THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

ICAO and the United Nations

The forerunner of the United Nations (UN) was the League of Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances than the United Nations during the First World War, and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security."

In June 1941, London was the home of nine exiled governments. The Great British capital had already seen 22 months of war and in the bomb-marked city, air-raid sirens wailed all too frequently. On 12 June 1941, the representatives of 6 members of the British Commonwealth and 9 exiled governments met at the ancient St. James’ Palace in London and signed an Inter-Allied Declaration; the sentences from the Declaration of St. James' Palace served as an outline for the future United Nations.

The following step in the idea of United Nations was taken on 14 August 1941, when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed a set of principles for international collaboration in maintaining peace and security. A document was signed aboard the Prince of Wales and is known as the Atlantic Charter; this document was not a treaty between the two powers, but rather it was only an affirmation, and referred to the future “establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security”. During this meeting, Roosevelt began referring to the Countries working against the Axis Powers as the "United Nations".

Cover commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration by United Nations

on 1 January 1942.

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, the first Washington Conference, also named by the code Arcadia Conference, was held in Washington, D.C. from 22 December 1941 to 14 January 1942 and brought together President Roosevelt and Primer Minister Churchill accompanied by their top military advisers; the primary topic of discussion was the formulation of American-British strategy for war. The Arcadia Conference also had a wider international diplomatic and political aspect concerning the terms of the post-war world, which followed from the Atlantic Charter.  On 1 January 1942, 26 governments attending the Conference agreed to the Declaration by United Nations to establish a new world peace order. This important document pledged the signatory governments to the maximum war effort and bound them against making a separate peace. Twenty-one other States adhered to that Declaration at a later date. The Declaration contained the first official use of the term “United Nations”; this name was coined by President Roosevelt.

The media and then the general public began referring to the Allies as the "United Nations"; moreover, by early 1943, patriotic covers started to appear using United Nations themes.

At the Quebec Conference held from 10 to 24 August 1943 (the First Quebec Conference, which took place at the Citadelle and the Château Frontenac; codenamed "QUADRANT"), US Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden agreed to draft a declaration that included a call for “a general international organization, based on the principle of sovereign equality of all nations.”

Soviet Union Stamp 23 November 1943 Commemoration of the Teheran Conference	Soviet Union Stamp 30 May 1944 Allied Nations Day
UNRRA issue – San Marino – 14 March 1946 The idiom UNUS IN UNIVERSO ANIMUS means: ONE SOUL IN THE UNIVERSE.

On 30 October 1943 by the Moscow Declaration, the Governments of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security. The goal to work out concerted plans for final victory was reaffirmed at the meeting of the leaders of the United States, the USSR, and the United Kingdom (i.e., Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill) in Teheran on 1 December 1943.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was created at a 44-nation conference at the White House on 9 November 1943 for an extensive social-welfare program that assisted nations ravaged by World War II. This new organization was considered the first United Nations’ agency even before the United Nations Charter was signed on 26 June 1945. UNRRA discontinued its activities in 1947 and unfinished projects were turned over to the new United Nations and its Specialized Agencies.

The first blueprint of the United Nations was prepared at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference between the representatives of China, Great Britain, the USSR and the United States held in Washington, D.C. that ran from 21 September through 7 October 1944. The discussions were completed on 7 October 1944 and a proposal for the structure of the world organization was submitted by the four powers to all the United Nations governments and to the peoples of all countries for their study and discussion.

The Malta Conference between Roosevelt and Churchill, which began on 30 January 1945 and lasted through 2 February, consisted of a series of discussions designed primarily to coordinate American and British views on a number of important problems which were expected to come up with the Russians at Yalta a few days later. 

Most of the American and British representatives who participated in the Malta Conference proceeded on 3 February to the Crimea, where the tripartite conference with the Russians took place from 4 to 11 February 1945. Although the officially approved name of this meeting was “The Crimea Conference”, the term “Yalta Conference” has become widely accepted. One important gap in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals had yet to be filled: the voting procedure in the Security Council. This was done at the Yalta Conference (code-named the Argonaut Conference) where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met together with their foreign ministers and chiefs of staff. It was also decided that a United Nations Conference on the proposed world organization would be summoned for Wednesday 25 April 1945.

