Ukrainian World Congress
Ukrainian World Congress (Ukrainian: Світовий Конґрес Українців or СКУ) is a non-profit organization, nonpartisan association, international coordination assembly of all Ukrainian public organizations in diaspora. Originally founded in 1967 as the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, the organization was renamed in 1993 to its current name.
Founded
1967 as the World Congress of Free Ukrainians
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The UWC lists its main goals and objectives as: 1) to represent the interests of Ukrainians in the diaspora; 2) to coordinate an international network of member organizations that support and promote the Ukrainian national identity, spirit, language, culture and achievements of Ukrainians throughout the world; 3) to promote the civic development of Ukrainians in their countries of settlement, while fostering a positive attitude towards Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state; and 4) to defend the rights of Ukrainians, independently of their place of residence in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
History[edit]
Originally founded in 1967 as the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, the organization was renamed in 1993 to its current name.
Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the UWC has been helping Ukraine become the natural epicentre for Ukrainianism throughout the world for the benefit of Ukrainians both in Ukraine and abroad.
In 2003, the Ukrainian World Congress was recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a non-governmental organization (NGO) with special consultative status.[1]
The UWC has focused on such important issues as: the protection and defence of the human and national minority rights of Ukrainians; the international recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-33 as an act of genocide (now officially recognized by 16 countries); the democratization of Ukraine and its integration into the European Union; the strengthening of Ukraine as a state and the inviolability of its borders; election monitoring, including the UWC’s International Election Observation Mission to the 2012 Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine (the largest non-government sponsored mission of its kind); the social and economic issues surrounding the economic migration from Ukraine; the promotion of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine and the diaspora; the return to the Ukrainian community in Poland of the Ukrainian National Home in Przemyszl which was confiscated during the Operation Vistula (Akcja Wisla); and the global problem of human trafficking.
Currently, the UWC has been actively promoting Ukraine's Euro-integration in meetings with high-ranking officials of the European Union. The UWC has called for the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement as early as 25 February 2013 during the EU-Ukraine Summit in Brussels, Belgium.