The United Nations Association - Greater Seattle Chapter
The United Nations Association - Greater Seattle Chapter is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports the work of the United Nations as one of a number of local chapters of the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA-USA). UNA Seattle encourages active civic participation in the most important social and economic issues facing the world today, from global health and human rights to the spread of democracy to equitable and sustainable development.
Our Mission: UNA-GSC is dedicated to educating, inspiring and mobilizing members of the Greater Seattle community to support the principles and vital work of the United Nations and to advocate for full engagement by the United States in the United Nations.
UNA-Seattle is a chapter of the UNA-USA. We are a 501(c)(3) organization according to US regulations and all contributions are tax deductible.
UNA Annual Meeting on December 7, 2013
UNA Greater Seattle Chapter presents Club UN
Join us on the last Wednesday of each month for Club UN, a social event where individuals interested in the work of the United Nations, human rights, and other social issues can gather and discuss.
Metz Fundraising Evening: November 23, 2013
Watch Seattle In Action At The World We Want
The United Nations Disability Treaty
In case you need a refresher, the UN Disability Treaty is an international treaty that provides a framework for countries to embrace the rights and dignity of all people with disabilities.
Sounds non-controversial, right? Well, believe it or not,the treaty actually fell victim to political posturing in the Senate last December – failing to be ratified by only five votes.
With that kind of razor-thin margin, the only way we're going to get those extra five votes is if people like you demand it.
Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds their first hearing on the treaty tomorrow, show your support for the CRPD by sharing this graphic on Facebook – and ask your friends and family to join you!
Show your support for the UN Disability Treaty This treaty was actually inspired by U.S. legislation, and it is frankly embarrassing that the U.S. has failed to join 126 other countries in ratifying it.
In fact, the UN Disability Treaty was modeled after The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which values independence and respect for disabled people by promoting reasonable accommodations – things as basic as wheelchair ramps.
For the nearly 58 million Americans (including more than 5 million veterans) who have one or more disabilities, that was a game-changer. And that's the kind of impact this treaty could have for the 1 billion people who live with a disability worldwide.
If you're standing with the United Nations on supporting people with disabilities, then share this today, and learn more here: http://
Today Was Seattle’s Turn!
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On November 2, 2013, passionate and caring people from all over Seattle gathered at City University to talk about the many pressing issues facing our world today and into the next 30 years. Questions were asked and spirited debate ensued. 12 breakout groups talked and recorded the issues, comments and perspectives ranging from climate change, immigrant/refugee rights, education, land rights, health, and human trafficking. The goal was to let the Secretary General and the General Assembly know what we here in Seattle consider important and critical issues that we want for our world and that of our children.
When the video of the proceedings is ready, it will be posted here and on Facebook. Please check back here often. In the meantime, please consider joining us in this incredible journey. Become a member of the UNA Seattle. Be informed. Be inspired. Together, we can do a lot of good.
The World We Want: Consultations for Post 2015 MDGs
Poised to be the first United Nations grassroots consultation initiative performed in the United States, "The World We Want" - UNA-USA Consultations on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda will be setting a precedence on how communities across the world engage with the UN. The initiative was developed from a request by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for a grassroots consultation process to be conducted in each UN member state. The goal is to hold unique conversations in each participating city to outline the world we want in 2030. Results from the US consultations, including interesting stories, ideas and emergent themes, will be assembled and presented to UNDP to support goals for the post-2015 development agenda.
The program's objective is to invite wider participation in the UN's development agenda and foster a community actively engaged in sharing in a global mission. The consultations provide the bridge to connect grassroots communities to the work of the United Nations, which might have seemed too far removed for citizens to have an impact on shaping.
This Saturday, it is our turn to convene participants from various communities and groups around the greater Seattle area to exchange ideas and stories in order to add to the growing collective of meaningful global conversations. Our chapter intends to nurture this process into an ongoing dialogue. Please keep tuned for future programming launched from this important process. In meantime, we encourage more people to submit their views on the survey at www.myworld2015.org.
Registration is required in advance, and the deadline to register is Thursday October 31st - no walk-ins please. For more information and to register, go to:
The 10 chapters/regions participating in consultation are the following:
Chicago (Oct. 24)
Seattle (Nov. 2)
New York (Nov. 8)
Kansas City (Nov. 16)
Tampa Bay (Nov. 19)
North Carolina, (Nov. 23)
Southern California (Dec. 7)
Denver (first week in Dec)
Iowa (TBD)
Northern California (TBD)
Breaking The Silence with Yehuda Shaul
November 14, 2013
St. Mark's Cathedral
1245 10th Avenue East
Seattle, WA 98102
Potluck at 5:30 pm
Meeting at 7:00 pm
Israeli soldiers, the young men and women in the army, know the truth of the occupation better than anyone—they are the people who carry it out. Now, in a monumental book of collective testimony, OUR HARSH LOGIC: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 the soldiers speak out and demand to be heard.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is still held by many to be “the most moral army in the world,” and its actions in the Occupied Territories are—it claims—first and foremost aimed at protecting the country from terror. But the soldiers themselves tell a different story. Talking frankly about what they did, what they were told to do, and what they saw, these young Israelis draw a broad and powerful portrait of an ostensibly defensive military program that in fact serves an offensive agenda. As the soldiers show in vivid and immediate detail, even the key terms of IDF policy—“preventing terror,” “separating populations,” “preserving normal Palestinian life,” and “law enforcement”— in fact mean precisely the opposite on the ground, spreading fear and subjugation, accelerating Jewish settlement and the acquisition of Palestinian land, crippling all political and social life, and ultimately thwarting any possibility of independence. ( from a review of the book)
YEHUDA SHAUL was born and raised in Jerusalem in an ultra-Orthodox family. After graduating from a yeshiva high school in a Jewish settlement on the West Bank, Yehuda served in the IDF achieving the rank of commander and platoon sergeant and was posted in the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah on the West Bank.
In 2004, Yehuda founded Breaking the Silence with a group of fellow veterans; he serves as the organization’s Co-Director and Foreign Relations Officer.
BREAKING THE SILENCE was established in Jerusalem in 2004 by Israel Defense Forces veterans who have served in the beginning of the Second Intifada and have taken it on themselves to expose the public to the horrors and realities of everyday life for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
UN Day 2013
BBC News: 100 Women – What Chance Does A Young Girl Have?
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Follow the BBC News during October 2013 with its 100 Women season which will seek to shine a light on life for women in the 21st Century - the risks, challenges and opportunities they face every day, in every country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-23888283
