbean island has long had a global reputation for its excellent ginger, known for its potency and pungency – but the industry is being threatened. However, a band of public and private sector food heroes called the Ginger Working Group have been working together to revitalise the industry and return Jamaican ginger to prominence on the global market.

A tale of two Jamaican clinics during COVID-19

HIV service providers in Jamaica have been challenged this year with responding both to new challenges caused by COVID-19 and long-standing service delivery stumbling blocks. CHARES had been used to writing three-month prescriptions for stable clients, but since COVID-19, state-run pharmacies have been dispensing only a one-month supply. The Comprehensive Health Centre serves a number of people living with HIV alongside those infected with other sexually transmitted infections. Here, too, multimonth dispensing has not been possible during COVID-19.

Betting on the untapped potential of Angolan honey

The government sees honey as a product that could help diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy and is working with UNCTAD and the European Union to improve production and boost exports. Angola currently produces 90 tons of honey each year, but an UNCTAD analysis showed that Angola’s 100,000 or so beekeepers – mostly small entrepreneurs – could easily more than double production to 200 tons. It’s possible to produce honey in every region.

A woman wearing a facemask sits behind a sewing machine.

Fundamental rights at work to build back better

Fundamental rights at work can play a vital role in building effective, consensus-based responses towards the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and build back a better, more just world of work, according to the ILO Issue paper on COVID-19 and fundamental principles and rights at work. However, the paper also warns that the crisis has placed these freedoms and rights at work at risk, as countries face increases in poverty, inequality and vulnerability.

What we do

Due to the powers vested in its Charter and its unique international character, the United Nations can take action on the issues confronting humanity in the 21st century, including:

A UNIFIL peacekeeper from Spain on a regular patrol in the vicinity of Al Wazzani, south-eastern Lebanon as the sun sets in the horizon. Since 1948, more than a million women and men have served as UN peacekeepers.

Maintain International Peace and Security

The United Nations came into being in 1945, following the?devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission:?the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN?does this by working to prevent conflict; helping parties in?conflict make peace; peacekeeping; and creating the conditions?to allow peace to hold and flourish.?These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies.

Students at Butkhak High School in Kabul, Afghanistan, cheer in unison on the last day of Global Action Week, an international campaign advocating free, quality education for all.

Protect Human Rights

The term “human rights” was mentioned seven times in the UN's founding Charter, making the promotion and protection of human rights a key purpose and guiding principle of the Organization. ?In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought human rights into the realm of international law. ?Since then, the Organization has diligently protected human rights through legal instruments and on-the-ground activities.

Grace, a farmer from Kipilat village, and a leading member of the forest community in Ainabkoi, Kenya, planting a tree in 2012.

Promote Sustainable Development

From the start in 1945, one of the main priorities of the United Nations was to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”? Improving people’s well-being continues to be one of the main focuses of the UN. The global understanding of development has changed over the years, and countries now have agreed that sustainable development offers the best path forward for improving the lives of people everywhere.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivers its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures filed by Nicaragua on 11 October 2013 in the case concerning Construction of a Road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River.

Uphold International Law

The UN Charter, in its?Preamble, set an objective: "to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained."??Ever since, the development of, and respect for international law has been a key part of the work of the Organization.? This work is carried out in many ways - by courts, tribunals, multilateral treaties - and by the Security Council, which can approve peacekeeping missions, impose sanctions, or authorize the use of force when there is a threat to international peace and security, if it deems this necessary.? These powers are given to it by the UN Charter, which is considered an international treaty.? As such, it is an instrument of international law, and UN Member States are bound by it.? The UN Charter codifies the major principles of international relations, from sovereign equality of States to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations.

On the Brink - Emissions Gap Report 2019

As the world strives to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change, it is crucial to track progress towards globally agreed climate goals. For a decade, UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report has compared where greenhouse gas emissions are heading against where they need to be, and highlighted the best ways to close the gap. Are we meeting goals of the Paris Climate Agreement?

Structure of the
United Nations

The main parts of the UN structure are the General Assembly, the
Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is the main deliberative,?policymaking and representative organ of the UN. All?193 Member States of the UN are represented in the?General Assembly, making it the only UN body with?universal representation.

Security Council

The Security Council has primary responsibility, under?the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international?peace and security. It has 15 Members (5 permanent?and 10 non-permanent members). Each Member has?one vote. Under the Charter, all Member States are?obligated to comply with Council decisions.

Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council is the principal body?for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and?recommendations on economic, social and?environmental issues, as well as implementation of?internationally agreed development goals.

Trusteeship Council

The Trusteeship Council was established in 1945 by the?UN Charter, under Chapter XIII, to provide international?supervision for 11 Trust Territories that had been placed?under the administration of seven Member States, and?ensure that adequate steps were taken to prepare the?Territories for self-government and independence.

International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Its seat is at the Peace Palace in the Hague (Netherlands). It is the only one of the six principal organs of the United Nations not located in New York (United States of America).

Secretariat

The Secretariat comprises the Secretary-General and?tens of thousands of international UN staff members?who carry out the day-to-day work of the UN as?mandated by the General Assembly and the?Organization's other principal organs.

More about the structure of the United Nations

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The Middelgrunden Off Shore Windturbines located in the ?resund Straight separating Denmark and Sweden. UN Photo

Climate Change

Climate change is the defining issue of our time and now is the defining moment to do something about it. There is still time to tackle climate change, but it will require an unprecedented effort from all sectors of society.

