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About the UN
UN headquarters in New York City

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization dedicated to peace and friendly relations among the world’s nations. It was founded in 1945 following the horrific events of World War II. One of the UN’s earliest tasks was to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that promoted human rights for everyone everywhere. Today, almost 200 Member States must commit to promoting security, social progress, and human rights at home and abroad.


UN food program at work

spacerUN peacekeeper in Cyprus
Peace Building
Promoting human rights, elevating the status of vulnerable groups such as women and children, protecting the environment, fighting disease, and eliminating poverty—by addressing some of these root causes of conflict, the UN hopes to build peace among nations. Humanitarian aid is also an important task of the UN, as is international peacekeeping, the use of neutral forces to prevent and defuse hostilities between nations. UN peacekeepers always wear distinctive blue helmets or caps.

Peacekeeping and Canada
Peacekeeping was not part of the UN’s original charter. The idea was developed by a Canadian, Lester B. Pearson, in response to the Suez crisis of 1956. This conflict was about access to the Suez Canal, with France and Britain supporting Israel on one side and Egypt on the other. Pearson proposed that a neutral force flying the sky-blue flag of the UN be sent in to ease the tension and move the French and the British out of Egypt. The success of this operation won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

At the time of the Suez crisis, Pearson was head of the Canadian delegation to the UN. In 1952, he was appointed President of the seventh session of the UN General Assembly, and he had a long career in diplomacy before that, first as first secretary in the Canadian High Commissioner’s office in London (1935) and then as ambassador to the United States (1945—1946). After the Suez crisis, Pearson brought his experience as a diplomat home to Canada, where he became head of the Liberal Party in 1958 and prime minister in 1963.