A woman surrounded by desert locusts in a crop field.
Land, Plants, and Soil

Healthy plants, secure food systems

Did you know that 98% of the oxygen we breathe comes from plants, and that 80% of the food we eat depends on them? Yet every year, up to 40% of global crops are lost to pests and diseases, undermining efforts to ensure food and nutrition for all. This year’s International Day of Plant Health (12 May) highlights the critical role of plant biosecurity in safeguarding our food systems. By preventing the spread of pests and diseases, plant biosecurity helps protect crops, livelihoods, and ecosystems. We all share a responsibility to keep plants healthy—for a zero-hunger world. Spread the word!

The Desert Locust is the world’s most destructive migratory pest, threatening food security and livelihoods.
Photo:© FAO/Sven Torfinn
WHO officials look on as a cruise ship is docked in a port during a Hantavirus response.

Hantavirus-hit ship evacuation completed as quarantines begin

11 May 2026 — The passengers and crew have disembarked from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius in Tenerife and many have returned to their home countries, as the UN World Health...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at a podium during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

Guterres highlights Africa’s leadership in speech to summit in Nairobi 

12 May 2026 — Africa continues to advance and demands investment at scale, justice in global systems, and partnerships grounded in respect, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday....

A satellite image of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route separating the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with visible water bodies of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

Strait of Hormuz de-escalation is urgent, says UN chief

11 May 2026 — As the Strait of Hormuz crisis deepens and tensions between Iran and the United States remain unresolved, oil prices rose again early Monday, prompting the UN Secretary-General to...

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.

hands holding megaphone and speech bubble

ActNow Campaign

The Goals can improve life for all of us. Cleaner air. Safer cities. Equality. Better jobs. These issues matter to everyone. But progress is too slow. We have to act, urgently, to accelerate changes that add up to better lives on a healthier planet. Find new inspiring actions on the app and at un.org/actnow.

Act Now for a Peaceful World

Today, half the world is under 30, and this generation is a powerful force for peace. The UN "Hear Us. Act Now for a Peaceful World" campaign, launched on the International Day of Peace, aims to include, invest in, and partner with young people to build lasting peace. 

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.

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Goal of the month

 

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

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.

A group of people in a conference room during a meeting. Human Rights, OHCHR

Combating religious hatred and violence against faith groups

A new UN Human Rights report spotlights rising religious hatred and violence worldwide, impacting Christians, Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities both online and offline. Incidents range from discrimination and harassment to deadly attacks, while biased AI tools may deepen inequalities. Despite this, initiatives such as interfaith dialogue, global declarations and knowledge-sharing platforms show progress. The report urges governments to enforce anti-discrimination laws, leaders to reject divisive rhetoric, and educators to promote “inclusive faith literacy.” It also calls on tech companies to ensure their systems do not fuel hate, stressing collective action to uphold dignity and prevent violence.

A farmer drinks a glass of milk while looking at the camera. Agriculture and Food, FAO

Where cattle graze and milk becomes tradition

In Georgia’s rural highlands, a dairy farmer is helping revive a nearly lost milk tradition while protecting the rangelands that sustain it. Nino Nugzarashvili produces cheeses and “Do,” a rare, fermented milk product, using cattle raised on natural pastures that enhance quality and flavor. With the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations support, she gained equipment and training to expand production and meet rising demand. Her story highlights the vital role of communal grazing lands in supporting livelihoods, preserving biodiversity, and maintaining cultural food heritage, even as these landscapes face growing pressure from land degradation and reduced access.

A female figure skater performing. WIPO, Sports

Clearing rights in sports: How a startup is transforming music licensing

In choreographed sports, music is essential but often used without proper licensing, exposing athletes and organizers to legal risks. After lawsuits highlighted the problem, former world champion cheerleader Chantal Epp founded ClicknClear to provide a solution. The platform enables athletes to quickly license music from millions of tracks and ensures compliance through verification tools. Used across sports like gymnastics and figure skating, it addresses a major gap caused by fragmented rights systems and the lack of a global database. By connecting rights holders with users, ClicknClear helps protect creators, unlock new revenue, and professionalize music use in sports.

An image of Zeine
Youth, Migration, IOM

Mauritanian youth inspires safe migration

In southern Mauritania, visually impaired activist Zeine Moustapha is helping young people make informed migration choices through community awareness campaigns focused on the risks of irregular migration and local opportunities.

