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UNITED
NATIONS
“We
have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the
United Nations an effective instrument of international
cooperation”
-- Dean Acheson
“More
than ever before in human history, we share a common
destiny. We can master it only if we face it together.
And that, my friends, is why we have the United
Nations.”
--
Kofi
Annan
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“The
United Nations, whose membership comprises almost
all the states in the world, is founded on the principle
of the equal worth of every human being.”
-- Kofi
Annan
The
global work of the United Nations is not without
reason compared to that of a family -- striving
for a common goal in concert with all members for
a better future.
-– Kofi
Annan
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“From
this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next
century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating
poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.”
-– Kofi
Annan
“In
the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations
will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the
sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of
race or religion.”
-- Kofi
Annan
“I believe
that our world needs an instrument of global action as never
before in history. I believe that the United Nations is
the instrument for securing peace and for giving people
everywhere, in poorer countries as in richer, a real stake
in that peace by promoting development and encouraging cooperation.
But the United Nations is only an instrument, an actor in
need of props and cues from its directors, And so I will
paraphrase Winston Churchill: Give us the tools—the trust,
the authority and the means—and we will do the job."
-- Kofi
Annan
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“There
are millions of people all over the world, right
now, who are looking to the United Nations for protection
and redress against the violation of their rights
and deprivation of their freedoms.”
-– Louise
Arbour
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"Today,
we have more than 110,000 men and women deployed in
conflict zones around the world. They come from nearly
120 countries ... Thanks to their efforts, life-saving
humanitarian assistance can be delivered and economic
development can begin. "
-- Ban
Ki-moon
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"Today,
we have more than 110,000 men and women deployed in conflict
zones around the world. They come from nearly 120 countries
-- an all-time high, reflecting confidence in United Nations
peacekeeping. They come from nations large and small, rich
and poor -- some of them countries recently afflicted by
war themselves. They bring different cultures and experiences
to the job, but they are united in their determination to
foster peace. Some are in uniform, but many are civilians
and their activities go far beyond monitoring. They train
police, disarm ex-combatants, support elections and help
build State institutions. They build bridges, repair schools,
assist flood victims and protect women from sexual violence.
They uphold human rights and promote gender equality. Thanks
to their efforts, life-saving humanitarian assistance can
be delivered and economic development can begin. "
-- Ban
Ki-moon
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The
UN is committed to the goal of ensuring that all
nations share in economic, social, & scientific
progress. It delivers humanitarian assistance to
the victims of wars and natural disasters.
-– Bill
Bradley
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One means
of paying attention to smaller countries that have sometimes
been overlooked is by revitalizing US leadership in the
United Nations. The UN is committed to the goal of ensuring
that all nations share in economic, social, & scientific
progress. It delivers humanitarian assistance to the victims
of wars and natural disasters. It provides a mechanism through
which the US can help in dozens of conflicts around the
world in which our vital interests aren’t directly involved
but where we feel a more imperative to respond. Working
with the UN’s diplomacy and development arms, we can prevent
minor differences from escalating into wars. When conflicts
do break out, UN peacekeepers should play a role in defusing
and settling them. Without giving up our sovereignty, we
can help the UN with better training and better command
and control in order to develop more effective peacekeeping
forces.
-– Bill
Bradley
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Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority.
-- Lakhdar
Brahimi
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There
is a story which is not being told strongly enough
of the Afghan employees of the UN inside the country
who are saving hundreds of thousands of lives everyday
by their bravery and nobody talks of them.
-- Lakhdar
Brahimi
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“The
United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful
and free world”
-- Ralph
J. Bunche
The
United Nations stands for the freedom and equality
of all peoples, irrespective of race, religion, or
ideology. --
Ralph
J. Bunche
The
United Nations exists not merely to preserve the peace
but also to make change - even radical change - possible
without violent upheaval. The United Nations has no
vested interest in the status quo. It seeks a more
secure world, a better world, a world of progress
for all peoples. In the dynamic world society which
is the objective of the United Nations, all peoples
must have equality and equal rights. --
Ralph
J. Bunche
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What
matters is the people. We must ensure that the United
Nations is supported by the people and that it reflects
the will of the people.
-- Anwarul
Chowdhury
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"At (UNHCR's) headquarters,
I met extraordinary people, men and women, especially
from the emergency team, who shared with me their
passion, their dedication and their commitment to
this organisation and refugees. They told me about
the daily difficulties they have to face and also
the joy they felt when they managed to save a person
whose life was threatened."
