What is the United Nations?

The UN family of organizations consists of:

• The UN as such, is made up of six main organs - the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat.  All are based at UN Headquarters in New York, except for the Court which is at The Hague, the Netherlands;
• The UN programmes and funds such as the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - working for development, humanitarian assistance and human rights;
• The UN specialized agencies, working in such diverse areas as health, agriculture, international aviation and meteorology. Related to the UN through special agreements, the specialized agencies coordinate their work with the UN, but are separate, autonomous organizations.

The UN, its programmes and funds, and the specialized agencies compose the UN system. As a family or organizations, the UN performs a vast range of duties that affect the lives of all of us in myriad ways. These range from the decision of the Security Council to dispatch a peacekeeping operation in response to a dispute, to setting standards for air safety and communications compatibility; from rushing emergency supplies to victims of natural disaster, to coordinating the response to the AIDS pandemic; from helping countries to carry out free and fair elections, to securing low-interest loans to develop the infrastructure of poorer countries. Ultimately, its work is about making a healthier, more stable world with enhanced opportunities and justice for all of us.

Why do we need a United Nations ?

It is often said that if we did not have the United Nations, it would have to be invented.

• In a world plagued by conflict, the UN permits instant consultations among Governments and provides the forum for dealing with long-term problems.
• The UN is a catalyst for action on major global issues, such as the environment and drugs, and provides the best mechanism available to mobilize and sustain international cooperation to tackle these issues.
• The UN and its agencies help building economies and stabilize financial markets. They help eradicate disease, expand food production and increase longevity. They protect refugees, deliver food aid and respond quickly to natural disasters.
• The UN and its agencies protect vulnerable groups, like children, refugees, displaced persons, minorities, indigenous people and the disabled.
• The UN and its agencies provide the machinery for setting the technical and legal standards in vital areas of global interaction - from air safety standards to human rights.

No organization in the world is better suited to pursue these goals, because no other possesses the UN's universality and legitimacy.

Is the United Nations a World Government ?

The UN is not, and was never intended to be, a world government.  As an organization of sovereign and independent States, it does only what Member States have agreed it can do: it is their instrument.

Who works at the United Nations and what do they do there?

Economists, translators, statisticians, secretaries, TV producers, computer experts, physicians, carpenters - these are just a few of the wide variety of people with many skills and backgrounds who work as UN staff members.

The UN Secretariat employs some 8,700 staff members under the regular budget, and some 5,740 under specially funded programmes or projects: coming from 160 countries, they administer the UN's policies and programmes, in New York and at duty stations around the world. The UN system as a whole - the UN, the related programmes and the specialized agencies including the World Bank and the IMF - employs some 64,700 people worldwide.

What does the United Nations do to promote development?

One of the misconceptions about the UN is that it is mainly involved in peacekeeping. In reality, less than 30 per cent of UN activity concerns peacekeeping: most of its work is devoted to development and humanitarian assistance. The only global institution for furthering development, the UN system has bettered the lives of countless people in the poorest parts of the world through practical programmes for development.

In promoting development, the UN's track record is second to none. Through programmes in some 135 countries, the UN system provides over $25 billion in assistance each year, with nearly $5 billion in grants and over $20 billion in loans.  It is engaged in activities supporting refugees, the poor and the hungry, and in promoting child survival, environmental protection, crime and drug control, human rights, women's equality and democracy.

UN resources are aimed at the countries and the people most in need. The UN is often the principal, if not the sole, source of technical and financial assistance to many nations. For millions in poor countries, these programmes of assistance are the UN. The blue flag is respected because it is the symbol of people helping other people to build a just and sustainable world.

What can the United Nations do that others cannot?

A number of unique features make the UN especially effective in promoting development:

• Its universality: all countries have a voice when major policy decisions are made;
• Its impartiality: it does not represent any national or commercial interest, and can develop relations of trust with countries and their people to provide aid with no strings attached;
• Its global presence: it has the world=s largest network of country offices for the delivery of assistance for development;
• Its comprehensive mandate, spanning social, economic and emergency needs;
• Its commitment to "the peoples of the United Nations".

What does the United Nations do for human rights?

One of the great achievements of the United Nations is the creation of a comprehensive body of human rights law – one to which all nations can subscribe. The UN has also developed effective mechanisms to protect human rights, benefitting people all over the world. The ongoing reform of the UN has enhanced the role of human rights promotion, which has become one of the core areas of UN activity and the common thread running through all UN work – from peacekeeping to development to humanitarian assistance.

