UNA Wales

Assert your commitment to the World Court Project's Declaration for a Nuclear-free World

UNA takes action on Guantanamo Bay

What is UNA?

The United Nations Association (UNA) is made up of ordinary people who want to support the work of the UN and its agencies for a more just and peaceful world. It is a voluntary membership organisation and is completely independent of the UN system. Today UNA has members and branches all over Wales.

UNA campaigns and educates to make the ideals of the UN a reality. Those ideals were summed up by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his Millennium Report as a world free from want, free from fear, and with a sustainable future. At a time when our world is characterised by gross inequalities within and between nations, and the UN Charter itself is threatened by unilateral actions of member states, this work is more important than ever.

What does UNA Wales do?

UNA Wales campaigns, lobbies and raises awareness on issues of disarmament, conflict prevention, sustainable development and human rights. We aim to promote informed debate on international issues, including the UN system itself.

The mission of UNA Wales is to work to secure public and governmental support for the ideals of the United Nations and its agencies through campaigning, organising events and supporting the Association's local branches.


UNA Wales works in a variety of ways including:

1. organising public events;
2. promoting education for global citizenship for young people;
3. supporting UN humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF(the UN children’s fund) and UNHCR (the UN refugee agency);
4. increasing understanding and awareness of UN agreements on human rights such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
5. lobbying government and the National Assembly;
6. producing information on the United Nations and international issues.

Current campaigns have included:

Stop Cluster Munitions - lobbying Welsh politicians to pressurise the UK government to sign, ratify and implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions. For more information see www.stopclustermunitions.org  
Adopt-A-Minefield – raising money to clear landmines from 6 of the most heavily mined countries in the world, including Cambodia and Afghanistan.
Sustainable Development – sending a delegate to witness the negotiations at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg and to report back to branches and community groups across Wales.
Educating About the UN – providing sessions for schools and Model UN General Assemblies for university students, and through producing Passport to the UN a pocket size comprehensive introduction to the work of the UN and its agencies.

Interesting work written by Dr Rachel Owen on the UN

Below you can download three pieces of work written by Dr Rachel Owen from the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies . The first is about the UN and the legacy of Chernobyl, the second looks at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs while the third examins the viability of the International Criminal Court.

    1. The United Nations and the legacy of Chernobyl
    2. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
    3. Viability of the International Criminal Court

Put People First

March 2009

A new movement was born on 28 March 2009, as 35,000 people marched through London calling on leaders for an economy that delivers decent jobs and public services for all, an end to global poverty and inequality, and a green economy.

 Read the Put People First policy demands here. 

At a rally in Hyde Park, they were addressed by GCAP co-chair Kumi Naidoo, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, environmentalist Tony Juniper and trade campaigner Mary Lou Malig amongst others. They heard calls international action to deliver tax justice, trade justice, a Green New Deal in both rich and poor countries, and most importantly, democratic accountability of governments, banks and international financial institutions to deliver it.  

Members of Put People First - an unprecedented alliance of more than 150 unions, development, faith and environment groups, including the Welsh Centre for International Affairs - are united in calling on the G20 leaders to recognise that only just, fair and sustainable policies can lead the world out of recession, and that a return to 'business as usual' - with the associated poverty, inequality and climate change - is not an option.



Christian NGOs including World Vision and Tearfund started the day with an ecumenical service at Methodist Central Hall, overseen by the Bishop of London. 

Delegations joined the march from around the world, including Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Korea, USA, Australia, South Africa, Zambia, Canada and the Philippines.
The day's march is not the end of the campaign, but the start. The UK holds the chair of the G20 group for the rest of 2009 when the G8, the G20 and the United Nations all meet to chart a way through the recession. And 2009 ends with the vital Copenhagen climate conference.

These are real opportunities to win substantial change for poor people and the environment that Put People First will use to advance the call for an economy that works for secure jobs, global justice and a safe climate.

For more information please see www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk
 

World Court Project's Declaration for a Nuclear-free World

For many months individuals and groups worldwide have been collecting signed Declarations for a Nuclear-free World. These Declarations have been initiated by the World Court Project which tries to utilise to the hilt the 1996 Opinion by the International Court of Justice that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is illegal under International Humanitarian Law.

The very existence of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the most widely supported disarmament treaty ever with 188 signatory States, is under threat as solemn promises made at the last NPT Review Conference in 2000 have not been kept.

