News on Partnerships and External Relations

Every minute, 8 people around the world flee their homes to escape conflict or persecution.

To raise awareness about this issue, UNHCR is launching their #add1voice community action application on Facebook and Twitter on Thursday, November 24th. .

The aim of the application is to inspire people around the world to add their own voice to the campaign by standing together and telling the world that even one person forced to flee their home is too many.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), in partnership with the Swedish Guide and Scout Council (Scouterna) organized a one-day Conference on Keeping Children Safe From Harm on the 1st of August 2011 at the backdrop of the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden.

What would the world be like if designed by Scouts? If you could let your imagine go wild and bring a new species to life, what would it look like? How can we make a difference in our home societies so that we live in a more harmonious world for people and nature?

These are some of the questions being explored by Scouts at workshops being ran by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as part of the Global Development Village (GDV) at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden.

Every year the world celebrates World Environment Day (WED) on the 5th of June. This is an occasion for all scouts around the world to demonstrate their commitment to preserving the environment.

This year, WED supports the UN’s International Year of Forests with the theme: "Forests: Nature at Your Service" which underscores the many essential life-sustaining values that forests provide and the intrinsic link between our quality of life and the health of forest ecosystems.

2011 will mark the celebration of the fourth-year of Alliance Jointly with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Clean Up the World (CUW) and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM).

The campaign runs for a calendar year and has an annual focus celebrated globally on the third weekend in September. This year, CUW Weekend will be held on 16-17 September under the theme:
"Our Place…Our Planet…Our Responsibility".

Today, on this 8th March 2011, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day. This special day is a yearly commemoration and a major day of global celebration of women.

This year's theme is "Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women".

On this day, the World Organization of the Scout Movement would like to thank all women voluntarily engaged in supporting Scouting worldwide.

This year as a part of the annual JOTA-JOTI (Jamboree on the Air - Jamboree on the Internet), taking place on the 16th & 17th of October, WOSM will be partnering with UNICEF to develop a platform for young people to express their views. Capitalizing on the tremendous popularity of JOTA-JOTI, which gathers every year more than half a million participants, the goal is to question the youth of today about their motivations and desires.

In connection with International Year of Youth that was launched in August this year and the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child celebrated in November 2009, this year’s theme for JOTA-JOTI is “ Right to be heard”.

Apart from traditional chatting on the Internet - JOTI or radio - JOTA this year Scouts will also use such new media tools as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr as well as UNICEF’s Voices of Youth blog. Discover JOTA-JOTI 2010 Proposed Activities.

In December of 2009, the United Nations General Assembly in New York proclaimed, in resolution A/RES/64/134, that August 12 2010 – August 12 2011 will be the International Youth Year. This also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the first International Youth Year proclaimed in 1985.

World Day Against Child Labour 12 June 2010

Theme: Go for the goal: End child labour

Celebrated on 12 June each year, the World Day Against Child Labour 2010 comes just one month after a major Global Conference on Child Labour in the Netherlands, the first event of its kind for more than 10 years. The World Day follows up on the momentum generated by the Global Conference and calls for:

12th June - World Day Against Child Labour 2009
Theme: Give girls a chance, end child labour

The World Day Against Child Labour will be celebrated on 12 June 2009. The World Day this year marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) share a common commitment to pursuing social justice and peace, empowering young people through human rights-based educational programmes and promoting the social dimension of globalisation. This long-standing partnership was recently strengthened through a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) extending our cooperation in the fight against child labour, earlier this year.