The UN advances human rights in many ways:

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights raises concerns with Governments, seeks to prevent violations, responds to human rights abuses and investigates violations in specific countries.
• The UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner confidentially voice concerns with Governments on human rights-related issues, such as the release of prisoners and the commutation of death sentences.
• Under certain UN human rights treaties, individuals can appeal against States for alleged violations of their rights once all domestic remedies have been exhausted.
• Individuals and human rights groups give notice of abuses to the High Commissioner's Office, which refers this information to the appropriate UN organs and mechanisms. The Office maintains a 24-hour fax hotline to report violations: Tel no: (41 22) 917 0092.
• The UN Commission on Human Rights is the only intergovernmental body that holds public meetings on violations of human rights wherever they occur in the world. It reviews the human rights performance of countries and receives complaints about violations.
• UN experts monitor the human rights situation in a specific country, or widespread violations such as torture, alerting the international community to human rights abuses.
• The Office of the High Commissioner assists in all these efforts; it also helps Governments to fulfil their human rights responsibilities by providing technical assistance in matters such as the training of police, the drafting of laws and the improvement of legal systems.
• Many peacekeeping operations now include provisions for protecting the human rights of the affected population. Many peacekeeping operations now include provisions for protecting the human rights of the affected population.
• Two UN International Tribunals, established to deal specifically with the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, have helped bring war criminals to justice. 

How has the United Nations advanced human rights?

The UN has helped to make human rights a matter of concern to people everywhere – one which Governments find increasingly difficult to ignore. Examples of the UN's groundbreaking work:

• The UN created the first global Bill of Human Rights comprising the 1948 Universal Declaration of  Human Rights and the two 1966 International Human Rights Covenants (on civil and political rights, and on economic, social and cultural rights), which make many of the Declaration's provisions legally binding on States.
• The UN has helped negotiate more than 80 international treaties fostering political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. 
• The UN helped to end the regime of apartheid (racial segregation) in South Africa, through a sustained anti-apartheid campaign ranging from an arms embargo to international conventions. In 1994, a UN observer mission assisted in the transition and observed the elections that put an end to apartheid.
• The UN has played a central role in securing the universal recognition of crucial rights: for instance, the rights of women and the right of all peoples to development.

How does the United Nations defend vulnerable groups in society?

The UN is an advocate for the most vulnerable groups – minorities, migrant workers, indigenous people, children in especially difficult circumstances – and works to better their plight. One of the main UN human rights bodies is the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which meets annually to enhance the rights of minorities all over the world. International treaties, such as the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1990 Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families have been negotiated through the UN to protect vulnerable groups. UN bodies monitor compliance with conventions protecting the rights of vulnerable groups (children, women, racial minorities), and hold countries accountable for violations.

The UN also orchestrates international campaigns to raise global awareness of the problems affecting vulnerable groups. On behalf of the world's 300 million indigenous people, the UN launched the International Year of the World's Indigenous People (1993) and the ongoing International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004), and is negotiating a declaration on their rights. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict is the main advocate for the estimated 300,000 child soldiers. The International Labour Organization has launched a global programme to eliminate child labour, while the UN Children's Fund carries out projects to improve the life of street children, working children and children in conflict situations.

What does the United Nations do to promote the equal rights of women?

The UN has been instrumental in improving the status of women by spearheading change and raising awareness of their rights throughout the world.

• The equal rights of women were enshrined in the Preamble to the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thereby legally establishing gender equality as a fundamental human right.
• The UN has set international standards on women’s rights and has created instruments to monitor how such rights are observed around the world. It adopted in 1979 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women–an international bill of rights for women, as well as a blueprint for action by countries to guarantee those rights. More than 160 countries have ratified the Convention, legally committing themselves to ensure women’s equality. A special UN committee of independent experts monitors implementation of the Convention.
• Established in 1946, the UN Commission on the Status of Women meets annually on matters concerning women’s rights, making recommendations on problems requiring immediate attention and initiating international legislation to promote women's rights.
• The UN has helped mobilize women around the world. To focus attention on women's rights, the UN declared 1975 to be International Women's Year and 1976-1985 the UN Decade for Women. The UN has also provided a forum for women from around the world to join together to promote their rights. During the Year, it convened in Mexico City the first global conference ever held on women, followed by world conferences in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995).
  Two UN bodies are devoted exclusively to women's issues. The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) funds innovative development activities to benefit women, especially in rural areas of the developing world. The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) supports women's full participation in the economic, social and political spheres through training, research and information.

