 The President’s Corner:
Tom Miller
Obama Leads by Example
Since I have taken the helm of UNA-USA in May, I have been traveling extensively across the country visiting our chapters and talking to our many members. From the beginning, my mission has been to re-energize and expand UNA’s base. I also want to use this digital space regularly to discuss important issues concerning the United States and the United Nations, to respond to your inquiries and to share with you what I hear and what I know. Read more.
 We’re Back, Obama Says, Now Work With Us
By Barbara Crossette
President Barack Obama, making his first appearance on the opening day of the United Nations General Assembly debate, spoke forcefully today about his commitment to act “boldly and collectively” in tackling shared global issues, heralding “a new era of engagement with the world.” He was equally pointed in challenging those governments accustomed to “an almost reflexive using anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for collective inaction.” Read more.
 | President Obama, speaking at the General Assembly today, will become the first US president to chair a meeting of the Security Council tomorrow. UN Photo/Mark Garten.
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Obama, Speaking at the Security Council, to Take on Nuclear Issues
By Christopher J. Tangney
President Barack Obama will convene a head-of-state-level meeting of the United Nations Security Council tomorrow, Sept. 24, to address nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament -- the first time a US president has chaired a Security Council session.
The historic council meeting marks another step in Obama's ambitious agenda to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Read more.
 | Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will represent the US tomorrow at a high-level UN conference on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. UNA-NCA photo.
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The Test-Ban Treaty, Inching Toward Full Approval
By Jim Wurst
The drive for a total ban on the testing of nuclear weapons should get a long-awaited kick-start tomorrow when the parties to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty hold a high-level conference to promote the entry into force of the treaty. This will be the first such meeting, held at the United Nations, since President Obama took office. Read more.
 | United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opens the Summit on Climate Change yesterday in New York. UN Photo/Marco Castro
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Optimism and Anxiety Abound at UN Climate Summit
By Roger Nokes
President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations climate summit yesterday in New York, citing the seriousness and urgency of global warming and saying that if the tide was not turned against preventing more environmental damage that a tremendous burden would be left for future generations. Yet it was a tide, he added, that “we can reverse.”
Read more & watch video of the full speech.
 | | In northwest Pakistan, a woman displaced by fighting takes away a hygiene kit supplied by the UN Population Fund. William A. Ryan/UNFPA |
New UN Women’s Agency Gets the Go-Ahead
By Barbara Crossette
In the closing hours of the last General Assembly session on Sept. 14, and only days after gloomy advocates were predicting failure, member nations agreed by consensus to establish a new high-level UN agency for women’s issues. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must now begin the job of finding a strong under secretary-general to lead it. Read more.
 | A child laborer weaves a tufted rug in a factory in the northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh in 2007. About 250,000 children are exploited by the rug-making industry in South Asia. U. Roberto Romano.
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Children as Laborers, Circa 2009
By Sue Gloor
Some consumers may pay exorbitant prices for an intricately imported hand-woven rug, but what they might not know is that the rug could have been made by child laborers at the loom, according to the RugMark Foundation.
RugMark is sponsoring the traveling photo exhibition “Faces of Freedom” with the US Fund for Unicef to highlight child slavery in the rug-making market. The exhibition opens today at the Unicef House in New York. Read more.
 | | Online database programs give users in least developed countries access to valuable scientific information. Michigan State professor Michael T. Weber, above, leads a training workshop in Mozambique. Photo courtesy of Information Training and Outreach Centre For Africa. |
Technical Publications Made More Accessible in Poor Countries
By Carolina Hidalgo
To spread access to knowledge and spur innovative activity, the World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized UN agency, has launched the Access to Research for Development and Innovation program, giving research and academic institutions and industrial property offices in developing countries free or inexpensive access to more than 50 scientific and technical journals. Read more.
Advocacy News
Action Alert: Follow President Obama's Coattails in Support of Global Cooperation!
Following President Obama's first visit to the United Nations, we can help increase public knowledge of and support for the UN's valuable and unparalleled contributions to global peace and prosperity.
Initiative Seeks to Promote Treaty Ratifications
UNA-USA recently launched a collaborative effort to strengthen US support for international law through the ratification of landmark and broadly endorsed multilateral treaties.
Known as the Conventions Working Group, the initiative brings together the leaders of national coalition groups supporting individual treaties, including the Treaty for the Rights of Women; the Convention on the Law of the Sea; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The group's initial activity has produced an op-ed entitled “'Do as I Do' Diplomacy” published September 22 in the International Herald Tribune and available on The New York Times website, as well as a letter to the editor printed in The Washington Times.
News and Notes
 UNA-USA Mourns the Loss of Leo Nevas
Leo Nevas’s death, on Aug. 26, 2009, is mourned by his many friends at the United Nations Association of the USA. Leo was UNA-USA’s longest-serving board member, a true proponent of the importance of the United Nations’ principles as well as a patriotic American. Read UNA's full statement.
Read more about the life of Leo Nevas here.
 | | Irina Bokova, Unesco's new chief. Unesco/Niamh Burke |
Unesco Chief Named
Irina Gueorguieva Bokova of Bulgaria has been chosen as the new director-general of Unesco, the prestigious educational and cultural arm of the United Nations, based in Paris. Bokova, elected after five rounds of voting by the 58-member Unesco executive board yesterday, will be confirmed for the post on Oct. 15. She is the first woman to run the organization and replaces Koichiro Matsuura of Japan. Read more.
Asia Times Article Comes to Ban's Defense
Ian Williams of the Asia Times wrote on Sept. 10, 2009, that "United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has been under attack in the Anglo-American press. This is perhaps why, despite a recent global poll showing him to be the second-most popular political figure in the world after President Barack Obama, his ratings are not so glowing in the United States and Britain." Read the full article here.
