World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day, celebrated on June 8 every year, was originally proposed by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. The 2015 Theme is "Healthy oceans, healthy planet."

The United Nations Postal Administration issued three panes of 12 stamps on May 31, 2013 to raise awareness for World Oceans Day. The artwork by Yoshito Hirano on Postcard JP-240233 from Japan illustrates the important relationship between human settlements and the ocean.

The Millennium Project

To commemorate the 69th anniversary of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, President Barack Obama proclaimed October 24, 2014 as United Nations Day.

Postcard US-1779034 to Australia features Meg Bonenfant at age 20, to highlight one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),  Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education. The goals were a series of time-bound and quantified targets, set out in the Millennium Project at the United Nations' Millennium Summit in September, 2000, aiming to reduce extreme poverty in the forms of income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability, with a deadline of 2015.

The postcard was obtained at the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, Canada during June 19-23, 2006. Another copy of the card was recently sent to the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City for a postmark on the United Nations stamps in September, 2014.

United Nations Day

President Barack Obama, as every President of the United States has done each year since 1946, proclaimed October 24, 2013 as United Nations Day to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations. 
Postcard US-2373503 to Russia, shows the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, arrived in 62 days. It was sent to the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City for mailing with the United Nations stamps on August 20, 2013. For procedures on how to send mails through UNPA, see my previous blog.

Some other postcards sent under a separated envelop on the same day, survived a mail catastrophe and arrived their destinations without any postmarks.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from U.N.

A PostCrosser friend traveled to New York City and tried to send me a postcard from the United Nations stamps and post office. However, when I received the card today, the card was sent through a US post office with a USPS stamp. It turns out that a guided tour ticket for visitors is now required to enter the UN Headquarters Visitor Center where the stamps and post office is located starting June 2013. A ticket costs 16 US Dollars; however the tour tickets are NOT sold on the spot.

Another notice from the United Nations Postal Administration says: "As part of the renovation project for the General Assembly Building at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the UNPA Stamp Shop has been relocated to a temporary Visitor's Centre in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library on the south end of the campus. Due to security limitations, visitors are not allowed into the Centre without prior notice of arrival. To schedule a visit to the UNPA Stamp Shop, please call 212-963-7698 or 1-800-234-8672 for access instructions. The updated UNPA Stamp Shop will reopen to unannounced visitors in the Fall of 2014." Send me an email if you have successfully scheduled a visit without paying the guided tour. I will update the information here.

You can still forward your prepared mails to the United Nations Headquarters to be released in the mail streams there by following the steps mentioned in a previous post.

A Postcard from the United Nations

Postcard sent from UN Headquarters in New York City

Yesterday, I received a postcard mailed through the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA). According to UNPA: "Human rights, the environment, endangered species and peace are all subjects of universal concern to the peoples of the world. They are also subjects which the United Nations Postal Administration has promoted on its stamps". You can purchase United Nations stamps from their online shop. Postage rates are identical to those of the host nation. Therefore, It is has the same domestic and international rate for mails originated from US as the US Postal Service; however, United Nations stamps in US dollars can only be used for mails sent from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

If you wish to send postcards from UN but do not live in the New York City, you can: 

• purchase UN stamps first from the UNPA's online shop or other stamp dealers, 
• prepare postcards by affixing UN stamps and adding intended addresses, leaving the address blank if you want the postcards to be returned in a self-stamped self-addressed (SSSA) envelop,
• prepare a larger SSSA envelop if you want the postcards returned to you directly 
• put stamped and addressed postcards (and the SSSA envelop if you have prepared one) in an envelop (outer wrapper),  mark the outer wrapper: FOR MAILING, and mail it to: 

United Nations Postal Administration
United Nations, Room GA-35
New York , N.Y. 10017
U.S.A.