The invitations to the San Francisco Conference were sent out on 5 March 1945. Just a few days before the opening of the Conference, Roosevelt died suddenly on 12 April 1945.

UN stamp showing the San Francisco War Memorial

Opera House, where the UN Charter was signed on 26 June 1945

Fifty-one nations were originally invited to the San Francisco Conference: nations which had declared war on Germany and Japan and had subscribed to the United Nations Declaration. Despite having signed the Declaration by United Nations, one of these nations, Poland, did not send a representative, because the composition of its new government was not announced until too late for the conference. Therefore, a space was left for the signature of Poland, one of the original signatories of the United Nations Declaration. The United Nations (UN) Charter was drawn up by the representatives of 50 countries at the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), which met at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.  

The first eight Plenary Sessions were held from 26 April to 2 May. The representatives adopted unanimously the 111-article Charter on 25 June (plenary Session); the next day on 26 June 1945, in the auditorium of the Veterans' Memorial Hall, the delegates filed up one by one to a huge round table on which lay the two historic volumes, the Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Poland’s new government was formed after the Conference on 28 June 1945; Poland signed the Charter later on 15 October 1945 and became one of the original 51 Member States, despite being absent at the conference.

Emblem of the Conference; prototype of the current logo of the United Nations

The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, and by a majority of signatories, i.e., 26 countries. 24 October is celebrated each year as the United Nations Day. On 10 January 1946, the first General Assembly opened in the Central Hall in Westminster, London, Great Britain, with 51 nations being represented and they elected Trygve Lie of Norway as the first Secretary General of the United Nations. The Hunter College, Bronx, New York was the first temporary location of the UN; it was short-lived as students would be returning to resume class in fall 1946. Lake Success, Long Island, served as second temporary location of the UN, with many satellite locations. Then on 24 October 1948, the cornerstone was laid for the United Nations headquarters in New York City. More information on the UN emblem used at the San Francisco Conference can be found at the following link: The early Emblems.

Mali – 10 November 1975

30th Anniversary of UN Charter

UN emblem and names of the Specialized Agencies (including OACI, Organisation de l’aviation civile internationale, in the right branch of the letter N) forming the acronym ONU (Organisation des Nations Unies)

The principal organs of the UN, as specified in the Charter, were the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council. Article 110 of the UN Charter, which deals with the entry into force criteria, stipulates that the Charter would come into force when the Governments of China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and a majority of the other signatory states had ratified it and deposited notification to this effect with the State Department of the United States. On 24 October 1945, this condition was fulfilled, the UN Charter entered into force, and the United Nations came into existence. 24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the United Nations Resolution 2782 and declared the international observance of United Nations Day on 24 October.

Article 57 of the Charter of the United Nations provides that specialized agencies established by intergovernmental agreement and having wide international responsibilities as defined in their basic instruments in economic, social, cultural, educational, health and related fields shall be brought into relationship with the United Nations. Article 63 of the Charter provides that the Economic and Social Council may enter into agreements with any of the agencies referred to in Article 57, defining the terms on which the agency concerned shall be brought into relationship with the United Nations, and specifies that such agreements shall be subject to approval by the General Assembly.

At the Chicago Conference, the drafters of the Convention on International Civil Aviation had anticipated the emergence of a United Nations type of post-war organization and had written into the Convention a provision covering the possibility of ICAO becoming a constituent of such organization. Article 64 of the Chicago Convention signed on 7 December 1944 reads as follows: “The Organization may, with respect to air matters within its competence directly affecting world security, by vote of the Assembly, enter into appropriate arrangements with any general organization set up by the nations of the world to preserve peace.” Moreover, Article 65 of the Convention provides that “The Council, on behalf of the Organization, may enter into agreements with other international bodies for the maintenance of common services and for common arrangements concerning personnel and, with the approval of the Assembly, may enter into such other arrangements as may facilitate the work of the Organization.”

