Pan Pacific & South East Asia Women's Association Australia Inc

2010 News items

UN DPI/NGO Conference
The 63rd Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, titled “Advance Global Health – Achieve the MDGs” will be held from Monday, 30 August, to Wednesday, 1 September, 2010 and will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Conference is being organised in partnership between the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), the NGO/DPI Executive Committee and the Government of Australia.

Jean Bennett, Kate Morioka and I have registered to attend, along with a new youth member, Sita, who lives in Brisbane

UN Women/ONU Femmes
A new United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women/ONU Femmes has been established from July 2nd. It will be led by an Under Secretary-General.

The four existing units, UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) go out of existence as separate entities with the adoption of this resolution, but all of their functions and activities continue into the transitional phase (July - Dec 31, 2010) and form the basis of the new entity.

United Nations Association of Australia
I attended a committee meeting of the ACT UNAA, accompanied by retiring UN officer Calmar Annandale. David Purnell of the UNAA committee has been visiting a number of Pacific countries with a view to establishing new UN Associations. The acting chair of the committee commended Calmar for her assistance in setting up David’s program of visits in Samoa.

Pam Rhemrev
UN officer
30 July 2010