"To contribute to the removal of obstacles to peace, to work for justice, security and disarmament, and to promote the development of peaceful co-existence and co-operation among nations."
~ WFUNA Constitution
Founded in 1946, WFUNA has had a long history of promoting international cooperation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Our network has served as a back channel for people to-people consultations on sensitive political issues between nation states. For example, during the Cold War, WFUNA facilitated high-level informal consultations on disarmament issues between key experts of the USA and USSR. It organized a number of NGO Seminars on Disarmament in cooperation with the UN, UNESCO and other NGOs.
Additionally, WFUNA helped promote "Security and Co-operation in Europe" (CSCE) by holding in 1967 the first ever conference on this topic. Other NGOs followed WFUNA’s campaign which continued until 1975 when the Final Act was signed at Helsinki by 35 governments, including USA and Canada, establishing the CSCE process. Further campaigning led in 1994 to the CSCE process that consisted of a Biennial Review Conference being raised to a Permanent Organization (OSCE).
Today,WFUNA works with numerous UNA's and NGO's around the world to develop programs for peace. This cooperation demonstrates the power of civil society's role in promoting a more peaceful future.
Dr. Hans Blix, Chair of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the former Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Comission, became the Presidnet of WFUNA in November 2006.
Recently, Dr. Blix lanuched the "Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World" program to engage young people from diverse academic disciplines in the preparations for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 8th Review Conference, 2010 - the most important conference on global disarmament in coming years."Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World" is a program of essay writing, video interviews, and poster design, on the theme of nuclear disarmament.
The Global Disarmament Hub is a WFUNA sponsored site for all those interested in disarmament issues, from students to professionals. The website includes key resources and links enabling visitors to become, or continue to be, well informed on all aspects of disarmament. The website aims to be an interactive hub for all those interested in disarmament. Such interactive features include: an online forum, where students and professionals can openly discuss and debate disarmament issues; a disarmament video page where a selection of thematic films, documentaries and interviews are regularly updated; and a disarmament gallery with a selection of photographs, diagrams and tables used to highlight core issues.
In October 2000, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted the landmark Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. Resolution 1325 marks the first time the Security Council addressed the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflicts on women, recognized the under-valued and under-utilized contributions women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building, and stressed the importance of their equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security. The resolution underscores the responsibility to protect women and girls from human rights abuses, including gender-based violence, and emphasizes the vital importance of mainstreaming gender perspectives in all aspects of conflict prevention, resolution, and reconstruction.
Resolution 1325 and the six subsequent presidential statements on women, peace and security stress the importance of women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security, and have provided a solid framework for action on these issues. The documents call for concrete steps to be taken by the United Nations system, Member States and civil society actors in the areas of conflict prevention and early warning; peacemaking and peacebuilding; humanitarian response; post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.
While previous reviews of the level of implementation have revealed progress achieved in a number of areas, these reviews have also clearly shown that much stronger and coordinated efforts are needed to reach the goal of full implementation of resolution 1325.
On 23 October 2007, seven years after the adoption of resolution 1325, the Security Council held an open debate on women, peace and security. In the meeting, members of the Security Council and other UN Member States discussed the progress made in the implementation of resolution 1325, gaps and challenges encountered and actions and mechanisms needed for future implementation both globally and nationally.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who opened the meeting, said "there is so much left to do - both for the United Nations and for Member States to implement the provisions of resolution 1325". Mr. Ban also stressed the need to appoint more women in leadership positions in UN peace operations, and recalled the recent appointment of Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj of Denmark to serve as his Special Representative for Liberia. Emphasizing the vital need to address violence against women, which he said had reached "hideous and pandemic proportions" in some societies attempting to recover from conflict, the Secretary-General urged the Security Council to establish a mechanism dedicated to monitoring violence against women and girls. Rachel N. Mayanja, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, introduced the report of the Secretary-General containing the results of a second implementation review of the 2005-2007 United Nations System-wide Action Plan on resolution 1325 (2000) and an update of the Action Plan for 2008-2009. Ms. Mayanja encouraged the Security Council to establish "a dedicated mechanism to monitor the situation of women and girls in conflict and hold parties to conflicts accountable for sexual and gender-based violence." She urged all governments, parliaments, international organizations and civil society to join a worldwide campaign on violence against women and girls to be launched by Mr. Ban later this year, saying that "only by acting together can we create more equal relationships and more peaceful societies."
