49 Fun Facts About United Nations

The Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945 in which city?

Delegates from 50 nations signed the Charter in San Francisco on 26 June 1945, closing a conference that had opened in the city on 25 April.

Which US president is credited with coining the term 'United Nations' to describe the wartime Allies?

Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the name, which Churchill accepted; the Declaration by United Nations was signed by 26 Allied governments on 1 January 1942.

The United Nations officially came into existence on which date, now marked as United Nations Day?

The Charter entered into force on 24 October 1945, once the five permanent Security Council members and a majority of the other signatories had ratified it.

Which UN organ appoints the Secretary-General on the Security Council's recommendation?

Under Article 97 of the Charter the General Assembly appoints the Secretary-General on the recommendation of the Security Council, usually for a five-year term.

Which country joined the UN in July 2011, becoming its 193rd member state?

South Sudan joined on 14 July 2011, five days after declaring independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011.

Where is the headquarters of the United Nations?

The United Nations headquarters stands on the East River in New York City; construction began in 1948 and the complex was completed in 1952.

Which family donated the money to buy the East River site for the UN headquarters?

John D. Rockefeller Jr. put up $8.5 million; Philadelphia had offered land in Fairmount Park and elsewhere.

Which neighbourhood's name is sometimes used as a nickname for the UN itself?

Turtle Bay, the neighbourhood surrounding the UN headquarters, is often used as shorthand for the organisation; slaughterhouses occupied the site before it was bought in 1946.

Which two famous architects developed the final designs for the UN headquarters complex?

Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier produced the merged scheme, known as 23-32, that a design board chaired by Wallace Harrison adopted for the headquarters in 1947.

How many principal organs did the UN Charter establish?

The Charter's Chapter III established six principal organs, among them the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Secretariat.

Which principal organ suspended its operations in 1994 after Palau gained independence?

The Trusteeship Council suspended operations on 1 November 1994, a month after Palau, the last remaining trust territory, became independent.

Which principal organ of the UN is the only one not based at its headquarters?

The International Court of Justice sits in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, and settles legal disputes between states.

Which of these is NOT one of the six official languages of the United Nations?

German is not an official UN language; the official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

How many members sit on the UN Security Council?

The Security Council has fifteen members: five permanent and ten elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, five each year.

Which of these is NOT one of the five permanent, veto-holding members of the Security Council?

Germany, an Axis power in 1945, was never given a permanent seat; the five permanent members are the principal Second World War Allies named in the Charter.

How many affirmative votes does a Security Council resolution need to pass?

That means all five permanent members plus at least four elected members.

In 1971 the PRC took the Chinese Security Council seat from the government based where?

The Nationalist government had retreated to Taiwan in 1949; General Assembly Resolution 2758 of October 1971 transferred the seat to the PRC.

Where did the first session of the General Assembly convene in January 1946?

The first General Assembly met in London at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, on 10 January 1946, with 51 nations represented.

Who was the first elected secretary-general of the United Nations?

Trygve Lie, Norway's foreign minister, was elected the first Secretary-General on 1 February 1946 and announced his resignation in November 1952.

Which secretary-general died in a 1961 plane crash in Africa, winning a posthumous Nobel?

Dag Hammarskjöld died on 18 September 1961 when his plane crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, en route to ceasefire talks with Katanga's leader Moïse Tshombe.

Which country vetoed a second term for Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1996?

America (the United States) cast the lone veto against a second term for Boutros-Ghali in November 1996, with the other 14 Council members supporting him.

In 1981 which country cast 16 vetoes to block a third term for Kurt Waldheim?

China cast 16 successive vetoes against Kurt Waldheim in 1981, backing Tanzania's Salim Ahmed Salim; the deadlock ended with the choice of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.

António Guterres, who became UN secretary-general in 2017, is from which country?

António Guterres, Portugal's prime minister from 1995 to 2002, took office as Secretary-General on 1 January 2017.

Which country is the only one ever to attempt to withdraw from the United Nations?

Indonesia withdrew in January 1965 in protest at Malaysia's election to the Security Council, founded the short-lived CONEFO, and resumed its seat in September 1966.

What colour are the helmets that give UN peacekeepers their nickname?

UN peacekeepers wear blue helmets or berets, giving them the nickname 'Blue Helmets'; the peacekeeping forces won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.

The first UN peacekeeping force was created in November 1956 in response to what?

The UN Emergency Force was sent to Egypt after the Suez Crisis, when Britain, France and Israel invaded in October 1956; Lester Pearson won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for proposing it.

