Exhibits

Consisting of 192 Member States, the United Nations was founded in 1945 to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations based on the respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples; to achieve international cooperation in solving problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character; and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. Just how successful the UN has been in maintaining these goals is covered in the new edition of the Historical Dictionary of the United Nations. Author Jacques Fomerand provides a comprehensive dictionary of nearly 900 cross-referenced entries on the UN's various committees and organizations, its leaders, terms, policies, and major events in which the UN took part. Supplementing the dictionary entries are a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, photographs, a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the dictionary, and appendixes, which include a reproduction of the UN's Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as a list of the Member States and when they joined.

The Parliament of Man is the first definitive history of the United Nations, from one of America's greatest living historians.Distinguished scholar Paul Kennedy, author of the bestselling The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, gives us a thorough and timely account that explains the UN's roots and functions while also casting an objective eye on its effectiveness and its prospects for success in meeting the challenges that lie ahead. Kennedy shows the UN for what it is: fallible, human-based, often dependent on the whims of powerful national governments or the foibles of individual administrators--yet also utterly indispensable. With his insightful grasp of six decades of global history, Kennedy convincingly argues that "it is difficult to imagine how much more riven and ruinous our world of six billion people would be if there had been no UN."

The United Nations faced unprecedented opportunities and heightened expectations when the Cold War ended in 1998-90. But by the time of its fiftieth anniversary in 1995, the mood had shifted. Peacekeepers were bogged down in Bosnia and Somalia. Iraq continued to test the UN’s resolve to enforce arms control inspections. In much of the world, the gap between the haves and the have-nots was increasing. The Earth Summit failed to halt environmental degradation. A new financial crisis loomed with the United States first among those owing money to the UN. Everyone agreed that reform was needed, yet the political will to effect change was absent.In this second edition of their popular book, The United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era , Karen Mingst and Margaret Karns have undertaken major revisions along with thorough updating. A new opening chapter provides an overview of the UN’s evolving role in world politics, along with introducing three core dilemmas -- the tensions between sovereignty and its erosion, between demands for global governance and the weakness of UN institutions, and between the need for leadership and the diffusion of power. The authors explore these dilemmas in the context of the UN’s experience in maintaining peace, promoting stability, environmental sustainability, and human rights.Mingst and Karns retain two distinctive features of the book’s first edition: the consideration of various actors’ roles in the UN system, from major powers to small states, coalitions, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and a series of case studies probing the politics and processes of UN action. These include the women in development agenda, the campaign against apartheid, indigenous peoples, the Iraqi arms inspection regime, the convention banning land mines, and UN operations in Vietnam.

The sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations again led to a lot of discussion about the organisation, and rightly so. At the same time the debate was not very balanced, emphasising the shortcomings of the organisation, but neglecting the fact that it is often active in situations which are beyond the control of all its member states (ie: in 'messy situations' where it can do hardly any good). In this book, the authors concentrate on the need to achieve security for all of mankind, and the role the UN could or should play in that respect. As the cliché remarks: 'If the UN did not exists, it would have to be invented.' This book argues that the UN is still very necessary, in a world full of conflict, poverty and the lack of human security. The authors go back to the original aims of the organisation as formulated in 1945, while also examining all the major strengths and weaknesses that have emerged in the sixty years since. Key points: Up to date and accessible information, in an easy to read style; The authors are renowned experts in international affairs, with both practical and theoretical knowledge of how the UN operates; Provides thorough knowledge on the UN system as a whole and stimulates own insights.

Human rights activists Roger Normand and Sarah Zaidi provide a broad political history of the emergence and development of the human rights movement in the 20th century through the crucible of the United Nations, focusing on the hopes and expectations, concrete power struggles, national rivalries, and bureaucratic politics that molded the international system of human rights law. The book emphasizes the period before and after the creation of the UN, when human rights ideas and proposals were shaped and transformed by the hard-edged realities of power politics and bureaucratic imperatives. It also analyzes the expansion of the human rights framework in response to demands for equitable development after decolonization and organized efforts by women, minorities, and other disadvantaged groups to secure international recognition of their rights.