Women at UN CSW63 Side Event - “Take the Hot Seat”. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

Gender Equality

Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and, therefore, also half of its potential. Gender equality, besides being a fundamental human right, is essential to achieve peaceful societies, with full human potential and sustainable development.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is greeted on his visit to the Central African Republic

Ending Poverty

While global poverty rates have been cut by more than half since 2000, one in ten people in developing regions still lives on less than US$1.90 a day — the internationally agreed poverty line, and millions of others live on slightly more than this daily amount.

UN75: 2020 and Beyond

In 2020, the United Nations turns 75. UN75 aims to build a global vision for the year 2045, the UN's centenary; to increase understanding of the threats to that future; and to drive collective action to realize that vision.? #Join the Conversation #Be the Change

Did you know?

As the world’s only truly universal global organization, the United Nations has become the foremost forum to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country acting alone.

61 percent of parliamentarians in Rwanda are women, more than in any other country.

Find out more in

Global Issues:
Africa

The UN provides electoral assistance to approximately 60 countries each year.

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Global Issues:
Democracy

At least half of the world’s population is not receiving essential health services.

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Global Issues:
Health

3.5 per cent of the global population is made up of migrants.

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Global Issues:
Migration

Watch and Listen

Video and audio from across the United Nations and our world-wide family of agencies, funds, and programmes.

Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity

This FAO animation gives a brief introduction on the main drivers, the key functions and challenges of soil biodiversity loss, indicating possible ways to enhance soil biodiversity as a nature-based solution.

#TheWorldWeWant

#TheWorldWeWant is a special collection of 75 photos, curated from more than 50,000 images crowdsourced from over 100 countries to celebrate the United Nations 75th Anniversary. It is a creative response to the UN Secretary-General’s call to hear directly from the peoples of the world about their future. #TheWorldWeWant illustrates that we all share similar hopes and dreams for the future.

2020 UN Woman Police Officer of the Year

Chief Inspector Doreen Malambo from Zambia, who serves as the Gender Adviser at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has won 2020 UN Woman Police Officer of the Year Award, in honour of her work supporting vulnerable groups, such as women, girls, children, and people with disabilities. Learn more about UN Police and the uniformed women who serve in peacekeeping.

UN Podcasts

Women sit with children on their laps and raise their hands.

Recovery, rebuilding, resilience under COVID-19

In this month’s programme, we have the latest on COVID-19 from IFAD’s Associate Vice-President Donal Brown; news on nutrition from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; and a report on getting youth issues right in development activities. We also speak with Marco Minciaroni, a leader in Italy’s agro-ecological movement.

Plus – lights, camera, action – we hear from IFAD’s Director for the Near East, North Africa and Europe Division about her recent move into the film business. We’ve also got the next in our Meet the Experts series – this time with Mattia Prayer Galletti, our expert on Indigenous Peoples. And we rejoin our Recipes for Change Chef Carlo Cracco – this time, on top of a Himalayan foothill in Bhutan. Wrapping up, we’ve got a feature with Leo Espinosa, our newest Recipes for Change chef, who speaks with us from Colombia.

Latest Audio from UN News

The United Nations in Pictures

Images from across the United Nations and our world-wide family of agencies, funds, and programmes.

A woman sits inside a makeshift shelter.

Photo:UNOCHA / Michele Cattani

Humans of Sahel

Violence, insecurity and extreme weather have impacted millions of people in the Central Sahel, a region comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. This is now one of the world’s fastest-growing emergencies. More than 13 million people, including 7 million children, require urgent humanitarian assistance. Over 1.5 million people are displaced—a twentyfold increase from 70,000 people two years ago. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation even worse. UN OCHA brings us the individual stories behind the statistics.

A boy at the shore looks at boats full of people.

Photo:WFP / Sean Rajman

Mozambique: Assistance for families fleeing conflict in Cabo Delgado

In Cabo Delgado, in North Mozambique, a humanitarian crisis, receiving little global attention, is unfolding. As a result of a low-level insurgency, more than 2,000 people have reportedly been killed since October 2017 and the number of people driven from their homes has increased fourfold since February. Throughout last year, as the country reeled from the impact of two cyclones, the violence has only escalated. Around 390,000 people have been displaced in Cabo Delgado, many of whom depend on WFP for food assistance.

An older woman holds the hand of a girl wearing a hijab while walking on the seashore.

Photo:UNHCR / Andrew McConnell

Ties that Bind: Community Sponsorship in the UK

UNHCR presents the Community Sponsorship initiative, which enables communities throughout the UK to welcome refugees who have arrived with government approval via resettlement. In Britain alone, there are around 90 projects with more in the pipeline. Faith groups, businesses and others are all involved. There are also initiatives in Canada, Spain, Ireland and elsewhere. Groups help the participants as they learn English and they settle. The sponsors gain something too: new friends and a chance to make a difference.

Woman wearing a facemask works on a sewing machine from a rooftop.

Photo:UNDP Nepal / Laxmi Pd Ngakhusi

Masked opportunities

At a time when businesses are seeing dark days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a few organizations in Nepal have been helping women make steady incomes by producing masks. UNDP has been supporting the Nepal government in its effort to contain the coronavirus. As part of the response, UNDP bought more than 40,000 locally produced masks for the army, who distributed them to returnee migrants. The use of the local masks has not only developed local entrepreneurship but also contributed to the protection of the environment.

Search the United Nations

17 Goals to transform our world

?

Zero Hunger

More from the United Nations

What we do

Maintain International Peace and Security

Protect Human Rights

Promote Sustainable Development

Uphold International Law

On the Brink - Emissions Gap Report 2019

Structure of the United Nations

Learn more

Watch and Listen

Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity

#TheWorldWeWant

2020 UN Woman Police Officer of the Year

UN Podcasts

Recovery, rebuilding, resilience under COVID-19

The United Nations in Pictures

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Resources / Services

Key Documents

News and Media

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Structure of the
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