Governing
Africa To Be The Topic At
November Lunch and Learn
There are more than fifty
independent nations in Africa.
The overwhelming number of them
obtained their independence in
the 1950's and 1960's following
long periods of colonial rule
stretching back more than a
century. Since then, they’ve
been striving, in the face of
major political, economic and
cultural obstacles, to organize
modern governments. It hasn’t
been easy, and while a number of
them have succeeded, to one or
another degree, there is still a
long way to go for most to
obtain the level of political
and economic stability required
to meet their people’s
aspirations for better lives.
Professor Georges
Nzongola-Ntajala, of UNC’s
Department of African &
Afro-American Studies will
discuss "Governing Africa" at
the Lunch & Learn meeting on
Wednesday, November 17. The
meeting will take place between
Noon and 2 PM at Carolina
Meadows Retirement Community on
Whippoorwill Lane in Chapel
Hill. Reservations should be
made by check for $18.00 to "UNA-USA
West Triangle Chapter," sent to
Warren Glick, 83203 Jarvis,
Chapel Hill, NC 27517 OR, if you
are a resident of Carolina
Meadows, given to Jody Hite in
the activities office. Deadline
is Friday, November 12.
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER
By
Pal Palmore
The
big news this month is that the
proposed alliance between the
UNA-USA and the Better World
Fund (the sister organization to
the United Nations Foundation)
has been overwhelmingly approved
by all the UNA voting chapters
except two. This will probably
not make much difference to our
usual program, except that we
will probably get a larger share
of our members’ dues and will
probably get more support in
terms of UN literature,
membership recruitment, and
other staff support. Both, of
course, will help us in carrying
out our core mission of
educating the people of our area
about the United Nations and
supporting its work. I will keep
you informed as more details are
worked out.
We
had a memorable celebration of
UN Day at our October 27th Lunch
& Learn. In addition to the
excellent talk by Professor
Struett on “The UN Security
Council and the International
Criminal Court”, we read the
Preamble to the UN Charter and
the proclamation from three
mayors designating October 24 as
UN Day, with the theme,
“Engaging America in the MDG’s”.
Also Vice President Gregg Flood
presented some slides to show
what the Children’s Health
Committee is doing.
Thanks to all who participated
in this 65th Anniversary of the
founding of the United Nations.
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West Triangle’s Social Media
Websites
By
Amanda Conklin, West Triangle
Chapter Outreach Intern
The
Chapter now has an updated blog
and Twitter and facebook pages
that you can access online and
email to friends who you think
would be interested. The blog
will feature news stories about
the UN and UNA, as well as event
updates and other happenings
within the West Triangle
Chapter. The facebook
will feature photos from past
Chapter events and current event
invitations, and the Twitter
will have short updates
about the same kind of material
that is posted on the blog. All
of these websites can be viewed
by typing the following
addresses into the top of your
web browser (Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox, etc). In the
case of facebook you’ll have to
set up your account as
instructed.
Blog -
http://una-westtriangle.blogspot.com/
Facebook –
http://www.facebook.com/unawesttriangle
Twitter –
http://twitter.com/UNAwesttriangle
You
can add your own thoughts to the
blog by clicking the word
“comment” under each post and
typing what you would like to
say and then clicking “post
comment”. Don’t worry if your
comment doesn’t show up right
away; they have to be approved
by facebook first. If you have
your own facebook or Twitter
profiles, you can “become our
friend” or “follow our Tweets”
to interact with the sites. If
you don’t, you will only be able
to view what is posted by the
Chapter and others on Twitter,
and you will not be able to view
the facebook page. If you would
like to have your own facebook
or Twitter profile to gain full
access to the Chapter’s page,
click “Sign Up”.
If you have any pictures from
past UNA events and would like
to share them with the rest of
the Chapter and the community,
please email them to
UNA.west.triangle@gmail.com
, so we can include them on the
Chapter facebook and blog in our
effort to engage the community
using social media. Thank you!
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Education Outreach
By
Jean and Tuck Green
Several members of our Committee
visited four of the local Model
UN Clubs to publicize our United
Nations Contest for High School
Students. The result? Over
twenty five students expressed
an interest in submitting
entries!
We
asked Club Presidents and
advisors to let us know their
plans for the year. All the
Clubs plan to send some members
to the Mini MUNCH in November.
MUNCH is the acronym for the
Model United Nations
conference that UNC Chapel
Hill sponsors every
spring for high school students.
The fall mini version is
designed for students who have
never participated in a Model
U.N. Conference (MUN). It is run
informally: there is no
competition for awards, informal
dress is acceptable, and
participants are coached through
the debates by experienced UNC
students. All four of the clubs
will also participate in DUMUNC,
the MUN Conference sponsored by
the student-run International
Relations Association at Duke.
