United Nations Association UK (UNA-UK)

🔎What are the Secretary-General candidates' visions for the future of the UN?

1 for 8 Billion has partnered with and 15 expert NGOs to create policy profiles of the candidates standing in the UN Secretary-General selection.

The profiles highlight each candidate's approach to key UN policy areas. Explore the profiles to find out how Michelle Bachelet, Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan and Macky Sall envision the UN's role in:

🔹Prevention
🔹Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
🔹Humanitarian Action
🔹Development and Inequality
🔹Human Rights and Gender Equality
🔹Gender, Youth and Civil Society Inclusion
🔹Human Rights
🔹Climate
🔹UN Reform

Read the full policy profiles via the link in our bio🔗

📢 Calling all UK veterans who served under the United Nations Blue Beret

Join us on 21 May at the Cenotaph in Whitehall for a wreath-laying ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers and remembering the more than 4,000 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.

This year for the first time, a wreath will be laid by Lynda Atkins, National Chair of the Royal British Legion, with Legion members carrying the United Nations flag.

If you served on a UN deployment in any capacity, we warmly invite you to take part in the parade.

For more information and how take part, please contact: [email protected]

Less than two weeks to go until we welcome the Secretary-General to our UNGA at 80 Conference in London!

Join us on the 17 January, in the room where the first General Assembly met in 1946, to explore what a renewed multilateral system must look like for the decades ahead.

Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unga-at-80-from-1946-to-our-future-tickets-1975305412663?aff=facebook

Last week we hosted our UN Day reception in partnership with Veleposlaništvo Slovenije v Londonu - Embassy of Slovenia in London, marking 80 years since the Charter came into force.

We were delighted to present the Sir Brian Urquhart Award to Ben Majekodunmi, Chief of Staff at UNRWA, recognising over 3 decades of dedicated service to the UN.

Held at the historic Methodist Central Hall Westminster—where the first UN General Assembly met in 1946—the event brought together policymakers, civil society, and UNA-UK members to reflect on the UN’s legacy and it's future.

Read more here: https://una.org.uk/news/una-uk-marks-un-day-2025-slovenian-embassy

Today marks our 80th anniversary!

On 7 June 1945, before the UN charter was finalised, UNA-UK held its first meeting. We have been a leading advocate for the UN ever since.

Our mission in 2025 remains the same as it was in 1945: promoting the values of the UN, ensuring strong UK support for the Organization, and advocating ways to make the UN more credible and effective.

Over the coming months, we will be sharing archive material, stories and testimonies that document our journey over the last eight decades.

On the final day of , UNA-UK sat down with Ambassador Tito of Kiribati to discuss ongoing concerns regarding the effects of the UK’s nuclear tests on the island.

Between 1957 and 1962, the UK carried out nine nuclear detonations in Kiribati and facilitated a further 24 U.S. tests while the territory was under British colonial control. These blasts devastated the island’s landscape with a total yield of around 30 megatons; approximately 750 times the power of the combined bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Read our interview with Ambassador Tito here: https://una.org.uk/news/una-uk-interviews-ambassador-tito-kiribati-final-day-3msp.

Earlier this month, UNA-UK attended alongside fellow civil society groups campaigning for nuclear disarmament. The 73 States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons gathered to assess it's progress and adopted a declaration condemning the growing reliance on nuclear deterrence in Europe and Asia.

The UK was notably not in attendance, missing the opportunity to engage with those who have been harmed by it's nuclear testing history.

There is now another window of opportunity for the UK to step up and engage with the TPNW before the Review Conference in 2026.

Read our summary of 3MSP here: una.org.uk/news/tpnw-states-reject-nuclear-deterrence-legitimate-security-strategy