About

Welcome to the Create4theUN blog and gateway to the United Nations 2011 Ad Competition.

The Competition

A year ago we asked you to “Unleash your Creativity” and create an ad that aimed to raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and mobilize citizens to remind political leaders of the promises they made to end poverty by 2015.

You heeded the call and Europeans really did “Unleash their Creativity” for the United Nations’ WeCanEndPoverty campaign. We were overwhelmed with submissions, receiving over 2,000 of them! The winning submission along with the strongest finalists were published in leading newspapers around Europe as world leaders met in New York at the High Level Summit on the MDGs in September 2010.

This year we are again partnering with United Nations Information Centre’s around Europe, UN Women, and the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence Against Women campaign to ask you to create an ad to be published in newspapers, but this time saying: “No to Violence Against Women”. Violence against women and girls (VAW) is one of the most systematic and widespread human rights violations. No woman or girl in the world is entirely free of the risk of violence and abuse and this is unacceptable.  Violence against women is a human rights issue with tremendous health, social and economic implications.

We Can End Poverty and move a step closer to meeting the MDGs by saying “No to Violence Against Women”.

Our blog

We wanted to offer you the possibility of voicing your opinion on this issue through our blog, where our dedicated team of bloggers will keep you updated on the latest news, events and campaigns.

Guest bloggers from the institutional, design, artistic, and NGO communities will feature throughout the year and give their opinion.

If you are keen to also be part of the discussions, share your thoughts on ending violence against women, or possibly contribute an original article yourself, you can sign-up to our blog, follow us on twitter, or join us on facebook.

Learn more here.

UNRIC

The blog and competition websites are maintained by the Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe – UNRIC. It provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region and liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.

Meet the Authors

Afsané Bassir-Pour is the Director of UNRIC.

Long time journalist for the French daily Le Monde, she joined the UN in 2006.

Árni Snævarr, Reporter for Icelandic Television for 15 years, he joined the UN in 2005

Karen Davies is responsible for the UK and Ireland desk at UNRIC and for our popular monthly film event called CINE-ONU

Gregory Cornwell is social media focal point and will be keeping you updated through twitter and facebook. A keen blogger, he’ll be sharing his thoughts on the role new media plays in saying no to violence against women.