Each Club reported these
additional activities:
Bradli Crump, President of
the Carrboro High Club,
expects her club will go the
William and Mary MUN Conference
this fall and the Ivy League
Conference (ILMUN) at the
University of Pennsylvania later
in the year. The Carrboro Club
is also planning a “Joint Crisis
Committee (JCC) overnight
lock-in” at the school. JCCs
involve debating how to respond
to various international crises.
A lock-in means the kids spend
the night at Carrboro High- a
pajama party with a serious
purpose!
Katie Fisher, President of
the East Chapel Hill Club,
reports that her MUN Club will
be practicing the basics of
Model UN in the fall and, after
conference season is over,
learning about Joint Crisis
Committees and how to chair a
Committee.
Frank Felicelli, advisor for
Cedar Ridge High School
in Hillsborough, reports that
his club will go a conference at
John Hopkins University.
Jonathan Powell, who heads
the MUN Club at Chapel Hill
High, expects his Club will
go to the Washington Area Model
UN Conference (WAMUNC) at
Georgetown University.
In
addition, all three of the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro School
District’s MUN Club presidents
gathered at the Carolina Center
for Educational Excellence (CCEE)
to plan this spring’s MUN
conference for the District’s
four middle schools. The CCEE is
managed by Committee member
Björn Hennings, who is
affiliated with UNC’s School of
Education. The CCEE is the site
for the fall mini MUNCH and the
spring middle school MUN
conference.
Finally, we wish to note that
these various MUN Club
activities receive modest
financial support from our
Chapter. This support helps
these Clubs pay for Conference
entrance fees. The Clubs raise
money for other Conference costs
such as travel expenses. We hope
the Chapter’s members will
provide even more support in the
future to new MUN Clubs that are
emerging in the Orange County
and Durham school districts.
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If you would like
to support this Committee’s
work, please check off
“Education Outreach” on the
Lunch and Learn Registration
form and send your donation in
together with your Lunch fee.
Suggestions? Please contact us
at
cgreen17@nc.rr.com
.
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Preserving the World’s Heritage
By
Simone Lewis, West Triangle
Chapter Editorial Intern
Recently, we’ve been bombarded
with debate about how to reduce
our personal impact on the
environment. With all the recent
speculation about the extent to
which we may be causing
irreparable harm to the earth in
our everyday habits, it’s easy
to forget about the wonders that
are still intact. One United
Nations organization is making a
deliberate effort to place not
only Mother Nature’s work on a
pedestal, but mankind’s cultural
symbols as well, and preserve
them for all of humanity to
enjoy.
UNESCO’s (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization) World
Heritage Program aims to promote
cooperation among nations to
protect natural and cultural
heritage sites and programs
around the world that are of
such outstanding universal value
that their conservation is
important for current and future
generations. As of June 2010,
187 nations had ratified the
World Heritage Convention which
commits “states parties” to
preserving their cultural and
national heritage sites for
future posterity. Administered
by a 21-nation World Heritage
Committee, the program presently
includes more than 920 natural
and man-made World Heritage
sites in 151 countries around
the world, including more that
700 cultural sites, 180 natural
and 27 “mixed properties.”
The
Committee selects and monitors
the places deemed representative
of universal value, from the
Statue of Liberty’s message of
inclusion and freedom, to the
pyramids of Egypt, which convey
the boundless and mysterious
talent of our ancestors, to the
Smoky Mountains, representing
what the forces of nature can
create.
Over
the last year, the United
States’ participation in the
Committee has seen a revival.
Our leaders have exhibited a
renewed desire to become, once
again, a leader in protecting
earth’s bounty. While there has
been some dissension about the
idea of an international
organization influencing the
decisions on lands that to many
should only be governed by their
respective localities, the
Committee has remained sensitive
to these concerns.
The
missions of preservation and
education are widely agreed
upon. The Program is credited
with preventing many of earth’s
treasures from demolition for
highway construction, strip
mining, and excessive
exploitation of wildlife. The
Program has also extended to
World Heritage Education, which
gives young people a say in
protecting the treasures of the
world they will one day lead.
Designation as a World Heritage
Site has the potential to lead
to greater awareness about some
relatively remote and
little-known wonders. Museum
displays, documentaries, and
other media attention can serve
to bring the culture and history
to the individual. With the
addition of 21 new sites in July
it looks like the famous list of
Seven Wonders of the World may
be getting a little longer.
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(The following is the first
of a series of articles on the
“Other UN”, the unsung part of
the world body that deals with
economic and social matters,
from establishing global
technical standards to
administering aid to the poorest
and most distressed people of
the world. It consumes some 70
percent of the organization’s
resources –ed)
Know Your UN
by
Gregory Flood, Vice President,
West Triangle Chapter
Much
of the media’s attention (and
indeed much of the work of the
United Nations Association of
the USA) focuses on the
international diplomatic
activities of the UN
(peacekeeping, international
treaties, etc.). The United
Nations (through its
Secretariat) carries out this
work under the auspices of the
General Assembly and the
Security Council.
