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COOPERATION WITH THE UNITED NATIONS |
The following quotation, from the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General, to the General Assembly, on November 26th 2019 (A/75/61-E/2020/4) on page fifteen, documents the appreciation of the highest office of the United Nations, for the endeavours of our Committee, the Member Organisations and their representatives, for the well-being of families worldwide. 'The Vienna NGO Committee on the Family organized two international forums in 2019. One forum, held in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, was focused on the global effort to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, in the light of Sustainable Development Goal 3. The other, which was focused on child and youth media protection, from the perspective of parents, was the third of in a series of three forums dealing with families and digital media usage, organized in cooperation with the University of Salzburg. The Committee also published its online quarterly bulletin, 'Families international', incorporating forum proceedings, with a focus on endeavours to eliminate the practice of child marriage.' http://undocs.org/A/75/61
Further to the above quotation, the Board of the Committee keeps its various networks informed with documents of United Nations Resolutions and Reports of the United Nations Secretary- General pertaining to family issues. 'Families International', published online by the Committee, also regularly includes articles and texts related to family issues, published by, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank.
The United Nations observes the International Day of Families (IDF), May 15th 2021 under the title: 'Families and New Technology'. Our Committee publishes a Background Note on the IDF 2021 in the online quarterly bulletin 'Families International. For more information:
https://www.un.org/development/desa/family/2021/03/19/2021-international-day-of-families-families-and-new-technologies/
The Committee further encouraged its members and the organisations included in the over five hundred addresses on the mailing list of 'Families International' to participate in the consultations to prepare the 30th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2024 (IYF+30):
https://www.un.org/development/desa/family/2020/08/06/iyf30/
The website www.10yearsIYF.org maintained by the Committee is a resource archive for the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family (IYF) in 2004. It resulted out of the participation of the then Chairperson of the Committee in a consultative meeting of international and regional Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) set up by the United Nations Secretariat in New York, in 2002, to implement a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly to observe the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family (IYF) in 2004. It was agreed to prepare a study, under the chairmanship of the Vienna NGO Committee on the Family, on contributions of civil society to the well- being of families since 1994. This study was published in book form, with the financial support of the United Nations Trust Fund on Family Activities, under the title: 'Documenting Contributions of Civil Society Organisations to the Well-Being of Families' edited by P. Crowley. It was submitted to the members of the special session of the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations on Dec. 6th 2004, to officially observe the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family. The complete study is also available to download: www.10yearsIYF.org
A study update was facilitated by the Committee by setting up the website www.20yearsIYF.org and the results were presented to the United Nations at the observance of the International Day of Families 2014, to observe the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations International Year of the Family. The full 80 page report, of the study update, 'Documenting Contributions of Civil Society Organisations to the Well-Being of Families' by Dr. Peter Crowley, Secretary of the Committee, in cooperation with the United Nations Focal Point on the Family, is available to download on the United Nations website:
https://www.un.org/development/desa/family/international-day-of-families/2014-3.html
