Fairy tale wolf used to illustrate a serious subject on new U.N. stamps

By Denise McCarty

Six new stamps from the United Nations Postal Administration promote a UNICEF initiative to end violence against children and adolescents.

In announcing this initiative on July 31, 2013, UNICEF said, “Violence against children is all too often unseen, unheard and under reported. ...”

UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said: “In every country, in every culture, there is violence against children. Whenever and wherever children are harmed, our outrage and anger must be seen and heard. We must make the invisible visible.”

The issue date for the stamps is Aug. 20 with a first-day ceremony at the American Philatelic Society’s Stampshow in Grand Rapids, Mich. The ceremony begins at 12:30 p.m. in the DeVos Place Convention Center at 303 Monroe Ave. NW.

The UNPA reports that the stamps represent the following themes: armed violence reduction, 49¢; sexual violence against children, $1.20; child marriage, 1 franc; child trafficking, 1.40fr; gender-based violence, 0.68; and child labor, 0.80.

Chris Sharp, an illustrator based in New York City, created the designs for the stamps, his first for UNPA.

In these illustrations, Sharp uses a wolf to symbolize violence. This wolf is reminiscent of the “big bad wolf” of various fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs.

Children, a teddy bear, a doll, a book, a web, a gun, flowers and pickaxes also are included in the stamp illustrations.

Cartor, a security printer in Meauce, France, printed the stamps by offset-lithgraphy in sheets of 20.

Each stamp measures 50 millimeters by 35mm and is perforated gauge 14½ by 14¼.

The quantities printed were 120,000 each of the two stamps for use from the post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City (49¢, $1.20); 100,000 each of the two stamps for use from the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria (0.68, 0.80); and 90,000 each for the two for use from the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland (1fr, 1.40fr).

For ordering information for the End Violence Against Children set, visit the U.N. Stamps website; e-mail unpanyinquiries@un.org; telephone 800-234-8672; fax 212-963-9854; or write to UNPA, Box 5900, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-5900.

UNICEF has delineated the following four objectives of its end violence against children initiative: raise public awareness that violence against children is everywhere; engage the public and mobilize action; strengthen cultural attitudes and social norms that support nonviolence; and spur new innovative ideas.

For more information about the UNICEF initiative, visit the website.