Aftermath of Indian Ocean Tsunami in Sri Lanka
Disaster Relief

To build a resilient future, it is essential to combat inequality

Tsunamis pose a serious threat, especially to women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. This year's World Tsunami Awareness Day (5 November) aims to raise awareness about reducing risks and enhancing community preparedness. Although rare, tsunamis can be devastating, with an average death toll of 4,600 per disaster. The 2023 theme, "Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future," calls for all-society engagement and partnership in disaster risk reduction.

A view of the destruction caused by the tsunami in Galle, a town in southern Sri Lanka.
Photo:UN/Evan Schneider
UN Secretary-General António Guterres. (file)

Guterres ‘horrified’ by strike on ambulance convoy in Gaza

4 November 2023 — UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “horrified” by a strike on an ambulance convoy outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Friday, reiterating his appeal for a...

Homes destroyed by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Nepal.

UN teams respond to deadly earthquake in western Nepal

4 November 2023 — United Nations teams in Nepal are responding to the devastating earthquake in the west of the country, amid reports that over 150 people have been killed and hundreds more...

Families seek refuge from the ongoing conflict in Gaza at an UNRWA school.

Humanitarian ceasefires critical to meet immense needs in Gaza

3 November 2023 — Political negotiations to get aid into Gaza have yielded results but much more is needed, including humanitarian ceasefires to ensure safe delivery of food, fuel and other...

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.

Thomas the Tank engine

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.

children holding up books

SDG Book Club

Reading and learning are essential to children’s growth and development; stories can fuel their imagination and raise awareness of new possibilities. The SDG Book Club aims to encourage them to learn about the Goals in a fun, engaging way, empowering them to make a difference.

Act Now

ActNow Campaign

ActNow is the United Nations campaign to inspire people to act for the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs can improve life for all of us and everyone can join the global movement for change. To log your actions, download the app.

SDG Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal of the Month

 
Climate Action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

More about the UN Sustainable Development Goals

More from the
United Nations

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

Four people superimposed on top of a computer-generated image. OHCHR, Science and Technology

When business, technology and human rights go hand in hand

New digital technologies have transformed the way people live in so many ways by creating economic growth, job creation and empowering human rights activism. At the same time, the dark side of these very same innovations can pose severe risks to people’s rights including by infringing on privacy, through the spread of hate speech, misinformation, the undermining of the democratic processes, and the increase in online violence. This is why UN Human Rights has created the Business and Human Rights in Technology Project, as a way to address these issues by providing an authoritative roadmap for applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the development and use of digital technologies. 

People walking in the streets of Lusaka, Zambia. UNDP, Economic Development, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Cities are the new battlefield for a sustainable future

Cities, towns and surrounding areas act as powerful magnets for innovation, culture and opportunities, alluring talent and investment. Urban living has already been embraced by more than half of the world's population, and projections indicate that nearly 70 percent of us will live in cities by 2050. Urban areas can also be an inequality trap, with overcrowding, pollution, poor infrastructure and social injustice. While there isn't a one-size-fits-all formula for attaining sustainable urban development, the UN’s New Urban Agenda offers guidance and strategy. When the urban landscape is well planned and managed, it can be a transformative force to accelerate the SDGs.

Close-up of a sea urchin. FAO, Natural Resources and the Environment, SDG 14: Life Below Water

Ensuring the sustained survival of sea urchins

The sea urchin is considered a culinary delicacy in many countries and faces the threat of overfishing in some areas. However, while some sites are lacking in the species, other areas are experiencing excessive sea urchin populations that can lead to the depletion of algae and other marine vegetation, so-called sea urchin barrens. These two contrasting situations call for individualized solutions. FAO is helping countries and farmers tackle these two issues by creating specific guidelines for restorative aquaculture and helping with the removal of urchins and their sale in culinary markets, helping to restore algae populations while enhancing the value of these species.

Illustration of UNEP's Adaption Gap Report 2023
Finance, UNEP

UNEP's Adaptation Gap Report 2023

UNEP launches the 2023 Adaption Gap Report identifying seven ways to increase financing, including through domestic expenditure and international and private sector finance, to mitigate the rising climate change impacts.

Illustration of two children holding each other in dismay
Children, UNICEF

Talking to your children about war

When conflict or war makes the headlines, children look to their parents for a sense of safety and security. UNICEF offers 8 tips on how to provide them with support and comfort.

Woman at work past working hours.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, ILO

Care work in a changing world

The value of unpaid domestic and care work is finally changing following sustained advocacy and implementation of new measuring tools.

Culture, UNESCO

55 new creative cities

On World Cities Day, 55 cities joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), acknowledging their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies.

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.

A child has a meal at a food distribution centre in the Rwanda camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), near Tawila, North Darfur. More than 8,000 women and children living in the camp benefit from nutrition programmes run by the World Food Programme

Deliver Humanitarian Aid

One of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in its Charter, is "to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character."  The UN first did this in the aftermath of the Second World War on the devastated continent of Europe, which it helped to rebuild.  The Organization is now relied upon by the international community to coordinate humanitarian relief operations due to natural and man-made disasters in areas beyond the relief capacity of national authorities alone.

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.

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

Learn more

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.

A young girl holds a smiling infant at the Zaatari Refugee Camp

Our Common Agenda

Following up on a pledge made by UN Member States at the UN’s 75th anniversary, the report Our Common Agenda looks ahead to the next 25 years and represents the Secretary-General’s vision on the future of global cooperation. It calls for inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism to better respond to humanity’s most pressing challenges.

Watch and Listen

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

Climate Change Hits Home in the USA | Troubled Waters

The Quinault, a Native tribal community in Washington State, has been forced to relocate their coastal village to higher ground as high tides threaten to wash away the land they’ve inhabited for thousands of years. As weather systems spin out of control across the globe, we take a closer look at how the United States is tackling the “too much” and “too little” of water. 

The call of the water

FAO shows the effects and repercussions of water in Peru because of climate change. 

Sheltering from bombs at a hospital in Gaza

Filmmaker Bisan Ouda takes you inside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and hear from health workers in dire need of life-saving medicines and supplies.

UN Podcasts

People stacked in a Gaza hospital hallway.

Gaza: Children ‘paying the heaviest price for this conflict’

More than 3,500 children have been killed and over 6,800 injured in Gaza during the current Israel-Palestine crisis, according to the UN Children's Fund. UNICEF official Salim Oweis emphasized in an interview with UN News that beyond the numbers, those are lives, dreams and futures lost because of the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip. Oweis told UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki that it was the children who were “facing the worst of times” in the enclave and called again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

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 standing before her mural. The artwork portrays the strength and connection of women worldwide .
Photo:IOM Libya

The street art contest that pays tribute to remarkable migrant women

With 140 million women and girls on the move, accounting for half of the world's migrants, the International Organization for Migration recognizes that gender inequalities manifest differently depending on where women find themselves in the world. A new competition called “Women on the Wall,” saw nine artists from seven different countries paying tribute to a remarkable migrant woman, known and celebrated for her achievements in technology and innovation, through visual art in a public space.

Photo:WFP/Ali Jadallah

Diary from Gaza: 'There's no time to mourn anyone or anything'

Three weeks of near-constant bombardment in Gaza have left its entire population in desperate and catastrophic conditions. The World Food Programme is striving to reach over one million people for whom water and food are running out. One employee of the humanitarian organization describes the horror, the personal grief of losing at least seven family members and friends, her dreams for a better future, and why her work must go on in the face of it all.

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