UUA International Blog

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...

The following is a summary of a paper delivered by a UN staff member to a meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations at the United Nations. The portions in italics were added by this blogger. One of the most important norms related to international peace and security created...

One of the best things about the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) global conferences is the opportunity to connect with other Unitarians & Unitarian Universalists from around the world. To be able to hear and even sometimes see how they live our...

Content warning: this post includes graphic descriptions of the effects of the nuclear bomb dropped in Hiroshima that may be traumatic for some readers. We feel it is important to read these stories in order to capture the real human impact of nuclear weapons. ...

On July 7, 2017 a United Nations Conference approved a new treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Adopted by a vote of 122 for, 1 against, 1 abstention, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons requires that parties to the treaty “undertake never under any circumstances to...

A panel discussion on forced migration due to oppression based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) was organized on February 13, 2018 at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City. This program was organized to bring awareness amongst the general public...

Recent reports about the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2017 and the international responses help demonstrate the way that international law works. A treaty to ban the use of chemical weapons officially became international law in 1997 when the minimum number of countries (...

What is the Heart of Unitarian/Universalism? What is at the core of our varied theologies and diverse cultural contexts that brings Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists together as a single faith? What does this faith call us to be and to do, today? These were the central...

Despite the commendable efforts by activists in past years to disarm our world, why then do we live in an armed world which could be utterly destroyed with the pressing of a few buttons? Perhaps the fear of nuclear war we are now experiencing will prompt a return to the sanity...

I’m sitting in the waiting room at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention center.  I am one of two white faces in the crowd of many brown faces.  The other white face is the guard. The brown faces look despondent, overwhelmed, some are frightened.  I...

Welcome to Disarming Our Planet. This new addition to the UUA International Blog is devoted to building our knowledge of disarmament efforts then and now, with the goal of helping to create a more peaceful world with much fewer weapons. As the UN Charter indicates, there is...

At the 2017 conference for the Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association (ANZUUA), the new ANZUUA president Rev. Rob MacPherson issued a challenge to member organizations in the region. His keynote address challenges member organizations to grow.

I visited the Every Child is Our Child program in Eastern Ghana from December 2-7, 2017.  The Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) began its collaboration with the Manye Krobo Queen Mothers in 2005, launching this program which would go on to change so many...

The fight to end slavery worldwide has a long way to go. Recent footage released in November by CNN has shown black people being auctioned off as slaves in Libya. Reports reveal that these people being abused were migrants seeking to escape to Europe through the North...

The 2017 United Nations Climate Conference, COP23, took place in Bonn, Germany from November 6 to November 18. However, the real host of this conference was actually Fiji, a small island nation in South Pacific. Because Fiji is constrained by its domestic capacity, Bonn, the...

With the onset of the most recent blatant disregard for human rights in Burma, it has become apparent that Rohingya Muslims are some of the most persecuted people in the world. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic-minority group that is currently facing an ethnic cleansing. They...

After the initial passing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the United Nations in 1981, many states declared ‘reservations.’ These reservations related to implementing the document's provisions in their respective...

A large group of concerned and socially-conscious people gathered at the United Nations Headquarters building to remind the world of the fundamental and critical call to end poverty. Titled Answering the Call of October 17 to End Poverty: A Path Toward Peaceful and Inclusive...

An annual academic and policy symposium titled Whither Migration? New Directions in Research and Policy in an Era of Nationalism was held in early October at the Center for Migration Studies of New York City. The day-long event covered a number of topics related to the worldwide...

On Sunday October 1st, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place in Las Vegas where 59 people were killed and over 500 people were injured. This was the 273rd mass shooting to take place in 2017. The question that everyone seems to ask after a horrific...