BACKGROUND
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Southern California Regional Council
of Organizations
SCRCO covers
a geographical area from the Mexican border all the way north
through San Luis Obispo County. It would take you a day of driving time
to traverse. Los
Angeles County itself has a population of over 10 million
people. There are nine counties all told making up Southern California
with Los Angeles as the hub.
SCRCO currently
is composed of 29 regional non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), most of which have many local chapters or churches
or units, such as the YWCA of Southern California; League
of Women Voters of LA County; Zonta International,
District 9; Presbyterian Synod of Southern California and
Hawaii; and the California Federation of Business and Professional
Women. Think of SCRCO as a circle with 29 spokes sticking out from
it, and at the end of each spoke are 10 to 50 more spokes
each representing a local unit.
The information
flow from SCRCO goes to each Regional NGO Board by way of
their regional representative who attends regular monthly
meetings of the SCRCO Board in Los Angeles. Any
information that reaches the local chapter comes via their
own regional NGO. Seventy-five
per cent of SCRCO member NGOs are regional counterparts of
NGOs that belong to the UNA-USA Council
of Organizations. When
SCRCO does advocacy with its U.S. Congressional Representatives
or the US Administration, it can point to the fact that
it represents the total of individuals who belong to all
the local chapters of each regional NGO in support of a
given UN-related position, which will be thousands.
In November
1992 when I was in
my third year as President of the UNA-USA Southern California
Division, I received a phone call from the Executive Director
of a Congressionally-mandated body, the US
Commission on Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations, asking
if I would put together a coalition of NGOs who would put
on the Commission’s February 1, 1993, Public Hearings
in Los Angeles.
The Planning
Committee of the 22-member Host Coalition enjoyed working
together so much that these nine NGOs became the nucleus
for a Regional Council of Organizations: American
Association of University Women; Bahai’s;
Church Women United; Friends of the UN; Alliance for Global
Unity; Humanist Association; International Association for
Volunteer Effort; United Nations Association; and the World
Federalist Association. On
May 5 they asked for formal affiliation with the United Nations
Association at the Southern California Division level to
correspond with the Council of Organizations at the national
level. The purposes
would be to:
1) Educate the public on the role
and organization of the United Nations and
its agencies,
and
2) Improve the effectiveness of the
United Nations and strengthen it.
Based on the
receipt of letters signed by these organizations affirming
participation, the Division Board gave unanimous approval
July 31, 1993, with the Council Chair to become a voting
member of the Division Board. Subsequently,
a special article appeared in the Summer issue of the Division
Newsletter. In
October, Guidelines were adopted by Regional Council representatives
that included this policy statement:
The Council may represent and promote officially adopted policies and
positions of the UNA-USA. It
may not adopt policy positions or make policy statements
on behalf of its members, their organizations, or the UNA.
A Nominating
Committee, chaired by the AAUW representative, presented
a report in January and the first officers were elected in
February 1994. Advocacy
and education have been our primary goals.
Some of the
more interesting programs and projects we’ve
undertaken as a coalition are:
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For the UN’s 50th Anniversary
in 1995, we celebrated with monthly programs in various
venues on the accomplishments of individual UN agencies.
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In 1998 numerous NGOs purchased the recently completed
480-page International
Instruments of the United Nations, such as treaties,
conventions, charters, etc. adopted by the General
Assembly of the UN from 1945 to 1995 and presented
them to public libraries. It
was edited by our own Regional Council representative
and national officer of Friends of the United Nations,
Irving Sarnoff.
-
Between May 1999 and December 2002
SCRCO provided no-cost subscription to NGOs for Quarterly
Newsletter Paragraphs on UN topical issues.
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For five years beginning in 2000, with the cooperation
of the LA
County School System, SCRCO invited high school students
to celebrate UNESCO’s Principles of the Culture
of Peace through student creations and performance. It
was led by SCRCO’s representative from the Society
for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Paul
Kimmel, supported in part by a Sages grant.
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On October 12, 2002, SCRCO held a one day Global Health
Conference for non-governmental members
and the public. Collaborators were the
UCLA School of Public health and the Charles R. Drew
University of Medicine and Science. Stephen
Lewis, the Keynote Speaker, was former Canadian Ambassador
to the United Nations and UN Secretary-General Annan’s
Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. A UNA-USA Web Exclusive carried the story. It
was funded in part by the California Wellness Foundation
and the California Endowment. The Better World Campaign underwrote a conference budget item.
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In 2004 SCRCO and the UNA Division invited UNA-USA
President Luers to Southern California where he spoke at
separate events, attended a special breakfast and had several
small meetings to acquaint him with local chapter representatives
and various concerns.
A
representative group of SCRCO advocacy communications have
urged:
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Establishment
of a permanent International Criminal Court;
-
Ratification
of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
-
Funding
of Assessed Peacekeeping Operations;
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Ratification
of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women;
-
US
Re-entry into UNESCO;
-
Global
education and information about the UN System in public
schools.
Most of these
issues are still before us. It
is important now that we follow up on these commitments to
ensure that a strong United Nations continues to be a priority
for President Obama.
Please join
us on January 21, 2009, and bring your organizations goals
and concerns.
Rene Wilson
Co-Founder,
Southern California
Regional Council of Organizations
January 2009
