Archive for category: United Nations

Information and stories about United Nations.

UN Foundation: Connecting UN And The World

In the face of toughest global challenges, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) links problems with solutions to foster global peace, prosperity, and justice. It connects people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations (UN) solve the most intractable global problems, such as energy access, climate change, global health, women’s empowerment, population, hunger, and poverty eradication. In fact, it literally reflects its motto, “Connecting You with the United Nations.”

Established by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner in 1998, the UN Foundation has been an advocate for the UN and helped the UN address pressing and far-reaching international issues through partnerships, campaigns, and fundraising.

A worldwide partnership between the public and private sectors is indispensable and very significant. The UN Foundation has a wide range of dynamic and win-win partnerships with corporations, organizations, and influences around the world. Since the UN Foundation was founded, it has established more than 300 organizational partnerships with over 40 UN agencies and more than 100 governments.

A great example of its corporate partnership is the collaboration between NBA Cares and the UN Foundation campaign Nothing But Nets, a global grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Not only does the message about malaria reach wide audiences via the platform provided by NBA Cares, but it also highlights the involvement of NBA Cares in the campaign. In this way, the UN Foundation offers its partners the ability to do good in the world while also promotes their corporate causes.

To strengthen the connection between the UN and influences, the UN Foundation supports the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) to run the UN Creative Community Outreach Initiative (CCOI), which acts as a liaison between the UN and top level content creators, such as directors, new media professionals, and writers. The initiative aims to inform people about the activities of the UN and its priority issues via TV, film, music, and new media.

Because of the approaching 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a blueprint accepted by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions, discussion over the Post-2015 Development Agenda has become one of the most important and influential conversations of this century. As a longstanding and strong supporter of the UN, the UN Foundation will convene informal meetings and workshops on thematic issues and facilitate global dialogues among developing country think tanks, thought leaders, civil society and private sector partners.

– Liying Qian

Sources: UN Foundation, UN Business, UN CCOI, UN Association
Photo: PR Web

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Africa’s Philanthropic Billionaires

When it comes to international aid programs, everyone has heard of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Warren Buffett’s astronomical donation track record, with last year’s donations reaching $1.87 billion. However, outside of the American audience, African billionaires are also stepping up and contributing to causes they care about. Here is a list of African philanthropic billionaires that lead programs in their own countries.

The wealthiest African, Aliko Dangote, worth an estimated $20.2 billion, donates millions of his wealth to education, health and social causes. Last year Dangote took part in the first ever Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy, where he discussed the benefits of donating, listing Gates and Buffett as inspirations.

Nathan Kirsh, a South African native, earned his $3.6 billion wealth by monopolizing the small goods market in New York City. According to Forbes, his philanthropic efforts focus on Swaziland, where he supplied approximately 10,000 people with starter capital for small businesses. Kirsh states that 70 percent of his recipients are women with a 70 percent success rate for his program overall. He also hopes to make Swazi schools the first in Africa to boast guaranteed computer literacy for all graduates.

Folorunsho Alakija hails from Lagos, Nigeria and is Africa’s richest woman thanks to her very profitable ownership of an oil block in the 1990’s. Since then, Alakija has expanded her $7.3 billion enterprise to real estate around the world, notably $200 million worth in the United Kingdom alone. With her money, Alakija founded the Rose of Sharon Foundation in 2008 which aids orphans and widows in her native country of Nigeria.

Mohamed Mansour has an estimated $2.3 billion fortune from his investment company the Mansour Group, which owns Egypt’s largest grocery store Metro and Egypt’s McDonald’s franchises, among other businesses. Mansour founded the Lead Foundation, a nonprofit that has provided over 1.3 million loans to small business endeavors and under-privileged women in Egypt. Mansour also chairs the Mansour Foundation for Development, which strives to eliminate illiteracy, poverty, and disease in order to expedite the development of Egyptian society.

– Emily Bajet

Sources: Daily Mail, Forbes, Rose of Sharon Foundation, Mansour Foundation For Development

Kashmiri Lose Faith in UN

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Speaking as the voice of the 26 confederated Kashmiri groups in the Hurriyat, Syed Ali Geelani directed a scorching criticism at the UN on November 3. He claimed the organization has “miserably failed to address core international concerns.” This loss of faith from one of the many significant stateless populations – which also includes Palestinians and Kurds – has resonance around the world.

It occurs at a time when the UN is facing difficult transitions into the post-2015 period and seeking structural evolution unwelcome to those nations which are accustomed to holding inordinate power with the current status quo. This state of affairs, while unfortunate, is an opportunity for the UN to showcase exactly how indispensable it is.

The debate over structural evolution is one of the premier examples of the difficulty and significance of the United Nations. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed the belief that the new structure – which will emphasize streamlining the expansive body of UN subsidiaries and enable more efficient cooperation with third parties – will put the UN in a singularly influential position in global politics. If he succeeds, he will undoubtedly be proven correct. Financial watchdog groups have claimed for many years that the UN is too ineffective with resources to achieve the grand aims set by its ambitious Secretary-General.

And indeed, the UN has many failures to temper its successes, failures in implementation and conceptualization which can give the impression of incompetence. But what UN member states and representatives of stateless demographics like Mr. Geelani must keep in mind is that the sheer scope of the UN’s responsibility far exceeds what is asked of any other organization. The volume of factors weighing on any situation is so great that a period for learning must be accepted.

As time goes on, the UN has exhibited an ability to learn from mistakes and continue to raise the bar higher for itself. Mr. Ban has insistently focused his rhetoric and energy on the truly global concerns – human rights, pollution, food production and so on. If UN member states are to preserve a way of life with any semblance to their traditional activities, it behooves them to surrender a degree of sovereignty and resources to the organization best suited to addressing the problems which threaten those activities. Likewise, Mr. Geelani’s plea to Kashmiri to abandon the UN and boycott elections may resonate emotionally, but the best chance for his people, and for the Kurds, Palestinians and others, to achieving the legal right to a homeland is not to eschew the international forum, but to embrace it and utilize the publicity.

 

– Alex Pusateri

Sources: Fox News, The Nation, Care2, Business Insider

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Global Education Motivators

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What do Mr. Rogers, Jane Goodall, and the United Nations all have in common?  They are all close supporters of Global Education Motivators (GEM) one of the oldest initiatives for advocating the importance of global education in American schools.

Founded in 1981, GEM has worked tirelessly to promote global issues in the American classroom through engagement with UN educational programs, leadership conferences, and workshops. One of the initiative’s foremost programs is “United Nations Day,” where young students work together, mock UN style, to provide solutions for issues such as human rights, environmental sustainability, education, and food security.

“Believing that international communication exchange is the key to future world peace, the inclusion of cross cultural perspectives has become an integral part of GEM’s global learning programs,” according to GEM’s mission statement.  “Global awareness is closely tied to global responsibility.”  This commitment to cross cultural perspectives is evident in the initiative’s distance learning courses. These courses are geared for K-12 students. African Folk Tales, Conflict in Sudan and Nuclear Awareness are some of the highlights of the courses available.

GEM also boasts partnerships with the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the project for Nuclear Awareness. Additionally, the group has a presence with the United Nations’ education initiative, UN Academic Impact.  At UN Academic Impact’s Third Annual Conference, youth members of GEM presented about the program and the importance of empowering other youth to stand up for global issues through community involvement, arts and education.

While the organization most certainly embraces the mantra of “think global,” acting local is just as important for GEM. Based out of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, GEM is a close partner with local Philadelphia schools and Philadelphia-based programs, like the Greater Philadelphia Global Education Network. Involving local communities and schools with issues of global development is an important part of inspiring larger movements for global education.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: United Nations, Global Education Motivators
Photo: Dreamstime

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Human Rights Day 2013

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December 10th, 2013 is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the World Conference on Human Rights.

The UN General Assembly first proclaimed Human Rights Day in 1948. However, the efforts were renewed in 1993 at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna through The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. It consists of a preamble and 30 articles.

The Declaration has been translated into more than 380 languages and dialects: making it the most translated document.

This universal document defines fundamental human rights and freedoms that are to be applied to protect anyone, regardless of race, gender or ethnicity.

The human rights theme this year is Working For Your Rights, with an emphasis on looking forward to looming challenges.

At this time, let us reflect on and celebrate the achievements in human rights over the past 20 years. Broadly, there have been notable advancements in the areas of women’s rights, the development of law to achieve accountability for human rights abuses, the protection and promotion of the rights of marginalized groups and a much greater understanding of the universality and indivisibility of human rights.

The UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provides 20 specific accomplishments.

