United Nations marks 70th anniversary ‎

The United Nations on Friday marked its 70th birthday, with an event in San Francisco United States, commemorating the signing of the UN charter in the city that instituted the world body.  The United Nations was born on Oct. 24, 1945, after governments in a majority of countries approved the charter.  Marking the anniversary in San Francisco’s City Hall, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the two-month conference that led to the signing as an audacious endeavor, one where a desire for a better world overcame the horrors of two world wars.  “For two months, they turned San Francisco's War Memorial into a peace palace,''  he said.  “So much faith was lost in the trenches and gas chambers of two world wars in the space of one ‎generation,” Ban noted. “But they dared to believe in something bigger than person or country. Through intense ‎negotiations, the delegates realized their dream.”‎  With the adoption of the Charter, a world in rubble found a path to renewal, the Secretary-General ‎went on to say, recalling that while he had been born just months before the UN, it did not take long ‎for the Organization to change his world for good.‎

Among the numerous top UN and US officials at the anniversary celebration was also Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, ‎the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whom the UN chief called the “torchbearer” of her generation.‎

The UN, now made up of nearly 200 member countries, has the key goals of safeguarding peace, promoting human rights and delivering humanitarian aid. The mission in modern times has come to embrace climate change, gay rights and sustainable development, even as the world body confronts a series of stubborn conflicts in places such as Yemen, South Sudan and Syria.  (Source: AP/UN)