How does the United Nations work for peace?

The UN promotes peace through the entire range of its activities.

As a centre for diplomacy and debate, it provides an alternative to war, a framework for the peaceful settlement of disputes. In times of international crisis, the UN works to ease tensions and facilitate negotiations. It is a rallying point for those who try to prevent or stop armed  conflict.

The UN promotes peace through its efforts to protect human rights, through its peacekeeping operations and through work in developing a growing body of international law. It undertakes preventive diplomacy to stop conflicts before they get started. It provides electoral assistance and support for democratization. In promoting economic and social development, the UN helps sustain peace by working to eliminate deep-seated causes of war. Alongside the rest of the UN family of organizations, the UN provides humanitarian assistance, repatriates refugees, helps repair national infrastructure and promotes reconstruction.

What is the UN doing to stop the spread of arms?

Disarmament occupies a central place in UN efforts to advance peace and development in a safer world. Through its own bodies dealing with disarmament issues, and by supporting international negotiating bodies, the UN works to set norms and strengthen multilateral principles for disarmament.  Through the UN, countries have the means to build confidence and trust in each other and to verify that agreements are being adhered to.

With UN support, multilateral negotiations, such as those in the Conference on Disarmament, have resulted in a wide range of agreements, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the

Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and treaties to establish nuclear-free zones. In addition, a number of bodies have been established to help control weapons of mass destruction. The International Atomic Energy Agency, for example, has set up a system of nuclear safeguards and verification, and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons helps ensure compliance with the Convention on Chemical Weapons.

Other confidence-building measures include the UN Register of Conventional Arms and the system for standardized reporting of military expenditures. These instruments promote greater transparency in military matters.

As part of its efforts to build peace in the aftermath of conflict, the UN has overseen the collection and destruction of hundreds of thousands of weapons and assisted in the reintegration of former combatants into civil society.

What is the United Nations doing to rid the world of landmines ?

• Over 20,000 people are killed and maimed every year by the millions of landmines scattered in over 50 countries. Children, women and the elderly are the first victims of these "silent killers". Every year, some 2 million additional landmines are laid.
• The UN played a crucial role in encouraging countries to support the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which provides for the total ban on the production, export and use of landmines, and continues to promote universal adherence to this treaty. Initiated by Norway, Canada and other countries, the treaty was endorsed by more than 100 nations in 1997.  Some 1,000 NGOs from 60 countries played a major role in persuading Governments to agree to the Convention.
• Under the Convention, States parties are to report to the Secretary-General about the quantities and types of mines they have stockpiled, the steps they are taking to clear the mines they have laid, and their plans to destroy stocks and to convert or close down landmine production facilities.
• A Protocol to the UN-sponsored Inhumane Weapons Convention of 1980 deals specifically with landmines. States parties to the Protocol adopted in 1996 further restrictions, agreeing that all mines must be detectable, and extended the Protocol to internal conflicts.
• Some 6,000 deminers work in UN and UN-supported mine-clearance programmes in seven countries. The UN not only performs mine clearance, but also trains deminers, carries out public mine-awareness programmes, conducts mine surveys and supports demining schools. The goal is to enable affected countries to deal with the problem. The UN system also helps improve medical and rehabilitation services for landmine victims.
• Such programmes have been carried out since 1989 in the killing fields of some of the most affected countries – Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Rwanda and Yemen.

 For more information check the United Nations Demining Database

What is the United Nations doing to ensure its continuing effectiveness?

In the last few years, the UN has enacted major reforms to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. These have included appointing an Under-Secretary General for Internal Oversight Services, reducing operating expenses, cutting high-level posts and eliminating some 1,000 positions. The 1998-1999 budget of $2.53 billion reflects a reduction of $76 million, or about 3 per cent, over 1996-1997 – the first-ever reduction in absolute terms.

