LINK
TO THE UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK
The Family and the United
Nations System
The United Nations was
founded in 1945 with four purposes—to maintain international peace and
security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate in solving international
problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and to be a center for
harmonizing the actions of nations. This is a noble mission requiring actions
on a number of fronts. Although the UN is primarily an assembly of countries
with ambassadors and committees and councils that carry out business related to
international relationships, it is also a set of agencies and departments. A set of specialized agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, World Health Organization,
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP)and the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) exist as permanent agencies with broad
mandates. For information about the UN go to: http://www.un.org
Little known within this complex system, is the fact that over 1400 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are affiliated with the UN. These are not-for-profit, voluntary citizen groups with interests of concern to the UN and with constituencies that can extend the work of the UN. They bring concerns to the attention of UN agencies, monitor policies and programs, encourage participation in civil society and serve as important information dissemination vehicles. The International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) is one of the UN- affiliated NGOs. This means that the IFHE has representatives at the UN that participate on committees, attend events and work with other NGOs on issues of importance to families.
The International Year of the Family served an important function as it created a greater awareness of
family issues within the agencies of the United Nations
system. Links were established
among the different organizations (UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA and WHO) and a variety
of activities followed that highlighted problems related to the family, both in
developing countries and countries in need.
These IYF activities
included the development of technical assistance (Chile); assistance to refugee
families; (Palestine) in the form of food, training programs and small grants,
programs in family life education related to AIDS in schools (Zimbabwe);
training courses on early childhood and family education in Asia, and research
on the growth of female-headed households.
Of particular interest to
IFHE is the increased interest within the UN in strengthening links with family
oriented NGOs. Eric Olson, the new
director of the "Focal Point on the Family", part of the Department
of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), has been very interested in and
supportive of the Committee on the Family.
The Committee on the Family
meets monthly with programs on those issues identified by the UN such as women and
international migration, population and family planning, older persons and the
family, human trafficking, etc. The
highlight of each year is the observance of the International Day of Families
(May 15). A program for all NGOs is
organized jointly by the UN Department of Public information (DPI), Department
of Economic & Social Affairs (DESA) and the Committee on the Family.
The topic for the program
for May 2005 was "HIV/AIDS and Family Well-Being". A panel including
representatives from WHO, DESA, Hunter College and the UN Representative from
Botswana discussed AIDS, its effect on the family unit and the supportive
services designed for schools, family members and the community.
In addition to the panel, a
video titled "Grandmothers Against Poverty and
AIDS", was shown and a statement by Secretary General, Kofi
Annan was read.
For more information about this event and the Family Unit, go to the web
page : http://www.un.org/esa/socdev
A meeting of interest to
all NGOs is the yearly 3 day conference organized by the NGOs and the
Department of Public Information (DPI).
It draws over 3,000 NGOs from around the world with outstanding speakers
and including side events hosted by NGOs.
(Juanita Mendenhall was scheduled to speak at the September 11, 2001
meeting.) This year the conference title
is "Our Challenge for Peace, Partnership and Renewal" and will be
held from September 7th to 9th.
For further information
about the work of the IFHE and AAFCS representatives, the NGO and UN meetings
they cover, their names and email addresses are:
IFHE Representatives to the
UN:
Mary Miller: Representative
- Family Committee
Mary Covington: Alternate
Representative - Aging Committee
Eileen Gallager
Labiner: Alternate Representative - NGO/DPI Annual
Conference
AAFCS Observers to the UN:
Gloria Tanderjian:
Representative - Committee on the Status of Women
Nora Gorman: Alternate Representative - UNIFEM
No email
Ruth Norman: IFHE-US UN Liaison