GENEVA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is going to hold a series of activities to mark its 75th anniversary, a senior UN official said here Tuesday.
Fabrizio Hoschschild, special adviser on the preparations for the commemoration of the United Nations' 75th anniversary, told a press briefing here Tuesday that the budget for the entire 75th anniversary stood at 11.5 million U.S. dollars, and it completely came from voluntary contributions from countries and foundations.
According to the UN official, at the end of March, a large-scale youth forum would be held in New York. On April 22-24, there would be a series of major events in Geneva. On June 24, the day of the signing of the UN Charter, celebrations would be held in San Francisco. In November, the United Nations would open its pavilion at the World Expo in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Also on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the United Nations was launching a large-scale global conversation to hear and assess voices from around the world, and those views gathered through multiple streams would be presented to the world leaders at the UN Summit in New York on Sept. 21.
As the anniversary comes against a challenging backdrop, which included rising tensions and a "world on fire", as the climate crisis rages on, Hoschchild told the media that the UN has made great achievements in the previous 75 years, including the improvement in life expectancy, literacy rates and poverty eradication.
"The question was whether the next generations would witness the same kind of progress," he noted.
Founded in 1945 after the World War II, the United Nations is currently made up of 193 Member States and its mission and work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.
