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:
Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) a coalition of over 300 global faith-based and values-based institutions have filed two shareholder proposals at six of the nation’s top banks calling on them to reduce their financing of fossil fuels.
People of faith, particularly in countries with nuclear weapons, can call on their leaders to pursue a robust program of negotiations and disarmament.
The latest UN report on global poverty offers insights in “poverty profiles” and highlights encouraging examples of overcoming interlinked aspects of poverty.
The fate of our common home, this fragile planet, was placed again in the hands of those who gathered in November, for the 27th time, at the UN Convention on Climate Change, this time on African soil, in Egypt.
January is a key time to educate ourselves about human trafficking and to learn to spot the signs of trafficking. Scroll down to learn what you can do. What is…
It is the responsibility of state parties to stop and reverse biodiversity loss, and hold corporations and financiers accountable for their historical and ongoing role in driving biodiversity impacts.
As the UN Climate Conference reaches its final day in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Maryknoll Missioners from Latin America, Africa and Asia lift up the voices of those most affected by climate change in the Global South, demanding action from world leaders to save our common home.
Learn about the choices before us and ways to take action.
It is sobering to recall that in World War I the world’s major powers drifted and blundered into a war which none of them wanted and which was ruinous for all of them. Mr. President, for the sake of the entire human family, we urge you to press for the resumption of arms control negotiations without further delay.
If the pandemic taught us anything it is that prevention is more humane and much less expensive than waiting to respond. The lack of political will and institutional failure to act quickly before the worst-case hits means people are being left to lurch from crisis to crisis. People are not starving; they are being starved.
World hunger and severe food insecurity grew in 2021, making the world’s goal of achieving “zero hunger” by 2030 even more unlikely.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972, national delegations returned to Stockholm on June 2-3, 2022, to take measure of progress.
The State of the World’s Forest Report 2022 offers a three-pronged approach to unlock the economic potential of trees and forests while preserving their status as the greatest carbon capture technology in the world.
As she concludes her term working with MOGC as NGO Representative to the UN (2018-2021), Sr. Marvie Misolas, MM reflects on the meaning of the Maryknoll Sisters’ presence at the UN.
Rather than relying on militaristic approaches, our leaders must invest in efforts to sustain peace and prevent harm to those who would suffer the most from the devastating and long-term impacts of conflict. Only by vigorously pursuing all avenues for peace can we fulfill our sacred duty to respect the equal dignity and worth of every person.
Although a UN gathering to review a cornerstone nuclear treaty has again been postponed, five nuclear weapons states issued a statement expressing commitment toward preventing nuclear war.
Time: 10am Eastern Building our Movements & Impacting the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference Register at: bit.ly/NPTJan4 Beginning January 4, diplomats will converge on the U.N. with the ostensible goal of holding governments accountable to fulfill the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty’s promise of creating a nuclear weapons free world. They cannot afford to fail. With new nuclear arms…
