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UN headquarters -

The United Nations is headquartered on international territory in New York City, with its other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague.

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The United Nations Charter -

The United Nations (UN) Charter was signed on June 26, 1945. Established after the Second World War with the aim of preventing future wars, the Charter was entered into force on October 24, 1945.

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League of Nations -

The UN succeeded the League of Nations, founded in 1920 to maintain world peace. However, the onset of global conflict in September 1939 clearly demonstrated that the League had failed its primary purpose. Pictured: the first meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations taking place on November 15, 1920, at the Salle de la Réformation in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Founding members -

At its founding, the UN had 51 member states. Membership is currently 193, representing almost all the world's sovereign states. Pictured: Edward Stettinius, chairman of the United States delegation to the United Nations Charter meeting in San Francisco, signs the Charter for the US while President Harry Truman (second from left) and others look on.

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How the UN works -

The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council; the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. Pictured is the UN General Assembly Hall.

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Specialized agencies -

Numerous specialized agencies including the WHO, UNESCO, and UNICEF also fall within the auspices of the UN. Pictured is the WHO flag.

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The UN Secretary-General -

The UN's current secretary-general is Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres.

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Awards -

A number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work, including two secretary-generals–Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan (pictured)–and Canadian secretary of state for external affairs Lester B. Pearson for his role in organizing the UN's first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis (explained later).

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Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) -

Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld served as the second secretary-general of the United Nations, at 47 years old the youngest person to have held the post. On September 18, 1961, he was en route to a secret meeting with President Moise Tshombe of Katanga in recently independent Congo to broker an end to the civil war. The plane he was traveling in crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in circumstances that are still unclear.

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Accident or assassination? -

A 1962 Rhodesian inquiry concluded that pilot error was to blame. However, a later UN investigation could not determine the cause of the crash. In the 1990s, it was suggested that the CIA, Britain's MI6, or a South African paramilitary organization may have been involved. A Belgian mercenary pilot, Jan van Risseghem, was also implicated after suggestions that he deliberately shot down Hammarskjöld’s aircraft appeared in a 2019 Guardian newspaper report. Pictured: officials searching the crash site.

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United Nations Messengers of Peace -

Distinguished individuals selected from the fields of art, literature, science, entertainment, sport, or other fields of public life serve to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations as UN Messengers of Peace, people that include Paulo Coelho, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, and Malala Yousazai, among many others.

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UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors -

The role of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors is to allow celebrities with a demonstrated interest in UNICEF issues to use their fame and influence to draw attention to important issues. This may take the form of public appearances and talks, visits to troubled regions, and use of their political access to advocate UNICEF causes. Actor and singer Danny Kaye (1911-1987) was the first to hold the position, granted in 1954.

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Celebrity names -

Today, many celebrities, people like actress Emma Watson (pictured), who in 2014 launched the groundbreaking HeForShe campaign, which calls on men to fight for gender equality and combat violence and discrimination against women, travel the world as global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) -

On December 10, 1948, the assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which built upon the principles of the UN Charter and served as a road map to safeguarding the rights of all individuals throughout the world. Pictured: the third United Nations Assembly at the close of which was adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.

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Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) -

Eleanor Roosevelt (pictured), widow of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, headed the committee that drafted the document, and was recognized as the declaration's guiding force.

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United Nations peacekeeping -

The UN, after approval by the Security Council, deploys peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities.

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First peacekeeping force deployed (1956) -

The first use of a UN peacekeeping force was in 1956 during the Suez Crisis after the short-lived military attempt by British, French, and Israeli forces to regain Western control of the vital waterway in the wake of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. Pictured: British soldiers wish good luck to the United Nations' Danish soldiers as they go back home.

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World Food Programme established (1961) -

In 1961, the assembly approved the establishment of the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide food aid in response to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The WFP was immediately tasked with providing urgently needed food supplies to the victims of a 1962 earthquake in Iran (pictured) and, in the same year, a hurricane in Thailand. For its efforts, the WFP was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

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A hungry world -

According to WFP data, there are currently 821 million people—more than one in nine of the world population—who don’t get enough to eat.

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UNICEF wins Nobel Peace Prize (1965) -

The United Nations Children's Fund was set up in 1946. The agency is responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. In 1959, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. UNICEF was awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in promoting unity among nations and for realizing "that children provide the key to the future."

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The Declaration of the Rights of the Child -

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child represented the first major international consensus on the fundamental principles of children's rights, including shelter, education, health care, and good nutrition. UNICEF today is present in more than 190 countries and remains the world's leading organization for children.

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Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968) -

Approved in 1968 and entered into force in 1970, the objectives of this international treaty, namely to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, ultimately failed to stop nuclear proliferation. However, it represented a major success for advocates of arms control and helped promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Pictured: the 18-nation nuclear disarmament conference resumes at the Palace of Nations in Geneva following the July 1st signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

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International Women’s Year (1975) -

The General Assembly designated 1975 as International Women's Year: the first UN World Conference on Women was held in Mexico City the same year. Since 2010, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (known as UN Women) continues its efforts to end violence against women. Pictured: stamps from East Germany depicting women of different nations, and the UN logo.

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UN Women -

UN Women is one of the lead agencies coordinating International Women's Day events, celebrated annually around the world on March 8 to champion global gender equality.

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UNESCO names 12 initial sites for protection (1978) -

Established in 1976, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization published its first list of 12 world heritage sites in 1978, which included Yellowstone National Park, Krakow’s historic center in Poland, and the Galapagos Islands (pictured).

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World Heritage Sites -

As of June 2020, a total of 1,121 World Heritage Sites (896 cultural, 213 natural, and 39 mixed properties) exist across 167 countries.

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Kyoto Protocol (1997) -

Signed in 1997 and named for the Japanese city where it was adopted, the Kyoto Protocol extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and committed 14 countries plus the European Union to reducing the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases. However, the international treaty was never ratified by China, India, and the United States—three of the world’s major carbon-emitting nations. The Protocol was entered into force in 2005. Pictured: a 10th anniversary protester's "birthday card."

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Declaration of Commitment of HIV/AIDS (2001) -

A major milestone in the AIDS response, the General Assembly adopted this Declaration of Commitment after recognizing that the 'global epidemic' had caused immeasurable suffering and death worldwide. Today, UNAIDS remains the global advocate for international action against HIV/AIDS.

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First-ever UN Emergency Health Mission (2014) -

In response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the United Nations established its first-ever emergency health mission, the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. Over 30,000 individuals were infected with the rare and deadly disease, which killed 11,000 people.

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UN response to COVID-19 -

In September 2020, the UN published an updated copy of the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19. The United Nations describes the coronavirus pandemic as a combined health, economic, humanitarian, security, and human rights crisis.

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Two urgent crises -

Addressing ministers in New York at a virtual meeting on sustainable recovery from COVID-19, António Guterres said that the world was confronting two urgent crises: COVID-19 and climate change. "Let us tackle both and leave future generations with the hope that this moment is a true turning point for people and planet," he said.

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Challenges -

In 2025, the UN is facing many challenges with the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the refugee crisis, and the never-ending gang violence in Haiti.

Sources: (The Guardian) (WFP) (UN/WHO)

See also: The history of the World Health Organization

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