Liaison Newsletter > LIAISON-Canada Electronic Newsletter #5

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50th Anniversary Congress of WFUNA held amid Tragedy

The events of the 50th Anniversary Congress of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) in Luxembourg, were marred by the sudden and tragic collapse and death of the recently appointed Secretary-General, Erskine Childers, shortly after his introductory address on Saturday, August 24.

In spite of his short tenure, he had done much to reinvigorate WFUNA, and the fruits of his work were to be found in the thoughtful, provocative and high quality programme he had worked so hard to prepare. Delegates were determined to accept the challenges and pick up the torch he so unfortunately had to lay down.

Indeed, coming as they did one year after the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, these meetings offered a timely opportunity to review 50 years in the life of the UN and of WFUNA, and to set priorities for the year ahead.

The overall thrust of the Luxembourg meetings accented the need, more than ever, for the UNA’s around the world to continue their work and for their Members not to lose faith in these hard times. The participants resolved that the UNA’s should try to become more activist and work cooperatively with other like-minded organizations. Equally, they concluded, since the mandate of the UN and therefore of the UNA’s is so broad, it is important to focus on a few priority areas and to engage members in some activity related to these priorities.

Among the priorities for each UNA around the world to consider when promoting national participation are: the promotion of reform at the UN, particularly democratization of the Security Council; support for the Secretary-general’s Agenda for Peace and Agenda for Development; support for special events to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; support for a full range of educational activities for youth, such as MUNAs, curriculum activities and seminars.

Founded as the "people’s movement for the UN", WFUNA was one of the earliest, if not the earliest Non-Governmental Organization to take up the task of monitoring the UN and interpreting it to people around the world. It currently has 120 Member UNA’s, 70 of whom attended. Canada was represented by the National President, Muriel Smith, and Mr. Joseph Khoury from Quebec.