2609, 3044 UNITED NATIONS - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2609 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 28

Posted on 12.06.2016, 10.05.2017
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. On 10 December 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which arose directly from the experience of the WWII and represents the first global expression of what many people believe to be the rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled.

3044 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 9

The Declaration consists of thirty articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, economic transfers, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions, and other laws. UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols form the International Bill of Human Rights, which in 1976 took on the force of international law.

2514, 2515 UNITED NATIONS - The 70th anniversary of the United Nations

 

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the beginning of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations when he was attending the African Union Summit in Malabo, Guinea to commemorate the past developments including the UN task force achievements and the work for humanity. He has marked it with a name "UN70". He also focused on the unification of the international community in order to make the UN more powerful to better handle the problems of the world.

Without doubt, the United Nations has saved millions of lives and boosted health and education across the world, but is not perfect. Probably Dag Hammarskjöld, the tragic second UN secretary general, defined it the best, saying that it “was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell”. Tensions between western governments, which see the UN as bloated and inefficient, and developing countries, which regard it as undemocratic and dominated by the rich, have rippled across the organisation as ballooning costs drive the push for reform.

2310 UNITED NATIONS - Japanese Peace Bell

The Japanese Peace Bell was an official gift of the Japanese people to the United Nations on June 8, 1954, at a time when Japan had not yet been officially admitted to the UN. The Tada Factory completed the bell on United Nations Day, October 24. It was cast by Chiyoji Nakagawa, and was modelled on the Banzai Bell of Peace that he created for Uwajima Temple. Nakagawa subsequently founded the World Peace Bell Association, which donated more than twenty Peace Bell copies around the world.

1927, 1928 UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Office at Vienna

1927 United Nations - Vienna International Centre

The United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV) is one of the four major UN office sites where several different UN agencies have a joint presence. The office complex is located in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and is part of the Vienna International Centre (VIC), a cluster of several major international organizations. The UNOV was established on 1 January 1980, and was the third such office established (after New York and Geneva,  and before Nairobi).

1928 United Nations - United Nations Postal Administration Flags
of the United Nations, view from the Memorial Plaza, Vienna

In 1966, the Government of Austria made an offer to the UN to construct in Vienna an international centre, and a year later, together with the city of Vienna, in a joint decision, designated an area on the left bank of the Danube as the site of the centre. The international competition for the design of the buildings, organized in 1968, attracted the interest of architects worldwide, the winner being the Austrian architect Johann Staber.

1177-1179, 1253-1254, 1861-1864 UNITED NATIONS - The Headquarters in New York City

1861 Headquarters of the United Nations in New York
seen from Roosevelt Island

Posted on 12.08.2014, 28.09.2014, 31.08.2015

The UN Headquarters is situated in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River, and enjoys extraterritoriality. The complex was constructed in stages with the core complex completed between 1948 and 1952. Rather than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to commission a multinational team of leading architects to collaborate on the design.

1177 Headquarters of the United Nations in New York
at sunset

 

The American architect Wallace K. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. The board consisted of N. D. Bassov of the Soviet Union, Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu-cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G. A. Soilleux (Australia), and Julio Vilamajó (Uruguay).

1178 The United Nations General Assembly building

The diminutive site on the East River necessitated a "Rockefeller Center"-type vertical complex, thus, it was a given that the Secretariat would be housed in a tall office tower. During daily meetings from February to June 1947, the collaborative team produced at least 45 designs and variations. After much discussion, Harrison, who coordinated the meetings, determined that a design based on Niemeyer's project 32 and Le Corbusier's project 23 would be developed for the final project.

1862 Flags of the member states, arranged in alphabetical order
in front of Headquarters of the United Nations

 

Le Corbusier's project 23 consisted of a large block containing both the Assembly Hall and the Council Chambers near the centre of the site with the Secretariat tower emerging as a slab from the south. Niemeyer's plan was closer to that actually constructed, with a distinctive General Assembly building, a long low horizontal block housing the other meeting rooms, and a tall tower for the Secretariat. Le Corbusier and Niemeyer merged their schemes 23–32, and this, along with suggestions from the other members of the Board of Design Consultants, was developed into project 42G.

1179 Balconies overlooking the main public entrance of the
General Assembly Building at United Nations Headquarters

The complex includes a number of major buildings. While the Secretariat building (154m) is most predominantly featured in depictions of the headquarters, it also includes the domed General Assembly building, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, as well as the Conference and Visitors Center, which is situated between the General Assembly and Secretariat buildings, and can be seen only from FDR Drive or the East River.

