Contents
- Next
This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
From the charter of the United Nations
University
Preface
ARTICLE I
Purposes and structure
- The United Nations University shall be an international
community of scholars, engaged in research, postgraduate
training and dissemination of knowledge in furtherance of
the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United
Nations. In achieving its stated objectives, it shall
function under the joint sponsorship of the United
Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (hereinafter referred to as
UNESCO), through a central programming and co-ordinating
body and a network of research and post graduate training
centres and programmes located in the developed and
developing countries.
- The University shall devote its work to research into the
pressing global problems of human survival, development
and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations
and its agencies, with due attention to the social
sciences and the humanities as well as natural sciences,
pure and applied.
- The research programmes of the institutions of the
University shall include, among other subjects,
coexistence between peoples having different cultures,
languages and social systems; peaceful relations between
States and the maintenance of peace and security; human
rights; economic and social change and development; the
environment and the proper use of resources; basic
scientific research and the application of the results of
science and technology in the interests of development;
and universal human values related to the improvement of
the quality of life.
- The University shall disseminate the knowledge gained in
its activities to the United Nations and its agencies, to
scholars and to the public, in order to increase dynamic
interaction in the world-wide community of learning and
research.
- The University and all those who work in it shall act in
accordance with the spirit of the provisions of the
Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of
UNESCO and with the fundamental principles of
contemporary international law.
- The University shall hew as a central objective of its
research and training centres and programmes the
continuing growth of vigorous academic and scientific
communities everywhere and particularly in the developing
countries, devoted to their vital needs in the fields of
learning and research within the framework of the aims
assigned to those centres and programmes in the present
Charter. It shall endeavour to alleviate the intellectual
isolation of persons in such communities in the
developing countries which might otherwise become a
reason for their moving to developed countries.
- In its post-graduate training the University shall assist
scholars, especially young scholars, to participate in
research in order to increase their capability to
contribute to the extension, application and diffusion of
knowledge. The University may also undertake the training
of persons who will serve in international or national
technical assistance programmes, particularly in regard
to an interdisciplinary approach to the problems with
which they will be called upon to deal.
ARTICLE II
Academic freedom and autonomy
- The University shall enjoy autonomy within the framework
of the United Nations. It shall also enjoy the academic
freedom required for the achievement of its objectives,
with particular reference to the choice of subjects and
methods of research and training, the selection of
persons and institutions to share in its tasks, and
freedom of expression. The University shall decide freely
on the use of the financial resources allocated for the
execution of its functions ....
This is a report prepared after a workshop sponsored jointly
by the United Nations University and the World Health
Organization, held at Darwin College, Cambridge, United Kingdom,
9-11 March 1981. The meeting was set up under the chairmanship of
Dr. Fred Sai to review the interrelationships between maternal
diet, breast-milk production, and the return of fertility during
lactation: the main components are summarized in the diagram.
These interrelationships are of major importance to maternal and
child health, particularly in the Third World, affecting, as they
do, not only infant nutrition but also birth spacing. It was the
opinion of the organizers that this subject had not received its
just attention, either in research programmes or in public health
planning. As well as giving an account of the present state of
knowledge, this report identifies areas where there is still a
crucial need for further research and investigation, at both a
fundamental and an operational level. Where possible, comments
have also been made on the type of action that could profitably
be begun immediately (see figure).
R.G. Whitehead,
Dunn Nutrition Laboratory, and
Darwin College, Cambridge,
United Kingdom
Contents
- Next