Jean-Marie Guehenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, stated that there had been a number of significant advances in the contribution of women to the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peacebuilding. However, Joanne Sandler, Acting Executive Director of UNIFEM, said that from UNIFEM's experience in 30 countries, women's access to peace processes had been highly uneven. "The real measure of effective implementation is not the setting up of systems, plans and processes," she said. The measure is women's participation in and contribution to more sustainable peace agreements and post-conflict reconstruction strategies, and better protection of women and girls in conflict zones. Gina Torry, Coordinator of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, asked the question: "Seven years after the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), what had its implementation meant for women and girls in all the situations on the Council's agenda?" She said the implementation of resolution 1325 could not, unfortunately, be said to be coherent and effective.
One of the main issues discussed both by the Security Council members and other Member States was gender-based violence and rape in conflict and post-conflict zones. The Security Council expressed deep concern that gender-based violence, particularly rape, remain "pervasive, and in some situations have become systematic," despite calls for the protection of women and girls. Karen Pierce, representing the United Kingdom, gave a harsh statement describing horrible sexual cruelty that had been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Burma and many other conflict situations. Several states raised concern about reports on UN peacekeepers and other relief workers who have been involved in sexual violence and rape of women and children in conflict zones. U.S. Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff said that "sexual violence against women is reprehensible in any context, but it is especially heinous when it is used by political or military leaders as a tool to achieve political or military objectives." With this in mind, the United States and others have introduced a resolution in the Third Committee of the General Assembly entitled "Eliminating the Use of Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence to Achieve Political or Military Objectives".
The Security Council urged countries and the United Nations system to enhance female participation in decision-making and to take specific steps to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during conflicts. In a presidential statement adopted at the end of a day-long open meeting, the Council noted the "constant underrepresentation of women in formal peace processes," and called for enhancing their role in matters related to the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
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UNA Sweden participates in the “Adopt-a-minefield “ campaign with the view to rouse public opinion in favor of a mine free world and to collect money to the mine clearance work of the UN in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Mozambique, Vietnam, Cambodia and Afghanistan. The UNA will host, in cooperation with WFUNA and GPPAC, a seminar and civil society networking breakfast in conjunction with the Major Civil Society Conference on the Prevention of Armed Conflict in July 2005.
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As part of a public awareness camapaign, UNA-DRC has organized educational seminars on peace, conflict resolution, tolerance and reconciliation. The UNA has organized, in cooperation with the UNA Tanzania and other European UNAs, a national Model UN for youth/students focusing on issues of peace and reconciliation.
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UNA Bangladesh participated in the campaign for “Manifesto-2000” on an appeal from Nobel Laureates for the Culture of Peace and non-violence. In 2001, the UNA published the book, Culture of Peace, which was the culmination of and response to their campaign in 2000.
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At the invitation of UNA-Japan and Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, UNA China attended the Kanazawa symposiums in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
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UNA Malaysia hosted a seminar called "The Culture of Peace."
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UNA Bulgaria hosted an International Conference on Crossborder Collaboration between International Organizations and Civil Society in the Prevention of Violent Conflicts. The UNA has also participated in the regional conferences , The Role of Civic Society in Prevention of Armed Conflicts, Partnership for Prevention of Armed Conflicts and the Balkan Regional Conference for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding.
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25 years ago, UNA Spain established an award to recognise “individual or organization, with a personal commitment to the promotion of peaceful resolution of conflicts, in keeping with the spirit of United Nations goals and principles, and in defence of basic human rights and freedoms”. In 2003, Hans Blix former executive chaiman for the United Nations Commission for Monitoring, Verification and Inspection (UNMOVIC) received the award for his work on the resolution of the Iraq conflict. In addition to publishing a special mid-year bulletin on the situation of international conflicts, the UNA-Spain is engaged in producing a series of publications on conflicts around the world, to be used for awareness-raising and educational purposes.
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UNA-UK participates in the "Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign," rasing funds for mine clearance and victime assistance. The UNA has also developed a Disarmament Program which focuses on many aspects of global disarmament including small arms, light weapons, the arms trade, landmines and weapons of mass destruction.
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UNA Australia has designed a campaign on Peace and Disarmament, participating in ongoing discussions with government officials and NGOs about Australia’ s policies on issues such as missile defense, test bans, land mines, terrorism and peacekeeping.
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UNA-USA created the "Adopt-a-Minefield" Campaign in partnership with the United Nations, Ted Turner's Better World Fund, and the US State Department to clear minefields, provide assistance to landmine survivors, and raise awareness of the global landmine crisis. The Campaign aims to empower people everywhere to take action against the global landmine crisis-one of the world's most pervasive problems.It is the only nongovernmental funder in the top donor list in six of the most heavily mined countries in the world, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Mozambique, and Vietnam.
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