The sixty-eighth volume of the Yearbook of the United Nations presents the work of the United Nations in dealing with recurring conflicts with severe humanitarian consequences in the Middle East, including in the Syrian Arab Republic, where more than 12 million people were in need of basic food, clothing and shelter. The volume also highlights the Organization’s rapid response to an escalatory global health emergency—the Ebola virus disease outbreak across West Africa. It documents the Organization’s coordination of policy discussions to finalize a global sustainable development agenda, with the security of future generations as the core concern; and its efforts to rebuild societies emerging from conflict while keeping the fragile peace in other places. It further details the entry into force of the landmark Arms Trade Treaty, the missile downing of a passenger airliner in the midst of a geopolitical crisis in eastern Ukraine, and securing international human rights and humanitarian law and prosecuting its abusers.