The United Nations announced last week the formation of a global initiative to involve the academic world in the organization’s work. The project, called the United Nations Academic Impact, will hold its first conference on Dec. 15 in Asturias, Spain. The initiative will include more than 500 institutions from more than 90 countries.

Introduction

Academic Impact is a global initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in actively supporting ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, literacy, sustainability and conflict resolution. The Academic Impact also asks each participating college or
university to actively demonstrate support of at least one of those principles each year.

The formal launch of Academic Impact took place at a two-day conference in New York City, November 18-19, 2010. Available online are the press release preceding the event, text of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's remarks, text of IAUP President-elect J. Michael Adams' remarks, Ban's and Adams' remarks in video form, and the press release following the event.

read more here:

http://academicimpact.org/engpage.php