Caracas, Venezuela:  I have been working as a UN Volunteer Associate Protection Officer at the Protection Unit of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Caracas since April 2012. My role is to provide legal advice to asylum-seekers and refugees in the country, as well as to contribute to the compilation and analysis of country of origin information that shall serve as the basis for the drafting of legal and policy documents.

The high-level Global Volunteering Conference under the tenth anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers brought together volunteering leaders from across the world. A related UN resolution about the anniversary Year called on governments to improve their measurement of volunteer work, and delegates in Budapest learned about how that can be done.

On the final day of the recent Global Volunteering Conference in Budapest, volunteer-involving organizations from across the world adopted a Declaration determined to value, recognize and encourage volunteering’s contribution to people, their communities and our planet.  To rapturous applause, the text was read out onstage by five volunteers from across the world, including Jung-Yuen Park (Korea), a UN Volunteer serving as UNV Associate Programme Officer in Nepal.

Over 200 international delegates are meeting to discuss the future of volunteerism at the first conference bringing together the Red Cross Red Crescent, the United Nations, governments and civil society. As the first day drew to a successful close, organizers took a moment to savour the culmination of months of hard work and probably the last major global IYV+10 event until the General Assembly on 5 December.