UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 56TH SESSION
Third Committee - Conclusion of International Year of Volunteers
Statement by The Hon Rosemary Crowley on behalf of the Australian Delegation to the United Nations
5 December 2001
Mr. President,
Australia has a long history of Volunteers and Volunteering, covering a wide variety of fields of work and human endeavour. We have been the world leaders in some of those areas and we have been willing partners, or active participants with others in different areas. So it was from a rich base that Australia participated in the International Year of Volunteers.
The year's activities were coordinated at the national level by the Department of Family and Community Services. Individual State Governments also coordinated their own programs of activities across Australia. The national program included funding to community and voluntary sectors, sponsorship and partnerships, a communication strategy to promote awareness in the community and to involve people in the activities of the year and in voluntary activities and, finally, the program included research.
The Australian program was in keeping with the draft resolution on "Recommendations on Support for Volunteering" which the General Assembly is considering today. The draft resolution and its recommendations raise a number of very important points and many of these have special resonance for Australia.
In the opening paragraphs, the document recognises the importance and valuable contribution of traditional forms of mutual aid, self-help and civic participation to the economic and social development of communities. It further recognises that volunteerism is an important part of strategies to reduce poverty, and provide health and disaster prevention and sustainable development.
In Australia there is a long history of "pitching in and getting it done", whether that is fighting a bush fire, looking for a lost child in the bush, or rushing to help at the time of disaster like a cave-in at a work site, or a mountain collapse in the snow country. Australia also has a reputation of lending a hand overseas, especially when it is in an area of our expertise, like fighting fires.
Australia has seen the creation of some international non-profit charitable organisations, like Apex, and Meals on Wheels. It has an illustrious reputation in the area of charities, whether religious or other, and thousands of Australians regularly give time to help in the work those organisations do.
There are a number of points that are very important in the question of volunteers and which need to be a matter for ongoing consideration.
First, as recognised in the draft resolution, is the different level of male and female volunteers, in particular the high participation of women in the voluntary sector. This is based on a number of historical factors. Much of the essential volunteer work is known as "women's work"- nursing, caring, cooking, washing, reading, listening, bringing comfort, and so on. Further, women have, in the past, not had the same opportunity to participate in the paid work force in the same numbers as men.
Second, precisely because they were at the coalface of life, women were often the first to see a need in the community and to try to do something about it. Whether that was starting Meals On Wheels, as was the case in my own State of South Australia in 1953 by a woman Doris Taylor, herself in a wheelchair; or opening shelters for the protection of women against violence, which happened across the world at about the same time, women became politically active and discovered they could effect change. This point is recognised in the draft resolution where it notes the "potential positive effect of volunteering on the empowerment of women."
It is important to note that there is also a very long list of contributions by men through the voluntary sector. The experience of recent weeks in this very city and the work being done at Ground Zero and in the support systems to back that work, gives powerful evidence of the fact that men are great volunteers too.
Third, volunteers expand the work of government, especially in bringing services to the people, and through the work of other services, for example, raising money for all sorts of good works, from research to playground equipment.
This is done through partnership arrangements as reflected in the United Nations approach to the International Year for Volunteers, and in the resolution we will consider today. Partnerships were also a key element of the Australian Government response to the Year, which included establishing partnerships with both the public and the private sectors to provide a national conference and environmental projects, amongst others.
Mr President
The draft resolution refers to another point of great importance and that is that volunteers must not be used to replace paid employment. As history shows, there is a tradition of need being discovered and then met by the voluntary sector in the first instance, then being taken over by paid workers. Teaching is a good example of this, now largely in the hands of paid lay people where many children were taught by religious orders at little to no cost to the community.
It is important that the temptation to reverse that tradition be resisted. What is necessary is to support and encourage volunteers as a vital part of our communities, especially encouraging the opportunity for people to put a bit back into their own community.
Adequate recognition will perpetuate the place of volunteers in our communities and encourage them to continue their efforts. In acknowledgment of this, the Australian Government included a communication program in its activities and the United Nations also promoted the concept of recognition, as one vital element of the Year. It is fitting therefore that one of the recommendations we will adopt today encourages the media to participate in public awareness and promotion of volunteers.
While promoting volunteers, our communities very often overlook the great generosity of our young people. They spend their summers in camps helping children, including those with disabilities, they journey overseas to live very modestly in aid projects and lend their efforts to help those communities. Young people are full of energy and keen to find places and projects that allow them to give something back to their world. We must ensure that their contributions are recognised and encouraged. It is important that the altruism of youth does not go to waste!
The resolution recognises the need to promote volunteering and the values that go with it. There is also a need to recognise just how much work is done by volunteers and how much our communities depend on them. Such recognition reinforces the necessity of providing support for such workers, whether that is through training, or by subsidies, for example for travel costs.
It also reinforces the necessity for communities to reappraise this work from time to time; to be sure that volunteers are not doing what should properly be done in the paid work force, either public or private. Volunteering has become associated with different activities over time, and indeed, it is still evolving. As the draft resolution states, there is not one universal model of best practice. What works well in one country may not work well in another.
The approach taken by the Australian Government, and reflected in the recommendations we will adopt today, has been to create an enabling environment to allow volunteering to develop and flourish and to continue to add value to our communities. It is an approach that has been recognised throughout the UN Year, and will be endorsed again in the resolution we will adopt today. The UN itself provides a model example of an enabling environment, through the UN Volunteers program.
Mr President
In managing the valuable resource and contribution of volunteers, whether in one country or internationally, the challenge is to get the balance right. The great generosity of people ought be fostered and encouraged and appreciated. At the same time, those very qualities of generosity and coping in the face of awful hardship ought not to be abused.
Volunteers must be a PART of the program, working in partnership with the public and private sector for a better world.
Thank you Mr President