V care Varsity

The British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, the first Jewish envoy to Israel from Britain, warned the Israelis in a recent television interview that anyone who cares about Israel should be concerned about the erosion of international support for the country. “Israel might wake up in 10 years’ time and find out that suddenly the international community has changed, and that patience for continuing status quo has reduced.”

UN support for the rights of women began with the Organization's founding Charter.  Among the purposes of the UN declared in Article 1 of its Charter is “To achieve international co-operation … in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”

Within the UN’s first year, the Economic and Social Council established its Commission on the Status of ...

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, 783 million people, or 11 per cent of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. Such sources include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collections. The world has met the MDG drinking water target five years ahead of schedule but work is not yet completely done. We must not forget that since it is not yet possible t...

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the volunteer arm of the UN system, supporting peace, relief and development initiatives in nearly 140 countries. Created by the General Assembly in 1970, it is administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The programme works through UNDP country offices to send volunteers and promote the idea of volunteerism. As a volunteer-based programme, UNV is both unique within the United Nations family and in its scale as an in...

During the 1990s, the end of the cold war led to an entirely new global security environment, marked by a focus on internal rather than inter-state wars. In the early 21st century, new global threats emerged. The attacks of 11 September 2001 on the United States clearly demonstrated the challenge of international terrorism, while subsequent events heightened concern about the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the dangers from other non-conventional weapons.

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A peaceful and prosperous world is one in which people can feel safe and secure in their homes, with their families and in their communities.  It is a world in which they can feel confident in their country, their culture and in the family of nations and peoples on our common planet.

Sometimes, for economic or other personal reasons, people choose to leave their homes, to begin and new life in a new location.  For better or worse, these decisions are made as a matter o...

In 1950, five years after the founding of the United Nations, world population was estimated at nearly 2.6 billion people. According to UN estimates, it reached 5 billion on 11 July 1987 and hit 6 billion on 12 October 1999. Now, just over 10 years later, it is approximately 7 billion.

This continuing, rapid expansion of the human footprint on what has increasingly come to seem a small planet, has serious implications for nearly all aspects of life. Issues relating to health and agei...

Some 10 per cent of the world’s population, approximately 650 million people, live with a disability.  They are the world’s largest minority, and some 80 per cent of them live in developing countries.  Among the worlds poorest people, 20 per cent have some kind of disability.  Women and girls with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse.  Persons with disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence or rape, and are less likely to obtain po...

Saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war was the main motivation for creating the United Nations, whose founders lived through the devastation of two world wars. Since its creation, the UN has often been called upon to prevent disputes from escalating into war, or to help restore peace when armed conflict does break out, and to promote lasting peace in societies emerging from wars.

The Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General all play major...

The United Nations has long been at the forefront of efforts to ensure the peaceful, cooperative, legally defined uses of the seas and oceans for the individual and common benefit of humankind. Its groundbreaking work in adopting the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention stands as a defining moment in the extension of international law to the vast, shared water resources of our planet.  The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, through its Division of Ocean Affairs and the Law of the S...

The development of International Law is one of the primary goals of the United Nations. The Charter of the United Nations, in its Preamble, sets the objective "to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained".

International Llaw defines the legal responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other, and their treatment of individuals within State boundaries. Its ...

Whenever there is a disaster or a humanitarian catastrophe, the UN is on the ground providing relief, support and assistance.

From the population displacements caused by war, weather and natural disasters, to the impact of such disruptions on health, hygiene, education, nutrition and even basic shelter, the UN is there, making a difference.

Thanks to the World Food Programme  (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN ...

When the UN was founded in1945, two thirds of the world’s people lived in rural settings. By 2000, the population balance had shifted, with half of humanity now living in cities. Moreover, it is expected that by 2050, two thirds of world’s people –– some 6 billion of them –– will be living in cities. And while cities are a major hub of national production and consumption –– economic and social processes that generate wealth and opportunity &#...

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. 

Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

International human rights law lays down the obligations of Govern...

In the community of nations, governance is considered “good” and “democratic” to the degree in which a country’s institutions and processes are transparent. Its institutions refer to such bodies as parliament and its various ministries.  Its processes include such key activities as elections and legal procedures, which must be seen to be free of corruption and accountable to the people.  A country’s success in achieving this standard has bec...

For two decades, leading up to the millennium, global demand for food increased steadily, along with growth in the world’s population, record harvests, improvements in incomes, and the diversification of diets.  As a result, food prices continued to decline through 2000.

But beginning in 2004, prices for most grains began to rise.  Although there was an increase in production, the increase in demand was greater.

Food stocks became depleted.  And the...

The environmental movement might be said to have begun centuries ago as a response to industrialization. In the nineteenth century, the British Romantic Poets extolled the beauties of nature, while American writer Henry David Thoreau praised the return to a simpler life, guided by the values implicit in nature.  It was a dichotomy that continued well into the twentieth century.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the rise of the nuclear age introduced fears of a new k...

In 2010, world military expenditures exceeded some $1.5 trillion.  The need for a culture of peace and for significant arms reduction worldwide has never been greater.  And this applies to all classes of weapons.

On the danger of nuclear weapons, Albert Einstein reportedly said:  “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” 

But the human and material c...

United Nations development efforts have profoundly affected the lives and well-being of millions of people throughout the world. Guiding the United Nations endeavours is the conviction that lasting international peace and security are possible only if the economic and social well-being of people everywhere is assured.

“With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations...

Every year, landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people — most of them children, women and the elderly — and severely maim countless more.  Scattered in some 78 countries, they are an ongoing reminder of conflicts which have been over for years or even decades.  Yet despite this random carnage, they continue to used as weapons of war.

According to an article by Nicolas E. Walsh and Wendy S. Walsh in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2003: