As World War II was drawing to a close in Europe, the allied nations began to discuss ways of preserving peace. An invitation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) meetings in San Francisco was issued by four major nations: China, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The chairmen of these four delegations would later become co-presidents of the UNCIO in April 1945.

On April 25,1945, 282 delegates convened to begin laying the foundations for enduring peace, economic stability, and the rights and expectations of the world's peoples. The original nations invited 41 additional delegations to the founding Conference with another five being admitted during the UNCIO meetings. On June 26,1945, the delegates signed the UN Charter at the War Memorial Veterans Building. The UN Charter, printed in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, included the Statute of the International Court of Justice.

Also signed were the "Interim Arrangements " which covered the period until the Charter was ratified on October 24,1945 in New York. The United Nations was officially born.

In the six decades since its birth, the United Nations, in partnership with numerous non-governmental organizations, has served the global community touching every aspect of life around the world. Most people know that United Nations agencies have contributed to the eradication of smallpox, immunized 80% of the world's children against deadly diseases, provided food aid, coordinated emergency relief in the face of disasters, natural and otherwise, and helped to avert or end wars and maintain international peace and stability. But few are aware that the United Nations --

• aided the process of democratization and ensured fair elections, providing electoral assistance and advice to countries undergoing a transition to democracy, such as Albania, Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique, and Namibia, to name just a few;
  
• promoted decolonization, self-determination, and independence in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific;
  
• enabled participation in the global economy by working in more than 180 countries and territories to develop their infrastructures, strengthen their institutions, enable effective economic planning and train human resources;
  
• assisted in the restructuring of economies and societies and in promoting international economic stability with the help of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) encouraged international trade relations and the reduction of trade barriers through the World Trade Organization (WTO);
  
• facilitated global communication, ensuring that mail and broadcast signals travel as intended, assigning geostationary satellite positions and allocating the radio-frequency spectrum;
  
• led the international environmental effort to preserve and protect global resources for future generations;
  
• protected more than 30 million refugees fleeing war, persecution, famine, and other disasters, and assisted their resettlement and, where possible, repatriation;
  
• strengthened and expanded the body of international law, with over 300 international treaties ranging from standard-setting human rights conventions to agreements governing the use of oceans and outer space;
  
• established standards for coordinating international protection of intellectual property - inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, and literary and artistic works covered by copyright;
  
• promoted the public discussion and the peaceful resolution of these issues through publications, UN Conferences, and International Years.

[Adapted and updated from United Nations 50 / 1945-1995, the official publication of the UN50 Committee, San Francisco.]