On 21 June 1946, the Economic and Social Council directed its Committee on Negotiations with Specialized Agencies to enter into negotiations with the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) for the purpose of bringing it into relationship with the United Nations. Negotiations between the Committee on Negotiations with Specialized Agencies of the Economic and Social Council and the Negotiating Committee of the Interim Council took place at Lake Success on 27 and 28 September 1946 and resulted in a draft agreement between the United Nations and PICAO.

Article XXII of the Agreement provides that the Agreement shall come into force on its approval by the UN General Assembly and by the ICAO Assembly. The PICAO Interim Council decided on 29 October 1946 to recommend to the Assembly the approval of the draft agreement. The UN General Assembly decided on 14 December 1946 to approve the Agreement.

At the first ICAO Assembly held in May 1947, the resolution A1-2 was adopted on 13 May 1947, by the unanimous vote of the 32 Contracting States represented at the 3^rd Plenary Meeting, which approved the agreement of relationship with the United Nations (UN) and authorized the President of the Council to sign a protocol bringing into force the agreement concerning such a relationship between the UN and ICAO. The Agreement accordingly came into force on 13 May 1947. President Warner signed the protocol on 3 October 1947. ICAO became a Specialized Agency in relationship with the UN, and thereby joined the UN family. By this agreement, each organization undertakes to fulfil certain requirements whereby the other may participate in its work in the measure required for fulfilment of certain articles of the Chicago Convention and the Charter of the UN. The safety and security of international civil aviation are overriding objectives of the Organization, a principle entrenched in the constitution of ICAO, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago, 1944). Accordingly, ICAO is the global international organization competent for establishing international Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and Procedures covering the technical fields of aviation.

As per Agreement between the UN and ICAO, representatives of an Organization shall be invited to the meetings of the other, and reciprocally, and to participate, without a vote, in the deliberations of these bodies with respect to items on their agenda relating to civil aviation matters. While ICAO remained an independent and autonomous agency, its acquisition of constituency status in the United Nations Organization was a major step, which greatly benefited many of its Contracting States in the years that followed, mainly through the United Nations Programme of Technical Assistance.

With this Agreement, ICAO is directed to promote:

• higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development;
• solutions for international economic, social, health, and related problems;
• international cultural and educational cooperation, including universal respect and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without racial, sexual, language or religious distinction.

ICAO’s role in initiating studies and reports and making recommendations related to international, economic, social, cultural, educational, health and matters concerning aviation, is also acknowledged in the Agreement. Recommendations for coordinating policies, activities and information exchanges between of ICAO and the UN, are also possible with this arrangement.

Assistance to the Security Council is also enabled by this Agreement. The international community saw this feature actioned, when on 23 September 2016, the ICAO Secretary General presented a briefing to the UN Security Council. On that same day, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2309 on countering terrorist threats to civil aviation. Other administrative matters, such as personnel arrangements, statistical services, budget and finance, are considered within this Agreement.

The UN family of organizations, i.e., the United Nations system, is made up of the UN Secretariat, the UN Programmes and Funds (such as UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, or UNDP) and the Specialized Agencies (such as ILO, UNESCO, WHO, WMO, FAO, IMO, ITU, UPU or ICAO).

As a Specialized Agency of the UN, ICAO works closely with the UN, and particularly with the Economic and Social Council. Moreover, for its technical activities, ICAO works closely too with other UN Specialized Agencies and International Organizations, such as:

1. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU);

2. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);

3. The International Labour Organization (ILO);

4. The International Maritime Organization (IMO);

5. The Universal Postal Union (UPU);

6. The World Customs Organization (WCO);

7. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO);

8. The World Health Organization (WHO);

9. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO); and

10. The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).

On 25 September 2015, the UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda is a 15-year global framework centred on an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and over 230 indicators. The 2030 Agenda envisions a secure world free of poverty and hunger, with full and productive employment, access to quality education and universal health coverage, the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, and an end to environmental degradation. The 2030 Agenda is a global framework of action for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. It integrates social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, as well as peace, governance and justice elements. It is universal in nature, meaning that developing and developed countries alike will implement the Agenda. Furthermore, the Agenda includes an overarching principle of ensuring that no one is left behind in the achievement of the SDGs.