The pace of reforms accelerated dramatically with the appointment of Mr. Kofi Annan as Secretary- General. Mr. Annan has put in motion the most far-reaching set of reforms ever proposed to the General Assembly. Among the measures enacted or under way:

• reducing administrative costs, and using the savings for development activities;
• organizing the UN's work programme into four core areas – peace and security, development, economic and social affairs and humanitarian affairs – with human rights as a cross-cutting issue;
• appointing a Deputy Secretary-General to oversee the day-to-day work of the UN and coordinate its reform efforts;
• establishing a cabinet comprising the UN senior managers to speed decision-making and enhance coordination;
• establishing a UN Development Group comprising the heads of the UN development programmes and funds, to facilitate joint decision-making on development activities;
• consolidating into a single Department the work of the UN Secretariat in economic and social affairs;
• combining the programmes on human rights into a single Office;
• combining the programmes on fighting crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism into a single Office;
• placing the country operations of the different UN funds and programmes under a single UN office ("UN House") under a Resident Coordinator, thus establishing common premises for all operations, increasing coordination and reducing costs;
• undertaking a major reform of personnel aimed at improving management of staff at all levels.

Steps are being taken to simplify procedures, reduce administrative redundancies, modernize Secretariat functions and discontinue activities that have outlived their usefulness. 

How much does the United Nations cost ?

In 1999, the regular budget of the UN amounted to some $1.26 billion. The regular budget – which does not cover peacekeeping operations – pays for UN activities, staff and basic infrastructure. All States that are Members of the UN are obligated by the Charter – an international treaty – to pay a portion of the budget. Each State's contribution is calculated on the basis of its share of the world economy. 

How much does the United Nations system cost?

The UN system spends some $10 billion a year, taking into account the UN, the programmes and funds, and the specialized agencies, but excluding the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). About two thirds of this amount comes from voluntary contributions from the Member States; the rest is received from mandatory assessments on those States.

In 1996, the UN system spent some $4.3 billion on operational activities for development– mostly for economic, social and humanitarian programmes to help the world's poorest countries. In addition, the World Bank, the IMF and IFAD provide billions more annually in loans that help to eradicate poverty, foster development and stabilize the world economy.

How can I find out more about the United Nations?

You may wish to contact the UN information centre in your country or region, or the Public Inquiries Unit at UN Headquarters (United Nations, Room GA-58, New York, NY 10017, USA; fax (212) 963 0071; inquiries@un.org).

An essential source are the UN Associations (UNAs), active in many countries, which work to inform the public about the role the UN can and does play in global affairs.

Daily updated information is available on the UN Home Page on the Internet World Wide Web, including basic information on the UN system, the latest UN news, press releases, daily highlights of events, publications and an electronic tour of UN Headquarters. You may also branch off: for instance, information on the UN agencies and programmes is available at UN system, and at the UN Office in Geneva. Students and teachers may browse the UN CyberSchoolBus. Virtually all organizations of the UN system are on the Web.

There are many UN publications available to the general public, which provide news, information and some of the most reliable data on economic and social indices available in the world. UN books and publications can be ordered from:

• UN Publications, Room DC2-0853, New York, NY 10017, USA. Tel (800) 253-9646, fax (212) 963-3489;
• UN Publications, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. Tel (41 22) 917-2614, fax (41 22) 917-0027 (for Europe, Africa and the Middle East); or
• via the Internet at http://www.un.org/Pubs.

How can I support the work of the United Nations?

The best way to support the UN actively is through the network of non-governmental organizations affiliated with the UN. Especially relevant are the UNAs that exist in some 80 countries, often with many local chapters. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has national committees in countries around the world, spreading awareness about UNICEF's programmes and raising the funds that help to make them a reality. Some 5,000 UNESCO clubs, centres and associations in more than 120 countries undertake activities in the areas of education, science, culture and communication. Major contact points are the UN information centres and Services all over the world.

If you have a skill in agriculture, medicine, education or engineering, as well as the necessary flexibility and commitment, the UN Volunteers programme may place you for a two-year period with an appropriate UN development project in a developing country (contact point: UN Volunteers, P.O. Box 260111, D-53153 Bonn, Germany).

Those in New York City who would like to assist UN staff coming from abroad can serve as volunteers in the Staff Activities Unit. Students at the university and post-graduate levels can apply for internships with the Organization.

The possibilities are many and varied, but the important thing is to get involved. To succeed, the United Nations depends on the peoples of the world. It needs your support!