United Nations (UN)

International organization founded (1945) at the end of World War II to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations on equal terms, and encourage international cooperation in solving intractable human problems. A number of its agencies have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the UN was the corecipient, with Kofi Annan, of the prize in 2001. The term originally referred to the countries that opposed the Axis powers. An international organization was discussed at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and the UN charter was drawn up two months later at the UN Conference on International Organization. The UN has six principal organs: the Economic and Social Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, the United Nations Security Council, and the United Nations Trusteeship Council. It also has 14 specialized agencies—some inherited from its predecessor, the League of Nations (e.g., the International Labour Organization)—and a number of special offices (e.g., the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), programs, and funds (e.g., UNICEF). The UN is involved in economic, cultural, and humanitarian activities and the coordination or regulation of international postal services, civil aviation, meteorological research, telecommunications, international shipping, and intellectual property. Its peacekeeping troops have been deployed in several areas of the world, sometimes for lengthy periods (e.g., they have been in Cyprus since 1964). The UN's world headquarters are in New York City; its European headquarters are in Geneva. In 2005 the UN had 191 member countries. The principal administrative officer of the UN is the secretary-general, who is elected to a five-year renewable term by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. The secretaries-general of the UN have been Trygve Lie (1946–53), Dag Hammarskjöld (1953–61), U Thant (1961–71), Kurt Waldheim (1972–81), Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982–91), Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992–96), and Kofi Annan (from 1997).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

UN/CEFACT

The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT) has a mission to improve the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations, from developed, developing and transitional economies, to exchange products and relevant services effectively - and so contribute to the growth of global commerce. The Centre is a subsidiary body of the UNECE Committee on Trade (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).

The Centre is inclusive, in that it welcomes participation from United Nations Member States, intergovernmental agencies, sectoral and industry associations recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as well as the private sector, from which much of UN/CEFACT's technical expertise comes.

UN/CEFACT facilitates the development of e-business standards that can cross all international boundaries and help lower transaction costs, simplify data flow and reduce bureaucracy.

Work outputs of UN/CEFACT activities include ebXML, UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology (UMM) and UN/EDIFACT.

A cornerstone of the "UN/CEFACT approach" is the Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS).

Picture of the future of a holistic UN/CEFACT-based e-Business stack: "From EDI to UN/CEFACT - An Evolutionary Path towards a Next Generation e-Business Stack": In the course of the NCEB2006 conference (5th International Conference on e-Business), an evolutionary path towards the most promising solution in e-Business and e-Government that is developed by UN/CEFACT is presented.