Church World Service celebrates United Nations Day

October 22, 2007

Representatives of non-governmental organizations worldwide at the United Nations conference on climate change in September Photo: T. Abraham/CWS

Wednesday October 24, 2007 will mark the 60 th United Nations Day commemorating the founding of the United Nations and the signing of the UN charter on October 24, 1945.

UN Day was designated by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1947, sponsored by the United States.

Over 50 countries signed the original UN Charter in 1945, including China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. This charter established the world’s most representative global body, a forum to address international conflict and set up standards for human rights, international development, environmental protection, and many other challenges that face our global community. Today there are 192 member nations of the UN which use its various bodies to carry out the UN Charter.

Although ending conflict peacefully remains a primary goal, the UN has become more directly involved with concerns that are increasingly seen as global. Many of these priorities also reflect the mission and 60-year history of Church World Service—including working to end global poverty, promoting environmental sustainability, ensuring human rights, and aiding nations and communities amidst natural disasters.

Church World Service is working to strengthen the UN directly through its consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council and by working in partnership with church and civil society organizations in the UN context. The CWS United Nations office, located in the Church Center at the UN, is taking up a variety of issues on behalf of Church World Service, including the following issues that are priorities for both CWS and the UN:

Water for All as a human right and development priority:
www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals as a means of addressing global poverty: www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Working to address Climate Change, and particularly how this trend impacts countries in the global south:
www.un.org/climatechange/

Church World Service celebrates UN Day and invites its partners to join CWS in its work to strengthen this global body.