Resources

Our mission begins with the word educating. This page is where we keep the things worth reading, listening to, and watching — the sources we trust, the ones that are free, and the ones that will still be good a year from now. Some are the UN’s own. Some are independent journalists who cover it closely and critically. Some are right here in the Bay Area. If you find something we’re missing, tell us at unamarinchapter@gmail.com and we’ll add it.

Start Here

New to the UN, or want a first link to send someone.

• The UN Charter — full text
  The founding document, signed in San Francisco in 1945. Shorter than people expect.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  Thirty articles, drafted under Eleanor Roosevelt’s chairmanship.
• The Sustainable Development Goals
  The 17 Goals, what they mean, and where the world stands on each.
• The SDGs, explained
  A plainer-English introduction than the UN’s own pages, from the UN Foundation.
• History of the UN
  How it was built, and why.
• The San Francisco Conference, 1945
  The UN’s own account of the conference that wrote the Charter, held fifteen miles from here.

Follow the News

What is actually happening, updated daily.

• UN News — the UN’s own newsroom
  Daily coverage in all six official languages. Free, no paywall.
• PassBlue — independent journalism
  A nonprofit, women-led newsroom covering the UN closely and critically. Currently the best source anywhere on the race to choose the next Secretary-General.
• The New Humanitarian — independent journalism
  Independent reporting on conflicts, disasters, and the aid system itself. Formerly IRIN News.
• Inter Press Service — independent journalism
  News from the Global South, with a dedicated UN desk called “Inside the Glasshouse.”
• Devex — global development news
  The news and jobs platform for the international development world. Some articles free, the rest behind Devex Pro.
• IPI Global Observatory — analysis
  Peace and security analysis from the International Peace Institute. Published occasionally rather than daily.

Listen and Watch

• The Rising Lens Project — podcast
  Hosted by UNA-USA’s own Alexa Dominique Pascual and Alan Cavagnaro, built from their LinkedIn Live fireside chats with diplomats, policymakers, and changemakers. A nonpartisan platform for the next generation of global leaders.
• World’s Toughest Job — podcast, complete series
  Eight episodes on what it takes to be UN Secretary-General, co-produced by Foreign Policy and the UN Foundation. Hosted by Jasmin Bauomy with Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, former UN Deputy Secretary-General. Timely: the Security Council is choosing the next Secretary-General now. Also on Apple Podcasts.
• Awake at Night — podcast, the UN’s own
  Melissa Fleming interviews UN staff working in the hardest places on earth. Now in its thirteenth season, and consistently the most human thing the UN produces.
• UN Web TV — live and on-demand video
  General Assembly, Security Council, press conferences, treaty bodies. Watching the Security Council live is stranger and more gripping than it sounds.

For Students, Teachers and Families

• UNA-USA Model UN
  The national hub for Model UN, including a conference calendar.
• Youth Observer to the UN
  One American under 26 represents US youth at the UN each year. Applications for 2026–2027 are open now.
• UNA-USA Youth and Student Programs
  Fellowships, campus chapters, summer study.
• UNA-USA Programs
  The full list — Global Goals Ambassadors, the Fellowship Initiative, Global Goals Week, affinity groups.

Take Action

• Join UNA-USA
  Membership in the national organization, which is also how you join us.
• UNA-USA Events
  Monthly National Leadership Calls, general membership meetings, chapter leader training, UNA Women. Open to members.
• Better World Campaign
  Advocates for a strong US–UN partnership, and tracks where UN funding stands in the congressional budget process.
• United Nations Foundation
  Our parent organization, founded by Ted Turner.
• UN Foundation newsletter
  Global progress news, to your inbox.

Go Deeper

For researchers, students writing papers, and the genuinely curious.

• Dag Hammarskjöld Library
  The UN’s library. “Ask DAG” answers real research questions, and the digitization program keeps opening up the archive.
• How to research UN documents
  The Library’s guide to resolutions, meeting records, and document symbols — the key to reading the UN’s paper trail.
• The Sustainable Development Goals Report
  The annual scorecard on all 17 Goals, with the full statistical annex.
• UN Photo
  Eighty years of UN photography, browsable free.
• UN80 exhibit
  The Library’s exhibit for the UN’s 80th anniversary.

Here in the Bay Area

The UN was born fifteen miles from Marin. These are the places that remember it.

• The UN Charter Trail
  A three-mile heritage trail connecting seven landmark sites across San Francisco, with self-guided audio tours and guided walks by San Francisco City Guides. See our own UN Charter Trail page.
• San Francisco War Memorial — history
  Herbst Theatre, where the Charter was signed on June 26, 1945, and the Opera House, where the conference met. Both are still open to the public and still hosting performances.
• Commonwealth Club World Affairs
  The nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, at 110 The Embarcadero. World Affairs merged with the Commonwealth Club in 2024, so the two organizations are now one. Events most weeks, many free to stream, including Climate One.
• Eleanor Lives!
  Carrying forward Eleanor Roosevelt’s human rights legacy.
• Pathways to Peace
  Peacebuilding organization with UN consultative status.
• The Peace Alliance
  Grassroots peacebuilding advocacy.
• Stop Ecocide International
  The campaign to make ecocide an international crime.

Read

Our chapter’s book selections.

• Daughters of Yalta — Catherine Grace Katz
• Mountains Beyond Mountains — Tracy Kidder
• Interventions: A Life in War and Peace — Kofi Annan
• Half the Sky — Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939–1962 — Blanche Wiesen Cook

Honoring the Land

• Coast Miwok of Marin
• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Native Land
  A map of traditional territories worldwide.

Last reviewed: October 2026. Spot a broken link, or have something to suggest? Email unamarinchapter@gmail.com.