The
UN’s programs, however, cover a
significantly broader range of
economic, social, humanitarian,
and cultural issues. Much of
this work is carried out by the
Specialized Agencies of
the UN. These agencies are not
part of the United Nations
itself. Rather, they are
autonomous bodies, numbering 16
in all and based throughout the
world, established by
intergovernmental agreement, and
having wide responsibilities
spanning the economic and social
spectrum, from agriculture to
meteorology, finance, health,
economics, etc.
The
specialized agencies report
annually to the Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC),
however, they control their own
budgets and have their own
Governing Bodies which appoint
agency heads independently of
the General Assembly and the
Secretary-General. Accordingly,
while they often cooperate with
each other, they also have their
own principles, goals and rules,
which at times may conflict with
those of other UN organs and
agencies.
Major specialized agencies
include the International Labor
Organization (ILO), the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO), the United
Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), and the World Health
Organization (WHO).
Two
of the most powerful specialized
agencies, which also are the
most independent with respect to
UN decision-making, are the
World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). The United
Nations along with its
specialized agencies is,
therefore, rightly considered to
be a “family of organizations”:
the United Nations system.
Future articles in this series
will address the work of each of
the Specialized Agencies and the
relationships among them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(From the Outreach Division,
Department of Information
of the United Nations)
EVERY DAY
The
United Nations works to solve
global challenges
1.
Provides food to 108 million
people in 74 countries
2.
Vaccinates 40 per cent of the
world’s children, saving 2
million lives a year
3.
Assists over 34 million refugees
and others fleeing war, famine
or persecution
4.
Fights climate change and leads
a campaign to plant 1 billion
trees a year
5.
Keeps the peace with 116,000
peacekeepers in 17 operations on
4 continents
6.
Fights poverty and helped 300
million rural poor achieve
better lives in the last 30
years
7.
Monitors, promotes, protects and
develops human rights worldwide
8.
Mobilizes $7 billion in
humanitarian aid to help people
affected by emergencies
9.
Leads international efforts in
clearing landmines in over 30
countries
10.
Promotes universal primary
education, reaching 88%
enrolment coverage in developing
countries
From UNA-USA World Bulletin
UNA-USA Calls for Faster Action
on Ratifying Treaties
The
United Nations Association of
the United States of America (UNA-USA)...called
on the Senate and the Obama
Administration to move quickly
to ratify international
agreements that safeguard peace,
security, human rights and the
environment. Observing that the
U.S.’s poor record on treaty
ratification has increasingly
isolated the country from the
growing world wide codification
of international norms and from
our democratic allies in
particular, the Association
called for a concerted effort to
review and accept the many
outstanding treaties that serve
America’s interest and values.
In
May 2009 the Administration
formally asked the Senate to
ratify 17 treaties, including
the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea, the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty (CTBT), and the
Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Almost a year later, not one of
these treaties has been ratified
or scheduled for a Senate vote.
“To
protect and strengthen
rule-based international order,
and secure the cooperation
abroad needed to solve global
problems, America should support
treaties,” observed UNA-USA
President A. Edward Elmendorf.
“The President should continue
to lead, and the Senate must
rise to its responsibilities to
grant its advice and consent.”
The
Association statement
accompanied its release of a
report, “Renewing America’s
Commitment to International
Law.” The report stresses that
American participation in
international treaty regimes is
essential to induce other
nations to join in cooperative
action on the great many global
challenges America faces.
Treaties on nuclear arms,
international justice, human
rights, biologic diversity,
organic pollutants, climate
change, and regulation of the
oceans have been adopted by much
of the world but have languished
without ratification by the
United States.
The
report notes that trade treaties
have been “fast-tracked” and
adopted by majority votes with
amendments and filibusters
barred. It observes that human
rights treaties have been unable
to win a 2/3 majority in the
Senate and suggests a similar
“fast track” treatment for human
rights treaties.
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Hillsborough, Durham and
Carrboro Mayors Support UN Day
and MDG’s
Independent Weekly, Herald Sun
and N&O Editors Asked to Inform
Readers
To the Editor
We would like to offer "roses"
and thanks to the three mayors
[Tom Stevens of Hillsborough,
William Bell of Durham, and Mark
Chilton of Carrboro] for issuing
proclamations designating Oct
24th as UN Day and expressing
support for our theme "Engaging
American in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG's). As
you may know the MDG's are
attempting to slash global
poverty, reduce hunger, combat
diseases, protect the
environment, and boost
education. Substantial progress
has been made since the nations
of the world committed to
achieving these goals by 2015;
however, we have a long way to
go. We hope your readers will
join us in supporting the UN in
it's efforts to reach the MDG's
by 2015.
Sincerely,
Erdman Palmore, PhD
President of the West Triangle
Chapter of the UN Association
Archived October Newsletter
Archived September Newsletter
