Breakthroughs at the UN, Negotiated by WILPF's Staff (and sister NGOs)

Breaking News from the UN, from WILPF UN Office Director Anjie Rosga, PhD:

It's been a big day in New York City as the General Assembly opened, with several big news events of relevance for WILPF members:

1) UN mission finds evidence of war crimes by both sides in Gaza conflict

A U.N. investigation concluded Tuesday that both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, raising the prospect that officials may seek prosecution in the International Criminal Court. Read the AP article on NPR's website.

2) New General Assembly President opens session with call for UN reform
The General Assembly opened its 64th annual session today with its new President, Ali Treki of Libya, calling for reform of the United Nations with an expanded Security Council representing full geographic diversity and an Assembly that has the ability to implement its resolutions.

3) UN to establish single new agency to deal with rights of women
(This was a major success for WILPF's PeaceWomen Project which has been working for more than three years with other organizations here in New York and elsewhere to push for this important dimension of UN system-wide reform -- hats off to PeaceWomen's Director Sam Cook for all her good work as part of the GEAR-NY [Gender Equality Architecture Reform-New York] Lobbying Group!)

4) Ban exhorts world to seize momentum to reach disarmament goals
(Ray Acheson, Director of WILPF's Reaching Critical Will Project has been similarly hard at work, together with Susi Snyder, WILPF's Secretary General, in various efforts to support forward momentum leading up to the 24th September Security Council Summit on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation -- check out www.reachingcriticalwill.org for news from the recent conference in Mexico City where Ray gave a well-received talk.)

“WILPF and the Willingness to Disarm”

Wow! What an honor to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The article written by Richard Warren of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development highlights the work and goals of WILPF women from our beginning during World War 1 to today’s endeavors. His writing in the UN publication is not only a kind bit of spotlight but a testament to the infectious spirit of peace activism that is key to the successes of WILPF and sister organizations. The passion of each individual in her or his work sparks change. Two of our own Y-WILPF sisters, Monika and Robin, were able to experience the kind of energy which Geneva exerts in connection with her thousand cities of sisters. They are currently seeing how they can put that energy and their new perspectives into practice – see older posts!

In the ever amazingly eloquent words of Susi Snyder (who gave the best justification ever spoken to the existence and importance of the UN), Warren’s article reminds us that positive spirit has a real place in the gritty reality of acceptance that war is a “normal” international state of affairs. It’s not easy, so much so that it sometimes seems impossible to believe that people could learn to protect human dignity and rights to needs such as food, clean water, a warm enough place to sleep... heck, we still use the word “right” as if someone has to be allocated and be given something that they already have access to by dint of existing! The lies pre-exist in our language.

However, Warren is not deceived. He is convinced by WILPF’s striving that a better world can be ahead of us by the toil of many. We believe in it, and what one believes becomes one’s reality. Join us, and let’s make peace happen that much faster!