Global Armenia

The United Nations is launching UN Women. The official launch of the new, historic organization was celebrated at the UN General Assembly Hall by a gathering of notable names from politics, business, music, film and entertainment.

Formerly United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the newly named organization brings together four former UN bodies in an effort to boost the UN’s goal of equality towards women. The move is being celebrated by women’s rights supporters throughout the world.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has been appointed as the initial Executive Director for UN Women. Bachelet called the new organization “the first of many important milestones” towards a worldwide goal of equality among the genders. All UN member states supported the establishment of UN Women. Women’s advocacy groups have long sought a stronger role for women in the UN.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the new organization a “powerful new agent” in efforts to move towards a goal of gender equality. Ki-moon added that UN Women provides a “new momentum” and empowers women in a new way.

Bachelet urged that women must “seize the opportunity” during this historic time for great potential with the progress of female empowerment. Bachelet noted her success in becoming the first female president of Chili as an example of progress that has already been made, but added that there is more work to do.

UN Women will work to support countries around the world in the goal of gender equality across all aspects of society including politics and economics. Another goal of the newly formed organization is to end violence against women on a global scale. UN Women will work to establish international standards and apply those to all UN programs.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who serves as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, sees UN Women as a “new, strong voice” for women throughout the world. American actress Geena Davis noted the role of the media and asserted the need to portray positive images of women in leadership roles.

Christiane Amanpour of ABC News served as the emcee of the event launching UN Women. American businessman Ted Turner called upon men and those in the private sector to become involved in the organization’s goal of attaining gender equality. Turner also serves as UN Foundation Chairman.

Additional speakers at the celebration included Joseph Deiss, president of the UN General Assembly, and Joy Ogwu an ambassador from Nigeria. Princess Cristina of Spain called upon governments and the private sector to work together at all levels to “invest in women’s empowerment.” Rakhi Sahi of Liberia and activist Bandana Rana also spoke at the event. Sahi previously served as a commander for an all-female police unit.

Colombian singer Shakira focused on the importance of education to help achieve the goals of UN Women. The event launching UN Women was wrapped up with a performance of a song written especially for the event by Beth Blatt called “One Woman.”

UN Women plans to achieve the goal of global equality through education and support efforts in individual nations. The formation of UN Women involved years of fund-raising efforts and consultations. The ultimate goal of the organization is to serve as a “global champion for women and girls,” as stated on the UN Women website.

Smoking, something that had such a prestige a few decades ago, has been on the steady decline. There have been lawsuits against tobacco companies and bans on smoking in public buildings. Most recently, the United Nations has voiced its support in favor of a global smoking ban. This would obviously not impact smoking in the home, but would mean that people could not smoke in public buildings all across the world. There have been mixed reactions to this, with some people rejoicing at being free from secondhand smoke and others screaming that the institutions, and not the government, should have control over whether or not smoking is allowed in their buildings. The endorsement from the United Nations gives the proposed ban a lot of power, and suggests that it will come to pass.

However, the United Nations has not limited themselves to only investigating the possibility of banning smoking, as they have done in their headquarters. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which was set up in 2003, has also looked at different ways to curb the effects of smoking. Some of these include different plans to help people stop smoking, as it is very addictive and this is known to be quite a hard thing to do. They clearly want to lessen the impact of smoking on the global society, phasing it out as much as possible. They have endorsed the ban of smoking and have backed this up by banning it in their headquarters. The movement only seems to be gathering force. However, they are looking into other options, which means that they really do have the best interests of the people in mind, both smokers and non-smokers alike.

The World Health Organization is the body through which the United Nations investigates smoking. They look at the evidence and try to figure out the best legislation that will help the most people. They are quite powerful, as a ban coming from them would impact people in all of the countries that are in the UN.

As far as the e cigarette also known as electronic cigarette is concerned, this is something that the United Nations has not yet endorsed. They are clearly interested in it, as it could be a way to promote their agenda of stopping smoking. However, they want there to be more evidence that it does not have other negative impacts on health before they will get behind it. Some manufactures began spreading the rumor that the World Health Organization was already in support of the device, using the logo in places on the packaging to make consumers believe that it was safe. While it may in fact be safe, the United Nations has not taken a stand confirming anything.

Ever since March 2, 1992, when the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to accept Resolution 46/227, the Republic of Armenia has been a member of the UN and has increasingly sought global influence and to become involved in worldwide affairs. As stated on the official Armenian UN website, the Republic of Armenia has as its permanent mission “to work as constructively as possible in support of the purposes and principles of the UN.” Today, Armenia is intricately woven into the fabric of global politics, even boasting a Facebook page, The Armenian United Nations Association.

Armenia has been a global hub for the administration of human rights and humanitarian aid. After establishing relations with Armenia, the United Nations in 1994 placed operations of the Department of Humanitarian affairs in the Armenian UN office. With the success of the program and the continued good will and profitable humanitarian Armenia fostered throughout the world, the UN Development Fund for Women chose to house the “Women for Conflict Resolution and Peace Building in the Southern Caucasus” project in the Armenian UN headquarters, which had by now been simply renamed the “UN House.”

Armenia is the worldwide hub for humanitarian themed conventions sponsored by the UN, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Aside from housing these conventions, Armenia also serves as headquarters for many of the United Nations’ humanitarian outreach and development programs.

A quote from the official Armenian UN site detailing Armenia’s current projects with the UN:

“Currently the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Department of Public Information (DPI), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) share offices in the UN House.”

In keeping with this theme, Armenia’s sponsorship of UN resolutions usually have centrally humanitarian themes at heart rather than politics or economics. Examples of the resolutions Armenia has sponsored:

“Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism,” “Rights of the child,” “International cooperation against the world drug problem,” “Elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief,” and “Human rights in the administration of justice.”

Recent actions of Armenia in the United Nations have included multimillion dollar programs to focus on inclusive and sustainable growth in developing countries, including Armenia, with part of those resources will be directed for the implementation of sustainable development projects. Armenia has stated that its priority after this is equitable access to basic social services, being followed by development of democratic institutions in Armenia, and environment and disaster risk reduction in these countries. Filaret Berikyan, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Issues recently launched the “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” campaign in Armenia on November 25th. Perhaps most importantly, on October 27, 2010, UNFPA Armenia hosted the second Gender Theme Group (GTG) meeting in the UN House, where the Armenian Government officially became a co-chair of the Group together with UNFPA and OSCE.