UNHCR - the world's leading refugee organization - examines the major refugee crises of the last 50 years and the changing nature of international responses to the problem of forced displacement. Refugees and other displaced people are the victims of events beyond their control: persecution, armed conflict, and human rights violations. Increasingly, they are also recognized as an important factor affecting both national security and world politics. With over a million people forced to flee their homes in Kosovo, East Timor, and Chechnya in 1999 alone, it is clear that the problem of forced human displacement will remain a major concern of the international community in the 21st century. This book describes the development of international refugee law and the establishment of institutions devoted to the protection of refugees and other displaced people. It traces the major crises in which UNHCR has been involved since its establishment 50 years ago. Beginning with the mass displacement in Europe after the Second World War, the book addresses the flight of refugees from Hungary in 1956, crises associated with process of decolonization in Africa, the Bangladesh refugee emergency in 1971, the sustained exodus from Indochina which began in the 1970s, and the large outflows resulting from the protracted wars of the 1980s in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Central America. Looking at the challenges of the 1990s, the book examines the popular shifts in the former Soviet region, the Kurdish exodus from northern Iraq following the Gulf war, the increasingly restrictive asylum policies in Europe and North America, and the recent crises in the Balkans, the Great Lakes region of Africa, East Timor, and the Caucasus. In this timely and important publication, UNHCR emphasizes the need to find lasting solutions to problems of forced displacement. Without human security, it argues, there can be no peace and stability.

From the killing fields of Rwanda and Srebrenica a decade ago to those of Darfur today, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to confront genocide. This is evinced, author and journalist Adam LeBor maintains, in a May 1995 document from Yasushi Akashi, the most senior UN official in the field during the Yugoslav wars, in which he refused to authorize air strikes against the Serbs for fear they would "weaken” Milosevic.  More recently, in 2003, urgent reports from UN officials in the Sudan detailing atrocities from Darfur were ignored for a year because they were politically inconvenient. This book is the first to examine in detail the crucial role of the Secretariat, its relationship with the Security Council, and the failure of UN officials themselves to confront genocide. LeBor argues the UN must return to its founding principles, take a moral stand and set the agenda of the Security Council instead of merely following the lead of the great powers. LeBor draws on dozens of firsthand interviews with UN officials, current and former, and such international diplomats as Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Douglas Hurd, and David Owen. This book will set the terms for discussion when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan steps down to make room for a new head of the world body, and political observers assess Annan’s legacy and look to the future of the world organization.

Consolidated list of documents and publications of the Centre Against Apartheid and Indexes

United Nations environmental policy - Environmental changes for the 1980s. United Nations Environment Programme.

The basic texts on environment: Founex, Stockholm, Cocoyoc

United Nations Environment Programme

This publication is a complementary document to the Africa Environment Outlook report (ISBN 9280721011) and focuses on the interaction between the local environment and human livelihoods. The publication is divided into two sections: case studies explaining how various types of environmental change impact on people making them vulnerable to poverty, food security and diseases; and examples of interventions carried out to reduce environmental degradation and human vulnerability, providing lessons and recommendations for future actions.

Expert Group Meeting on the Existing Solar Technology and the Possibilities of Manufacturing Solar Equipment in Developing Countries, Vienna, 1977.

This handbook looks at practical guidance on identifying and addressing the differing needs and situations of women, girls, boys and men, about being sensitive to gender issues in humanitarian crises. Ignoring or being blind to these different needs can have serious implications for the protection and survival of people caught up in humanitarian crises. This Handbook sets out standards for the integration of gender issues from the outset of a new complex emergency or disaster, so that humanitarian services provided neither exacerbate nor inadvertently put people at risk; reach their target audience; and have maximum positive impact. The Handbook is divided into two sections: A: Fundamental Principles and B: Areas of Work. Section A should be studied by all readers and used in combination with the specific sector chapters in Section B.