The longest-running active UN peacekeeping mission has been stationed since 1948 in which region?

UNTSO, the UN Truce Supervision Organization, has observed ceasefires in the Middle East since May 1948, initially between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

The 1950 resolution authorising a US-led force in Korea passed only because which member was absent?

The Soviet Union was boycotting the Council over the PRC's exclusion, so it could not veto the June 1950 resolution that authorised force in Korea.

Who chaired the committee that drafted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the Commission on Human Rights drafting committee; the Declaration was adopted in Paris on 10 December 1948.

How many nations sit on the Human Rights Council that replaced the Commission on Human Rights in 2006?

The Human Rights Council has 47 member states, elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms and distributed among regional groups.

UNICEF was created in 1946 originally to help children where?

UNICEF was set up in December 1946 to feed and care for children in post-war Europe; it became a permanent agency in 1953 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.

In 1980 the World Health Organization announced the global eradication of which disease?

Smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Assembly in May 1980, the last natural case having occurred in Somalia in 1977.

In which city is the World Food Programme headquartered?

The World Food Programme is headquartered in Rome, as are the FAO and IFAD, the UN's other two food agencies; it was founded in 1961.

The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and which other UN body?

The IPCC won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; UNEP itself was founded in 1972.

Which set of eight global development targets was due to be met by 2015?

The Millennium Development Goals, eight targets adopted at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, ran to 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals succeeded them.

In 1984 which US president pulled American funding from UNESCO over alleged mismanagement?

Ronald Reagan's administration withdrew the United States from UNESCO at the end of 1984, citing mismanagement and politicisation; the United Kingdom and Singapore followed in 1985.

The 1975 General Assembly resolution repealed in 1991 had declared what to be a form of racism?

Resolution 3379 of November 1975 declared Zionism 'a form of racism and racial discrimination'; the General Assembly revoked it in December 1991.

In which year did 17 new states, 16 of them African, join the UN in a single wave of decolonisation?

In 1960, the 'Year of Africa', 17 newly independent states joined in a single session, 16 of them African and the other Cyprus.

The white emblem on the UN flag shows a world map surrounded by branches of which tree?

Two olive branches, a classical symbol of peace, surround the polar map; the emblem was approved in December 1946 and the flag adopted in October 1947.

Which poet wrote the words to Pau Casals's 1971 'Hymn to the United Nations'?

W. H. Auden wrote the text at U Thant's request; Casals conducted the premiere at UN headquarters on United Nations Day 1971, but it was never adopted as an official anthem.

Which UN body has won the Nobel Peace Prize twice, in 1954 and 1981?

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, won in 1954 for resettling Europe's displaced people and again in 1981 for aiding refugees worldwide; the UN itself shared the 2001 prize with Kofi Annan.

The failed predecessor to the UN, which the United States never joined, was called what?

The League of Nations began in January 1920 under the Treaty of Versailles; the US Senate refused to ratify membership, and the League was dissolved in 1946.

What was the 1941 Roosevelt-Churchill document setting out goals for the post-war world called?

The Atlantic Charter, issued by Roosevelt and Churchill after their August 1941 shipboard meeting off Newfoundland, set out eight principles for the post-war world.

By law the US refuses to pay more than what share of the UN peacekeeping budget?

Legislation passed by Congress in the mid-1990s caps American contributions to peacekeeping at 25%, below the higher share the UN assessment scale assigns to the United States.

At which 1944 conference did the Allied Big Four negotiate the aims and structure of the new world organisation?

It ran from 21 September to 7 October 1944; the last issues were settled at Yalta in February 1945 after further talks with the Soviets.

Which two entities hold non-member observer state status at the UN?

The Holy See and Palestine hold non-member observer state status, the Holy See since 1964 and Palestine since a General Assembly vote in November 2012.

UNMOGIP, one of the smallest UN missions, monitors a ceasefire in which region?

UNMOGIP has observed the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1949 and was the second peacekeeping mission the UN established.

To what percentage was the ceiling on any one member's share of the UN regular budget cut in December 2000?

The ceiling on any single member's assessed share of the regular budget was lowered to 22% in December 2000, under pressure from the United States, the largest contributor.

Which rule requires UN salaries to match the highest-paying national civil service, regardless of nationality?

The Noblemaire principle, dating from a 1921 report by French delegate Georges Noblemaire, pegs Professional-grade UN pay to the best-paid national civil service, the US federal service.