UUA International Blog

Over the past few months, we have watched the conservative UN estimates of people forced to migrate climb from 60-68 million, the largest number of forced migrants since the Second World War.  Some estimate even more forced migrants now than there were in WWII. ...

In his 2012 TED talk, Bryan Stevenson, public-interest lawyer, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of New York Times bestseller Just Mercy, draws attention to the implications of racial discrimination for the United States criminal justice...

While there are a range of disarmament treaties that merit discussion, these are some recent ones mentioned in the news, explained here more fully for our readers’ clarification. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons July 1st of this year marked the 50th...

Earlier this month, UUA President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, visited Transylvania to participate in the inauguration of the Hungarian Unitarian Church’s new "House of Religious Freedom" and related events commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Edict of Torda....

Recently, the news has been inundated with countless stories of migrant families being torn apart, primarily by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE. These actions stem from the establishment of a “zero-tolerance policy” by the Trump administration, in...

Were you aware of the fact that 22 countries in the world do not have an army? How can that be? While many may think that armed forces are an indispensable part of any nation, and many governments often spend millions in order to strengthen their armed forces (or billions in the...

On Sunday June 24th, New York City’s 5th Avenue was full of rainbow flags, music, and hundreds of thousands of people celebrating a diverse spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities during the New York Pride March. The winding down of Pride Month provides a welcome...

The Trump administration has withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council over what the Trump administration calls the Council’s bias against Israel.  First, let me point out that the UN Human Rights Council is a deliberative body of representatives of many nations with a...

This  blog is in tribute to the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in commemoration of the Poor People’s March 50 years ago organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under Martin Luther King’s leadership. Learning of the pillars...

The very first resolution passed by the United Nations, in January 1946, called for the elimination of atomic weapons.  The bedrock treaty for the control and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force in 1970 and...

On the warm May evening of May 3rd, concerned individuals gathered at the Community Church of New York to engage in the critically-needed discussion on the refugee and migration crisis. Moderated by the Unitarian Universalist U.N. Office’s Refugee Program Intern Rani Allan, the...

This week's post in Disarming Our Planet is a statement by Mr Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, reposted here from the ICRC's website as an appeal to States, global leaders, and citizens. The International Committee...

The Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO), together with the United Nations community, condemns the lethal use of violence by the Israeli Defense Forces against Palestinian protesters who were protesting the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the U....

How do you ever get the membership of the United Nations to sit down and talk about disarmament and even set off a large enough public response to have a significant downsizing of nuclear arsenals as a result? All we need is another Homer Jack. “And who is he?” you ask....

Along with the panel on Female Genital Mutilation, the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) hosted another parallel event at the Commission on the Status of Women, working closely with Dr. Bobbi Nassar who is the co-chair of NGO committee on human rights (UU-UNO...

Climate justice is a social justice issue. It is working at the intersection of environmental degradation and the racial, social, and economic inequities it perpetuates. Every living person depends on the environment. Here at the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-...

It’s been a month since The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was held at the New York United Nations Headquarters from March 11-23th. Commission on the Status of Women was founded in June 1946 and “The principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the...

Toxic weapons made of chemicals are nothing new. They’ve been around for thousands of years as poisoned arrows, lethal smoke, or noxious fumes, but -- following their use-- they were eventually considered too cruel and unfair for ”civilized battle,” and efforts were made to ban...

The speech text below was presented as an introduction to a panel event sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office and the NGO Committee on Human Rights as part of the 62nd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women NGO forum. The event, entitled "...

There are more people displaced from their homes due to war, violence, and natural disasters today than at any other time in history, even more than at the end of World War II. That was the first of many shocking things we learned when members of First Parish Bedford (MA) UU...