UN Days July
Individuals and groups can help to make UN Days much more effective through meditation and prayer. On this site there is a meditation in support of the UN Days and information on ways to participate in the UN Days & Years Meditation Initiative
Here you will find information on the UN designated Days during July 2008. Information provided includes some background, links to the UN site on the Day (where such a site exists), together with key thoughts for reflection.
5 July
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF COOPERATIVES
Year 2008 theme: Confronting Climate Change through Cooperative Enterprise
Cooperatives play an important role in economic and social development. Based as they are on the principle of cooperation, they are helping to pioneer new ethics and values in business and economics.
The International Day of Cooperatives is observed by the United Nations on the first Saturday of July. On this day, in 1895, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) was formed, and since 1927 the ICA has observed the first Saturday of July as International Cooperative Day. The ICA is an umbrella group of organisations encompassing 760 million members of cooperatives in 100 countries.
Information on the Day is available from:
Key thoughts for reflection:
The basis of co-operation lies primarily in mutual responsibility.
Heart, 559
Verily, cooperation opens all possibilities, but one needs the understanding of what this cooperation comprises. Often people relegate it to the province of certain state matters whereas cooperation is the condition of the entire life. Precisely, even in each small mutual assistance is comprised cooperation which has a cosmic significance. Each glance, each handshake, each thought is a sign of cooperation, if consciously utilized. How valuable it is for people to feel that they are constantly generating consequences! Like titans, they shake the world.
Heart, 204
11 July
WORLD POPULATION DAY
Year 2008 theme: Plan Your Future: Plan Your Family
Achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals will require significant progress in lowering the birth rate in many of the economically poorest countries and improving reproductive health services and family planning. Check out the excellent UN Population Fund site exploring the links between the Goals and Population issues: http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/goals/index.htm
To explore the issues raised we recommend you visit the World Population Day site and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) site.
- Check out the State of the World Population Report 2007. Countries are making real progress in carrying out a bold global action plan that links poverty alleviation to women’s rights and universal access to reproductive health. Ten years into the new era opened by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the quality and reach of family planning programmes have improved, safe motherhood and HIV prevention efforts are being scaled up, and governments embrace the ICPD Programme of Action as an essential blueprint for realizing development goals.
Look here for the latest estimate of the global population.
Key thought for reflection:
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
Eleanor Roosevelt