The 2030 Agenda itself consists of 4 sections: (i) A political Declaration (ii) a set of 17 sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets (based on the report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, with some small modifications) (iii) Means of Implementation (iv) a framework for the follow-up and review of the Agenda. The scale, ambition and approach of the Agenda are unprecedented. One key feature is that the SDGs are global in nature and universally applicable, considering national realities, capacities and levels of development and specific challenges. All countries have a shared responsibility to achieve the SDGs, and all have a meaningful role to play locally, nationally as well as on the global scale. In addition, the 2030 Agenda integrates in a balanced manner the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. The 2030 Agenda is also indivisible, in a sense that it must be implemented as a whole, in an integrated rather than a fragmented manner, recognizing that the different goals and targets are closely interlinked. The 2030 Agenda is based on the concept of global partnership, supported by a comprehensive approach to the mobilization of all means of implementation, and is complemented by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (which provides a foundation for implementing the global sustainable development agenda), which is an integral part. Moreover, in order to ensure progress and long-term accountability, the 2030 Agenda includes a strong follow-up and review mechanism which will allow all partners to assess the impact of their actions. At global level, this is overseen by the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which meets at UN Headquarters every year to track progress.

ICAO’s Strategic Objectives are strongly linked to 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Organization is fully committed to work in close cooperation with States and other UN Bodies to support related targets. ICAO is also an official observer on the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators and is the custodian agency of global indicators 9.1.2 Passenger and Freight Volumes, by Mode of Transport within the 2030 Agenda framework. ICAO continuously contributes to monitoring efforts of the 2030 Agenda and other development frameworks as appropriate. The aviation sector develops millions of jobs, enables tourism and supports sustainable progress worldwide; to ensure that air traffic development is managed safely, efficiently and securely, ICAO has established five Strategic Objectives (SOs) in association to 15 of the 17 SDGs, so as to highlight aviation’s immense role in improving people’s lives all over the world.

There were a number of UN anniversaries to commemorate in 2019. These included the 75th anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the 100th anniversary of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the 145th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the 20th Anniversary of the UPU’s Express Mail Service (EMS); in addition, there were a couple of International Years to celebrate, such as the International Year of Indigenous Languages and the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. Looking ahead to 2020, it’s the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations and the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and of FAO; there are two international years which will be celebrated: The International Year of Plant Health and the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

On 1 January 2020, the United Nations launched the biggest global conversation on the world’s future: the UN75 dialogues.  Views and ideas gathered throughout the year will be shared at a high-level event in September to mark the Organization’s 75th anniversary. The UN75 initiative is described as a “global reality check” to spark conversations around building a better future for all. Four innovative data streams will capture discussions across the world, and in diverse settings, to build the first-ever repository of crowdsourced solutions to major global challenges. The UN75 dialogues – together with a ‘One-minute Survey’, opinion polling in 50 countries, and an artificial intelligence sentiment analysis of traditional and social media in 70 countries – will generate compelling data to inform national and international policies and debate. The views and ideas that are generated will be presented to world leaders and senior UN officials at a high-level event on 21 September 2020 to mark the Organization’s 75th anniversary.

UN Public Service Day

On 20 December 2002, the General Assembly designated 23 June as the United Nations Public Service Day by adopting resolution A/RES 57/277 at its Fifty-seventh Session. UN Public Service Day celebrates the value and virtue of public service to the community; highlights the contribution of public service in the development process; recognizes the work of public servants, and encourages young people to pursue careers in the public sector. To bolster recognition of the Day and the value of public service, the United Nations established the UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) programme in 2003, which was reviewed in 2016 to align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The UNPSA aims to promote and reward innovation and excellence in public services by recognizing the creative achievements and contributions of public institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide in support of sustainable development.

In the ICAO collection, several countries observed the close cooperation of the UN family by issuing first day covers (FDCs) showing the strong relationship between the members of the family. The circumstances of those issues varied, e.g., the United Nations Day (24 October), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948) or just on the occasion of a new issue.

