News Archives » United Nations
March 22: World Water Day March 21st, 2013
World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. Designated by the UN, it is an international day to celebrate freshwater.
In 2013, in reflection of the International Year of Water Cooperation, World Water Day is dedicated to the theme of cooperation around water.
In February of 2013, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) held a Roundtable in New York on the Human Right to Water and Community Engagement. A gathering of companies, community representatives, investors and NGO representatives, the Roundtable was a successful beginning to a process of dialog around corporate impacts on scarce water supplies.
For information on the UN World Water Day events and materials, visit World Water Day 2013
To learn about the ICCR Water Roundtable, click here.
For Lenten faith resources on water, visit the Ecumenical Water Network of the World Council of Churches, which has an online compilation of biblical reflections and resources on water.
UN Survey for Post 2015 Agenda March 5th, 2013
The United Nations is conducting a global survey asking you to choose your priorities for a better world. Our VIVAT International is a partner in this endeavor, and has asked us to make this available to you. our readers. Results of the survey will be shared with world leaders in setting the next global development agenda. Please go to this link for the survey tool: http://www.myworld2015.org/?partner=VIVAT
You can choose your own language. Contact the VIVAT staff if you have any question, problem or difficulty in accomplishing the survey. Thanks!
Access to Water and Sanitation Needs to be Prioritized February 26th, 2013
The United Nations and its partners today called on the international community to prioritize ensuring access to water and sanitation to vulnerable populations in the ‘post-2015’ development agenda, stressing this would help combat inequality and promote human rights and sustainability.
Following the Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, the United Nations started an open consultation process to identify priorities from citizens around the world for the post-2015 development agenda, as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their target date in 2015.
Water was chosen as one of the 11 thematic areas in the global consultation process. Given the importance of water, especially due to the fact that water underpins most of the other MDGs and any future goals, it is deemed critical that there be an insightful and informative debate on the role of water in the post-2015 development agenda.
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Global Report on Trafficking in Persons February 20th, 2013
VIVAT International in New York has shared with us the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC).
Did you know that of all persons trafficked, 76% are women and girls? 27% of those trafficked are children (of which 2/3 are girls).
OMI UN Update – February and March 2013 February 20th, 2013
The United Nations Commission on Social Development recently concluded its 10 day session in a call to give the poorest and most vulnerable populations the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty
According to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on promoting people’s empowerment, nearly 80% of the world’s population is without adequate access to social protection, leaving those feeling powerless to improve their position. The report also states that while more than 600 million people have overcome poverty since 1990, 1 billion people are still struggling to reach that goal by 2015. Globally 200 million people were unemployed at the end of 2011, an increase of 27 million jobless persons since 2007 and 621 million young people are neither in employment, school or training nor looking for work.
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