Swords into Plowshares is the blog of the Peacemaking Program and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations of the Presbyterian Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Seeking peace. Striving for justice. Together.
This was originally posted by the U.S. State Department.
Thank you, Mr. President, for hosting today’s debate on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). And thank you, Under-Secretary General Ladsous, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Brandt and Save the Children Associate Vice President Ramm for your remarks. We are also grateful to Ambassador Lucas for her leadership as Chair of the Security Council Working Group and deeply appreciate the devoted work of Special Representative Leila Zerrougi and her team to advance this agenda. And I thank her for her briefing this morning as well.
The United States remains determined to ...
by Marissa Costello
When I was younger, I use to joke with my parents that they were forcing me to do child labor for them by carrying two heavy loads of laundry or soda packages.
But child labor is really not something that should not be taken lightly when so many children in the world are deprived of an education and childhood.
On June 12 is World Day Against Child Labour, a day created by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2002. This day is meant to grow worldwide attention to this issue while also reminding us that children around ...
by Anna Folz
On June 6, 2013, I attended a briefing titled, “Determined to Save Succeeding Generations from the Scourge of War”. The title comes from the opening line of the UN Charter.
There were four speakers on the panel and each touched upon different aspects of war. Before the speakers started a video was shown. The video contained actual footage of the aftermath of war. The video showed the suffering of women, children dying, footage of men who had been shot. The video gave the viewer an opportunity to actually witness the human and environmental impact of war. The ...
An estimated 1.2 million children all over the world are annually exploited through prostitution, pornography, and trafficking. Some travelers use tours and hotels as venues to exploit children. Without clear policies and training, staff are not equipped to identify and react to such behavior. You can take a stand against the sexual exploitation of children by informing companies about their vulnerability in the tourism industry.
The Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct is the only internationally accepted framework that sets a standard of responsible business practices to effectively crack down on the sexual exploitation of children. To date, over 1 ...
This year, the UNICEF Tap Project would like to invite you to transform the world's largest social network into a water network.
No one can survive without water. Yet nearly 800 million people do not have safe, clean water to drink, and more than 2.5 billion people live without a proper toilet. The lack of these basic necessities isn’t just inconvenient — it’s lethal. Every day, nearly 4,000 children under age five die from waterborne diseases.
Through the UNICEF Tap Project and your social network, you can help stop these needless deaths.
Why the UNICEF Tap ...