Climate change and tackling world poverty may be the most important issues facing this generation. But we can only progress these if we can build an 'alliance of civilizations'. Mike Lowe finds out why this new UN initiative is so important.

I see no way of achieving daily bread for all without a world trade market which is genuinely open, and a collective effort to check poverty both at home and abroad, as set by the Millennium Development Goals.

A Global Indigenous Dialogue (GID) on the theme, 'Understanding our Roots: from healing to harmony' marked the United Nations International Day of Indigenous Peoples in Caux.

We the peoples of the United Nations determined...to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,’ begins the UN Charter.

On the 60th anniversary of its creation, Sir Richard Jolly reviews the chequered history of the world’s foremost intergovernmental body.

It took a shipwreck to turn John Graham into a giraffe. David Allen talks to an adventurer, peacemaker and risk-taker extraordinaire.

At the end of last year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) brought out a sobering report. For every child in the world today who enjoys the security of home, school, healthcare and regular meals, one does not.

Since I was 11 my foster mother had indicated many times that she’d be glad to see me go.

In October the United Nations reached agreement on a groundbreaking Convention Against Corruption. 9 December has been proposed as a new annual International Anti-Corruption Day.

UNESCO is often criticized for its lack of efficiency, for the fact that too big a slice of the budget goes to the Paris Secretariat. Yes, it is a mammoth institution-but it has undoubtedly been allotted a mammoth task, a task that is perhaps of greater importance today then ever before.