Advocacy

One of the most important activities of the UNAMaine chapter, the national United Nations Association-USA and the UN Foundation is advocacy.

Members are encouraged to stay informed of issues that affect the relationship between the UN and the United States. Members are also encouraged to take action. Contact your friends and the media to raise awareness. Contact your members of Congress to ask for actions that enhance international cooperation, human rights and peaceful resolution of conflict.

The UNA-USA Advocacy Agenda seeks to strengthen US government policy on four issues, including: (1) securing UN funding; (2) upholding the UN’s role in advancing human rights; (3) promoting ratification of key international treaties; and (4) supporting the Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals.

Among key international binding agreements that the United States has not yet ratified are the following:

• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Convention on the Law of the Sea
• The Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Mine Ban Treaty)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• International Criminal Court (ICC)
• Kyoto Protocol (of the Framework Convention on Climate Change)
•  Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Treaty on the prohibition of Nuclear Weapons