- Julien
Clerc
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"Peace
is not just a colored ribbon. It's more than a wristband
or a t-shirt. It's not just a donation or a 5 K race.
It's not just a folk song, or a white dove. And peace
is certainly more than a celebrity endorsement. Peace
is a fulltime job. It's protecting civilians, overseeing
elections, and disarming ex-combatants. The UN has
over 100,000 Peacekeepers on the ground, in places
others can't or won't go, doing things others can't
or won't do. Peace, like war, must be waged."
-- George
Clooney
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“If
the United Nations is to survive, those who represent
it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit
to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it.”
-- Norman
Cousins |
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In
a nutshell, this United Nations non-profit organization
[World Food Programme] feeds millions of starving children
at schools in third world countries as an incentive
for them to attend school, which in turn might better
their futures. They do so much more but I was so struck
by this story.
--
Sheryl
Crow |
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“If
the United Nations once admits that international
disputes can be settled by using force, then we will
have destroyed the foundation of the organization
and our best hope of establishing a world order.”
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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"For
all the civilians saved thanks to the presence of
peacekeepers, there have been those who were lost
– the United Nations personnel who sacrificed their
lives for a noble cause. Even as we mourn our fallen
colleagues, we are all uplifted by their unflinching
commitment and are inspired to strive even harder
for the collective cause so eloquently envisaged in
the United Nations Charter: a world free from the
scourge of war."
-- Jan
Eliasson (Former
President of the UN General Assembly)
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"The
UN Declaration of Human Rights laid down what any
person might reasonably expect, yet there are remarkably
few people who enjoy these rights. With cameras in
the hands of activists and meaningful distribution
of those images, we will witness what really goes
on in this world and hopefully want to change it."
-- Peter
Gabriel
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We
need to support the governments of the world to create
the world we want and I also think we need to empower
the UN so that the secretariat, the people who work
day in and day out, know that the people are behind
them.
-- Jeremy
Gilley
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“Everything
will be all right - you know when? When people,
just people, stop thinking of the United Nations
as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing
they made themselves.”
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld
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The
UN wasn’t created to take mankind into paradise,
but rather, to save humanity from hell.
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld
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The
nations must be organized internationally and induced
to enter into partnership, subordinating in some
measure national sovereignty to worldwide institutions
and obligations
-- Arthur
Henderson
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"A
world without the United Nations or with a paralyzed United
Nations would be far more costly to all of us and far
more dangerous to peace and stability."
-- Richard Holbrooke
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No
achievement can be higher than that of working in
harmony with other nations so that the lash of war
may be lifted from our backs and a peace of lasting
friendship descend upon us.
-- Cordell
Hull
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Fortunately,
the war has brought with it not alone a stark realization
of what another war would mean to the world, but
as well the creation of an international agency
through which the nations of the world can, if they
so desire, make peace a living reality.
-- Cordell
Hull
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“The
heroes of the world community are not those who
withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who
can envision neither the prospect of success nor
the consequence of failure -- but those who stand
the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through
the United Nations.”
-- Hubert
Humphrey
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The
United Nations is an organizational body where people,
through their Governments, come together; and it
can be the only place where there can be a melting
pot.
-- Asma
Jahangir
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I
am working for a better United Nations. Nothing
is perfect. You should never rely on only one source,
but rather rely on those you believe in the most.”
~ Angelina
Jolie
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The
one common undertaking and universal instrument of
the great majority of the human race is the United
Nations. A patient, constructive long-term use of
its potentialities can bring a real and secure peace
to the world.
-- Trygve
Lie |
“The
primary, the fundamental, the essential purpose of the
United Nations is to keep peace. Everything it does which
helps prevent World War III is good. Everything which
does not further that goal, either directly or indirectly,
is at best superfluous.”
-- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
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Tell
the people of all lands
Let's get together the future is in our hands.
United nations have to agree
To say no to war, and yes to peace.
-- Country
Joe McDonald
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"I
am very pleased to have been invited by Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon to become a United Nations Messenger
of Peace. This is an opportunity to champion the United
Nations' Millennium goals in a meaningful way. I look
forward to being an advocate for the cause, working
both through my own community engagement organizations
and in collaboration with United Nations programmes.”
-- Midori
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"I
believe that UNICEF is the most important branch
of the U.N.; they do exceptional work to help the
neediest children around the world"
-- Liam
Neeson
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We
must keep on trying to solve problems, one by one,
stage by stage, if not on the basis of confidence
and cooperation, at least on that of mutual toleration
and self-interest.
