2024 UN Advocacy Committee Report

The UN Advocacy Committee has been busy this year. As the only UU organization with an ongoing presence at the UN this year, we found a lot of work to do. The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) remains a major focus, but we have branched out to other meetings.

We meet monthly on the first Friday of the month, with an average of 10-11 participants.

Eight of us (Ellen Barfield, Carmen Capriles, Tina Huesing, Carol Huston, Bruce Knotts, Karen Kortsch, Beth O’Connell, and Genia Peterson) have Annual Passes to the UN for 2024, which means we can access the UN Campus at any time. Lee Boeke Burke, Marjorie Davidson, Phyllis Marsh, Hajnal Minger, Debra Pritchard, and Julie Steinbach came to New York for several meetings. A former Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist-United Nations Office (UU-UNO), Fran Mercer, was with us in March for the 68th Session of CSW (CSW68).

Last July, a delegation of six attended the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF). This two-week event receives reports on the progress being made on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 17 goals that provide a roadmap for a better world. The meeting also allows about 40 countries to offer reports on their work toward the SDGs. Romania was one of the reporting countries, and we made contact with a woman from a Romanian NGO. Hajnal and Lee went with her to a meeting at the Romanian embassy!

In September, we attended sessions of the crowded UN General Assembly virtually, and a few of us attended, in person, the People’s Assembly at the Church Center, across the street from the UN headquarters. Carmen Capriles was one of the organizers of the People’s Assembly; she also attended the Climate Change Conference (COP28) in November-December in Dubai and reported back to us on her activities and impressions.

We are monitoring the development of the Draft Articles on Crimes Against Humanity as UN consideration of a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty continues. Marjorie, Beth, Bruce, and Genia attended Civil Society meetings on the subject, led by the Global Justice Center. There was also discussion on how to advance gender justice in the Draft Articles.

CSW is still a massive, confusing event, but more of us are figuring out how it works and how to be in coalition with other groups. Our delegation of 11 attended daily briefings and many sessions on Gaza, Ukraine, and climate change. At a workshop on Ukraine, we discovered an organization that is supporting a Ukrainian language school in Romania – much like our work in partnership with Providence, the charity organization of the Hungarian Unitarian Church. And when Carol asked a question about it and identified our UU identity, we came into contact with a Canadian UU. Networking is important!

For CSW68 in March, we organized two parallel events: a webinar featuring organizations that provide solar lighting and solar cookers in Africa, and another that reported on ICUUW’s micro-finance program in Uganda and a young women’s business program in partnership with Tunawiri Pamoja in Kenya. It was good that these events were virtual. They attracted listeners in Africa who declared that they really needed this information for their own livelihood.

During the spring, Carmen, Beth, and Carol attended meetings of the Indigenous Peoples Forum and sessions on Funding for Development and a Civil Society Town Hall. Carmen was on the planning committee for a Civil Society Conference held in Nairobi in May. Former ICUUW board member Noel Lutomia was our representative there, but unfortunately she had to leave the meeting due to a family emergency. This conference was a planning session for the UN Summit of the Future; ICUUW will take part in that event in September.

We are active year-round with NGO CSW NY, the entity that organizes events for CSW, the Women’s Major Group (WMG), which is active around HLPF, and the US Women’s Caucus. Beth and Carol have joined a subcommittee of the US group, to help plan how we will work with the US Administration and Congress during the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Accords next spring.

Our work at the UN is important and exciting. The UN Advocacy Committee meets each month, usually on the first Friday. Join us!

Rev. Carol Huston, Committee Chair