Patriotic covers referring to the Allies as the “United Nations” (even before the United Nations Charter was officially signed on 26 June 1945), dated 14 January 1943, 21 March 1943, 10 September 1943, 11 October 1943, and 23 November respectively. The third cover reminds that Belgium was one of the thirteen nations overrun and occupied by the German troops during World War II; the hand-drawn cachet shows the country’s flag. The fourth cover lists the 26 governments which agreed to the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942; the bottom scroll shows some of the subsequent adherents to the Declaration in order of signatures, which should normally have been (according to the United Nations records): Mexico, Philippines, Ethiopia, Iraq, Brazil and Bolivia. Note: Over a fifteen-month period in 1943 and 1944, the United States issued a series of thirteen commemorative postage stamps (named the Overrun Countries series), each of five-cent denomination, as a tribute to thirteen nations overrun, occupied, and/or annexed by the Axis Powers during or shortly before World War II. The stamps depict, in full color, the national flags of those countries with the names of the respective countries underneath.
Patriotic cover hand-painted and signed by Dorothy Knapp. Dorothy Knapp (1907-1986) was a commercial artist and art teacher (residing in Rhinebeck, NY) who designed commercial First Day Covers during the 1940s, mainly for Fleetwood, one of the large FDC publishers. In addition to those mass-produced designs, each of which was produced in the thousands, she often created small quantities - ten or twelve per stamp issue - of hand-drawn, hand-painted covers. The earliest of these were probably created in 1940 or 1941, though she did some add-ons to covers created earlier. They are much in demand today.
Service cover sent from UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Office) in London. Postmark dated 22 December 1944.
1 January 1942 - The name "United Nations" is coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was first used in the “Declaration by United Nations”. On New Year's Day 1942, the Allied "Big Four" (the UK, the US, the USSR, and China) signed a short document which later came to be known as the “United Nations Declaration” and, the next day, the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures.
At the left: Proposed design of the US stamp for the Conference. Franklin Roosevelt, a philatelist himself, did not like this design. He requested that the design of the stamp, commemorating the United Nations Peace Conference, be as simple as possible and suggested the wording “Toward United Nations”. He also requested that the stamp have a 5¢ denomination so it could be used to send foreign first-class mail. At the right: Officially accepted design of the stamp commemorating the Conference.
First day cover issued by Smartcraft on the opening day of the San Francisco Conference on 25 April 1945.
Conference service cover - First Day of Issue on 25 April 1945.
Opening speeches at the San Francisco Conference.
The signing of the original UN Charter by a delegation on 26 June 1945 at a ceremony held at the Veterans’ War Memorial Hall in San Francisco. On 26 June 1945, the delegates filed up one by one to a huge round table on which lay the two historic volumes, the Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Behind each delegate stood the other members of the delegation against a colourful semicircle of the flags of fifty nations. In the dazzling brilliance of powerful spotlights, each delegate affixed his signature.
The signing of the original UN Charter by a delegation on 26 June 1945 at a ceremony held at the Veterans’ War Memorial Hall in San Francisco. Postcard, recto and verso. Note the full picture of the UN emblem in use at that time.
Service cover sent from the Hunter College, Bronx, New York, site of the first location of the United Nations. Postmark dated 3 June 1946. During the Second World War, the Hunter College leased the Bronx Campus buildings to the United States Navy who used the facilities to train 95,000 women volunteers for military service. When the Navy vacated the campus, the site was briefly occupied by the nascent United Nations, which held its first Security Council sessions at the Bronx Campus in 1946, giving the school an international profile.
Stationery from the UN Lake Success, New York, site of the second location of the United Nations. Postmark in Indonesia dated 21 October 1952. The Incorporated Village of Lake Success was the second temporary home of the United Nations, occupying the headquarters of the Sperry Gyroscope Company on Marcus Avenue. In 1939, the United States government bought a large tract between Marcus Avenue, Lakeville Road and Union Turnpike, to be the home to the Sperry Gyroscope Company which built a variety of maritime, military, aerospace and navigation products. During World War II, the plant had 22,000 employees. After the war, part of the plant became the temporary headquarters of the United Nations from 1946 to 1952, while its headquarters building in New York City was being built.
