New Edition: United Nations Handbook 2025-26

Since 1961 the Australian and New Zealand Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade have published a handbook to the United Nations.  The 62nd edition has just been published " support effective UN engagement and to strengthen the multilateral system".  This is especially at a moment when global conflict, great-power rivalry, and reform debates make UN competence and institutional clarity more important than ever.

The United Nations Handbook 2025–26 is a comprehensive reference guide to the UN system — its organs, committees, programmes, specialized agencies, and related bodies. It maps out how the UN is structured and operates, who runs what, and where responsibilities sit across the system. Its purpose is simple: give diplomats, UN officials, and anyone working with the UN a clear, authoritative snapshot of the machinery of the Organization as it exists today.

It’s not a political commentary or historical narrative — it’s a working tool, meant to sit on a diplomat’s desk or in their phone. Its core function:

• Identify all UN organs and bodies and explain their mandates

• Provide up-to-date membership lists and leadership details

• Show institutional relationships and reporting lines

• Give contact points and procedural basics

• Help UN delegates, missions, and staff navigate the system

In short, it’s the field manual for operating inside the UN bureaucracy — trusted and widely used by missions, UN personnel, NGOs that interface with the UN system, and policy professionals.

Its utility has only grown as the UN system has expanded into a sprawling ecosystem of agencies, commissions, peace operations, funds, and programmes.