The International Day of Friendship is a United Nations (UN) day that promotes the role that friendship plays in promoting peace in many cultures. It is observed on July 30 each year.

Background

In 2011, the UN proclaimed the International Day of Friendship with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, and cultures can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. The UN wanted for the day to involve young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

What Do People Do?

To mark the International Day of Friendship, the UN encourages governments, organizations, and community groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that promote solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

Public Life

The International Day of Friendship is a UN observance and not a public holiday.

The 40^th session of the World Heritage Committee began on 10 July in Istanbul, Turkey and will continue until 20 July. The meeting is chaired by Ambassador, Director General of Cultural Affairs and Promotion Abroad of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lale Ülker and members of the World Heritage Committee who are from several different countries.

The new sites according to the UNESCO’s website and, in the order of their inscription are: 

Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape: Part of Ningming
Huashan Rock Art

People’s Republic of China)—Located on the steep cliffs in the border regions of southwest China, these 38 sites of rock art illustrate the life and rituals of the Luoyue people. They date from the period around the 5^th century BCE to the 2^nd century CE. In a surrounding landscape of karst, rivers and plateaux, they depict ceremonies which have been interpreted as portraying the bronze drum culture once prevalent across southern China. This cultural landscape is the only remains of this culture today. 

Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda University) at Nalanda, Bihar (India) – The Nalanda Mahavihara site is in the State of Bihar, in north-eastern India. It comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. It includes stupas, shrines, viharas (residential and educational buildings) and important art works in stucco, stone and metal. Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organized transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years. The historical development of the site testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions. 

The Persian Qanat (Islamic Republic of Iran)—Throughout the arid regions of Iran, agricultural and permanent settlements are supported by the ancient qanat system of tapping alluvial aquifers at the heads of valleys and conducting the water along underground tunnels by gravity, often over many kilometres. The eleven qanats representing this system include rest areas for workers, water reservoirs and watermills. The traditional communal management system still in place allows equitable and sustainable water sharing and distribution. The qanats provide exceptional testimony to cultural traditions and civilizations in desert areas with an arid climate.

Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia) – Nan Madol is a series of 99 artificial islets off the south-east coast of Pohnpei that were constructed with walls of basalt and coral boulders. These islets harbour the remains of stone palaces, temples, tombs and residential domains built between 1200 and 1500 CE. These ruins represent the ceremonial centre of the Saudeleur dynasty, a vibrant period in Pacific Island culture. The huge scale of the edifices, their technical sophistication and the concentration of megalithic structures bear testimony to complex social and religious practices of the island societies of the period. The site was also inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to threats, notably the siltation of waterways that is contributing to the unchecked growth of mangroves and weakening existing edifices.

UN cultural agency UNESCO will gather in Istanbul this month to review candidates to join its prestigious World Heritage List. There has been heightened interest as well as new discussions related to threats to heritage sites. This is due to the fact that there have been increasing terror attacks as we saw even in Istanbul just recently but also because the Islamist terrorists have been on a campaign of destruction for the last few years. Just recently Islamist terrorists blew up the ancient Nabu temple in Iraq. In 2012 a Malian jihadist blew up nine mausoleums and part of Timbuktu’s famous Sidi Yahia mosque. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the Taliban destroyed the giant Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001.

At the meeting in Istanbul this year 29 dossiers are being considered by the World Heritage Committee, made up of 21 countries serving six-year terms. These dossiers include a dossier for the work of architect Le Corbusier, after failed attempts in 2009 and 2011 (as we reported earlier here on WCHV website), have been revamped and come with high marks from a committee of experts who evaluate the submissions. Another dossier is on the works of the Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, who created the plans for the country’s capital Brasilia. Brazil’s dossier wants Niemeyer’s modern ensemble of Pampulha, a leisure centre built in 1940 around an artificial lake at Belo Horizonte, to be inscribed on the prestigious list too. The United States of America is promoting the works of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but the experts’ assessment was not encouraging according to some news outlets.

As always, the World Heritage process has often caused diplomatic friction, and objections for varying reasons. This year, Thailand has proposed its Kaeng Krachan forests for listing as a cultural site, angering neighboring Myanmar. Myanmar sent a strong letter to UNESCO stating that 34 percent of the site is in its territory. Other news outlets also report that Britain annoyed Spain by proposing the Gibraltar grottoes as a British heritage site, and Turkey has a dossier promoting the ancient ghost city of Ani, once the capital of neighboring Armenia.

