[1] The objectives of the IU are "to stimulate in all countries a public opinion favourable to permanent peace and prosperity for all people, through the progressive removal of the basic economic causes of poverty and war".

[2] The IU's work is guided by principles of equal freedom and sharing of common resources of community and nature – ideas most cogently set out in modern times in the writings of the 19th-century American reformer Henry George.

[2] Following from those principles the IU advances a radical land and fiscal reform agenda and 'real' free trade (i.e. that does not privilege Western corporate interests).

In 2003 it was granted Special Consultative Status by the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which widened the scope of its engagement and influence in United Nations' processes.

Until recently, with the exception of its UN work, the IU's principal function was to provide a forum for land and tax reformers around the world to exchange ideas at conference.