In the Field:
The United Nations Association
of the USA
 | | From left, Karen Mulhauser, president of UNA's National Capital Area Division, Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, and Kathy Calvin, executive director of the UN Foundation. The women joined 50 Global Classrooms students at an event to support malaria prevention efforts. David Erans/Nothing but Nets |
In Washinton, UNA Takes Part in a Malaria-Prevention Event
On Sept. 11, 2009, Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations; Kathy Calvin, executive vice president of the United Nations Foundation and UNA-USA board member; and Karen Mulhauser, president of UNA’s National Capital Area Division, joined about 50 Washington-area Global Classrooms students at an anti-malaria workshop presented by the UN Foundation’s Nothing but Nets campaign. Read more.
 New Student Alliance Program Officially Under Way
UNA-USA is pleased to announce its new Student Alliance Program, an action-oriented member force to help students in middle school, high school and college become stronger, smarter and more effective advocates in fixing the world’s problems.
The program’s three areas of focus are human rights and international justice; climate change; and strengthening the United Nations. Each area has a “take action” page of fact sheets and suggestions for educational and advocacy activities. Student Alliance groups can also choose their own topics.
A guidebook is included in the program on how to get a group started, either through a UNA-USA chapter or through a school. For more information, go to www.unausa.org/studentalliance.
Upcoming Events
View the Complete UNA-USA Calendar
UNA-USA's Grassroots Voices
The United Nations Association of the USA recently launched Grassroots Voices, a new undertaking within its E-Newsletter, to promote cross-chapter dialogue and foster effective civic participation.
The feature serves as a tool for UNA members to voice their opinions on a wide range of issues that concern US foreign policy and the United Nations. Through Grassroots Voices, UNA-USA aims to stimulate new ideas to advance public debate on ways the US and the world can cooperate to address global problems.
Submissions are judged on writing quality, clarity, supporting materials and how well contributors meet the criteria outlined in the authors' guide, available below. Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis and edited at the discretion of UNA-USA. Please read the author's guide for all the details.
To respond to writers in Grassroots Voices, please e-mail your letters, of no more than 150 words, to Roger Nokes, Coordinator of Chapter Relations, rnokes@unausa.org, with your name, address and phone number included. Letters may be selected for publication in future Grassroots Voices but may be edited for space constraints.
The views expressed in this E-Newsletter do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations Association of the USA |
Sept. 23-26 and 28-30 General Debate of the 64th Session of the General Assembly will take place at UN Headquarters. www.un.org/ga
Sept. 24
US convenes a heads-of-state meeting at the Security Council on nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament. To be chaired by President Obama.
www.un.org/docs/sc.
Sept. 24
The General Assembly marks the 60th anniversary of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East with a high-level meeting. Member states at the ministerial level are encouraged to participate. www.un.org/ga.
Sept. 24-25
President Obama chairs the G-20 financial summit in Pittsburgh. Leaders from countries representing 85 percent of the world’s economy meet to discuss the global economic situation and propose plans of action. www.pittsburghsummit.gov.
Sept. 30
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chairs a Security Council meeting on Resolution 1820, with the focus on eliminating obstacles to women’s empowerment. www.state.gov.
Through Oct. 2
The Human Rights Council holds its 12th regular session in Geneva. The session is focusing on the rights of indigenous peoples, human rights in Palestine and upholding human rights while countering terrorism. www.ohchr.org.
Oct. 5
UNA of Rochester, NY, hosts a breakfast and conference from 8 am-noon on “Freedom of the Press: A Global Crisis” to discuss the importance of journalism and access to facts. Open to the public, $20, or $10 w/ student ID. www.unar.org.
Oct. 8
The 19th annual commemoration of the International Day of Older Persons begins at 10 am at UN Headquarters, with speakers all day. Registration required before Sept. 28 to attend. www.ngocoa-ny.org. For more info, click here.
Did You Know...  …that on Monday, Sept. 21, International Day of Peace was celebrated worldwide?
International Day of Peace, also referred to as Peace Day, is a global event to promote peace and to end conflict. It was established by a UN resolution in 1981 to strengthen ideals of peace and relieve tension and causes of conflict and encourage all people to cooperate for world peace.
This year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments and citizens to honor peace by focusing on nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament.
“As long as such weapons exist, no one is safe. On this International Day of Peace, I have a simple message for all: We must disarm! We must have peace,” said the secretary-general after ringing the traditional Bell of Peace at a ceremony at UN Headquarters.
On June 13, the secretary-general began a multiplatform campaign under the slogan WMD – We Must Disarm -- to mark the events leading up to the International Day of Peace.
During the 100-day countdown, Ban and the UN Messengers of Peace, the actors Michael Douglas and Rainn Wilson have been raising awareness of the dangers and costs of nuclear weapons by giving a reason a day, on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, which explains the importance of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
Peace Day was first celebrated in September 1982. Two decades later, the General Assembly approved Resolution 55/282, designating Sept. 21 as the permanent date for the commemoration.
Since its inception, Peace Day has grown to become celebrated by millions. Each year, various events are organized worldwide, with the largest activity being Global Ceasefire, a UN effort calling all people and nations of the world to refrain from violence and hostilities during the 24 hours of Peace Day.
--Veronica Haglund
Write to Us
We'd like to hear your thoughts on current world events, US-UN relations and the UN at work.
Email us at publications@unausa.org or write to the editor:
Dulcie Leimbach
dleimbach@unausa.org
International Day Observances :
October 1
International Day of Older Persons
October 5
World Habitat Day
October 9
World Post Day
October 16
World Food Day
October 17
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
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