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United Nations Definition

☆ United Nations

noun

an international organization of nations pledged to promote world peace and security, maintain treaty obligations & the observance of international law, & cooperate in furthering social progress: the organization was formed in San Francisco in 1945 under a permanent charter (ratified by 50 countries) that had its inception in conferences (1941-45) held by nations opposed to the fascist coalition of Germany, Japan, Italy, & their satellites: the headquarters has been in New York City since 1946 and the membership (March, 2007) consists of 192 nations

United Nations Synonyms

United Nations

n.

UN, peace-keeping force, international society, community of nations.

Principal bodies of the United Nations are: General Assembly, Secretariat, Security Council, International Court of Justice, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council. Agencies of the United Nations include: World Health Organization (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Fund for Agricultural Development, (IFAD), International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

United Nations (UN) Telecom Definition
See UN. United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport (UN/EDIFACT) See UN/EDIFACT.
United Nations Quotes

If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.

—Eisenhower, Dwight D(avid)

We the Peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, whichtwice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to 873 mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignityand 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, and for these ends, to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one anotherasgood neighbours, and tounite our strengthto 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, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.

—United Nations Charter

   The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could. It is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine†a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.

—Oates,Joyce Carol

To retreat now, I believe, would put at hazard all that we hold dearest, turn the United Nations back into a talking shop, stifle the first steps of progress in the Middle East; leave the Iraqi people to the mercy of events on which we would have relinquished all power to influence for the better.

—Blair,Tony (Anthony Charles Lynton)

We best avoid wars by taking even physical action to stop small ones. Everybody knows that the United Nations isnot ina position to dothat† We must facethe fact that the United Nations is not yet the internal equivalent of ourown legal systemand rule of law.Police action must be to separate the belligerents and to prevent a resumption of hostilities.

—Eden, Sir (Robert) Anthony, 1st Earl of Avon

   When we started the UN we were not trying to make a monument.We were building a workshopöa workshop for world peace. And we tried to make it the best damn workshop we could.

—Harrison,Wallace K(irkman)