By Paige Higbie, UN Youth Rep Coordinator
A critical addition to the 2030 agenda has been the introduction of an annual report on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals. Notorious as the not-for-profit sector is for lacking 'key performance indicators', the Annual Progress Report provides a notable exception. It is the annual report card on the global progress made...
By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep
Since last month, I have been attending the NGO Comittee on Migration meetings. This relatively new and very active group has several subcommittees. I’m a member of the Committee on Climate Induced Displacement. Working with, and talking to, this group has inspired me to write this text.
Thirty four people recently died due to...
By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep
In the WHO’s Constitution, it is stated that, “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” 1 Nevertheless, 800 women die from preventable maternal related illnesses every day.2
Improving maternal health was...
By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep
If, in the eighties, someone had said that AIDS would someday be as easy to treat as diabetes, for example, they would have been considered insane. But, now with antiretroviral therapies it is becoming that easy! But only if you have access to the right treatments.
Efficient treatment, however, doesn’t mean an end to...
By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (or ICTY) held their twenty-fourth and last ever annual review at the General Assembly of the UN last week, and I had the opportunity to attend.
This was...
By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep
The UN wants to be a forerunner in political trends and social developments. Thus, Human Trafficking, a great problem, is moving up on their agenda. Seventy-five percent
of trafficked humans are females, which makes the subject even more relevant to feminist and female-focused NGOs such as FAWCO.1
Human trafficking is a very uncomfortable subject...
In August 2017, Samuel Witt (son of Susan Stanley-Witt, AWC Hamburg) began his FAWCO UN Youth Rep experience.
From May - August 2017, Paige Higbie was FAWCO's UN Youth Rep in New York. Paige's mother is UN Rep Erica Higbie (FAUSA) and her brother Gavin was FAWCO's first UN Youth Rep. Now enrolled in a Master's program studying international relations in Berlin, Paige serves as FAWCO's UN Youth Rep Coordinator.
FAWCO's UN Youth Rep 2015 - 2017 is Vali Mitsakis from AWO Greece. Vali is studying in New York, and as a former Model UN participant, is excited to be a FAWCO UN Youth Rep.
In 2014, FAWCO had its first UN Youth Rep, Gavin Higbie, son of Erica Higbie (FAUSA), FAWCO UN Rep in New York and former Chair of the Human Rights Team. In August 2014, Gavin attended the Summer 2014 Youth Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City. He also attended the Winter 2014 Youth Assembly, and posted blogs about his experiences.
Gavin Higbie, FAWCO UN Youth Rep