Dear Reader,

In November UNA Coventry ran the world's first Peace Essay Competition. The judges, who all came from the Coventry University, agreed the entries were a valuable contribution to the discussion and are very keen that the essay continues in future years. UNA Coventry will now take this exciting new project forward.

As a result of the ideas raised by the essays, UNACov has created a pilot social media website to enable people from different cultures, religions, races or nations to send messages to each other. All messages will be translated into English and then the whole website can be read in any one of up to 100 different languages.

Read these stories and more, plus information about forthcoming events, by following the links below.

Please stay safe and be considerate of others.

Philip Brown

Secretary, UNA Coventry Branch
philip@unacov.uk

Recent News Highlights

See our website for more of our recent news articles.

Young People’s Peace Essay Competition 2020

In November 2020 the United Nations Association Coventry Branch ran the world’s first Young People’s Peace Essay Competition the winners of which were announced during Coventry Peace Festival. Young people aged up to 25 submitted their essays of up to 500 words on the subject: The Role of Young People in Building Peace. Winners There were 3 winners from each …

Save Our Ocean, Protect our Future and Climate Change - Video of presentation

On 14 November 2020, Marine Biologist and Oceanographer and Mr Gonzalo Alvarez delivered a presentation to UNA Warwick District Branch on the subject Save Our Ocean, Protect our Future and Climate Change. See more details below video. https://youtu.be/j1WJbsiBVqI?rel=0 Gonzalo is a Marine Biologist and Oceanographer and has been part of a Scientific research team on Climate and Oceans in the …

West Bank witnesses largest demolition in years

Statement by Yvonne Helle, the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for the occupied Palestinian territory on 4 November 2020. Yesterday, 73 people, including 41 children, were displaced when Israeli authorities demolished their homes and other structures and destroyed belongings in the Palestinian community of Humsa Al Bqai’a. Three quarters of the community’s population lost their shelters, making this the largest forced …

UNA-UK statement on the election of Joe Biden as President of the USA

This article was first published on the UNA-UK website. On 7 November Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected as President and Vice-President of the United States. After an historic election, in which more Americans voted than at any other time in the last century, their administration will lead a country that was pivotal to the founding of the United …

Mock COP26

Frustrated by the postponement of COP26 conference until November 2021, young people are running a youth led, youth run online conference 19th November to 1st December 2020 to show the world what would happen if young people were the decision makers. They are following a similar structure to the postponed COP26 climate summit to raise the ambition of our leaders …

UN Secretary-General’s statement on Yemen

Statement issued by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres 20 November 2020. Yemen is now in imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades. In the absence of immediate action, millions of lives may be lost. This arises from the combination of a drastic reduction in funding for the UN-coordinated relief operation this year compared to 2018 and 2019, …

Black Lives Matter Discussion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czmpXWopEVw&rel=0 A video discussion on the aims and future of the Black Lives Matter movement hosted by United Nations Association Coventry Branch on 18 November 2020. Speakers were: Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South and Amara Okoye, Womens’ Officer, Warwick University Student Union. Zarah Sultana’s Details email: zarah.sultana.mp@parliament.uk Newsletter subscription: tiny.cc/signup4ZSnews Twitter - @zarahsultana Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ZarahSultanaMP/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/zarahsultanamp/ …

UN agencies and international NGOs call for the protection of Palestinian olive harvesters

International NGOs and UN agencies call on the Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians participating in the ongoing olive harvest season, as well as their property, from violence by Israeli settlers, and ensure that farmers can access their land freely and safely. In the first four weeks of the season alone (7 October – 2 November), the Office for Coordination of …

Forthcoming Events

If you have an idea for an event you want us to organise, please contact events@unacov.uk

CovCAN Meeting

Coventry Climate Action Network (CovCAN) will hold an online conversation at 7pm on Tuesday 1 December. Join the meeting by following this link.

UN75 TeleConversation December 2020

On 2 December you can participate in UN75, the biggest-ever global conversation on the role of global cooperation in building the future we want. These teleconversations will be held on the first Wednesday of every month during 2020. Why #UN75? Tackling issues such as COVID-19, the climate crisis, inequality, new patterns of violence and the major changes we are seeing in population and technology in …

Anniversary of First UN General Assembly Meeting

The first meeting of the General Assembly was held in Westminster Central Hall, London, on 10 January 1946. The Security Council met for the first time a week later in Church House, Westminster. 10 January was also the date of the founding of the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, which was founded on 10 January 1920. The League of …

COP26

United Nations Climate Change and the UK and Italian Governments announced on 1 April that the 26th Conference of Parties due to be held in Glasgow in November (COP26) has been postponed due to COVID-19. It is now scheduled for 1-12 November 2021. Deferring the meeting should not mean deferring climate action, according to a leaked letter signed by Cop26 …

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