1.Economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and the right to development are recognized as universal, indivisible, and mutually reinforcing rights of all human beings, without distinction.

2. Human rights have become central to the global conversation regarding peace, security and development.

3. New human rights standards have built on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the implementation of international human rights treaties is significantly improved.

4. Additional explicit protections in international law now exist covering, among others, children, women, victims of torture, persons with disabilities, and regional institutions. Where there are allegations of breaches, individuals can bring complaints to the international human rights treaty bodies.

5. Women’s rights are now acknowledged as fundamental human rights. Discrimination and acts of violence against women are at the forefront of the human rights discourse.

6. There is global consensus that serious violations of human rights must not go unpunished. Victims have the right to claim justice, including within processes to restore the rule of law following conflicts. The International Criminal Court brings perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice.

7. There has been a paradigm shift in the recognition of the human rights of people with disabilities, especially and crucially, their right to effective participation in all spheres of life on an equal basis with others.

8. There is now an international framework that recognizes the challenges facing migrants and their families which guarantees their rights and those of undocumented migrants.

9. The rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals have been placed on the international agenda.

10. The challenges facing indigenous peoples and minorities are increasingly being identified and addressed by the international human rights mechanisms, especially with respect to their right to non-discrimination.

11. The Human Rights Council, set up in 2006, has addressed vital and sensitive issues and its Universal Periodic Review, established in the same year, has allowed countries to assess each other’s human rights records, make recommendations and provide assistance for improvement.

12. Independent human rights experts and bodies monitor and investigate from a thematic or country-specific perspective. They cover all rights in all regions, producing hard-hitting public reports that increase accountability and help fight impunity.

13. States and the United Nations recognize the pivotal role of civil society in the advancement of human rights. Civil society has been at the forefront of human rights promotion and protection, pinpointing problems and proposing innovative solutions, pushing for new standards, contributing to public policies, giving voice to the powerless, building worldwide awareness about rights and freedoms and helping to build sustainable change on the ground.

14. There is heightened awareness and growing demand by people worldwide for greater transparency and accountability from government and for the right to participate fully in public life.

15. National human rights institutions have become more independent and authoritative and have a powerful influence on governance. Over a third of all countries have established one or more such institutions.

16. The United Nations Fund for Victims of Torture has assisted hundreds of thousands of victims of torture to rebuild their lives. Likewise, the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, with its unique victim-oriented approach, has provided humanitarian, legal, and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been violated through more than 500 projects.

17. Victims of trafficking are now regarded as entitled to the full range of human rights and are no longer perceived to be criminals.

18. A growing consensus is emerging that business enterprises have human rights responsibilities.

19. There are now guidelines for States which support freedom of expression while defining where speech constitutes a direct incitement to hatred or violence.

20. The body of international human rights law continues to evolve and expand, to address emerging human rights issues such as the rights of older persons, the right to the truth, a clean environment, water and sanitation, and food.

There is much to be celebrated. However, many people continue to not have a voice.

How can you participate?

-Support education through programs such as UNICEF’s Education First, as education is an empowering tool.

-Protect and use your freedom of speech. Journalists work to give a voice to oppressed people, and are often oppressed themselves while doing this valuable work. Find ways of supporting journalists and using your own voice to protect the human rights of oppressed communities.

-Use social media to raise awareness of Human Rights Day and human rights accomplishments or concerns that interest you.

-Contact your congressional leaders and ask them to support USAID or specific bills dealing with human rights issues, such as the Global Food Security Act of 2013 (H.R. 2822). For additional human rights related bills visit: https://borgenproject.org/legislation/

– Caressa Kruth

Sources: UNOHCHR, UN, Huffington Post, USAID

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Recognizing the Legal Right to Food

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Food is necessary to survival and proper nutrition. We all need it. It’s that simple. But despite its importance, access to food is still not universally viewed as a human right. The United Nations (UN) wants to change that.

According to Food Navigator, UN expert Oliver De Schutter believes that the right to food should be legally binding. Human rights currently recognized by the UN include the right to be free from slavery and servitude, the right to be free from cruel and inhuman punishment, the right to freedom of movement between countries, and the right to be recognized as a person. De Schutter wants the right to food added to that list.

De Schutter recently released a report in support of his position, entitled, “Assessing a decade of right to food progress.” In his report, De Schutter states, “Often, we labour under the misconception that the right to food is not like political rights, such as freedom of speech. But economic and social rights — to food, water, housing, social protection — are just as real, just as binding, and can be upheld just as legitimately in court.” South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, and Niger have already included the right to food in their constitutions.