In the lead-up to the make-or-break Review Conference in May this year, everyone who wants to see the nuclear-armed states honour their legal obligations and abolish these terrible weapons forever can sign a Declaration. These will be presented at UN headquarters in New York during the Conference. It's another means of getting the Voice of the People into that high-level event.

The Declarations are not petitions. They are personal commitments, individually signed, intended to contribute towards the development of international law. If you've not signed a Declaration yet and want to, then you can do it on the web by going to the Home Page of www.abolition2000europe.org where you can read more about the Declarations and how to sign one. Declarations are also available in Welsh.

UNA takes action on Guantanamo Bay

Hunger strike in Guantanamo

Currently, some 505 detainees, of 36 nationalities are still in jail in Guantanamo, the majority captured during the American military offensive in autumn 2001 in Afghanistan. Since its opening in January 2002, the Guantanamo Bay camps have never ceased to generate discussion, both on the indefinite detention of individuals held without charge and the conditions in which they are kept and questioned.
For the American Government, the detainees are not recognised as prisoners of war but as “enemy combatants”, a new concept, outside of American Law, International Law and the Geneva Conventions.

Since the 8th of August 2005, almost 200 prisoners have been on hunger-strike in the camps of Guantanamo Bay. Gita Gutierez, lawyer for The Centre of Constitutional Rights, affirms that “prisoners protest against the fact that they are being detained indefinitely, some for almost four years, and without any hope of a fair trial”.
Last Thursday, military staff evaluated at 128 the number of strikers, with 18 hospitalized and fed by force. Gulf News learnt that hunger-striking detainees have been reduced to skeletal status and are being force fed to keep them alive. The US military appears to be systematically down playing the hunger strike in order to avoid international criticism. Now they seem to be understanding the number of detainees involved and the gravity of the medical condition of several of the detainees. This policy again demonstrates the lack of transparency around all US detention practices and policies in the “war on terror”.
The situation and the numbers will stay dubious, so long as independent organisations and the Red Cross are prevented from doing an evaluation inside the Camp. Moreover, the variation in figures is due to differing definitions of a hunger strike. The US military defines a hunger strike as the refusal of nine consecutive meals within a 72-hour period. Some detainees are refusing all food and are being force fed, others are accepting one meal in this timeframe, but then flushing it down the toilet…
According to Amnesty International, “it is more than urgent that the United States government take some measures to bring the Guantanamo Camp into total conformity with international standards. If not, the only solution will be to order its closure.”

UK factory supplying shackles to Guantanamo

“The detainees of X-Ray Camp in Guantanamo Bay must wear cuffs on their feet each time they leave their cells. They are also chained when they receive medical care, including when they are under anaesthetic to undergo a surgical operation.”

In Britain some voices, through the pressure group Reprieve, are protesting against the Hiatts firm in Birmingham, said to make “shackles” used at the Guatanamo Bay Camp. In the late 18th century, the company made collars for restraining slaves in America. Today, it makes the shackles that hold the inmates of Guantanamo. Local Birmingham MPs and human rights activists have asked Hiatts to “commit to voluntarily and permanently stopping all further exports to the US Military, and hence to Guantanamo Bay, given the notorious abuses practised there”. Amnesty International explains that “ because the UK government require a licence to export handcuffs to the US or any other country, there is no control on how British made handcuffs are incorporated into other types of restraint equipment such as belly chains in countries like US, even though such types of restraint equipment are banned in the UK. At the moment, in Guantanamo camp, some British residents are being held in British-made shackles.

Alarming Food Prices

May 2008

Time is running out, says the United Nations World Food Programme, to avert looming food shortages. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon comments that the situation has reached "emergency proportions” and that social unrest will spread unless the price of staple foods is contained. Solutions are needed to the worsening food price crisis. The United Nations Association Wales supports the UN’s call for a long-term policy on food grain production in order to avert hunger amidst many of the world’s poorest people. We urge the European Union and the United States to make strenuous efforts to release food stocks so as to cut the rise in prices, and to take emergency action to increase world food supply within the shortest feasible time-scale. While it is paramount to consolidate international cooperation in addressing these problems the UK government, in particular needs to accept its global responsibilities and take a leading role in tackling this phenomenon.

To view our letter to the editor online, please visit www.icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

For more information, and for details of your nearest branch, contact Ona Flindall on 029 20 228 549 or at una@wcia.org.uk and find out why YOU should join us!