The United Nations Associations are non-governmental organizations that exist in various countries to enhance the relationship between the people of a member state and the United Nations, raise public awareness of the UN and its work, promote the general goals of the UN and act as an advisory body to governments, decision making and the news media. They are not a part of the UN itself.
Their long-term concerns comprise:
- The implementation of the Millennium Development Goals
- Peace, security and disarmament
- Human rights and humanitarian affairs
There are currently over 120 UNAs around the world. The secretariats for the World Federation of United Nations Associations are located in Geneva and New York.
Famous quotes containing the words united, nations and/or association:
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)