by Joanna Blaz

​As UNA-SNY Young Professionals took their seats in Colors Restaurant on Thursday night, one simple item tied the room together: a chalkboard with a Cesar Chavez quote scribbled in blue and pink.

“We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.”

The reasons for participation in UNA’s “At The Intersection of Business and Development” panel and networking event were as diverse as the audience itself, which included international entrepreneurs, college students and a sustainability event planner.

​By Joanna Blaz

by David Stillman, Board Member UNA-SNY

​David and Ginger Stillman led a roundtable on Goal 16 (Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies) at the UNA-USA Leadership Summit in Washington, DC on June 12th. 

Participants included members from chapters in Northern Colorado, Beverly Hills, Tampa, National Capital Area, Seton Hall University, Georgetown University, UCLA, Pomona Valley, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New York and the Southern NY State Division. Individual knowledge ranged from little familiarity with the goal to a person who teaches about the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights at Georgetown University to a peace activist from Wisconsin to a woman who worked for the United Nations in the 1950s. A member of each group acted as rapporteur, using the questions from the goal description page as a guide.

The participants broke off into three groups to discuss Goals 16 and its 2030 targets. The groups had the following recommendations based on work their chapter or division has done:

• Seattle Chapter: Has worked with non-profits such as the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, an Olympia, Washington-based non-profit. Rachel Corrie was a 23-year- old American peace activist from Olympia who was rushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.
• Florida Chapter: Has worked on the CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) campaign to have this treaty adopted by cities.
• Southern NY Division: (before killing of Eric Garner) stimulated thinking and convened groups of experts, exchanged ideas, wrote “shadow” reports to submit to the Department of State and UN review in 2014 and 2015 on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
• Southern NY Division: Spoke of the role of shadow reports in determining if countries, especially the United States, comply with the conventions on Human Rights. The division worked on a report sent to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. They brought community leaders and NGOs together to produce their report.

Ultimately, the groups concluded that UN Association chapters and divisions can work together and in their local communities to specifically address Goal 16. This can be achieved through a Refugee Task Force of the chapter and its partners focused on regugee welcoming and assisting in integration as well as working with the local Health Department on refugees in the community. Through organization and raising awareness UNA chapters and divisions can help promote just, peaceful, and inclusive communities - and it starts right in each of our communties. 

Peace and justice start in your community and at the grassroots level. It begins with us and if we start here we can continue to fight for peace in other countries.