The UN, People & Politics

Latest

Key Facts

More Info

News Alerts

Although the United Nations remains heavily criticised for its complexity and bias towards the ‘big 5’ nations, it’s noble origins and ideals – embodied in the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights – emphasises the need for a more democratic, powerful and ultimately more representative UN system that can act as a conduit for international cooperation and the securing of basic human needs.

Latest Articles

Native Peoples Score Historic Political Victory

After 22 years of long and cumbersome negotiations, leaders of the world's 270 million indigenous people have won a powerful symbolic victory in their fight for recognition of the right to self-determination and control over their land and resources.

Mobilising 'World Opinion'

Mass protests and demonstrations, the trademark and personification of the global justice movement, must take place outside the systems of power and hope to make themselves ‘heard’; world opinion, on the other hand, is an unmitigated force of consensual mass agreement that holds no party allegiances or crystallised form.

Lost Worlds: Is Another World Possible?

An interview with Naomi Klein by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! under the theme 'Lost Worlds' - in reference to an aborted debate between Naomi Klein and Jeffrey Sachs.

There’s an Alternative World... If Only We Can Find It: Democracy's Invisible Line

Le Monde Diplomatique interviews Noam Chomsky on the relationship between the media and public opinion, the influence of propoganda in democracy, the opposition of the Global Justice Movement, and the ideal role of the state in any future, reformed society. Translated by Harry Forster.

South-South Cooperation 'Can Change the Geography of the Planet'

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who also heads his country's delegation in multilateral trade negotiations, believes cooperation among developing countries can change the way people perceive the world.

A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum

Attending the U.S. Social Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia June 27-July 1 was an adventure. The first social forum for the United States, it was also one of the first in a series of regional events aimed at decentralizing the mega- World Social Forum that started in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Mobilising 'World Opinion' - The Movement of all Movements

A detailed examination of the global justice movement as a representation of public opinion through the activities and objectives of the World Social Forum movement, whose ubiquitous slogan is 'another world is possible'.

More...