By making the right to food a priority, countries can eventually begin to see long-lasting changes in the political, economic, and environmental sectors, De Schutter suggests. Eventually, these changes can help serve as permanent safeguards against widespread hunger. De Schutter believes countries should revise their laws, incorporating nutrition policies that attempt to take responsibility for the food supply.

India’s recent food policy is an example of how policy changes can help ensure the legal right to food. The north eastern Indian states of Assum, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura are expected to begin implementing the country’s National Food Security Act around the middle of 2014.

According to First Post India, state food ministers have taken the first steps toward the construction of an administration building for the state-run Food Corporation of India. The food law, passed by Parliament last year, will give 67% of the population the right to subsidized food grains. India will need 62 million tons of food grain annually in order to implement its food law.

– Cavarrio Carter

Sources: The Daily Meal, Food Navigator, First Post India, United Nations, Mail Online India
Photo: Web Governments

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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

On October 17, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was celebrated in honor of the goal to end world poverty by 2030. Declared by the UN General Assembly, this annual day serves as a reminder to promote the need to end poverty and destitution in all countries, specifically the developing nations.

In celebration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Interaction, the NGO alliance, highlighted global programs that are already making an impact. One of these programs, A World Vision program in Zambia, has made health care, education, and psycho-social support accessible for more than a quarter million children. The program has also trained nearly 40,000 volunteers to assist people living with HIV across the country. It is programs like these, indeed, that are helping us reach our goal.

In hope to get to zero percent by our lifetime, NGOs, like Interaction, are essential parts of the solution. “We cannot let over a billion people suffer in extreme poverty when we have the tools and the research to change their lives for the better. … We can do better. We have to do better,” said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

So far, the world has made significant progress in working toward this goal. While it is bold, it is undoubtedly achievable. Already, extreme poverty rates are half of what they were two decades ago. In 1990, nearly one in two people in the developing world lived in “extreme poverty” or on less than $1.25 a day. Today, this number is about one in five. Because of the help of many institutions, government and nongovernment organizations alike, we have been able to make immense developments. Still, it is not enough. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty recognizes these groups that have made all the difference through these years and even further, motivates people to help take those next few steps forward.

– Sonia Aviv

Sources: UN, Global Dimension, Devex
Photo: Times Square

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Forum on Sustainable Development, UN Seeks Scientific Input

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Following the termination of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), the UN announced recently the formation of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The new organization seeks to supercede the original, which operated from 1992 to 2012, by incorporating more input from the scientific community and providing a centralized, direct interface between data and policy makers.

The CSD was ahead of its time when it was first created, but had major flaws. Representatives from and experts on topics under discussion were not included in key talks, and as such, solutions ranged from impractical to irrelevant.

Members of governing bodies with the power to enact the solutions that were feasible were not always in communication with the CSD, and the measures were not carried through with the necessary vigor. As these problems compounded, the CSD came to be little more than a subsidiary of ECOSOC.

Aware of the numerous faults, the UN commissioned a special report on the CSD’s failures and addressed each of them with the new Forum. Annual meetings will be structured to ensure constant attention, and every four years, an additional meeting will be convened with the aim of attracting the highest level policy makers to streamline the legislative process and make appeals for particular actions directly to those with the power to do so.

In the same vein, the Forum on Sustainable Development will seek greater integration between UN agencies, to give it the greatest possible reach and resources in tackling the broad problems that are its concern.

Most importantly is the UN’s commitment to seek out and utilize the expertise and knowledge of the scientific community. Environmental, biological, and social scientists will be looked to to identify and address the most pressing problems facing the globe; economists will be sought to consider the financial feasibility of all solutions and, indeed, the Forum itself, which will have its own independent budget to operate from.

As a central aegis under which the many (and incontrovertibly convoluted) disciplines can dialogue to tackle issues in the most efficient way, the Forum on Sustainable Development is itself addressing a major issue: the disconnect between information and policy.

Socially segregated from the much of the rest of the world, the work done by scientists remains stuck in academic journals and treatises, unless it contains enough flash and style to appeal to major media outlets. There is an argument to be made that if the general public was aware of the relentless pace of scientific progress in every field, and the severe constraints put on it by a scarcity of funding, favorable sentiment would increase dramatically.