Congo - First day cover dated 10 December 1958. (Afrique Équatoriale Française or French Equatorial Africa in 1958). 10th Anniversary of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Black cachet.
	Liberia – 17 December 1958. 10^th Anniversary of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UN emblem and initials of UN Agencies (with ICAO’s name, in the upper-right corner).
Costa Rica – 24 October 1961- United Nations Day - The UN family. Note that the acronyms in the cachet are spelled in French and that the acronym BIRF should have been written BIRD for Banque internationale pour la reconstruction et le développement (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - IBRD).
United Nations New York – 8 January 1969. Postal stationery (or stamped envelope) with a 6-cent stamp which is an adaptation of the 50-cent definitive stamp issued by the UN on 6 March 1964. The stamp pictures a stylized globe and a weather vane (in the form of a peace dove) and was issued in relation to the theme of International Peace and Security. The cachet depicts the UN family and was overprinted by Art Craft after the issue of the postal stationery. As regards the ICAO emblem, note that the wings have been truncated and the top circle has been doubled.
Same cover as above, signed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada between 1968 and 1984.
Canada – First Day Cover dated 13 May 1970. 25^th Anniversary of the United Nations. The text in the Rose Craft cachet recognizes the achievements of the UN and its Agencies (among which is ICAO). To commemorate UN’s silver jubilee, Canada Post Office issued two stamps (10-cent and 15-cent) symbolically representing a sense of emergence and illustrating the tremendous force and energy being focused towards the unification of the world.
Brazil - First day cover dated 24 October 1970. 25^th Anniversary of the United Nations. The UN family’s tree (with ICAO’s name, on the lower-left side) The stamp strip reads: Peace, Justice, Progress.
United Nations New York – 20 November 1970. On the occasion of its 1970 yearly show, the Lincoln Stamp Club, at Lincoln, Nebraska, commemorated the 25^th anniversary of the United Nations by overprinting this cover with the emblems of some of the members of the UN family. The cachet depicts the UN family with the emblems of (from left to right, clockwise): IMO, ITU, WHO. ILO, ICAO (with the wings partially truncated), UNESCO, and WMO.
United Nations New York – 12 March 1971. Cachet by S.L.F. Franked with the UN New York stamp issued on 12 March 1971 for the International Support for Refugees and the British Postal Strike Stamp tied. The cachet depicts the UN family with the emblems of (from left to right, clockwise): IMO, ITU, WHO, ILO, ICAO (partially hidden by the stamp), UNESCO, WMO, and UNICEF. The first full national strike in the history of the British Post Office took place from Wednesday 20 January to Sunday 7 March 1971. It took place against a background of increasing inflation and worsening industrial relations over the preceding decade, both in the Post Office and in the country in general. On 15 January a pay offer from the Post Office Board was rejected by the executive of the Union of Post Office Workers. An "all-out" strike was called to start at midnight on 19/20 January. Although local mail deliveries were possible in some areas, either where the postmen did not go on strike or as some gradually returned to work, the bulk of the country's postal services came to a complete halt. Fortunately for mailers and collectors alike, the government announced the suspension of the monopoly on carrying mail, instantaneously giving rise to several hundred private posts throughout the country. Many were purely philatelic in nature, created only to sell labels to collectors.
Republic of Korea - 30 May 1971. The world of United Nations Organizations.
Equatorial Guinea - 24 October 1975. 30th Anniversary of the United Nations. UN and UN Specialized Agencies emblems. (including ICAO preliminary emblem with larger wings).
Bhutan - 24 October 1985. 40^th Anniversary of the United Nations. Preamble to the UN Charter. The miniature sheet has bright blue margins picturing the emblems of the UN agencies.
	United Nations – 26 June 1990.  45^th Anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco on 26 June 1945. Pictures identifying the major areas of attention of the United Nations, its Agencies and Programs, forming the number “45”. As regards ICAO’s relationship, an airplane is shown in the upper side of digit 5. The activity of the UN Organizations is depicted as follows: UN (several programmes are illustrated - security: yellow circle surrounded by a red crown; peace: dove holding an olive branch in its beak; human rights: flaming torch); FAO (wheat); ICAO (aircraft); UNDP, Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), ILO, and UN Economic and Social Council - ECOSOC (two cogwheels as vital gear in a machine); IMO (ship); UNEP (clean environment) and WMO (sky and clouds).
Postal card commemorating the 60^th anniversary of UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Office) in 2003.

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