Trick or Treat for UNICEF

My name is Jordie Willison. I graduated from Okoboji High School in Milford, Iowa in May 2009 and am currently enrolled as a freshman at the University of Iowa. I am a Political Science and Dance major, and I love being involved in my sorority Delta Gamma and my pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta. I am new to the Iowa United Nations Association, but judging how full filling my time has been so far, I can see myself in this organization for a long time!

Trick or Treat for UNICEF

As inhabitants of the United States, we are largely removed from many of the tribulations that affect our neighbors throughout the world. In 2007, an estimated 9.2 million children under the age of five worldwide dies from largely preventable causes. Imagine if 1 in every 34 people in the United States was wiped out from a cause that could have been easily prevented!

UNICEF has been working to combat childhood disease, mortality, brutality, and inequality for more than 60 years. This non-partisan United Nations agency has historically reached out mostly to children residing in poverty stricken nations. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, however, UNICEF gave aide to the United States for the first time and reached out to the children affected by this devastating disaster in our own country.

The United States’ fund for UNICEF has raise 1.3 billion largely in part to the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Each year around Halloween, people of all ages dress up and collect money, and all proceeds are given directly to UNICEF to provide immunization, nutrition, clean water, and education to kids from 137 countries. Every little contribution can save a child: six cents can provide for 1 thirsty child; $25 can immunize 50 children against polio for life; $45 can provide school supplies for 20 children; $112 can provide blankets to 37 children facing emergency situations.

University of Iowa students and Iowa United Nations Association volunteers will be joining the effort to raise money for children in need. In businesses throughout downtown Iowa City, boxes are ready and waiting for you to loosen your wallet and donate your spare change. Students will be “Trick-or-Treating” on November 1st, the day after Halloween, between the hours of noon and 3PM to collect the boxes. Look for us out and about in our costumes, and make sure you do your part to give what you can before then!

For more information, contact Iowa United Nations Association at (319) 336-7290. For a list of participating businesses, go to http://www.unaiowa.org or donate at http://inside.unicefusa.org/goto/Iowa_UNA_Donate. Help us help others!

Movie Review: The Laramie Project

Bio: My name Amanda Shine. I am a University of Iowa freshman double majoring in International Studies and Japanese. I also plan to (hopefully) minor in Economics. I found the United Nations Association when searching for volunteer opportunities that dealt with international relations. I don't know what is in store for the future, but I hope that volunteering for the Iowa UNA will help set me on the right path.

The Laramie Project

It does not come as a shock to me that, in the wake of the media announcement that the Obama Administration would sign the United Nation’s declaration for support for gay rights, the movie The Laramie Project would immediately pop into my head. While I was too young when this movie initially came out to fully grasp its message, I did understand its importance and significance in society. And right now, gay rights issues are frequently in the media. According to CNN and the New York Times, Obama has recently met with gay rights groups and the United Nations to talk about protecting the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. The Laramie Project is the story of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student whose brutal death is told through the reactions and stories of the citizens of the town in which he lived. At its heart, The Laramie Project indicates that hate can hurt more than just the direct victim; it can traumatize those that are left to deal with its consequences.

Done in a documentary-style fashion, The Laramie Project focuses on the reactions of the Laramie townspeople to the murder of Matthew Shepard. The director, Moises Kaufman, initially wrote a play of the same name using interviews he and his acting troupe conducted with the people of Laramie. Raw emotion is easily seen in the movie version, mainly because of the honest and spot-on acting done by the well-chosen cast. I have never watched this movie and not been affected in some way, whether through the welling of disgust for those who committed the crime to utter sympathy for the victim and those with whom he was connected. The excellent cinematography enhances the surreal, “feel-like-you-are-actually-there” experience that one gets while watching the movie.

Gay rights and especially human rights in general, are a hot topic all around the world, and the United Nations is ahead of the game. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls for equality between all people. In the news recently, the Obama administration has been quoted as saying that President Obama will support a UN declaration calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Obama's stance is opposite the policies of President Bush. The Declaration states that gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders should have the same rights as heterosexuals. The Laramie Project shows how the violation of human rights can profoundly affect everyone related to both the people involved and the situation itself.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone willing to have an open mind and heart. The sad story of a small Wyoming town thrown into chaos because of the lethal actions of two men shows an intimate view into the consequences of hate crimes. The Laramie Project is available at the University of Iowa Main Library. A movie of this caliber is definitely a winner, and I hope that other viewers love it as powerfully as I do.

UDHR-A Brief History

My name is Audrey Williams. I’m a first year student at the University of Iowa, and I’m excited to have this opportunity to blog for the Iowa United Nations Association. I’m a major in Political Science and English, and I am hoping to minor in French and earn a certificate in Arabic. As someone hoping to become involved in foreign diplomacy and policymaking in the years beyond college, I am excited to participate in the Iowa UNA and other affiliated organizations. However, my goal here isn’t simply to do something that excites me. I hope that this blog reaches out to the Iowa City community and beyond and helps others find their own interest in matters of the United Nations. For this reason, I am open to any feedback and discussion of the subject matter of this blog; I am hoping that as a community, we can gain a more global perspective on our every day lives.

The subject of this blog will concern the establishment and protection of human rights. The United Nations was created with the purpose to search for a safer and more peaceful alternative to solving international issues than violence and warfare. In the Charter that created the United Nations, a number of articles pertaining to the existence of human rights were included. Their purpose was to ensure the protection and practice of those rights. It was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), created in 1948, that expanded upon these articles and set upon the nations of the world a standard for how universal rights can and should be pursued and achieved.

