Attendees at the 2017 Leadership Summit in Washington, DC during June 11-13 heard from special guest speakers including the President of the UN General Assembly Peter Thomson, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights at the UN Human Rights Office Andrew Gilmour, Hamilton: An American Musical’s Samantha Ware, and more.
The NNJ Chapter sent two board members to the summit. Pedro Cruz, our treasurer, attended the entire meeting and had this to say:
"I attended breakout sessions on Social Media Best Practices for Beginners, The Power of Story, The Refugee Crisis, and Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding, but the session most heavily attended—standing room only—was UN 101, a testament to people’s interest in the UN’s history and evolution."
On the last day of the summit, UNA-USA advocates held 271 face-to-face meetings with their Members of Congress and staff to collectively call for full U.S. funding of the UN. In just one day alone, UNA-USA reached more than 50 percent of the entire Congress.
Haris Melendez, our Program Chair, attended our Advocacy Day activities where the entire New Jersey contingent busily met with representatives from the congressional offices of Representatives Pascrell, Payne, Pallone, Coleman, Rochester, Gottheimer, Lance, Carper, and Coons as well as both Senators Menendez and Booker. She reports:
"UNA-Northern NJ Chapter was proud to join the more than 300 Americans who went to Capitol Hill with UNA-USA to support full U.S. funding for the United Nations. The historic event was the largest convening ever of Americans in DC advocating for strong U.S.-UN engagement! http://ow.ly/Qad130cy7Bm #USAforUN".
