News on Partnerships and External Relations
The NGO Liaison Committee of UNESCO organized the ‘International NGO Day’ on Monday 5th December 2011 at the UNESCO House in Paris. The programme of NGO Day focused on the ‘New Directives concerning the relationship between NGOs and UNESCO’ adopted by the 36th UNESCO General Conference (October-November 2011). Representatives of NGOs were invited to discuss the perspectives for strengthened NGO-UNESCO cooperation in the context of the new directives.
Dear brother and sister Scouts,
Warm greetings on the occasion of International Volunteer Day 2011!
Volunteering has always been at the core of the Scout Movement since its inception over a century ago. This has been reflected in our constantly improving system to train, support and reward volunteers over the years, from local to global levels of the Movement. Even today, WOSM is one of the very few organizations working with children and youth, which is almost entirely driven by volunteer contributions and efforts.
In 2005, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ( CMP) at its first meeting in Montreal, by its Decision 1/CMP.1, established the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). The aim of the AWG-KP is to discuss future commitments for industrialized countries under the Kyoto Protocol. The AWG-KP reports directly to the CMP.
In addressing the delegates to the conference, as part of the Youth Constituent statement, Quintin Combrink from South Africa Scout Association (SASA) said, “Climate change is the moral issue facing both my and your generation….young people here doubt the political will of parties.” He called for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which will last for 5 years or less and for it to start by January 2013. He closed firmly by saying that, “the youth are watching, we are listening and we will be acting.”
The environment is our playground and we are sharing with the tens of thousands of international non-governmental and governmental delegates at the event how scouting has always cared for the planet, not because we had to, but rather, simply that we are in the business of creating a better world.
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.
