Have you ever seen UN TV or even heard about it?
No? Then you are not the only one, there are billions who have not. But UN TV is real and its pre-recorded telecast can be seen at Live Station.
UN TV features live coverage of UN meetings, such as those of the Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, as well as conferences, briefings and other events from the United Nations headquarters in New York. The video stream for United NationsTV video channel in English can be accessed here at http://www.livestation.com/channels/79-untv/ or live webcast can watched at UN News & Media Website http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/
You can also watch United Nations TV online on iPhone, iPod, Android or PS3 devices.
The United Nations YouTube channel features over 1,800 videos on a wide range of global topics including current news, peace and security, social and economic development, human rights, climate change and more. These videos can be viewed at www.youtube.com/Unitednations
The United Nations has its presence on Twitter as well. Its Twitter account www.twitter.com/UN has close to 3,50,000 followers. The UN has an official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/unicnetwork
Live webcast of the UN events can be seen at http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/index.html
UN webcast has dedicated Facebook and Twitter pages at www.facebook.com/Unwebcast and at www.twitter.com/Unwebcast
The United Nations has its own news service and news centre. UN news centre is present on Facebook, Twitter (www.twitter.com/un_news_centre) and Flickr.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has over 500 videos on art, culture, education, science on its YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/UNESCO
The UN multimedia website http://www.unmultimedia.org/ takes you to different UN initiatives to reach out to the people across the planet.
The UN publishes a daily journal titled Journal of the United Nation that is available on Facebook as well as on Twitter @Journal_UN_ONU
The UN also has a radio service available in 13 languages. UN Radio has Facebook presence at www.facebook.com/UNRadio and Twitter presence at www.twitter.com/UN_Radio
UNESCO is also present on Twitter at www.twitter.com/unescoNow and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UNESCO
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is present on Twitter http://twitter.com/unicef and has already over 400,000 followers.
The World Bank is not behind in reaching out to common people in different corners of the world and has its presence on Facebook www.facebook.com/worldbank which already has 67,000 likes and Twitter www.twitter.com/worldbank which has over 34,000 followers.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also present on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IMFNews and already has over 19,000 followers including the UN, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate and New York Times. However, it is yet to register its presence on Facebook. But to everybody's surprise IMF is present on YouTube at www.youtube.com/IMF and has already uploaded 148 videos. It is also present on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/imfphoto
The United Nations Security Council has its own web page http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/index.html where one can get information on its daily and monthly programmes, resolutions, latest news etc. However, UNSC is yet to open its account on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
Web 2.0 is bringing institutions of global governance closer to people in a way that is unprecedented in the history of our planet. The world already has over five billion mobile phones. It is estimated that in a decade the number of Internet connected mobile phones will exceed the number of people on our planet. This development will have significant impacts on democratization of institutions of global governance as more people would like to have their direct say in the way our planet is governed.
Across the world, there is already growing demands of reforms of the United Nations, World Bank and IMF. The United Nations has a representative body of governments in form of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) but it does not have a representative body of the people: a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) either elected by the parliaments of 192 UN member countries or directly elected by the people. A Global Parliament consisting of UNGA as the upper house or senate and UNPA as the lower house will democratise the United Nations and act as link between the highest body of global governance and the common people in the street.
A campaign to establish a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (www.unpacampaign.org) has growing support across the planet. Thirty members of Indian parliament including some very prominent parliamentarians such as Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Mani Shankar Aiyer, Baijayant 'Jay' Panda and Manish Tiwari support the campaign to establish a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. Across the world 737 serving members of parliament support the campaign. The UNPA campaign is present on Facebook www.facebook.com/unpacampaign as well as on Twitter www.twitter.com/unpacampaign with a growing number of followers.
Global governance can come even closer to you with your active participation in institutions of global governance.
[Writer is an author, artist & diplomat. Views expressed are his own.]
