In our often divided world, one place where all of humankind is invited to come together to work for the common good is the United Nations. Despite its limitations, the UN system is our most effective tool for uniting with others in order to create and implement policies that secure a life of dignity for all of God’s children.
Article 71 of the Charter of the United Nations reads: “The Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC] may make suitable arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organizations which are concerned with matters within its competence.”
Based on this article, two of the Maryknoll branches (the Maryknoll Sisters and the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers) have Consultative Status with ECOSOC, and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns carries out the work of implementing this status. Our work with the UN aims to influence its agenda and is done by:
Maryknoll missioners serve as NGO representatives to the United Nations in New York where they bring the Maryknoll mission experience to important conversations with policymakers and civil society members from around the world.
The UN member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the goals. The SDGs focus global efforts on lifting people out of extreme poverty, while also addressing the challenges of ensuring more equitable development and environmental sustainability, especially the key goal of curbing the dangers of human-induced climate change. Today, progress is being made in many places, but, overall, action to meet the goals is not yet advancing at the speed or scale required. At the core of the 2020-2030 decade is the need for action to tackle growing poverty, empower women and girls, and address the climate emergency.
Maryknoll representatives to the UN work to promote peace, social justice and the integrity of creation by organizing their UN participation around the following topics:
In an open letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, Maryknoll Office for Global concerns joined a coalition led by Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War in a message in support of a House Resolution urging a reversal of the nuclear arms race.
The executive branch has waged legal warfare against the legal designations that protect people from deportation back to the dangerous countries they have fled. Immigration Advocacy Intern Rehema Klueg reports.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 11 religiously-affiliated organizations that provide support to immigrants in writing to the U.S. Court of Appeals on the side of Plaintiffs, immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who are challenging Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s decision to end humanitarian parole.
Advocates met in Calgary, Canada, ahead of the G7 summit to discuss the 2025 Jubilee debt relief campaign.
World leaders met in Nice, France, from June 9-13, to discuss sustainability of the world’s oceans. Maryknoll Sister Margaret Lacson and Maryknoll Father John Sivalon report back.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns was among the over 45 national, state, and local faith organizations that signed a statement affirming commitment to the Paris Agreement of 2015, regardless of U.S. Federal support.
Development and Peace, Caritas Canada, in collaboration with Caritas Internationalis, is launching the “Relay of Hope,” a global candle-lighting campaign aimed at illuminating the path towards debt justice and economic transformation.
The global policy-making body dedicated to promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls met at UN headquarters in New York in March.
After three decades of negotiations over the climate impact of shipping, nations reached a landmark deal to make ship owners pay for their emissions and transition to cleaner fuels.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined an international multi-faith declaration on our spiritual charge to care for and protect our oceans. The declaration will be presented to the United…
For the second time in eight years, President Trump submitted the notification for the United States to leave the international accord that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
In the spirit of Jubilee, join Pope Francis in the call to Turn Debt into Hope and urge global decision makers to prioritize people and planet over profit. The leaders…
The UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, will be remembered as the moment climate advocates stayed strong in the face of weak commitments from wealthy, polluting nations. The following article was published in the January – February 2025 issue of NewsNotes. The global association of 198 member states that gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan…
Sara Kennel, climate advocacy intern, shares the outcomes of the UN conference on biodiversity. The following article was published in the January – February 2025 issue of NewsNotes. In the very last hours of the 16th bi-annual UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, a celebration ensued with enthusiastically raised hands, tears, hugs, and chants…
Scientists agree that dramatic action must be taken in phasing out fossil fuels to prevent global catastrophe. The National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) latest numbers on the year 2024…
The Maryknoll delegation to the UN conferences on climate and biodiversity relate their experiences, share what they learned, and answer questions. The United Nations met in November of 2024 for two important Conference of the Parties (COP’s): the conference on Biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, and the conference on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan. Maryknoll Office…
Join us on Tuesday, December 3 at 3pm ET for a webinar with the Maryknoll delegation to the United Nations conferences on biodiversity and climate change. The United Nations met…
Read, print, or share this handy two-pager, which tells of the Who? What? When? Where? and Why? of the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference COP16, with stories from Maryknoll mission and our hopes and ambitions.
