United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Bucharest and Bucharest’s Jewish Theatre jointly arranged an event to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on 27 January 2009.

The event opened with a play. Following the performance, Ms. Maia Morgenstern, a well-known Romanian actress, read the poem Une leçon de savoir-vivre by Jean-Claude Grumberg.

The audience of more than 300 people included representatives of the Romanian Jewish community and youth in addition to the general public.

On 10 December 2008 the American Embassy in Bucharest launched an essay contest entitled "What human right do I value most?" in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sponsored by Hewlett Packard and in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Bucharest, the competition targets high school students who are invited to submit entries in any format such as a letter addressed to an imaginary character, a diary or a traditional essay. The deadline for submissions is 15 January 2009.  A jury composed of American diplomats, the National Information Officer of UNIC Bucharest and professors of English will select the top three essays at the end of January 2009 and will award prizes to the winners.

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Bucharest and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country office, with support from several partners, jointly launched the campaign “Women in Shadows” with a combined press conference and photo exhibition on 25 November 2009.

The aim of the campaign was to highlight the issue of violence against women.  Nine events were held between 1 and 13 December 2009 at various locations in Bucharest as part of this campaign.

The events, held at the UNIC Bucharest premises, the Museo Café and the Union Cinema, focused on the documentary series “Women on the Front Line”.  Activties included screenings of the documentary, debates, and performances of plays whose subjects dealt with violence against women.  A diverse crowd consisting of members of the diplomatic corps, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), media representatives and the general public attended the events and took the opportunity to discuss the causes and effects of violence against women.

For more information on this campaign and future events related to this issue, please visit the campaign website.

On 14 November, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Bucharest held a briefing for 18 Swedish students. Representatives from several UN agencies, including United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugess (UNHCR) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), discussed their activities in Romania. The UNIC's Director also spoke to the students and took questions at the end of the briefing.