1863 Water fountain in front of the Headquarters of the United Nations

 

Just inside the perimeter fence of the complex stands a line of flagpoles where the flags of all 193 UN member states, plus the UN flag, are flown in English alphabetical order. The UN' system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. The first four are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City.

1253 Human Rights Day Celebrated

at United Nations Headquarters 1952

 

The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the UN. Composed of all UN members states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions, but emergency sessions can also be called. The General Assembly Hall is the largest room in the UN, with seating capacity for over 1,800 people. The design of the room was a collaborative effort by the team of 11 architects that designed Headquarters, and it contains no gift from any Member State.

1864 Snowy Weather at United Nations Headquarters

 

The only gift is anonymous: two abstract murals on each side of the Hall - designed by the French artist Fernand Leger. In the postcard is the celebration of the Human Rights Day at UN Headquarters in 1952. Addressing a full session of the General Assembly on the fourth annual celebration of Human Rights Day, the President of the Assembly, Lester B. Pearson of Canada, expresses his gratitude to all nations for what has been done "towards achieving a greater respect for fundamental human rights".

1254 United Nations Security Council

The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries, and is made up of 15 member states, consisting of 5 permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), and 10 non-permanent members (for two-year terms). The Security Council Chamber was a gift from Norway, designed by the Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg. A central feature is the oil canvas mural painted by the Norwegian artist Per Krogh. It depicts a phoenix rising from its ashes, as a symbol of the world being rebuilt after the WWI. Above the dark sinister colours at the bottom different images in bright colours symbolizing the hope for a better future are depicted. Equality is symbolized by a group of people weighing out grain for all to share. The blue and gold silk tapestry on the walls and in the draperies by the East River windows features the anchor of faith, the growing wheat of hope, and the heart of charity.

1748-1750 UNITED NATIONS - We the peoples...

1748 - A child from Solomon Islands

 

CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
PREAMBLE

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

1749 - A Kirghiz family at the foot of
the Kongur mountains in Xinjiang, China

AND FOR THESE ENDS

• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

1750 - A Northern Ndebele woman from Zimbabwe

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

1316, 1413 UNITED NATIONS - Ban Ki-moon

Posted on 25.10.2014, and 19.01.2015
The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG) is the head of the UN Secretariat, and acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the organization. He is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, and serves for five-year terms that can be renewed indefinitely, although none so far has held office for more than two terms. The selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent Members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The current UNSG (the eighth) is Ban Ki-moon, elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2010. He was named the world's 32nd most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2013, the highest among Koreans.

Born on 13 June 1944, Ban Ki-moon was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the UN. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India. In the foreign ministry, he established a reputation for modesty and competence. When Ban became Secretary-General, The Economist listed the major challenges facing him in 2007: "rising nuclear demons in Iran and North Korea, a haemorrhaging wound in Darfur, unending violence in the Middle East, looming environmental disaster, escalating international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the spread of HIV/AIDS. And then the more parochial concerns, such as the largely unfinished business of the most sweeping attempt at reform in the UN's history"

1256 UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Office at Geneva

Apart from the Headquarters situated in New York City, the United Nations has three regional headquarters, opened in Geneva (Switzerland) in 1946, Vienna (Austria) in 1980, and Nairobi (Kenya) in 2011. These help represent UN interests, facilitate diplomatic activities, and enjoy certain extraterritorial privileges, but only the main headquarters in New York contains the seats of the principal organs of the UN.

1255 UNITED NATIONS - Non-Violence

The complex which houses the United Nations Headquarters in New York City is notable not only for its buildings, but also for its gardens and outdoor sculptures. One of the iconic sculptures is the Knotted Gun, called Non-Violence, a bronze statue of a Colt Python revolver with its barrel tied in a knot, which was a gift from the Luxembourg government. It was made by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after the singer, songwriter and peace activist, founder member of the Beatles, John Lennon was murdered in New York on 8 December 1980. There are currently 16 copies of the sculpture around the world, nine of them in Sweden. Since 1993, the Non-Violence sculpture is the symbol of The Non-Violence Project, a non-profit organisation, promoting social change with violence prevention education programs.

1174-1176 UNITED NATIONS - The flag of the organisation

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established on 24 October 1945, after the WWII, to prevent another such conflict, actually a replacement for the ineffective League of Nations. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states, but their number grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, so now are 193. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict. The UN's mission to preserve peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War. The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947.

 

 

The flag of the UN was adopted on October 20, 1947, and consists of the official emblem of the UN in white on a blue background (white and blue are the official colours of the UN). The emblem's design is described as: "A map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree, . . . The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles." The olive branches are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents all the people of the world.