The UN Association of Finland was founded on November 29th 1954. The organisation functioned as a central support structure for the official membership of Finland to the United Nations in 1955. In the early years, the organisation concentrated on spreading information about the principles and decisions of the UN.

The UN Association of Finland has always been an umbrella organisation. It was founded by 15 organisations, among others The Finnish Red Cross, Central Union for Child Welfare in Finland and the national employers' organisation (nowadays known as the Confederation of Finnish Industries). Membership of political organisations was allowed in 1967.

Youth organisations influencing the association

In the 1960's many people got interested in international issues and the society was politicized in a completely new way. The newly joined student organisations promoted critical thinking inside the Association. Chairperson Voitto Saario said that the Association should not only concentrate on passively sharing information but take an active part in the discussions taking place in the society. The Association's activities were geared towards certain issues rather strongly, and as an end result, independent organisations were founded to work with the issues (Finnish Refugee Council and Finnish National Committee for UNICEF).

In the 1970's, the principles and action lines drafted during the previous decade were strengthened. In 1974 the executive committee adopted a memo, which still remains a basic guideline for the Association's activities. In the memo, the Association is encouraged to take a stand and actively influencing the discussions of the society. The text says that the activities of the Association are political, and the use of political means should not be avoided. At the same time political independence of the Association is emphasized.

Annually and in cooperation with the so called Percentage movement, the Association commented on the government's weak commitment to development aid and its increase. The first Disarmament week was organised in 1979, and it still remains one of the annual action weeks for the Association. In the 1970's the Association became increasingly active and visible in international cooperation.

New activities

In the 1980's the Association took an active stand on a variety of issues from apartheid to multinational corporations. Kepa, the Service Centre for Development Cooperation, was founded to answer to the needs brought up by the increased interest in international issues.

The 1990's was a decade of large international conferences. The Rio de Janeiro conference on environment and development, UN's 50th anniversary, high-level meeting on social development in Copenhagen and Conference on European security and cooperation (CSCE) all provided a large number of challenges to the Association.

At the same time many initiatives were made in order to start new projects. The most visible projects were Taikaratsu, Maailmankansalaisen kypsyyskoe and Maailman lapset. In 1997 the The Civil Society Conflict Prevention Network (KATU) was founded to address the ever growing needs of conflict prevention with means of civilian crisis management.

The new millennium means new challenges not only to the Association, but even more to the UN itself. Despite the changes in the activities of the Association in recent decades, the cornerstones remain: information-sharing, training and advocacy work.

The Association sharing information

Traditionally, the main activity of the Association has been information-sharing, a point also mentioned in the UN Charter. The content of the information that is shared has changed during the course of years.

In the beginning, the Association mainly shared and published information collected or produced by others. In 1966 the Association started to publish a UN bulletin (YK-tiedote) four times a year. In 1994 the bulletin got a new name and became a magazine Maailmanpyörä. The magazine was published until 2007. The Association has also published several books, brochures, children's books, games and video programmes. It has also organised numerous lectures, seminars and conferences. In the middle of the 1990's the Association published a website, which nowadays forms the most important means of information-sharing.

Training and education

Training is an area of work that has grown significantly within the Association, comprising a large share of the Association's activities nowadays. The basis for global education was set in UNESCO in 1974 (at the time known as international education in Finland). Global education became part of the national curricula in 1982. This was largely due to persistent lobbying by the Association.

The Association has taken part in the making of several radio and TV programmes. Training officer Helena Allahwerdi cooperated closely with the Finnish broadcasting company in the 1970' and 80's. Children's programmes Noppa and Tiesitkö were broadcasted for several years on channel 1. For adults there were different series of documentaries and the programme Ympyrä.

In later years Maailmankansalaisen kypsyyskoe and Malli-YK gained popularity.

The chairpersons and secretary-generals of the Association from 1954 onwards:

Chairpersons:

Secretary generals and executive directors:

Read more: Maailmanpyörä 3/2004