None of this is set to happen until 2016, pending the announcement of post-2015 Development Goals, but the UN appears committed to making the Forum fully equipped to hit the ground running when its objectives are officially announced.

This swift action is a promising sign in an institution which has been known for sluggishness and irrelevance, and is one sign among many recently that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is aware of the UN’s singular place in the contemporary world and the necessity for it to aim for the greatest possible goals.

If the bureaucratic cogs continue to churn at the same rate, the world will have a beacon of hope come 2016, and the coming years may vindicate the often-criticized Mr. Ban.

– Alex Pusateri

Sources: Sci Dev Net: UN Launches New Sustainable Development, All Africa, Sci Dev Net
Photo: UN News Centre

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UN Women and the Fight for Equality

UN Women is an organization that was created in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. The organization’s full name is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women; its mission is to promote gender equality throughout the world and champion women from all walks of life.

Many women in the world face discrimination in the workplace, and receive fewer opportunities when it comes to career and educational advancement. UN Women sees this kind of gender discrimination happening all over the world, and makes it a part of its agenda to ensure that women have basic and equal human rights. Women are often denied access to health care, and even worse, they lack the political voice to change such conditions because of their stark under-representation in governmental decision making.

One of the major issues on the UN Women’s agenda is the end to violence against women. In a 2013 global review, published by the World Health Organization, it was reported that 35 percent of women in the world have experienced some kind of violence from an intimate partner. UN Women also focuses on the different aspects that are associated with violence against women: sex trafficking, child brides, rape, and sexual harassment in the work or education place.

Partnering with government agencies is an effective way that UN Women is able to take action against the various forms of discrimination against women. UN Women channels its efforts on implementing laws that will help protect women against threats like violence. It also advocates for policies that will open up more economic opportunities for women.

The wage gap between men and women is something that UN Women takes very seriously and seeks to bring to a close by implementing policies that argue for fairness in the workplace. A large part of the organization’s mission to empower women comes from its dedication to spread awareness in response to the AIDS epidemic. Women make up 54 percent of all people living in the world with HIV. UN Women has made it a job to spread awareness on the factors connected to the spread of HIV/AIDS. With the help of its partners, and resources UN Women has been able to broadcast the voice of women living with AIDS and it takes steps to help prevent the spread of the disease.

UN Women is gaining momentum and acquiring more support. Actress, Nicole Kidman, showed her support for the organization during an acceptance speech at the Variety Magazine Power of Women Awards event. Kidman encouraged her audience to see the desperate need for women’s equality in the world.

– Chante Owens

Sources: UN Women, Daily Mail

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New Anti-Torture Law in Tunisia

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On October 11, 2013, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office welcomed the unanimous adoption of a new anti-torture law in Tunisia which will go about creating a new formal advocacy body dedicated to preventing and eliminating torture. The Office hailed the anti-torture initiative as a step forward in Tunisia’s ongoing transition to democracy since the country’s revolution that sparked the Arab Spring in December 2010.

Officially created by the Tunisian government on October 9, the Anti-Torture Initiative, formerly known as the National Body to Prevent Torture, is the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesman Rupert Colville. Tunisia has been taking steps to eradicate torture since June 2011, when the North African nation ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

The Body will be independent from the Tunisian government, but it will have broad jurisdiction, which includes the power to visit and hold accountable all sites of detention in the country. Additionally, the largest UN committee, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, will also have permission to visit Tunisian detention sites as well as assist Tunisia’s new initiative in the implementation of such a national body.

The OHCHR bureau in Tunisia, which was established there about two years before the start of the Arab Spring, had an important role to play in the creation of the National Body to Prevent Torture in Tunisia through debates and consultation sessions. This collaboration with the international community also helped to bring together Tunisian governmental officials, such as the Ministry for Human Rights and Transitional Justice, as well as vital non-governmental officials such as national and international NGOs.

The president of Tunisia claims that this all-encompassing approach to the transition to democracy post-Arab Spring is necessary to see the “fruition of Arab revolutions.” In his statement to the General Assembly on September 26, President Marzouki advocated for a more stable Tunisia and other Arab Spring countries, as well as the international community’s support to make the transition, as was done with the creation of the National Body to Prevent Torture.

– Elisha-Kim Desmangles
Feature Writer

Sources: UN News Centre: Tunisian law, UN News Centre: General Debae