UN Day in The Hague

UN&me is an event that took place in The Hague at The Hague University on October 23rd to commemorate UN Day, which takes place each year on October 24th. It was organised by: ncdo, nvvn, UNHCR, UNRIC, Unicef, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the city of The Hague en NJR and about 400 people attended.

Goal of the day was to inform young people on how the UN works, and to provide a platform where they can out their opinions on the UN. Activities during the day included: A speed date with UN experts, info sessions on working and lobbying at the UN, round table sessions with UN director etc. In the main hall there were several information booths where the participants could obtain information about the organisations that were present.

At the end of the day the Dutch UN youth representative was elected. Kirty Matabadal won the race and will function as the Dutch youth’s voice with politicians and policymakers. She’ll even get the chance to speak at the General Assembly in New York! Kirty was given some policy advice by the young people who were present at the event.

For the United Nations “Say no to Violence against Women” advertisement competition, Merian Plaat has been chosen as the Dutch winner with her poster ‘Always New Excuses…’. Her poster was chosen by the public of UN&me as the submission from the Netherlands that was best in conveying the message to end violence against women. This was announced by Dagmar Schumacher, Director of UN Women Brussels. Miss Schumacher also led a round table on violence against women that afternoon.

Earlier this week, the winners of this European advertisement competition were announced for the categories: Jury Prize, Youth Prize and European Public Prize.

More info about this day and the organizers and partners can be found at:

• http://www.dewereldvandevn.nl/dag_van_de_vn
• http://nl-nl.facebook.com/UNandme
  
  

Edited: S. Robin