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- Written by: Beth O’Connell, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to eliminate poverty and create a more equitable society and a safer environment by 2030 are at the midpoint this year for that target date – and in need of a rescue plan.
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- Written by: Julie Steinbach, Co-Chair, ICUUW Outreach Committee, USA
Around 120 pilgrims - in person or online - attended the 36th Congress of International Association of Religious Freedom (IARF) in Cluj/Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Romania, September 4-6, 2023.
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- Written by: Rev. Carol Huston, Chair, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
The March meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) have been our advocacy focus since we began developing a presence at the UN in 2019. Our colleague from Bolivia, Carmen Capriles, who was active at the UN long before that, has urged us to attend other events. This year we did just that: The most significant was participation in the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July. Then in September, a few of us attended the People’s Assembly, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, and the March to End Fossil Fuels.
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- Written by: Beth O’Connell, ICUUW Vice President, France
Two billion beverage bottles are used and discarded around the world every day, flooding the land and choking the waterways with plastic pollution. With dire messages from ecologists, it’s time to “turn off the tap” of this constant polluted flow of plastic, Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) told delegates at a meeting to develop a legally-binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
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- Written by: Karen Kortsch, ICUUW President
Dear Members and Friends,
As I prepare to go to the UUA General Assembly in Pittsburgh, PA this month, I hold in awe our accomplishments around the world. We had our first post-pandemic in-person gathering at the UN for the 67th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March, filed our first quadrennial report to the UN Economic and Social Council, and we are planning our first in-person Convocation since 2017. We have so much to celebrate, and yet the struggle for gender equality continues, complicated by many setbacks during the pandemic.
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- Written by: Rev. Carol Huston, Chair, IWC's UN Advocacy Team, USA
As an organization in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, IWC has been involved with the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) since 2017. CSW meets for two weeks in March, with a vibrant schedule of sessions, pre-COVID times in person, now in virtual space. This year we have been exploring ways to expand our interest in UN meetings at other times of the year. Carmen Capriles – an active UN civil society advocate from Bolivia and part of IWC’s Advocacy Team – is encouraging us to do this, first through sessions at the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July and then through UN General Assembly in September 2022.
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- Written by: Debra Pritchard, ICUUW Board Member, USA
Climate change never affected my daily life until I lived for a decade on a Philippine island ...