Child labor - Government policy

Postwar multilateral cooperation is often viewed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of the nation-state system. However, in 1945, when the United Nations was founded, large parts of the world were still under imperial control. Building States investigates how the UN tried to manage the dissolution of European empires in the 1950s and 1960s--and helped transform the practice of international development and the meaning of state sovereignty in the process. Eva-Maria Muschik argues that the UN played a key role in the global proliferation and reinvention of the nation-state in the postwar era, as newly independent states came to rely on international assistance. Drawing on previously untapped primary sources, she traces how UN personnel--usually in close consultation with Western officials--sought to manage decolonization peacefully through international development assistance. Examining initiatives in Libya, Somaliland, Bolivia, the Congo, and New York, Muschik shows how the UN pioneered a new understanding and practice of state building, presented as a technical challenge for international experts rather than a political process. UN officials increasingly took on public-policy functions, despite the organization's mandate not to interfere in the domestic affairs of its member states. These initiatives, Muschik suggests, had lasting effects on international development practice, peacekeeping, and post-conflict territorial administration. Casting new light on how international organizations became major players in the governance of developing countries, Building States has significant implications for the histories of decolonization, the Cold War, and international development.

"A concise, thoughtfuland surprisingly helpful addition to the literature." --Herman T. Salton, InternationalAffairs "Historically rich, detailed, and practice focused.... Provides an in-depth account of all the important issues that the UN is engaged in, as well as a discussion of how these emerged over time." --Matthias Hofferberth, University of Texas at San Antonio "Unique in both its breadth and depth of coverage of the United Nations.... An invaluable resource."--Rebecca McCumbers Flavin, Baylor University The United Nations has a vast outreach through its many agencies, funds, and programs--but that very fact can make it difficult for "outsiders" to understand. Among the questions that arise: How can the UN promote human rights when its charter prohibits its intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign states? Why do the five permanent members of the Security Council have veto power? Can a dysfunctional Security Council be circumvented? How is consensus on policy ever reached? Where does the money to run this enormous system come from? The list goes on. In response, this new text clearly explains the UN's history, functions, and day-to-day operations. Ranging from development to disarmament, from electoral assistance to finance, the authors unveil the processes involved as diplomats and practitioners navigate the challenges of serving the common good while balancing opposing interests. CONTENTS: The United Nations in an Uncertain Global Context--J.E. Krasno. The UN Landscape--J.E. Krasno. The Founding of the United Nations--J.E. Krasno. Promoting Human Development--J. Fomerand. Supporting Human Rights--B. Ramcharan. The Evolution of Peacekeeping Operations--J.E. Krasno. Democratization and Electoral Assistance--M. Tommasoli and T. Pearce Laanela. Addressing Human Security--K. Gamble-Payne and J.E. Krasno. Disarmament and Arms Control--R. Rydell. Financing the United Nations--W. Lint. Confronting the Authority of the Security Council--J.E. Krasno. Achievements and Challenges--J.E. Krasno.

The United Nations was established, in the aftermath of a devastating war, to help stabilise international relations and give peace a more secure foundation. This work provides information on what the United Nations and its component bodies have accomplished since 1945, when the world organisation was founded.

From the first attempts at world co-operation through the establishment of this world body in San Francisco in 1945 to the present, told with text and over 600 photographs.

This is an account of a critical period in international diplomacy. It is the story of the effort between 1940 and 1945 to fashion a world orgranization to keep the future peace. The book deals with the Atlantic Charter and the conferences at Moscow, Cairo, Teheran, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco that finally led to the United Nations Charter. It shows how the strategic decisions leading to military victory simultaneously helped to determine the conditions of postwar settlement, and its foreshadows some of the frustrations and conflicts of the decade that followed.

The United Nations in International History argues for a new way of examining the history of this central global institution by integrating more traditional diplomacy between states with new trends in transnational and cultural history to explore the organization and its role in 20th- and 21st-century history. Amy Sayward looks at the origins of the U.N. before examining a range of organizations and players in the United Nations system and analysing its international work in the key arenas of diplomacy, social & economic development programs, peace-keeping, and human rights. This volume provides a concise introduction to the broad array of international work done by the United Nations, synthesizes the existing interdisciplinary literature, and highlights areas in need of further research, making it ideal for students and beginning researchers.