UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq answers common questions about the UN’s budget, including how the UN gets its money, how it prevents fraud and waste, what is spent on humanitarian operations, and how the cost of peace compares to the price of war.

Climate talks reached agreement on operationalizing a ‘loss and damage’ fund that has the potential to impact not only countries and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis but around the world. This in-depth explainer takes a look at how we are all impacted—and how addressing loss and damage can benefit humanity as a whole.

The word “genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Lemkin developed the term partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust, but also in response to previous instances in history of targeted actions aimed at the destruction of particular groups of people.

The UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative agreed by Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine has allowed millions of tons of grain and other foodstuffs to leave Ukraine’s ports, playing an indispensable role in global food security.

Genocides do not start with bullets or machetes, they begin with hate speech. 

Can the United Nations stop a war? Can the Security Council stop a war? UN Spokesperson Eri Kaneko answers these questions, and explains the key functions of the United Nations Security Council.

The functions and powers of the Security Council are set out in the UN Charter, the Organization's founding document. It was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organizations and came into force on 24 October 1945.

Words not weapons. That’s the fundamental idea at the heart of the UN. Humanity can only survive, humanity can only thrive through cooperation, not conflict. And that’s why the UN exists.

The UN General Assembly is like the Super Bowl of global diplomacy. It is the only time that almost every world leader gathers in the same place – at UN HQ in New York in September. But there is so much that goes on behind the scenes.

Imagine growing up with your mother telling you to stop playing video games, and then discovering that you have acquired such a useful skill that the United Nations hires you as a video game expert.

Genocides do not start with bullets or machetes, they begin with hate speech.

The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate speech. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda began with decades of hate speech exacerbated by ethnic tensions. The Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina began with constant nationalist propaganda throughout party-controlled media channels demonizing the Bosnian Muslim population.

The global population has reached 8 billion, what does this mean for the future of our world?

Dr. Rachel Snow of the United Nations Population Fund is here to answer your questions.