Advocacy 

A primary goal of UNA-Boulder is to help build a stronger, more effective UN through constructive US leadership.

The UNA-Boulder Advocacy Program educates various constituencies and the general public on issues of importance to the United Nations.

Board members produce two white papers a year on topics related to the United Nations. They speak to civic and other groups about their findings.

Teams of board members have visited Senator Ken Salazar and other elected officials, urging action on such issues as global warming, payment of UN dues, contributions to the UN Population Fund, and ratification of UN Conventions.

In 2008, the advocacy team is working on Population Control and Consumption, and on Cuba. Here are summaries of our most recent work:

Population

“Too Many People!” by Clovis Morrisson, UNA-Boulder Advocacy committee chair, argues that the planet cannot sustain life as we know it for much longer. Estimates of the time left for a healthy sustainability vary and are unresolvable. What matters is that we take steps to reverse the depletion and despoiling of the world’s precious resources. The paper explores only one of the many challenges to sustainability: runaway population growth. It discusses the work being done by the United Nations Population Fund to promote family planning, and urges the United States government, which has withheld aid to the Fund for seven years, to resume funding.

Climate Change

UNA-Boulder has been urging our United States representatives and senators to support legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In June, 2008, we wrote to Congressman Mark Udall and Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, urging them to support the legislation on climate change that was working its way through Congress. This included The Climate Security Act (S.2191), The Climate Change Adaptation Act (S. 2355), and the resolution expressing the sense of the Senate “regarding the need for the United States to address global climate change through the negotiation of full and effective international commitments" (S. Res. 30). We asked them to recognize the work of the United Nations and UN agencies on climate change and provide full funding for their programs.