Other dossiers include Canada’s Mistaken Point reserve with its 560 million-year-old fossils, Cave art dating from the 5th century BC in Zuojiang Huashan in China, the dolmens of Antequera in Spain and Gibraltar’s Neanderthal grottoes are also in contention. Among natural sites under consideration are Iran’s Loot Desert and the Revillagigedo archipelago in Mexico. The World Heritage List today has 1,031 sites in more than 163 countries.

Apart from the prestige the designation gives to a site, it can also be a boost to tourism which helps poorer countries and also in terms of receiving financial aid to preserve their sites; therefore, this is a very important designation and at times takes many years to obtain. This year the Committee will also review the status of 48 sites currently listed as “in danger”.

In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that 11 July be observed by the international community as World Population Day, a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. This year’s theme is ‘Investing in teenage girls.’

Teenage girls around the world face enormous challenges. Many are considered by their communities or parents to be ready for marriage and motherhood. Many are forced from school, damaging their future prospects. Even among girls who stay in school, access to basic information about their health, human rights and reproductive rights can be hard to come by, leaving them vulnerable to illness, injury and exploitation. These challenges are exacerbated among marginalized girls, such as members of ethnic minorities or those living in poverty or remote areas. 

Yet when teenage girls are empowered, when they know about their rights and are given the tools to succeed, they become agents of positive change in their communities.

UNFPA’s programmes aim to end child marriage, curb adolescent pregnancy, and to empower girls to make informed choices about their health and lives. In 2015 alone, UNFPA programmes helped 11.2 million girls between ages 10 and 19 gain access to sexual and reproductive health services and information.

“Leaders and communities must focus on and stand up for the human rights of the most marginalized teenage girls, particularly those who are poor, out of school, exploited, or subjected to harmful traditional practices, including child marriage,” UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin said. “Marginalized girls are vulnerable to poor reproductive health and more likely to become mothers while still children themselves. They have a right to understand and control their own bodies and shape their own lives.

(http://www.un.org/en/events/populationday/)

International Day of Cooperatives

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Cooperatives is observed on the first Saturday of July each year. Some of the day’s goals are to increase awareness on cooperatives, as well as strengthen and extend partnerships between the international cooperative movement and other supporting organizations including governments.

What Do People Do?

Cooperatives around the world celebrate the International Day of Cooperatives in many ways. Activities include: messages from the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the UN translated into local languages for worldwide distribution; news articles and radio programs publicizing the awareness of the day; fairs, exhibits, contests and campaigns focused on the topics related to the day; meetings with government officials, UN agencies and other partner organizations; economic, environmental, social and health challenges (such as tree planting); and sponsored cultural events such as theatres and concerts.

Background

Cooperatives are important in the world’s economic and social development. Based as on the principle of cooperation, cooperatives help create new ethics and values in business and economics. In 1895 ICA was formed and since 1927 it observes the first Saturday of July as International Cooperative Day. In 1994 the United Nations recognized and reaffirmed that cooperatives were vital in the world’s economic, social and cultural development. However two years earlier – on December 16, 1992 – the UN General Assembly proclaimed the first Saturday of July 1995 as the International Day of Cooperatives, marking the centenary of ICA’s establishment.

International Day of Cooperatives 2016

Saturday, July 2, 2016

A new report by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the United Nations Environment Program and the Union of Concerned Scientists, released earlier this month finds that climate change is a major threat to several of the world’s heritage sites. The experts warned that many heritage sites that are very popular with tourists around the world could be impacted by climate change.

The report in addition identifies 31 natural and cultural World Heritage sites across 29 countries that are vulnerable to a range of climate change-related impacts, from increasing temperatures, melting glaciers and rising sea levels to extreme weather events, intensifying droughts and more frequent and more severe wildfires.  All the continents with the exception of Australia were looked at in the report. The Australian continent was originally included in the report, but its government requested it be removed because of concerns that the information would hurt its tourism industry.

The scientists reported that many factors including a rise in sea levels, intense storms and wildfires, are impacting these sites and planning at this point is critical in order to lessen the impact.  Some of these sites have already experienced impact from climate change as the experts warn.  These include Easter Island and Yellowstone National Park.

The information and data for the report was drawn from peer-reviewed science literature, technical reports and local experts, as well as domestic evaluations of the sites prepared for the World Heritage Committee.  Thirteen listed heritage sites were examined in comprehensive case studies intended to demonstrate the way climate change has already had an impact. In a study of the Statue of Liberty, for instance, the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which scientists have shown were exacerbated by a rise in the sea level, are explored at length. 

The report also includes a series of recommendations for government agencies, the tourism industry and heritage site managers. The experts believe that tourism, which is one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors, will likely be affected by the dramatic changes expected at these sites, and so will the local communities that depend on that tourism.