A group of hikers.
Disabled persons, Tourism, UNDP

Nepal trains deaf trekking guides

Nepal has launched its first sign-language-based trekking guide training programme, empowering deaf guides to build inclusive tourism careers and open the country’s famous trekking routes to deaf travellers worldwide.

Workers at a textile industry in Albania.
Economic Development, ILO

Boosting Albanian textile industry

The ILO’s SCORE Programme is helping textile manufacturers in Albania improve productivity, workplace standards and wages, supporting business growth while creating better-quality jobs for local workers.

An industrial park
Artificial Intelligence, UNCTAD

AI reshapes global investment landscape

UNCTAD warns that rising investment in AI and strategic technologies is concentrating capital in a few sectors and countries, increasing the risk that many developing economies will be left behind.

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

Podium of the General Assembly Hall seen from below with the gold wall and the golden UN logo behind

Selecting the next Secretary-General

The United Nations process to appoint the next Secretary‑General continues on 21 and 22 April with interactive dialogues guided by the principles of transparency and inclusivity. Join the conversation and follow the live interactive dialogues with the candidates on UN WebTV: Michelle Bachelet Jeria (21 April, 10 a.m. EDT), Rafael Mariano Grossi (21 April, 3 p.m. EDT), Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (22 April, 10 a.m. EDT), and Macky Sall (22 April, 3 p.m. EDT).

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.

Watch and Listen

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

A day in the life delivering health supplies to women and girls near Ukraine’s front line

UN Volunteer Daryna is on the ground in Ukraine, delivering vital UNFPA menstrual hygiene supplies to women and girls living near the frontline. Her work helps bring dignity and essential care to communities affected by the ongoing conflict.

India’s natural farming breakthrough

In Andhra Pradesh, millions of farmers are restoring degraded land and improving livelihoods, which promotes natural farming practices that rebuild soil health, protect biodiversity, and reduce reliance on chemical inputs.

UNHABITAT World Urban Forum 13

The Gere Foundation Chair Richard Gere, together with the Spanish non-profit HOGAR SÍ, is partnering with UN-Habitat to spotlight homelessness at the World Urban Forum 13 (WUF13) in Baku, Azerbaijan (17–22 May), calling for urgent action to ensure dignified and inclusive housing for all.

UN Podcasts

A a NASA aerospace engineer during a lecture.

NASA engineer inspires girls to reach beyond gravity

NASA aerospace engineer Alinda Mashiku was born in New York then moved to Tanzania as a young girl, where she dreamed of becoming an astronaut – but reaching for the stars seemed almost an impossibility. 

Today, as a Program Manager with the US space agency, she helps ensure that satellites avoid collisions in orbit, contributing to the safety and sustainability of pioneering space missions such as the record-breaking Artemis II mission around the moon earlier this month.

According to UN data, women make up only 35 per cent of science, tech, engineering and maths graduates (STEM) – figure that has not changed in the past decade.

In an interview with UN News’s Anold Kayanda from our Swahili team, Ms. Mashiku explains why girls should place no limits on their ambitions to break the STEM glass ceiling, into the stratosphere. 

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.

woman holding toddler
Photo:© 2026 UN Humanitarian

“It Has Given Me Hope”

As climate change and prolonged drought deepen food insecurity in Zambia’s Gwembe Valley, families are facing rising levels of child malnutrition and hunger. This photo story follows mothers, caregivers and health volunteers working to protect children through community-based nutrition programmes supported by UNICEF and CERF. By using simple screening tools, nutrition support and climate-resilient practices, communities are identifying malnutrition early and helping children recover before conditions become life-threatening. Through personal stories and powerful imagery, the piece highlights both the human impact of the climate crisis and the resilience of families working to build a healthier future.

woman construction worker on scaffold
Photo:© UNFPA Benin/Taiwo Aina

New Era, New Career Paths

Across the world, women are reshaping traditional ideas about work and challenging barriers that have long limited their opportunities. This photo story from UNFPA highlights the experiences of women in countries including Benin, Paraguay, Japan, Uganda, Togo and Germany who are building careers in fields often dominated by men or navigating changing economic realities. From mechanics and electricians to entrepreneurs, engineers and health workers, their stories reflect broader shifts in workforce participation, gender equality and ageing populations. The story explores how education, rights and opportunity are helping women redefine what work—and leadership—can look like.

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