Tuesday 29 May is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. Today we honour the memory of the UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives in the cause of peace, and pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in UN peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalism, dedication and courage.
For more information on UN Peacekeeping operations, visit:
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/pkday.shtml
We recently launched our Thursday Discussion Series. This program invites incredible, knowledgeable speakers to share their background in an intimate setting.
We have kicked off with a couple wonderful sessions:
March 2nd: “Trafficking Women”
The inaugural discussion in the series complemented UNA-USA’s commemoration of International Women’s Day with a documentary film highlighting the catastrophe and drama of the abduction of young girls for the global sex trade, as well as a short talk led by UNA Seattle chapter president Trevor M Tate
Full length article by Trevor Tate on Human Trafficking (abbreviated version).
April 19: “A War in Waiting with the Islamic Republic of Iran”
Session led by Dick Blakney UNA Seattle board member and organizer for Network Promoting Peace with Iran (NPPI), and Richard Silverstein blogger for Seattle site Tikun Olam (Make the World Better) http://www.richardsilverstein.com.
For those who would like to see more, the website is below for Envisioning a Deal With Iran, by William H. Luers and Thomas R. Pickering. (Note: Bill Luers, a career diplomat, served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela and president of UNA-USA for ten years, while Tom Pickering was undersecretary of state and ambassador to the U.N. and several countries.) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/envisioning-a-deal-with-iran.html
For additional reading on Iran:
Professor Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, will speak on “The Economic, Legal and Moral Costs of War: A Forum on Israel-Palestine and the United States”on Friday, June 8, at University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 NE 43rd St., Seattle, at 7:00 p.m. His one-hour talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session. As the UN’s Special Rapporteur, Falk has first-hand knowledge of the human rights situation facing nearly 4 million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.
Falk is the Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., where he taught for more than 40 years. He is also Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Falk is the author or co-author of more than 20 books on international law. The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed him Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 2008. Falk is also a member of the editorial boards of The Nation and The Progressive magazines. He was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has long been associated with efforts to align United States foreign policy with the human rights movement and international humanitarian law.
The talk is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the National Lawyers Guild, the World Affairs Council and the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, among others.
Our kick-off Global Citizens Gathering was held on April 5th at the iLEAP center in Wallingford. The event set us off to a wonderful start. Discussion surrounded the topic of what it means to be a Global Citizen and how it relates to citizens living in Seattle.
Please check out the article in the latest newsletter about the event.
We are very excited for this initiative, and your collaboration and energy! Please stay tuned for upcoming events. We hope you and your friends can join us!
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