ADVOCACY BY WFMH AT THE UNITEDNATIONSAND ITS SPECIALIZED AGENCIES – 2007Background The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) has had special consultative status at the UnitedNations since 1963. Its association with UN agencies stretchesback even further, to the founding of the UN system in 1948 andits own foundation in London that same year. WFMH was grantedconsultative status by the World Health Organization and UNESCOin 1948 and worked with these two agencies on various projects.Other UN offices with which it has had later contacts includethe International Labour Organization, UNICEF, the Office of theUN High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Bank. Currentlyits main associations are with the Economic and Social Councilof the UN in New York, the UN Department of Public Informationin New York, the UN Office in Geneva and the World HealthOrganization in Geneva.Activities in 2007
UN New York World Mental Health Day observed by the UN NGO Committee on Mental HealthThe UN NGO Committee on Mental Health arranged a program on 11 October 2007 to mark WorldMental Health Day. The moderators were Janice Wood Wetzel, chairof the NGO Committee and UN Main Representative, InternationalAssociation of Schools of Social Work, and Nancy E. Wallace,ex-officio Chair of the NGO Committee and UN MainRepresentative, World Federation for Mental Health.The meeting opened with remarks by Andrey Pirogov, Assistant Director-General of the WorldHealth Organization and Executive Director of the WHO Office atthe UN in New York. Robert T. Carter and Jessica Forsyth fromTeachers College, Columbia University, addressed the developmentof racially-culturally competent mental health care. MahrooMoshari, UN Representative, International Union ofAnthropological and Ethnological Sciences, spoke aboutencountering diversity in the classroom, and raising awarenessof mental health issues among Muslim Americans. Ellen Mercer,WFMH Deputy Executive Officer and Director, WFMH Center forTranscultural Mental Health, described plans to build up theFederation’s broad new initiative focusing on culture and mentalhealth.
Activities in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 51st Session”In March WFMH UN Representatives participated in the 51st Sessionof the UN Commission on the Status of Women(CSW, 26-February – 9 March 2007) in New York. The Federation’sUN Representatives have been actively involved with thisimportant UN Commission since 1992. The CSW priority theme thisyear, “the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence againstthe girl child,” is of particular importance to the mission and members of WFMH. Ourorganization, as a member of the NGO Committee on Mental Health,joined other NGOs in various advocacy efforts to persuade theparticipating governments to include mental health in theproceedings and in the final agreed conclusions of theCommission. A statement submitted under the auspices of themember organizations of the Committee was accepted as part ofthe official outcome documents. The statement addresses mentalhealth as it relates to the central theme of the Commission andis available on the CSW website in the official languages of theUN.WFMH sponsored a side event panel organized by its Main Representative, Nancy Wallace, on “Violence and the Mental Health Consequences for the Girl Child” (Tuesday, 27 March). The international workshop explored theimpact of various types of violence on girls, ranging fromviolence against the individual to the consequences ofwar. Nancy Wallace joined with former WFMH Board member Prof. Chueh Chang to arrange anotherWFMH-sponsored panel on “Building a Mentally Healthy Environment to Promote Gender Equity forGirls” (Monday, 5 March). This panel focused on the impact of discrimination andsocial environment on girls, with particular attention to Asiancountries. WFMH UN Representative Ricki Kantrowitz was themoderator.Prof. Kantrowitz also organized and moderated a panel under the auspices of the NGO Committeefor Mental Health on “Mental Health Implications of Violence and Discrimination Against theGirl-Child: Prevention and Interventions” (Wednesday, 7 March). The panel reviewed the psychologicalconsequences of violence and discrimination against girls, thedevelopment of effective interventions, and the importance ofrecognizing mental health as a critical dimension in successfulstrategies for combating and eliminating all forms of violenceagainst women of all ages.In addition, as co-convenor of the NGO Committee’s Working Group on Gender Perspectives, Prof.Kantrowitz helped to organize three caucuses (open meetings)about advocating for mental health issues with the governmentdelegations attending the CSW.TOPYouth Delegation In special recognition of this year’s theme, the CSW encouraged NGO delegations to includeyouth in their membership. The WFMH delegation included sixstudents sponsored by Dr. Nancy Dubrow of the Chicago School ofProfessional Psychology, and a teenager from Californiasponsored by UN Representative Ricki Kantrowitz who later wrotethe following report:
“My name is Samantha Steindel-Cymer. I’m thirteen years old and live in LosAngeles, California. I was invited to attend the CSW byRicki Kantrowitz, with the approval of Nancy Wallace. BeforeI attended the Commission, I felt I was sensitive to mentalhealth issues due to the fact that my mother is a clinicalpsychologist in private practice. However, because of theinfluence of the Commission, I realized how truly limited myworld awareness was regarding psychological issues.I was present at WFMH sessions, at a girl’s caucus, and other discussion groups. Ihad the opportunity to meet girls who had been trafficked,abused, undergone female genital mutilation, were deprivedof educational and health benefits, and learned about manymore issues.Because of this exposure to the United Nations, my awareness of improving mentalhealth for people within my own community and the worldbeyond had broadened significantly. I feel compelled tospread and share this knowledge with organizations in myarea. Using this newfound insight, I can be more empathetictowards the world around me, and in my small way try to makea difference.”
CSW Website References: UN Commission on the Status of Womenhttp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/51sess.htmCSW NGO Statements E/CN.6/2007/NGO/16http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw51/OfficialDocuments.html TOPUN Offices in Geneva In June WFMH partnered with nine other NGOs, under the auspices of the UN NGO Committee onMental Health, to participate in the First Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Reductionheld in Geneva by the UN International Strategies for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). The ISDRis a UN office based in Geneva, and the Global Platform has beenestablished as the main UN consultative forum on disaster riskreduction at the global level. It brings together a wide rangeof actors in the various sectors of development and humanitarianwork, and also in environmental and scientific fields, with theaim of expanding the political space dedicated by governments todisaster risk reduction. The Platform, as a global forum,advocates for effective and timely action by nations,communities and all stakeholders and partners to mitigate riskand manage vulnerabilities in order to reduce the impact ofnatural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis andfloods.The goal of the NGOs’ participation was to ensure the integration of mental health andpsychosocial issues into the disaster risk reduction agenda andthe discussions on implementation of the Hyogo Framework forAction. The Hyogo Framework was drafted during the January 2005World Conference on Disaster Reduction convened by the UNGeneral Assembly and attended by 168 governments in Japan. Theconference developed guidelines for global efforts in the decade2005-2015 to reduce vulnerabilities arising from naturaldisasters. It followed an earlier decade-long strategy producedat a conference in Yokohama in 1994.During the June session in Geneva, the partners from the NGO Committee on Mental Healthorganized a side event, issued a formal statement and providedrecommendations for the final summary report. Though not able totravel to Geneva, WFMH UN Main Representative Nancy Wallace wasinvolved in all aspects of the planning and development of theeffort. The side panel included important presentations byMargareta Wahlstrém, Assistant Secretary-General forHumanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator,Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and MarkVan Ommeren, World Health Organization (WHO), Department ofMental Health and Substance Abuse. A detailed report on the sideevent and the statement can be found on the Global Platformwebsite.Dr. Judy Kuriansky, UN Main Representative of the International Association of AppliedPsychology, represented the partner organizations at themeeting.Website References: International Strategies for Disaster Reductionhttp://www.unisdr.org/First Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 5-7 June 2007, Genevahttp://www.preventionweb.net/globalplatform/first-session/docs/Others_submitted_Statements/NGO_Mental_model_Statement.pdf TOP