Now, the UDHR was not an end-all be-all solution to the issue of human rights violations. The concept of human “rights” in itself is relatively new, with its roots in the Enlightenment philosophies of Hobbes and Locke. Human rights can also be seen in the “Bill of Rights” of the American Revolution and in the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens” of the French Revolution, but even these documents did not extend human rights to certain groups of people, racial minorities and women for example.

However, with the advent of the UDHR, the concept of human rights has come to the forefront of international attention. The UDHR in itself is not a binding document—it is a declaration, and not a legally binding covenant that requires any state that ratifies it to adhere to its provisions. Despite this fact, many of the provisions stated in the UDHR are widely considered in the international community as “international customary law”. This means that all countries of the world are bound to follow the articles set forth by the document. By contrast, even a legally binding covenant like a treaty can only demand adherence to its provisions from the countries that choose to ratify it. Many of these treaties exist, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

So there you are, a brief history of human rights and its place in the United Nations. For more information, please follow the links at the bottom of the post. If you have any suggestions of human rights topics you would like me to cover or discuss, please email me at audrey-williams@uiowa.edu.

For a copy of the UDHR, go to http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ .

For a more extensive history of human rights and information of the movement in general, go to http://www.universalrights.net/ .

Movie Review: Hop

Bio: My name is Amanda Shine. I am a University of Iowa freshman double majoring in International Studies and Japanese. I also plan to (hopefully) minor in Economics. I found the Iowa United Nations Association when searching for volunteer opportunities that dealt with international relations. I don't know what is in store for the future, but I hope that volunteering for the Iowa UNA will help set me on the right path.

The Elephant or the Pygmy?

In the world of Dominique Standaert’s Hop, Burundian refugees and Belgian citizens clash when a Burundian father and son face deportation in Belgium. Circumstances twist to find that the threat changes and instead the main protagonist, a young boy named Justin, plays oppressor and Belgium the victim. Justin’s father gets deported by Belgium police and, with the help of an old-time revolutionary and a sympathetic woman, Justin devises a plan to get his father back and to keep him in Belgium for good. At the core of the movie is the issue of refugees: Is it right to deport those that are in a country as refugees when the situation at home is horrible?

In the movie, Justin and his father are relatively well off, especially in comparison to most refugees—specifically those from Burundi. Over 568,000 Burundian refugees have fled the country due to the hostile political and socioeconomic conditions. The UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, helps those displaced persons by providing shelter, care, and asylum. When knowing how hard the situation is for Burundian refugees, it is easier to understand why Hop focuses not on the politics but on the emotion behind such a need to remain instead of going home.

The heavy topic of refugees and human rights, an important United Nation’s issue, is softened by the Pygmy anecdote of Hop, a tribal way of controlling unruly African elephants. This ritual is complemented by the revolutionary spirit of Frans, Justin’s eventual cohort. The tale of Hop becomes one that tackles the issue of refugees without focusing on only the bad endings, which allows for humor to take control and the eventual childish pranks to be moderated. The bonding of friendship and shared experiences is the focal point of Hop, easily moving viewers past the sticky politics and into the true heart of the film.

Not completely realistic, Hop is a humorous take on deportation that captures viewers with its heartwarming interactions between Belgian citizens and the refugees that are being forced to go home. Through the beautiful cinematography and complex character interactions, the audience is drawn into the dynamite plot. The choice between lawful righteousness and moral sympathy plays a major role in the movie, hovering just behind Kalomba Mboyi’s intense performance as Justin.

Hop is available at the Iowa City Public Library for a convenient seven-day rental. It is definitely worth seeing a second time if the heavy issues and their contrasting light interpretation is appealing to you. I definitely recommend seeing it. This movie is too heartfelt to miss!

Comments on Issues

Yes, we need the U.N. !
By Katy Hansen, Iowa United Nations Association


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Yes, We Need the U.N.!


By Katy Hansen, Iowa United Nations Association
With the giant tsunami in Southeast Asia, the Nargis cyclone in Myanmar, hunger in a good part of the developing world, the effects of global warming around the world, and military conflicts between any number of nations, does anyone not understand why we need the United Nations?

It is the U.N. that gets nations together to talk about the issues and formulate solutions. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in an editorial that appeared in a number of papers around the country (including the Des Moines Register on Saturday, June 28, 2008, “More than talk: U.N. feeds, protect, acts”), “It’s the talk that put U.N. peacekeepers on the ground in 18 countries on four continents. It’s the talk that raises the money and mandates the programs that feed so many of the world’s hungry. It’s the talk that marks the world’s first steps toward dealing with climate change, the global food crisis and a daily array of humanitarian crises.”

It is the U.N. that provides the coordination necessary for all the various U.N., national, and private agencies to work together to organize relief efforts, locate and deliver food, provide education, and deal with the issues that cross national borders. (For up-to-date news stories about the work of the U.N., see the website: www.un.org/news.)

The United States could be a leader in helping the U.N. solve many of the world’s problems. Our President and Congressional Representatives need to hear of our support for the U.N. and for the U.S. constructive participant in the process. Send them a letter or give them a call! As we have learned in recent years, even the richest most powerful nation in the world cannot solve international problems on its own. There are jobs where the world has to act together – through the U.N. The U.N. is how the world works together.

Peacekeeping Best Practices:

For more information: http://pbpu.unlb.org/pbpu/

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