The United Nations and the Peace Movement

The interaction and cooperation between United Nations and the peace movements world over have grown steadily. Much of it is done at the UN arms such as UNESCO, ECOSOC, UNIDA and UNIDIR. United Nations is an organization of sovereign states, while peace movements are part of civil society. Certain problems and challenges in the relationship between the UN and peace movement are necessarily of a permanent nature, producing pressure and tensions. Peace movements can well support the UN and regard it as the most important peace organization, but at the same time their legitimate task is to exert constant pressure. Revised version of a paper presented in the 25 th IPRA General Conference “Uniting for Peace”, Security and Disarmament Commission, Istanbul, 11–15 August, 2014