NES continues to advocate for and promote the culture of peace. It has maintained its accreditation at the UN through its leadership roles within the Values Caucus, Earth Values Caucus, Faith and Ethics Based Network for the International Criminal Court, Working Group on Climate Change as well as the sub-committee Against Racism, Zenophobia and all Forms of Discrimination within CONGO Human Rights Committee. NES participated in key UN World Conferences notably the Women’s Conferences in Nairobi and Beijing, Finance for Development in Monterey, World Conference Against Racism in Durban, Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development and subsequent World Conferences on Climate Change. We secured endorsement from the AEU for United Religions Initiative, a worldwide NGO with over 650,000 members as a leading model for interfaith cooperation based in grass roots interfaith cooperating circles. Today, a priority at the UN is with the civil society coalition Global Movement for the Culture of Peace with special focus on the High Level Forum on Culture of Peace convened by the President of the General Assembly. We administer the Facebook page and email list of the Climate Change Working Group (Facebook page – Climate Change Working Group at the United Nations), and serve on the Councils of the Spiritual Caucus and CONGO Committee Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns where we convene the eco-spirituality working group. We have participated actively in interactive hearings on the Post-2015 Sustainability Agenda.
NES also saw that the vision for peace is integral to both gender equality and diversity including same-sex preference, that rights necessitated responsibility to earth along with respect for other cultures, and global economic parity based in transparency and accountability was essential to eradicating poverty. Equality in solidarity for the common good has become for us a universal value.
Our most recent initiative is to create and expand the Rose L Walker Fund named after longtime President and representative at the United Nations. This Fund allows NES to provide special programming and to offer Seed Grants in line with its Mission. Our leadership is entirely volunteer and we are seeking to expand the present executive committee. We are grateful to all those over the years who have continued to support our work.