-- Lester
B. Pearson
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Of
all our dreams today there is none more important
- or so hard to realise - than that of peace in
the world. May we never lose our faith in it or
our resolve to do everything that can be done to
convert it one day into reality.
-- Lester
B. Pearson
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The
aim of political institutions like the United Nations
is to draw the line between struggle and conflict
and to make it possible for nations to stay on the
right side of that line…
-- Javier
Perez de Cuellar
Human
nature being what it is, peace must inevitably be
a relative condition. The essence of life is struggle
and competition, and to that extent perfect peace
is an almost meaningless abstraction. Struggle and
competition are stimulating, but when they degenerate
into conflict it is usually both destructive and
disruptive. The aim of political institutions like
the United Nations is to draw the line between struggle
and conflict and to make it possible for nations
to stay on the right side of that line…
-- Javier
Perez de Cuellar
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...convince
all nuclear powers, including those which have been
more reluctant up to now, of the necessity to respect
the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become
fully aware of the profound truth of the following
conclusion which the United Nations approved by
unanimity four years ago: "Mankind is confronted
with a choice: we must halt the arms race and proceed
to disarmament or face annihilation".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
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“We
should change our attitude toward the United Nations.
There has to be some power in the world superior to our
own. We should not have attacked Iraq without the okay
of the United Nations. Now we have to live with that mistake.
We're living with it, and too many of our guys are dying
with it.”
-- Andy Rooney
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"Nuclear disarmament is not just an ardent
desire of the people, as expressed in many resolutions
of the United Nations. It is a legal commitment
... for the sake of humanity - we must get rid of
all nuclear weapons."
-- Joseph
Rotblat
Indeed,
the very first resolution of the General Assembly
of the United Nations - adopted unanimously - called
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
-- Joseph
Rotblat
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Despite
a decade of criticism and budget cuts, the specialized
UN agencies have far more expertise and hands-on
experience than any other organizations in the world.
-- Jeffrey
Sachs
The
idea that UN commitments should be followed by action
is indeed a radical one, especially for the United
States, where wilful neglect of its own commitments
is the rule.
-- Jeffrey
Sachs
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The
United Nations is our world's greatest mechanism
for making peace
-- Gillian
Sorensen
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“The
whole basis of the United Nations is the right of
all nations - great or small - to have weight, to
have a vote, to be attended to”
-- Adlai
Stevenson
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The
U.N. acts as the world's conscience, and over eighty-five
percent of the work that is done by the United Nations
is in the social, economic, educational and cultural fields.
-- Shirley Temple
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Every
human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station,
deserves respect. We must each respect others even
as we respect ourselves.
~ U
Thant
World
federalists hold before us the vision of a unified
mankind living in peace under a just world order.
The heart of their program - a world under law -
is realistic and attainable.
~ U
Thant
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There’s
no longer a superpower standoff. But there are real
problems that divide countries around the world.
And the UN is still the place where we can get together
and try and discuss them
-- Shashi
Tharoor
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Universality
of the UN is a worthwhile thing in its own self
because it means that every country belongs, feels
it has a stake, and participates, rather than going
away and finding other methods of conducting international
relations.
-- Shashi
Tharoor
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“The
United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom
and independence for all its members”
-- Harry S Truman
"We,
the peoples
of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has
brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith
in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth
of the human person, in the equal right of men and women
and of nations large and small....And for these ends to
practice tolerance and live together in peace with one
another as good neighbors...have resolved to combine our
efforts to accomplish these aims."
-- Preamble, Charter of the United Nations.
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The
mythology about the UN is absolutely breathtaking.
People believe it costs a great deal of money to
the United States. Completely untrue: it doesn't.
The United States makes a net gain. People believe
it's a world government, although the UN is a pathetically
weak organization which improvises in emergencies
to try to prevent the worst from happening.
-- Sir
Brian Urquhart
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There
was an implicit conviction that the UN would be
stronger than the sum of its constituent member-states
-- Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
The
UN's unique legitimacy flows from a universal perception
that it pursues a larger purpose than the interests
of one country or a small group of countries.
-- Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
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The
reality is that international institutions like
the UN can only be as effective as its members allow
it to be.
-- Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
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"Through
your support of UN peacekeeping, you can help to
make this tantalizing word—“peace”—a reality for
all the world’s citizens. Together, we can spread
the message that UN peacekeeping is essential. Without
it, the world would be a much less stable, and more
violent, place."
~ Timothy
Wirth
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UNITED
NATIONS QUOTES
UNITED
NATIONS
HERO PIX
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