Beside The Creek: United Nations

Showing posts with label United Nations. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

Friends Journal .... a Quaker perspective ... September 1, 2018

Hopelessness and burnout lead a Friend to rediscover an archaic form of hope.

Image: A yellow flower grows from between cracks in a cement and brick wall.

A Quaker Perspective on Hope by Kate Davies

Oné gloomy fall day in the early 1980s, I was on a tour of the infamous toxic waste dump in Love Canal, New York, with government officials from Canada and the United States. The dump’s contaminants were leaking into the Niagara River, and hence into Lake Ontario, the source of drinking water for 40 million Americans and Canadians. Needless to say, this was causing widespread alarm on both sides of the border, and, as an environmental policy analyst for the city of Toronto, my job was to prepare an appropriate response for the city council.

By that time, all the local residents had been evacuated, and there was a high chain link fence surrounding the site with large warning signs every hundred yards proclaiming “DANGER: HAZARDOUS WASTE AREA. UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT” in big red and black capital letters. Looking through the fence, I could see rows of boarded up houses and empty streets. The silence was palpable, and I felt overwhelmed as I looked at the poisoned earth and the uninhabited neighborhood. The knowledge that the children were most seriously affected, combined with the fact that there were hundreds of other abandoned sites leaking contaminants into the river and the lake, became too much to bear.

Looking back...

Kate Davies is a member of Whidbey Island (Wash.) Meeting and author of Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times. She is also senior fellow at the Whidbey Institute and professor emeritus at Antioch University.

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Sunday, 2 September 2018

Following a threat from Donald Trump, UN agency helping Palestinian refuges is denied US funding

Updated earlier today at 6:57am

PHOTO: The UNRWA helps those who fled since the 1948 war that led to creation of the state of Israel. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem)

The United States has halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, in a move likely to further heighten tensions between the Palestinians and the Trump administration.

Key points:

UNRWA says it helps around 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East
The US had withheld $82m of funding in January, pending a review
The UN has called for other countries to fill funding gap, with Germany already offering to help

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an "irredeemably flawed operation."

"The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," she said in a statement.

Ms Nauert said the agency's, "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years."

UNRWA rejected the criticisms, with spokesman Chris Gunness describing it as "a force for regional stability".

Speaking in Jordan, where more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees live, including 370,000 in 10 refugee camps, Mr Gunness said: "It is a deeply regrettable decision … some of the most disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable people on this planet are likely to suffer."

Thousands of Palestinian refugees cue for food supplies in ruins of Damascus

PHOTO: The UNRWA supports thousands of Palestinian refugees including those who have fled to war torn Syria. (AP: UNRWA)

Wednesday, 1 August 2018

Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People: concern for the rights of indigenous and other minorities living in Israel.

30 July

STATEMENT – The recently enacted Basic Law: “Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People” is a cause of great concern. Seemingly enacted for internal political reasons, while defining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, the law fails to provide any constitutional guarantees for the rights of the indigenous and other minorities living in the country. Palestinian citizens of Israel, constituting 20% are flagrantly excluded from the law.

It is beyond conception that a Law with constitutional effect ignores an entire segment of the population, as if its members never existed. The law might not have practical effects, yet it sends an unequivocal signal to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, to the effect that in this country they are not at home. The Arabic language has been downgraded from an official language to a language with “a special status”, and with the commitment to work on the development of Jewish settlement in the land, with no mention of the development of the country for the rest of its inhabitants.

This Basic Law is exclusive rather than inclusive, disputed rather than consensual, politicized rather than being rooted in the basic norms that are common and acceptable to all fractions of the population.

This discriminatory law directly contravenes the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, as well as Israel’s own Declaration of Independence. The first guaranteed the establishment of a Jewish State while ensuring full civil rights to the Arabs living therein and in the Second, the founders of the Country clearly and unequivocally committed to foster its development for the benefit of all its inhabitants and to ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all, irrespective of religion, race or sex.

Finally, this law contravenes and contradicts the Basic Law: “Human Dignity and Liberty” enacted in 1995 that guarantees the respect of the dignity of every person. Where there is discrimination, there is no dignity.

In other words, the law says that there are not equal rights between Jews and Arabs and refuses to acknowledge their existence.

It not enough to have and guarantee individual rights. Any state with large minorities ought to recognize the collective rights of these minorities, and guarantee the preservation of their collective identity, including their religious, ethnic and social traditions.

The Christian citizens of Israel have the same concerns as any other non-Jewish communities with respect to this Law. They call upon all citizens of the State of Israel who still believe in the basic concept of equality among citizens of the same nation, to voice their objection to this law and the dangers emanating thereof to the future of this Country.

Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Friday, 13 April 2018

Universal Peace Federation - April 2018


	Vol. 13, Issue 7


	April 9, 2018


	World Interfaith Harmony Week Observed in Japan Tokyo, Japan—UPF-Japan commemorated UN World Interfaith Harmony Week 2018 by holding a forum with approximately 80 Ambassadors for Peace and representatives of Shintoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity.


	World Interfaith Harmony Week Observed in Nigeria Abuja, Nigeria—UPF-Nigeria organized a series of activities to commemorate the 2018 United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW).


	World Interfaith Harmony Week Observed in Bergamo, Italy Bergamo, Italy—Sincere brotherhood and intense spirituality marked the 2018 celebration of World Interfaith Harmony Week.


	World Interfaith Harmony Week Observed in Nicaragua Managua, Nicaragua—In observance of World Interfaith Harmony Week 2018, UPF-Nicaragua held a forum at a local university.


	Slovakians Given a Taste of Korean Culture and History Bratislava, Slovakia—Utilizing the general interest in Korea during the Olympic Winter Games, UPF-Slovakia organized an event titled “Korea’s Traditions from a Historical Perspective.”


	Upcoming Events MAY 15: International Day of Families JUN 1: Global Day of Parents AUG 2-5: Brazil: ILC


	Contact Us www.upf.org \| e.news@upf.org \| 200 White Plains Rd. FL1, Tarrytown, NY 10591, USA UPF is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. We support and promote the work of the United Nations and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals