William Hague UK Foreign Secretary Speaks About His Time As a UNA Member in Wath-On-Dearne

News and comment on the United Nations and UNA-UK Spring 2011 | £3.00 NEW WORLD !"#$% &'&()*)+,--,'.

EXCLUSIVE: William Hague UK Foreign Secretary speaks about his time as a UNA member in Wath-on-Dearne

Cancún climate Nuclear view: Building a global comeback? Des Browne ‘Big Society’

page 10 page 24 page 18

PLUS Outlook for 2011 page 5 UN and the UK page 20 UNA Westminster Film Festival page 28 World Food Programme’s Josette Sheeran at UNA-UK youth event page 32 Young Professionals Network interview: Marianna Franco in Haiti page 34

UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION OF THE UK | 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL | www.una.org.uk FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN Donate to the UNA Trust

The United Nations works for peace, development and human rights, and coordinates global action on issues ranging from climate change to HIV/AIDS, which no country can address alone. On the ground in every continent, it reaches out to people whom others cannot or will not, making a profound difference to the lives of millions around the world. The UNA Trust (registered charity number 256236) supports the UN’s work through education and public information. We are independent of the UN and are not funded by it. Donations and legacies are vital to our work. Visit www.una.org.uk/support or contact us on 020 7766 3456 or [email protected] to !nd out more

UNA!UK 2 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | UNA-UK © UN Photo/B Wolff NEW WORLD Contents DIRECTORY 4

IN BRIEF 5 From the Editor 2011 outlook OPINION We are delighted to feature in this !rst 2011 issue of New Making the MDGs inclusive 7 World an essay by William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary, Haji Saghir Alam who describes how membership of the UNA-UK branch R2P: leadership required 8 in Wath-on-Dearne gave him his !rst taste of international Abiodun Williams politics (pages 12-13). Re"ecting on the challenges facing Putting refugees on the development the UN then and now, Hague writes “a young member of agenda 9 UNA-UK in this country today will still grapple with many Laura Padoan of the same issues that preoccupied my peers when I !rst joined – including the struggle for human rights and politi- TALKING POINTS p.5 cal freedom in many parts of the world and how to make Cancún: climate comeback? 10 the UN more representative and more e#ective”. MAIN ESSAY To mark the 60th anniversary of the UN Refugee Agency, William Hague 12 Laura Padoan makes the case for mainstreaming refugee concerns in international development e#orts (page 9), while Haji CHAIRMAN’S VALEDICTORY Saghir Alam argues that the UN Millennium Development David Hannay 15 Goals must put more emphasis on persons with disabilities Chairman’s COVER STORY valedictory: (page 7). On page 8, Abiodun Williams calls for renewed Population: seven billion 16 Lord Hannay bids leadership to make the ‘responsibility to protect’ operational, farewell and on page 24, former UK Defence Secretary Des Browne DO SOMETHING 18 outlines the year ahead for British parliamentary e#orts on THE UN AND THE UK 20 nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. In our cover story, I o#er my re"ections on global population, due to LETTERS AND RESOURCES 26 breach the seven-billion mark later this year. UNA-UK It is with sadness that we feature our Chairman’s valedic- Grassroots inspiration 28 p.15 tory on page 15. Lord Hannay of Chiswick completes his Dates for the diary 31 remarkable !ve-year term as UNA-UK Chair at the end of January. He has overseen a period of great transformation for UNYSA: UNA-UK YOUTH UNA-UK and has been a tireless advocate for the UN; while ‘Get the Goals’ launch 32 we look forward to working with his successor, Sir Jeremy Youth challenge to Security Council 33 Greenstock, he will be sorely missed. YPN New World too is undergoing a transformation. $is issue Young Professionals interview 34 Josette includes some of our new features and launches our online Marianna Franco Sheeran, version. $oughts? Write to me on [email protected]. head of WFP at UNA-UK youth Natalie Samarasinghe launch event

From the archive – 22 years ago A “people’s fund” for the environment “Our Common Future”, received widespread p.32 A proposed UNA campaign on sustainable support at General Council. development and the environment, based on the We plan to launch it as soon as possible – and arguments of the Brundtland Commission Report, have invited the UN Secretary-General to be involved when he visits the United Kingdom in June. It will include parliamentary lobbying, education work and the establishing of a people’s fund for the environment in support of the UN’s Interview: my work and of our campaign. year in Haiti We have already helped to produce two working Marianna Franco booklets on the Brundtland Report and it is hoped to have a third – concentrating on industrialised country responsibilities – published as soon as possible.

From New World, July-August 1988 To read the full article, visit www.una.org.uk/newworld p.34

| Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 3 © UN Photo/B Wolff Contents UNA-UK This issue’s contributors

3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL Haji Saghir Alam OBE, Chair of the Trustees, Action on www.una.org.uk Disability and Development International

EXECUTIVE OFFICE Executive Director Lord Browne of Ladyton, Convenor of the Top-Level Phil Mulligan 020 7766 3457 Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear [email protected] Disarmament and Non-proliferation

Executive Assistant Georgina Banks Marianna Franco, Programme Development Manager, 020 7766 3457 ACTED in Haiti [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP & FINANCE Rt Hon. William Hague MP, UK Secretary of State, Deputy Director (Finance & Governance) Carol Hodson Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs 020 7766 3455 [email protected] Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Chair of UNA-UK (2006-11) Finance Manager and former British ambassador to the UN Ajay Vasa 020 7766 3454 [email protected] Laura Padoan, External Relations Associate, UN Refugee Membership & Fundraising Officer Agency London Office Rich Nelmes 020 7766 3456 [email protected] Dr Abiodun Williams, Vice President, Center for Conflict POLICY & ADVOCACY Management, US Institute of Peace Head of Policy & Communications Natalie Samarasinghe 020 7766 3451 [email protected] Join us . . . Peace & Security Programme Coordinator James Kearney 020 7766 3446 The United Nations Association of the UK (UNA-UK) is the UK’s leading [email protected] independent policy authority on the UN and a UK-wide grassroots membership organisation campaigning for a strong, credible and effective United Nations. UNA Wales | CCU Cymru Every member of UNA-UK receives a free subscription to New World, containing news and comment on the UN. By joining you will also be invited to take part in The Temple of Peace/Y Deml Heddwch campaigns and to attend conferences, seminars and other events. Cathays Park/Parc Cathays, Cardiff/Caerdydd CF10 3AP Current membership offers: www.wcia.org.uk/una_wales/514 t6/"6,JTEFMJHIUFEUPBOOPVODFUIBUJUXJMMDPOUJOVFJUTHJGUNFNCFSTIJQ promotion throughout 2011. Do you know someone who wants to make a OFFICERS/SWYDDOGION difference? UNA-UK gift membership costs just £25 for 12 months and can Acting Chief Executive / Prif Weithredwr Dros Dro spark a lifetime’s interest in the work of the United Nations. See page 35 or Martin Pollard visit www.una.org.uk/perfectpresent for more details. 029 2022 8549 t"MM6/"6,NFNCFSTDBOOPXSFDFJWFBQFSDFOUEJTDPVOUPOTVCTDSJQUJPOT [email protected] to the prestigious international relations journal ‘Foreign Affairs’. Visit www.foreignaffairs.com/unauk to take advantage of this exclusive offer. Programme Coordinator / Cyd-Lynydd Rhaglenni Naomi Blight

029 2022 8549 New World is published by To advertise please call Natalie Subscription: [email protected] UNA-UK, 3 Whitehall Court Samarasinghe on 020 7766 3451 Copies of New World are London SW1A 2EL included in the membership www.una.org.uk The deadline for submission fee for UNA-UK of material for the next issue This issue of New World is printed using Editor: of New World is noon on The United Nations vegetable-based inks on 100 per cent Natalie Samarasinghe, 7 March 2011 Association of Great Britain recycled chlorine- and acid-free paper. [email protected] and Northern Ireland is a The next issue will cover the period company limited by guarantee Research, drafting 1 April 2011 to 30 June 2011 (registered no. 2885557) When you are ﬁnished with the and copy-editing: magazine, please recycle it or, better Georgina Banks All submissions should be typed Designed by yet, pass it on to a friend. James Kearney and sent by email where possible to soapbox Rich Nelmes [email protected]. Photos www.soapboxcommunications.co.uk should ideally be 300 dpi resolution 020 7930 3166

4 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | UNA-UK In brief

January

UN Women: operational since 1 January, this new body is headed by former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and combines the mandates of the four previous UN agencies and A resident of the National Tapajos Forest collects wild foliage for preparing a meal. o%ces working on women’s rights and © UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe gender equality. With increased funding for gender issues, it is hoped UN Women will be able to make the UN’s devastating earthquake struck the coun- Arms Trade Treaty: the !rst of two work in this area more e#ective. try on 12 January 2010 (see page 34). preparatory meetings for a 2012 confer- At the beginning of the year, the UN ence on an Arms Trade Treaty will take Côte d’Ivoire: the UN called for and its partners launched a 20-year, place at the UN in New York from 2,000 extra troops to bolster its Ivorian $200 million environmental recovery 28 February to 4 March. peacekeeping mission, where former programme. president Gbagbo’s refusal to step down March despite his opponent’s electoral victory UN envoy on sexual violence visits UK: has sparked fears of renewed civil war. Margot Wallström, Special Representative World Water Day (22 March): the On 14 January Secretary-General Ban of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual theme for the 2011 observance will be Ki-moon said the UN has ‘concrete Violence in Con"ict, visited the UK on ‘Water for Cities – responding to the intelligence’ that Gbagbo is inciting vio- 18-20 January to discuss her mandate urban challenge’. $e Day, an initia- lence against peacekeepers and civilians, and what steps the UK government can tive which grew out of the 1992 UN again raising the prospect of a trial by take to support it. In early January, Ms Conference on Environment and the International Criminal Court. Days Wallström again raised the alarm over Development (‘Rio Earth Summit’), will earlier, Gbagbo loyalists had attacked rape claims in the Democratic Republic also be one of the key dates in the lead- peacekeepers and burned vehicles be- of the Congo (DRC) after NGOs report- up to the 2012 ‘Rio+20’ conference. longing to the UN force. ed a New Year’s Day attack on 30 women by armed forces in South Kivu. “$e use April Sudan independence vote: Southern of sexual violence as a weapon or tactic of Sudan began a week-long independ- war, or as a means to wage terror against Malaria – end in sight? $e eventual ence referendum on 9 January, part of political opponents, is unacceptable,” said eradication of malaria will seem a realis- the peace agreement negotiated in 2005 Wallström, who has previously described tic possibility on 25 April 2011, World to end over 20 years of civil con"ict. the DRC as “the rape capital of the Malaria Day. $ough some 800,000 peo- Over 22,000 Sudanese and international world”. In July-August 2010, over 300 ple a year still die from the disease, new observers were present. As New World civilians were raped in the space of a few drugs and innovative vaccines, coupled went to press, the UN panel tasked days in the Walikale region of the DRC. with traditional methods such as bed nets with monitoring the referendum said (See page 26) and a boost in !nance, have seen malaria the process had been peaceful and well- death rates tumble across Africa and Asia. organised. It will be several weeks before February the !nal results are known. May International Year of Forests: on 2 Haiti quake anniversary: over a mil- February this global campaign will Africa Day (25 May): the continent will lion people – including 380,000 chil- be launched to raise awareness of the be a major focus for UN development, dren – are still living in crowded camps threats to forests, and to highlight their climate change and peace and security ac- and close to two million continue to vital role in maintaining the global cli- tivities in 2011, with all campaigns con- receive assistance from the World Food mate and in sustaining millions of peo- centrating on the region. During the year, Programme, more than a year after a ple around the world. elections will take place in the Central >>

In brief | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 5 >> African Republic, Chad, the DRC, Climate Change will take place from 28 Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria and Zambia, November to 9 December in Durban, alongside referendums in South Sudan South Africa. $e UN will aim to build on independence, and in Zimbabwe on a on the agreements at the 2010 confer- new constitution. ence in Cancún (see page 10), to reduce carbon emissions at the local level and June to restore con!dence in climate science. Climate change will also be an integral G8 Summit in France part of the build-up to Rio+20.

Ten-year HIV/AIDS review: the UN December General Assembly will discuss implementation of the Declaration of End of Ban’s term: Ban Ki-moon, Commitment on HIV/AIDS at the ten- who was appointed in 2006, will reach Members of the Southern Sudan Referendum year mark. Figures released in December Commission unload voting materials delivered the end of his !ve-year term as UN 2010 showed that the number of new via helicopter by the African Union-UN Hybrid Secretary-General. At the time New HIV infections and deaths from AIDS- Operation in Darfur for the historic self- World went to press, he had not yet determination referendum between 9 and 15 related illnesses are falling globally. But January. © UN Photo/Olivier Chassot con!rmed whether he intends to stand there are still an estimated 33 million for a second term. Secretaries-General HIV-su#erers worldwide, and improved are appointed by the General Assembly treatments mean people are living longer be announced by the UN Population on the recommendation of the Security with the disease, increasing the cost of Fund (see page 16). Council, thus making the selection sub- treatment during their lifetime. ject to the veto of any of the Council’s November !ve permanent members (China, July France, Russia, the UK and the US). In G20 Summit in France theory, a Secretary-General can serve in- UK report on disability convention: the de!nitely though in practice none have UK is due to report to the UN Committee November/December held o%ce for more than two terms. on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities $e principle of geographic rotation is in July 2011 on how implementation of COP-17: the 2011 conference of parties also practised although it too is not en- the disability convention has been achieved to the UN Framework Convention on shrined. in Britain. $e UK was among the !rst countries to sign the convention in 2007 but made four reservations to it upon rati!- cation. UNA-UK has called on the government to review these reservations. New World online UNA-UK’s flagship magazine is now online! In addition to a PDF of the August print version, you can now read all the content featured in each issue and access ‘web exclusives’ on our new micro-site: Somalia: UN support for African Union www.una.org.uk/new_world peacekeepers will continue to be crucial as the mandate of the Transitional Federal Government ends in August 2011. The following Spring 2011 features are only available online: A lasting Olympic legacy? September Lord Bates calls for a true Olympic Truce in 2012 Opening of the UN General Assembly The Hannay years Reflecting on Lord Hannay’s chairmanship of UNA-UK October UN World Food Programme Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Programme, speaks to Women and con!ict: the UN Secretary- UNA-UK youth (film/audio clips) General is expected to propose a framework for implementing UN Security Pressure on the LRA – new hope for R2P? Council Resolution 1325 on women, James Kearney, UNA-UK Peace & Security Programme Coordinator peace and security during the next decade Making the UN Human Rights Council more effective in October 2011. Natalie Samarasinghe, UNA-UK Head of Policy & Communications

UN Day (24 October) Ten reasons to protect forests

October/November Up-to-date events listings and reports from our members and supporters can also be found at www.una.org.uk/new_world Day of 7 billion: the birth of the seven billionth person on the planet is due to

6 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | In brief Opinion

In the last 25 years that ADD has committee meetings to discuss how to in- been working with disabled people in the clude disabled people in development op- developing world, there have been many portunities, and a conference to consider successes. Governments have passed laws the role of the media in raising awareness Making the protecting and promoting the rights of of disability issues. disabled people, and 96 countries have rat- In Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and UN Millennium i!ed the UN Convention on the Rights of Cambodia, disabled people organised ac- Development Goals Persons with Disabilities. But as the theme tivities ranging from rallies to radio talks, of the recent International Day acknowl- from drama performances to ministerial inclusive edged, we now need to make sure that the discussions, to raise awareness of disabled laws asserting disabled people’s rights are people’s rights, participation in the politi- implemented. cal process, and inclusion in development initiatives. Haji Saghir ‘Of the estimated Bangladesh meanwhile held its sixth Alam National Disability Convention, attended 650 million disabled by more than 6,000 disabled people, people worldwide, ministers, parliamentarians, and represen- The UN International Day of Persons four-!fths live in tatives of local government, civil society, with Disabilities was celebrated around business and the media. the world on 3 December, although in the developing countries $e need for these activities is clear. Of UK the day remains, for the most part, lit- and 82% live below the estimated 650 million disabled people tle known outside the disability sector. worldwide, four-!fths live in developing At Action on Disability and the poverty line’ countries and 82 per cent live below the Development International (ADD), we poverty line. On the other side of the took the opportunity to showcase, in $e theme for the 2010 commemoration coin, we know at least 20 per cent of the partnership with the disability move- was ‘Keeping the promise: mainstreaming world’s poorest people are disabled. ments in Africa and Asia, the achieve- disability in the Millennium Development $e links between poverty and ments of disabled people and to highlight Goals (MDGs)’. Disability a#ects all eight disability are well established and the the barriers that still prevent them from of the MDGs, making it an issue central international community has accepted claiming the basic human rights that to the reduction of poverty. Accordingly, that the MDGs can only be met if most of us take for granted – the right to ADD and its partner organisations encour- disabled people are included in both the earn a living and raise a family, access to aged activities around the world to high- design and implementation of e#orts education and healthcare, the right and light disabled people’s priorities. to achieve the goals. More sophisticated the ability to vote, and respect from the In Sudan the government marked the methods for monitoring the progress of community they live in. day with a series of high-level political speci!c groups is also needed. Beatrice Guzu, executive secretary of the National Organisation of Women with Disabilities in Uganda, describes the situation on the ground: “they en- dure stigma, discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but Ugandan women living with disabilities say the greatest challenge facing them centres on their reproductive health. In addition to the impacts of physical, mental, intellectual and sensory impairments, we are double discriminated (against), !rst as women, and then as disabled.” According to Guzu, while women’s empowerment and gender equality strategies emphasise the importance of ad- Rubel (centre left) is an enthusiastic student at the Badda Model School in Dhaka. ADD worked dressing discrimination against women, with schools, teachers and students to overcome the view that one person expressed as “his terribly burned face will frighten other children and no one will accept him”. © Snigdha Zaman such strategies do not target women with disabilities. >>

Opinion | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 7 >> $e same is true for other groups. his disability. $rough a census carried out Disabled people are regularly excluded by one of ADD’s partners, Innocent was Haji Saghir Alam OBE is Chair of from HIV/AIDS prevention and treat- found when he was 16 and is now slowly the Trustees of ADD International, a ment e#orts, and estimates indicate that a integrating into community life. UK-based development agency working shocking 98 per cent of disabled children Like all the Millennium with disability movements in Africa in developing countries are likely not in Development Goals, MDG 2 on uni- and Asia to facilitate disabled people to school, impacting on their ability to earn versal primary education will never come together to make decisions about a living in later life. be achieved until disabled people are their own lives and to campaign for Innocent from Burkina Faso is one of explicitly brought into the equation. their rights. To learn more, visit the children behind this statistic. He spent Only by making the MDGs inclusive, www.add.org.uk his school years locked in a hut because will stories like Innocent’s become a his family did not know how to cope with thing of the past.

the face of massive human rights violations. ing to conceptual debates and through R2P was also spearheaded by some their advocacy work. states, notably Canada. $e Canadian Leadership must again "ow from all government’s decision to establish the these quarters if R2P is to become opera- International Commission on Intervention tional. $is includes conceptual leader- and State Sovereignty (ICISS) in ship, which involves clarifying the scope The Responsibility September 2000, co-chaired by Gareth of the principle, its objectives, and the Evans (then-President of the International means of implementation. Despite basic to Protect: Crisis Group) and Mohamed Sahnoun consensus on the core principles underly- (then-Special Adviser to the UN Secretary- ing R2P a number of loopholes remain, leadership required General), was an inspired one. A central such as the comprehensiveness of the achievement of the ICISS report, !e responsibility to prevent, the lack of a for- mal legal de!nition of ethnic cleansing, Abiodun ‘Ko! Annan called the absence of codi!ed criteria or triggers for speci!c R2P operations, and confu- Williams R2P one of his sion about the legal ability of regional “most precious” organisations to initiate early and "exible responses to crises. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) achievements’ Institutional leadership will be required is a signal achievement of the twenty-!rst to create institutional and operational century. $ough its roots can be traced to Responsibility to Protect, was that it re-cast capacity to prevent and halt R2P crimes. earlier times, the principle did not mature the fundamental issue of the intervention E#orts to strengthen operational capacity nor acquire normative signi!cance until debate from a ‘right to intervene’ to a ‘re- will need to be complemented with new the new millennium, and it is now at the sponsibility to protect’. mechanisms to facilitate coordination and centre of the international debate on pro- Regional organisations too played a information sharing. Within the UN, tecting human beings from genocide, eth- catalytic role in advancing R2P. $ree Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, together nic cleansing, crimes against humanity and years before the 2005 World Summit, with Special Advisers Edward Luck and war crimes. Leadership at the national, African states had already embraced the Francis Deng, will need to assess the ex- regional and international levels was in- principle in the AU’s 2002 Constitutive isting capacity to implement R2P strate- strumental in galvanising world leaders to Act. However, normalising R2P in Africa gies, suggest solutions to !ll the gaps, and unanimously adopt R2P at the 2005 UN remains a complex and challenging enhance partnerships. World Summit. And leadership is again project. Its potential is constrained by However, advancing the R2P agenda required to meet the three main challenges a lack of resources, capacity and strong ultimately depends on political leader- facing the implementation of R2P: con- institutions. On the whole, European ship. It requires political leadership ceptual, institutional, and political. governments have been supportive of to strengthen the operational capacity $e R2P doctrine was helped substan- R2P, and the European Union (EU) within national and international institu- tially by the leadership of former UN has taken a strong positive stance in tions, and meet the remaining conceptual Secretary-General Ko! Annan, who in General Assembly debates. $e European challenges. Without the willingness of a speech to UNA-UK in January 2006 Parliament has endorsed the principle in political leaders to prioritise civilian pro- called R2P one of his “most precious” resolutions, and R2P could appear as a tection and allocate resources accordingly, achievements. Annan was a norm entre- priority in the next European Security the promise of R2P will not be realised. preneur who considered the protection of Strategy. As ever, one of the main chal- human rights to be one of the UN’s most lenges for the EU will be unity of pur- Dr. Abiodun Williams is Vice President important tasks. In the wake of the tragic pose across its 27 member states. of the Center for Con"ict Management, failures of the international community in $e role of civil society in this enter- United States Institute of Peace. He Srebrenica and Rwanda, and during the prise must also not be overlooked. NGOs served as Director of Strategic Planning crisis in Kosovo, Annan challenged UN and think tanks involved in con"ict pre- for UN Secretaries-General Ko# Annan member states to !nd consensus on the vention, development or human rights and Ban Ki-moon from 2001-2007. question of international responsibility in work have promoted R2P by contribut-

8 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | Opinion tion. But refugees should not just be seen ing host populations. UNHCR’s role as a burden. Given access to education has recently been reinforced through its and livelihoods, refugees actively con- appointment as co-lead for HIV issues tribute to their host societies. Many of in emergency response together with the the UK’s most prominent and successful World Food Programme. However, more !gures come from refugee backgrounds, can be done to combat stigma and dis- Putting refugees on including Marks and Spencer founder crimination, and to ensure access to pre- Michael Marks, Sigmund Freud, singer vention and treatment services for people the development Mika and the Archbishop of York. who have been displaced, as well as our agenda And for those refugees who choose to sta# and their family members. return to countries which have been torn $e promotion of gender equality is apart by con"ict, poverty reduction and de- another of UNHCR’s central objectives. velopment are essential to achieving durable Situations of con"ict frequently give rise to violence against women. Militarism Laura Padoan aggravates and perpetuates violence, pro- ‘In 2009, developing moting a culture of fear and division that countries hosted allows violence and aggression to "our- 2011 is a signi!cant year for 80% of the world’s ish. $e impact is disproportionately on refugee protection, marking the 60th women and girls, in particular through anniversary of the 1951 Refugee refugee population’ their subjection to rape as a weapon of Convention and the establishment of war and other forms of violence. Ten years the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). solutions and stability. In countries where ago, UNHCR spoke with more than 500 $e original purpose of the agency was displaced and formerly displaced people refugee women about their protection to address the post-World War II refugee make up a substantial part of the popula- situation and as a result of this dialogue, situation in Europe. But despite a man- tion, strategic targeting of development aid UNHCR made its ‘Five Commitments date originally lasting only three years, can guide the transition from humanitarian to Refugee Women’. Have we lived up UNHCR has no prospect of its work relief to attaining the MDGs. to these commitments? By and large, yes. coming to an end. Although none of the eight MDGs Individual registration and documenta- Increasingly intractable con"icts are deals speci!cally with refugees, most, tion for women refugees has increased. So leading to the creation of seemingly if not all, have direct relevance to their too has women’s participation in refugee permanent and global refugee crises. plight. Refugees, just like non-refugees, committees and in the management of Population growth, urbanisation, cli- should bene!t from poverty eradication, food and non-food items. Access to sani- mate change, water scarcity, and food primary education, gender equality and tary materials has improved, and almost and energy insecurity are combining in the empowerment of women, and im- all UNHCR o%ces have procedures for ways that displace people both inside proved maternal health. $e prevention detecting and responding to sexual and and outside their countries. While many of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, gender-based violence. In the context of of these issues are recognised in the environmental sustainability and reduced the 60th anniversary commemoration UN Millennium Development Goals child mortality should also serve to meet activities, UNHCR will be undertaking a (MDGs), little attention is paid to the re- the protection needs of refugees. new round of regional dialogues focusing lationship between con"ict, displacement Combating HIV and AIDS remains a on but not limited to women and girls. and development. particular policy priority for UNHCR. $e !rst of these has already taken place in Violent con"ict has the ability to Around 1.8 million people living with New Delhi, with more than 120 refugee throw o# course the implementation of HIV are a#ected by con"ict, disaster women and girls and 70 refugee men from the MDGs, and most often it is the least or displacement. Approximately 87 per Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia and else- of less-developed countries bordering cent of refugees have access to HIV where participating. con"ict-a#ected states which shoulder treatment and 75 per cent of pregnant While the MDGs do not speci!cally the responsibility for hosting refugees. refugee women have access to prevention address the needs of refugees and inter- In 2009, developing countries hosted 80 of mother-to-child HIV transmission nally displaced persons, refugees are a per cent of the world’s refugee popula- programmes when available to surround- microcosm of the world’s population. Clearly, many challenges remain, but the ten-year anniversary of the MDGs and the 60th anniversary of UNHCR should provide governments, the UN and the development community with a renewed commitment to ensuring that the needs of refugees – some of the world’s most vulnerable people – are not forgotten. © UN Photo/Martine Perret

Laura Padoan is External Relations Associate at the UN Refugee Agency London O$ce.

Opinion | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 9 TALKING POINTS Cancún conference: climate comeback?

In our !rst ‘Talking Points’ feature, we outline ‘what we got’ and ‘what we didn’t get’ Greenpeace activists protest in Cancún during the climate change conference. from Cancún. © Raul Estrella/El Universal via Getty Images

The 16th meeting of the parties US and China (it produces about !ve ‘Kyoto gap’ between those countries to the UN Framework Convention on per cent of global CO2, compared to that insist they will never sign up to a Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancún China’s 23 per cent and America’s 22 new period of Kyoto targets (such as concluded on 10 December 2010 with per cent), its demand for energy is ris- Japan, Russia and Canada) and those sighs of relief. Deft political manoeu- ing rapidly. China meanwhile agreed who claim that without a Kyoto exten- vring and drafting had produced a raft of to some independent monitoring of its sion, there can be no new climate deal agreements – including on deforestation, e#orts to reduce emissions. Both nations (Bolivia, Venezuela, China and several !nance and monitoring emissions- made non-binding commitments under African countries). In the end, the reduction pledges – endorsed by near the Copenhagen Accord, which for all ‘Kyoto gap’ was not bridged at Cancún. consensus. Of the 194 states present, its touted failures, saw the US pledge Instead, a cleverly-worded insertion into only Bolivia was not in favour of the the text enabled Japan et al to adopt it outcome. without committing themselves. Following the fractious debate at ‘Cancún has done its $ese sleights of hand, however, have the 2009 conference in Copenhagen, job ... Governments meant that campaigners’ reactions to expectations for Cancún had been low, have given a clear Cancún have been much more muted with many seemingly more focussed on than politicians’, many of whom ended restoring faith in the negotiating process signal that they are the conference with standing ovations. than on the future of the existing global headed towards a While the Cancún Agreements, if hon- climate framework, the Kyoto Protocol, low-emissions future oured, will undoubtedly make a tangible which expires next year. di#erence, much has been left for this Under Kyoto, 37 industrialised na- together’ year’s meeting in Durban, including the tions (with the notable exception of the Christina Figueres, UNFCCC Executive biggest issue of all: a post-2012 global US) took on binding emissions-reduction Secretary climate framework. targets over the period 2008-12, amount- Bolivia reaped much antagonism ing to an average of !ve per cent against for its refusal to endorse the outcome. 1990 levels. Developing countries were a 17 per cent reduction on 2005 levels But the UN itself has warned that the not set any targets. Instead, Kyoto recog- by 2020, and India and China pledge actions taken at Cancún fall far short of nised ‘common but di#erentiated respon- 20-25 per cent and 40-45 per cent re- what is needed to limit global tempera- sibilities’ stemming from industrialised spectively. ture rise to two degrees – the threshold nations’ overwhelming historical respon- $e role of conference president endorsed by the conference. While del- sibility for carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s Foreign egates agreed to seek ‘deep cuts’, they atmosphere. More than a decade since Minister, in securing these commit- reiterated the voluntary pledges made Kyoto’s adoption, this principle remains ments was widely praised. In order to in 2009, deferring decisions on central to many developing nations, in- avoid the accusations of ‘closed-door binding cuts. cluding India and China, which recently conspiring’ by rich nations which ir- Cancún demonstrated that the UN pipped the US to become the world’s revocably damaged the Copenhagen negotiating process and, for that matter, largest emitter. conference, Espinosa asked !ve pairs of multilateralism as a whole, is not the ob- In Cancún, both countries shifted ministers – each consisting of a devel- stacle to progress. When countries have their positions in a welcome manner. oping and a rich country representative the political will, they are able to strike For the !rst time, India announced that – to explore compromises in particu- agreements, regardless of how di%cult the it would consider taking on emissions larly contentious areas. British Climate negotiations may be or in what forum cuts under an international mandate. Secretary Chris Huhne was paired with they take place. Whether they can muster India is the world’s third largest emit- Brazil’s environment minister, Izabella enough in time for Durban remains to ter and though it lags far behind the Teixeira. $ey were asked to bridge the be seen.

10 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | Talking points ‘We are talking about a [combined] reduction in emissions of 13-16%, and what this means is an increase of more than 4 degrees ... a situation that my president has termed ecocide and genocide’ Pablo Solón, Bolivian ambassador to the UN

$e Green Climate Fund will initially Union, which had previously indi- be administered by the World Bank, cated it might raise its target to 30 moving to long-term arrangements per cent, did not do so. after a three-year probationary period. $is eventual move was crucial Without the prospect of new emis- to many developing countries that sions caps, carbon markets could feel marginalised by the Bank. struggle.

A framework to reduce deforesta- Current commitments are project- tion. Cancún provided guidelines for ed to reduce CO2 by just 16 per What we got developing countries to implement cent on 1990 levels according to a REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from recent UN Environment Programme A set of fully legitimate inter- Deforestation and forest Degradation) report, instead of the 25-40 per national agreements. Unlike the – provisions aimed at reducing emis- cent envisaged by the Cancún Copenhagen Accord, which was sions from forest clearing and other Agreements. Global temperatures, merely ‘noted’ by the UNFCCC land use changes, which currently make meanwhile, are expected to rise by membership, the Cancún Agreements up about one !fth of global emissions. 4°C this century. were formally adopted and integrate the Copenhagen pledges into the An expanded Clean Development $ e headline-grabbing $100 billion UNFCCC system, though the pledg- Mechanism (CDM). CDM currently pledge was made at Copenhagen in es are still not binding. allows projects in developing countries 2009 and "nances have been slow to receive carbon credits for reducing to emerge. Advances in reporting and veri"ca- emissions below a business-as-usual tion. Rich countries must report annu- baseline, mostly through renewable D ecisions on a second phase of ally on their targets while developing energy, energy e%ciency and industrial binding emissions cuts were de- countries should publish biennial pro- processes. $e Cancún Agreements ferred, with several key countries, in- gress reports on their pledges. Countries expand eligible projects to include car- cluding Japan and Russia, announc- that receive international support for bon capture and storage. ing they were not willing to take on a mitigation will be subject to interna- new set of targets. tional veri!cation. ($ose that fund #e establishment of a new tech- their own mitigation will not.) nology mechanism to facilitate Veri"cation will be limited to those knowledge sharing and the develop- schemes !nanced by international Consensus on keeping global tem- ment of new clean technologies, par- funds. perature rise under 2°C and a sugges- ticularly in developing countries. tion that the international community #e modalities of veri"cation – should consider lowering this to 1.5°C An Adaptation Committee to help whether it will be carried out by the based on the latest scienti!c data. countries assess risks and create UN, a group of countries or another national adaptation strategies. $e body – have not been speci"ed. A stated goal of reducing rich coun- Cancún Agreements also start a pro- try emissions by 25-40 per cent cess to investigate the possibility of #e REDD+ guidance is a frame- from 1990 levels, and agreement that an international climate risk insur- work. It does not obligate developing there should be no gap between the ance facility. countries to implement such initia- current binding commitments phase tives or rich countries to assist them. and the next. $ere is also uncertainty over whether What we didn’t get funds can come from corporations $100 billion a year in new climate buying carbon o#sets, and whether aid for poor countries, almost dou- Progress towards a binding, global forest credits will be accepted as o#- bling aid "ows globally. $30 billion climate framework. Cancún saw a sets instead of domestic cuts. of this is fast-start !nancing to be continuation of the move away from delivered in 2010-12. international commitments towards #e pledges by the US and India domestic or regional commitments. made at Copenhagen and reiterated A new mechanism to oversee aid in Cancún will likely encounter transfers with guidance on support- No country increased its opposition when put before their ing both mitigation and adaptation. Copenhagen targets. $e European national legislature.

Talking points | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 11 William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary, chairing a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan in November 2010. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is on his left and Sir Mark Lyall Grant, UK Ambassador to the UN, sits behind him. © Eskinder Debebe William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary, speaks about his time as a UNA member in Wath-on-Dearne

Thirty-!ve years ago membership has brought foreign policy into people’s and the Cold War ended. $e threats we of the UN Association of the UK gave homes as never before. Although I had feared then have been replaced by new me my !rst taste of international politics little thought of one day becoming challenges as well as many new oppor- and foreign policy. As a !fteen-year-old Foreign Secretary, membership of UNA- tunities. International terrorism, climate I joined my local UNA branch in the UK broadened my horizons and deep- change and nuclear proliferation have all Dearne Valley. Over the next three years ened my fascination with politics and emerged as major risks of the 21st cen- I took part in meetings with speakers world a#airs. I became vice-chairman of tury. $e global distribution of economic from all around the world, held in a my local branch before going to univer- and political power has changed beyond room above the library in Wath-on- sity and look back on the experience as recognition. As it tilts towards the new Dearne. It was here that I learnt about formative and memorable. markets and rising powers of the East China under Chairman Mao and other $e world has changed dramatically and South, the nature of foreign policy is foreign policy issues of the 1970s and since the UN’s inception more than 65 changing too. the Cold War era. $is was all before the years ago, and since those days I spent Nevertheless a young member of advent of the internet and 24-hour news with the UNA branch in Wath. In the UNA-UK in this country today will still coverage of international events, which years that followed the Berlin Wall fell grapple with many of the same issues that

12 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | Main essay preoccupied my peers when I !rst joined to go. $e Millennium Development – including the struggle for human rights Goals and the International Covenant on Biography and political freedom in many parts of Civil and Political Rights are two of these the world and how to make the UN landmarks. William Hague was appointed more representative and more e#ective. But the UN faces dilemmas too. Secretary of State for Foreign and And it remains the case now, as it was One of these is how to make the UN Commonwealth Affairs on 12 then, that it will be the world’s young Security Council more representative of May 2010. He was ﬁrst elected people who provide the ideas and mo- the distribution of global political power. to Parliament in 1989 and is the mentum to address many of these prob- We cannot hope to !nd international Member of Parliament for Richmond lems in the future. solutions which are legitimate, credible, (Yorkshire). The Foreign Secretary was born in ‘A young member of UNA-UK in this country today Rotherham in 1961, and attended Wath-on-Dearne Comprehensive will still grapple with many of the same issues that School. At Magdalen College, preoccupied my peers when I !rst joined – including Oxford, he was elected President of the Oxford Union. He continued his the struggle for human rights and political freedom in studies at INSEAD Business School many parts of the world and how to make the UN more in France, and worked for Shell UK and then for the management representative and more effective’ consultants, McKinsey and Co.

He has written two books. His ﬁrst book, a biography of William Our increasingly networked world has binding and fair unless more nations are Pitt the Younger, was published in brought exciting new means for young represented at the table and those who September 2004 and won ‘History people to be involved in international are not feel con!dent that their views are Book of the Year’ at the National a#airs. In the early days of the internet re"ected. $at is why Britain supports an Book Awards. His following book, only a small technical elite could con- expanded Security Council with seats for a biography of William Wilberforce, tribute content. But you no longer have India, Brazil, Japan, Germany and with was published in June 2007. to be "uent in the language of computer African representation, and will continue programming to upload information to push for these reforms to be adopted. He is married to Fﬁon Hague. and ideas. $e advent of web 2.0 $e members of the UN also have enabled anyone to make their views to summon the will to hold to account Positions held: known. $e internet is truly the !rst in- governments that violate human rights. tMP for Richmond, Yorkshire, teractive mass communication medium Today, serious and pervasive abuses in 1989-present in human history. Social networking Iran and elsewhere often escape the cen- tParliamentary Private Secretary to and video sharing sites enable people to sure of the UN Human Rights Council. Norman Lamont, Chancellor of organise themselves locally and interna- Climate change is another area where the Exchequer, 1990-93 tionally, as we saw over the Gaza Flotilla UN leadership is indispensable. We t Joint Parliamentary Under- crisis or the recent student protests here welcome the fact that UN Secretary- Secretary of State at the in London. $e internet’s predominant General Ban Ki-moon has made it his Department of Social Security, use of English gives British citizens a top priority. We need a global climate 1993-94 particular advantage in taking a leading change deal to shift investment from t Minister of State for Social role in the international debate. Twitter high to low carbon. Security and Disabled People, has become an important forum for $e UN also needs to co-ordinate 1994-95 Foreign Secretaries too – as you will see more e#ectively on anti-terrorism e#orts, tSecretary of State for Wales, July if you visit @WilliamJHague. as the bene!ts of increased trade and 1995-May 1997 All these things come together in the movements of people can mask the activ- tLeader of the Conservative Party, work of organisations such as UNA-UK, ity of those who use the tools of globali- June 1997-September 2001 with its mission to raise awareness of the sation to destructive or criminal ends. tShadow Foreign Secretary, United Nations, advance ideas for its We should be realistic in our aspira- December 2005-May 2010 reform and raise nationwide support for tions. ‘$e Parliament of Man’ dreamt tFirst Secretary of State, peace, development and human rights. of by Tennyson over two centuries ago Secretary of State for Foreign $e world would be far poorer without may be unobtainable but the UN can & Commonwealth Affairs, May the United Nations. Imagine unchecked and does play a real and unique role in 2010-present con"ict without the lifeline of the UN’s enabling the world to face challenges blue helmets, or raging humanitarian together. As the baton of responsibil- crises without the UN’s work to help ity is passed down the generations it is and energy are needed to ensure our refugees, broker peace, prevent con"ict vital that the future e#ectiveness of the international system is equipped for this and alleviate human su#ering. Under the institution is maintained and the gains still new century. $at is why I remain UN’s auspices we have made signi!cant of the past are preserved. We can help an enthusiastic supporter of the work of strides towards the protection of the ensure this by encouraging young people the UK’s UN Association and hope it rights and liberties of every citizen of the to take an interest in world a#airs and will go from strength to strength in the world, although there is a still long way the work of the UN. $eir fresh ideas future.

Main essay | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 13

Chairman’s Valedictory

I am sad to be standing down as Chair of UNA-UK at the end of January; but term limits are there to be obeyed and not evaded. It has been a busy !ve years and, I think, broadly positive. UNA-UK has overcome severe !nancial di%culties and undergone a process of rejuvenation, and is now a respected voice in the dialogue about international developments. 2011 looks set to be a challenging year both for the UN and for UNA-UK. But there are opportunities out there too. $e Cancún conference just before Christmas has put the climate change negotiations back on the rails and made some real progress – over deforestation, technology transfer, green investment in developing countries and international monitoring. Now we need to push further towards the goal of lower carbon emissions set in a David Hannay, then-UK Ambassador to the UN, and his US counterpart Madeleine Albright vote at the legally-binding framework; and to rebuild UN Security Council on 14 April 1995. © Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images public support for radical measures at the national and European Union level. As the year opens, the UN faces two Biography Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and major peacekeeping challenges – in Côte Change, which submitted its report in d'Ivoire and in Southern Sudan. $e UK David Hannay was born in London on December 2004. government needs to be playing a leading 28 September 1935 and educated at In 2001 he was created a life peer. He role in supporting the UN as it faces up Winchester College and New College, was Pro-Chancellor of the University of to these challenges; and we at UNA-UK Oxford. He entered the Foreign and Birmingham from 2001 to 2006. In 2003 need to be keeping them up to the mark Commonwealth Office in 1959, and he was made a Companion of Honour. on that. was initially posted to Tehran and Kabul. From January 2006 to January 2011 he And the Christmas season brought the Starting in 1965 and continuing into the served as Chair of the Board of UNA-UK. welcome news of rati!cation by the US early 1970s, he was involved in the nego- He is succeeded in this position by Sir Senate of the New Start agreement on tiations that led to the UK’s entry into the Jeremy Greenstock, who was also one of reductions in US and Russian strategic European Communities. his successors as UK ambassador to the UN. nuclear weapons. $e wider nuclear dis- During the 1970s he did a four-year David Hannay continues to serve as armament and non-proliferation agenda spell in the European Commission in Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary should now be pushed forward vigor- Brussels, and was then, after his return Group on the UN, and Co-Convenor of ously; and we should be pressing the UK to the diplomatic service, involved with the APPG on Global Security and Non- government on that too. energy and Middle Eastern policy. From Proliferation. UNA-UK will continue to I could go on. But then I would be 1979 to 1983, he was Under-Secretary report on his activities in Parliament. taking up most of this issue of New (European Communities) at the Foreign World. Rather, I would like to conclude and Commonwealth Office. He was min- Lord Hannay’s most recent UN-related by thanking all those at UNA-UK who ister at the British Embassy in Washington parliamentary appearance: made this revival in the Association’s DC in 1984-5, and was then promoted to “Does the Minister not agree that the UN fortunes possible, former Executive ambassador and permanent representative force may need something more muscu- Director Sam Daws in particular; to the European Communities from 1985- lar than what is available to it in the Côte and to wish my successor, Sir Jeremy 90. From 1990 to 1995, he was ambas- d'Ivoire now? Does not the experience of Greenstock, and Executive Director Phil sador and permanent representative to the Sierra Leone show that having an over-the- Mulligan and his team, the very best of United Nations. horizon capability, which can be provided luck. I will not be giving up on my ad- Following his retirement from the only by countries with fairly sophisticated vocacy of UN causes in Parliament. diplomatic service, he was the British military forces, is often the best way of de- Special Representative for Cyprus be- terring the outbreak of fighting?” Lord Hannay of Chiswick tween 1996 and 2003, and a member Question in Ivory Coast debate Chair of UNA-UK of the UN Secretary-General’s High- 21 December 2010 (January 2006 – January 2011)

UNA-UK | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 15 /"0)$%1)) 23#45)%"0541)) In our cover story, the editor re"ects on whether population *)6744730)) growth really is the de!ning 38)9:; challenge of the century

The UN estimates that the global population will breach India, some states have continued to employ the controversial the seven-billion mark this year, peaking at nine billion in 2045. sterilisation programmes implemented by Indhira Gandhi. Most of the growth will take place in developing nations, many Andhra Pradesh, for example, o#ers poor citizens priority hous- of them among the world’s least-developed countries, and will be ing bene!ts for undergoing treatment. But Indian birth rates concentrated among the poorest populations in urban areas. have seen the biggest dip in Kerala, which cites high levels of Given the deep challenges facing the world – climate change education among women as the cause. and the food, fuel and !nancial crises – it is not surprising that Globally, the population growth rate has actually been drop- this landmark has generated some alarm. $e population debate ping for some time. Fertility is now at 1.4 births per woman, is seldom free from hyperbole, from $omas Malthus’s gloomy well below the global replacement level (2.3 – the rate needed to predictions in 1798 to Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book ‘$e Population maintain a stable population), in 45 rich countries and 28 devel- Bomb’. $e modern spectres of resource depletion and slums, oping nations, including China. Sub-Saharan Africa is a notable coupled with perennial immigration fears, have only added to exception, with the average woman giving birth to !ve children. this sense of a world ‘bursting at the seams’. $e pace of decline has been staggering. Between 1950 and 2000, the average fertility rate in developing countries tumbled Population – a smokescreen? from six to three. What took 130 years in the UK, happened Over half of humanity now lives in cities. $e developing in just 20 in South Korea. Countries all over the developing world’s urban population is growing by an average of !ve mil- world have slashed their birth rates. Since the 1980s, Iran’s and lion people every month. Nearly a billion people go hungry Brazil’s have declined by roughly 70 and 50 per cent respec- each night. 13 per cent of the world’s population is without safe tively. Improved living standards, education and family planning drinking water. About half the people in developing regions have have helped this trend. But Hania Zlotnik, Director of the UN no access to adequate sanitation. $e world as a teeming slum – Population Division, says: “we still don’t understand why fertil- the scenario does not seem improbable. ity has gone down so fast in so many societies, so many cultures It can be tempting to make the leap from overcrowding to and religions. It’s just mind-boggling”. poverty, global warming or con"ict. $e idea that the world’s $is decline, however, will take some time to have e#ect. We resources would be under less strain if there were fewer people now have the largest generation of adolescents entering childbear- seems almost intuitive. In an article discussing the ‘population ing age, including some 1.8 billion young women. Even if they explosion’ in UNA-UK’s magazine in 1959 – when the global have just two children on average, the global family is set to grow population was less than half of what it is today – Sir Herbert for the next couple of decades as a result of this knock-on e#ect. Broadley, the UN Children’s Fund UK representative, pointed out that it is not so straightforward. Quoting Dr Homi Bhabha Disaster averted? of the Tata Institute, he wrote: “the population of the US in- Rapid improvements in health care, food production and liv- creases at a rate higher than...in India, but nevertheless the ing standards have seen the world evade the partial extinction standard of living continues to go up because their productivity predicted by Malthus and Ehrlich. Despite deadly diseases like rises faster”. HIV/AIDS, global pandemics, obesity and pollution, many Population issues are often poorly understood. Earlier this people are living longer and healthier lives. $e result? An D%1)E.)1:$7F"$1:) year, a report by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, provoca- ageing population in several regions. In Japan $%"$):3F1)>GG) tively entitled ‘One planet, too many people?’, prompted media for example, the elderly make up F744730)23F10)2%3) outlets to conclude that population growth ‘is a threat’ and ‘is 23 per cent of the population and 23945)47H1)$3)9:1) not a threat’. Which is correct? far outnumber the young. Many rich <)63#0=)>)571 I30$#"I1J$7K1:)4"IH) countries are concerned that increased !?!@A) Do do we need a global one-child policy? life expectancy and lower birth rates will B!/'.C "II1::)$3)$%1F $e Optimum Population Trust, a UK-based think tank, be- create ‘pension crises’ as they will lack the lieves that governments should actively encourage people to have workforce to support their elderly citizens. fewer children. China and India embarked on national popula- Lowering the birth rate could arguably also damage tion reduction strategies in the 1970s. In China, where rates poorer countries. Take Niger: with a child mortality rate were declining before the introduction of the one-child policy, of one in !ve, the birth rate of seven per woman could be women now average 1.5 children, down from six in 1965. In seen as an insurance policy.

16 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | Cover story $e notable exception to this trend is the US. It has ,B)D L!)M a rising birth rate and young workforce due to D%1)10$7#1)Q436"4)'@-C immigration. J3J94"$730)I3945)47K1)70))NOE-- $%1)EB):$"$1)38)D1R":=)78)7$)P;)) 21#1)":)510:14S):1$$415)":)

‘The World Bank predicts that over a .12)A3#H)/7$S) billion people in the developing world ) will belong to the middle classes in 2030, up from just 400 million in 2005’

2045 Not how many but where 9 billion $e 2009 UN Human Development Report focussed on migration, arguing that if properly regulated, it can bring huge bene!ts to both host and origin countries. Sensible 2025 laws and policies that enable migrants to go where they 8 billion are needed are crucial. Rural-to-urban migration and the development of cities will require particular attention. 2011 In 1800, only three per cent of the global popula- 7 billion tion lived in cities. By 2050, the UN Population Fund estimates that 70 per cent of us will live in so-called ‘mega-cities’ – those with over 10 million inhabitants. 21 1999 such cities exist today, most in developing countries, and 6 billion water, sewage and housing provision is severely stretched. Dr Tim Jones of Future Agenda says we must build cities view consumption and population growth as separate is- 1987 to re"ect the realities of urban growth. “Sprawl is already sues. In one sense, it is the consumption that damages 5 billion being rejected as a deeply ine%cient model for growing our life support system as opposed to the actual number cities. Hong Kong and Paris are good examples where of people expanding.” densities are key to success…just !ve per cent of Hong In terms of lowering carbon emissions, a focus on 1974 Kong’s personal income is spent on transportation where- population growth in the countries with high birth 4 billion as in Houston it is 20 per cent because everyone drives rates would have little impact. It is the rich countries such huge distances.” with their small families who use the most energy. Five 1960 per cent of the world’s population uses nearly a quarter 3 billion Can we feed the billion(s)? of global energy. One American consumes as much as $e UN World Food Programme believes that it is pos- roughly 250 Ethiopians. sible to feed the current 925 million people who su#er $e World Bank predicts that over a billion people in 1930 from undernourishment. $e problem is one of income, the developing world will belong to the middle classes 2 billion distribution and access. Likewise, the UN Food and in 2030, up from just 400 million in 2005. Instead of Agriculture Organization has concluded that it is possible worrying about their numbers, the focus should be on 1800 to produce enough food to feed the growing population, whether they will consume as much meat as their coun- 1 billion through a combination of smart agricultural planning, terparts in Europe or drive large American-style cars, and investment in seeds and technology, and knowledge-shar- what alternatives could be developed. ing. High-yield seeds and ample fertiliser allow China, for example, to feed its billion-plus people on less than 10 Changing our habits not breeding per cent of the earth’s arable land. patterns “In the wildness of speculation it has been suggested Population growth no doubt puts pressure on poorer that Europe ought to grow its corn in America and de- countries but it is a factor that exacerbates existing condi- D%1)E.)1:$7F"$1:)vote itself solely to manufacture and commerce,” Malthus tions rather than creating them. Curbing population will wrote dismissively at the end of the 18th Century. not by itself lead to the world’s resources being shared $%"$):3F1)>GG) F744730)23F10)2%3) In fact, this is largely what has happened. more equitably or stewarded more prudently. Our e#orts More emphasis should be placed on should be directed instead at urban development; improv- 23945)47H1)$3)9:1) <)63#0=)>)571 I30$#"I1J$7K1:)4"IH) policy-driven global agricultural ing water supply, sanitation and food security, raising liv- !?!@A) planning rather than market-driven ing standards; managing migration and moving towards a B!/'.C "II1::)$3)$%1F production. low-carbon world. Ehrlich, perhaps surprisingly, gives us reason for op- It’s how we consume timism. He points out that “we utterly transformed our Ehrlich stands by many of the predic- consumption habits and patterns of economy in the US tions he made in the 1960s. But he too between 1941 and 1945, and then back again. If you’ve has changed his tune. Speaking to the got the right incentives, you can change patterns of con- Guardian in January, he said “you cannot sumption very rapidly.”

Cover story | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 17 Do something: building an international ‘Big Society’

$e 'Big Society’, Prime Minister David Cameron’s vision $e UN also works directly with people, be it empowering for Britain, has generated countless column inches debating them through micro!nance initiatives, using local radio what exactly it entails. Even its !ercest critics realise that as stations to run literacy programmes or mobile technology to an idea the ‘Big Society’ could prove to be inspirational. But set up medical advice systems. $e Jokko Initiative in Senegal how does one implement a concept that is based on local is a great example of a partnership between UNICEF, the innovation, responsibility and enterprise – all bespoke by UN Children’s Fund, and a community-development NGO de!nition? Perhaps surprisingly, we can look to the UN for to promote group decision-making in villages. Jokko makes global examples of how to ‘act local’. While we often speak it possible to communicate with a network of people by about building the capacity of individuals and communities in sending text messages, so everyone from the local nurse to the developing countries – indeed, such initiatives are central to local imam can inform their community about a UNICEF drives such as the Millennium Development Goals – we rarely vaccination drive, or organise a debate on planned construction seek to apply the lessons learned to our own societies. work. $e majority of participants to date are women and girls, $e UN has long had to deal with severe resource drawn to the social empowerment the tool provides. What constraints. Its core two-year budget for 2010-11 is $5.2 began, then, as a drive to do more with less has today become billion dollars, less than half the cost of the 2012 London an integral part of how the UN operates. Olympics. It employs fewer people globally than McDonald’s Writing in the Guardian last year, Cameron said that the ‘Big or Coca Cola. In short, the UN is a far cry from the bloated Society’ idea is based on “a profound faith in my fellow human bureaucracy its critics love to talk about. In order to deliver its beings and a healthy awareness of the state’s limitations”. $e expanding development and humanitarian programmes it has UN encapsulates both sentiments. Created, according to its needed to adapt and harness the support of a range of actors, founding document, the UN Charter, to prevent war, rea%rm including those people at which its programmes are targeted. human dignity and promote social progress, what is the UN Consequently, its work on the ground provides a tried-and- if not an act of faith in humanity? $e rest of the Charter, tested body of evidence for the ‘Big Society’. meanwhile, is an exercise in pragmatism, recognising the How does this work in practice? $e UN increasingly acts limitations of states and of itself. Given that the most pressing as a convenor and coordinator, ensuring that communities, issues it needs to tackle – such as climate change – defy NGOs, businesses, governments and international agencies national borders and require profound social change, the UN is work together by creating the framework for partnerships. One only too aware of these limitations. example is the UN Global Compact, a voluntary corporate For this reason, UNA-UK and its sister UN associations citizenship initiative that now includes some 6,000 companies around the world have been working since the UN’s inception in over 130 countries. A member of the Compact, UK- to build a peoples’ movement for the UN. We believe that in based Unilever has helped the UN to implement HIV/AIDS order for the UN to genuinely transform international relations, programmes, such as training peer health counsellors. Deutsche it must involve those that it is intended to serve, in the opening Post DHL meanwhile provides pro bono disaster relief, words of the UN Charter: “we the peoples”. handling, for instance, the logistics of relief goods as it did in $is is why UNA-UK works to inspire people to !nd Haiti following the devastating earthquake last year. out more about the UN and how it relates to our lives. Our NGOs too are valuable UN partners. Much of the World latest initiative, Lobby for the UN, launched on UN Day (24 Food Programme’s deliveries are now undertaken by national October) aims to foster a national debate on international NGOs that understand local sensitivities. NGOs are also a#airs, focusing in particular on the local, national and global increasingly involved in planning interventions, at times leading dimensions of sustainable development and nuclear weapons. certain aspects of a humanitarian operation as part of a larger Our local branches and university groups across the country have UN team. $ey participate at the intergovernmental level as well, been supporting us at a community level, lobbying their MPs, submitting evidence to UN bodies and lobbying governments. working with schools and fundraising for charitable causes. UNA-UK, for example, is proud of the role it played through As we begin a new year, let us work together to encourage the Cluster Munitions Coalition in calling for an international others to be informed and engaged citizens of the world. treaty banning these weapons.

Visit www.una.org.uk/lobby to join our campaign UNA-UK youth members read policy and campaigning materials at the launch event for this year’s major UNA-UK youth initiative: action to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, delivered the keynote speech at this event. Read more on page 32. © UNA-UK/Mark Makela THE UN & THE UK This section of the magazine features coverage of UNA-UK’s work with government and Parliament, and developments in our main policy programmes: ‘Towards Zero’ – our ﬂagship nuclear non-proliferation and multilateral disarmament initiative – and other peace and security issues, sustainable development, gender, and human rights and humanitarian action. Further information, news and views can be found online at www.una.org.uk/new_world

Prepared by James Kearney, UNA-UK Peace & Security Programme Coordinator, and Georgina Banks, UNA-UK Executive Assistant and coordinator of the UN All-Party Parliamentary Group (UN APPG)

Making the Human Rights Council Participants at UNA-UK’s high-level roundtable on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in more effective November 2010 (see page 23). From left to right: Ambassador Susan Burk, Special Representative of the US President for Nuclear Non-proliferation; Guy Roberts, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy; and Alison Kelly, Director, Disarmament and Non-proliferation, In December 2010, UNA-UK submit- Dept. Foreign Affairs, Ireland. © UNA-UK/Mark Makela ted recommendations on improving the functioning of the UN Human Rights Council to the UK Foreign & Commonwealth O%ce. $ese include suggestions on increasing support for the UN’s independent human rights experts, ensuring that human rights issues in all geographic regions are given due attention, facilitating the participation of developing-country NGOs in country reviews, and instituting tougher criteria for election to the Council.

UN All-Party Parliamentary Group Burk, Special Representative of the US Citizenship Foundation and the British On 3 November 2010, UNA-UK’s President for Nuclear Non-proliferation, Youth Council. Chair and Executive Director briefed gave a US perspective on ‘$e Prospects the UN All-Party Parliamentary Group for Nuclear Non-proliferation beyond Celebrating the UN’s 65th (UN APPG) – for which UNA-UK 2010’ (30 November 2010), and Li anniversary provides the secretariat – on current Hong, Secretary-General of the China issues facing the UN, with a focus on Arms Control and Disarmament $e UK Foreign & Commonwealth the Association’s policy priorities for the Association, spoke on ‘China’s Future O%ce hosted UNA-UK’s celebration of parliamentary session: nuclear non-pro- Role in Nuclear Non-proliferation’ the UN’s 65th anniversary in October liferation and multilateral disarmament, (1 December 2010). UN APPG meet- 2010, which featured speeches by Dame the UN Millennium Development ings on the MDGs are planned for Rosalyn Higgins, former President Goals (MDGs) and the new UN agency spring 2011. of the International Court of Justice; for gender equality and women’s em- Professor Sir Adam Roberts, President powerment. APPG members were also Promoting citizenship in schools of the British Academy; Professor informed about the types of support, Ngaire Woods, Director of the Global such as brie!ng notes, research and ad- In a letter to the UK Secretary of State Economic Governance Programme at vice, that UNA-UK can provide. for Education (18 October 2010), UNA- Oxford University; and former UNA-UK UK Chair Lord Hannay of Chiswick Executive Director Sam Daws, who is US and Chinese perspectives on urged the government to ensure that now directing a project on UN govern- nuclear non-proliferation citizenship remains a distinct, statutory ance and reform at the Oxford Centre for subject for secondary school children, International Studies. Henry Bellingham As part of UNA-UK’s ‘Lobby for the arguing that it is the only subject “that MP, FCO Minister with responsibility for UN 2010-11’ and ‘Towards Zero’ ini- teaches young people about their rights the UN, delivered the opening remarks, tiatives (see pages 18 and 22), the UN and responsibilities as citizens.” UNA- saying “UNA-UK has played a key role APPG co-hosted two meetings with UK recently joined the Democratic Life in advocating support of the UN. But it the APPG on Global Security and coalition, which brings together support- has rightly not shied away from challeng- Non-proliferation. Ambassador Susan ers of citizenship education, including the ing it and its member states”.

20 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | The UN & the UK THE UN & THE UK

Our Chair in Parliament UNA-UK’s Chair, Lord Hannay, has spoken in the House of Lords a number of times since the House returned in October 2010. His contributions include:

Olympic Games 2012: Olympic Truce Burma “We all know that the cost of successful con"ict preven- “One thing that we could do is to increase our aid pro- tion is a tiny fraction of that of dealing with the con"ict jects in Burma to non-governmental organisations and once it has broken out, so would it not make very good those who work for humanitarian purposes in medical sense to use the occasion of the London Olympics in 2012 and educational areas. $at would be a good way to to reinvigorate the international community’s e#orts at show that there is an alternative to the sort of regime that con"ict prevention? I hope [that] the Government will give Burma has now.” (18 November 2010) careful thought to ways in which the UN’s capacity for con"ict prevention could be strengthened, and to how best UN Security Council composition that could be achieved by making use of the occasion of “Is the British Government prepared to contemplate an the London Olympics and the noble and ancient concept interim step towards reform of the Security Council by of an Olympic Truce. After all, Britain plays an important having a longer-term category of members who are not role still at the United Nations as a permanent member yet permanent members – that would make the Security of the Security Council and as a major donor...Can we Council more representative – rather than trying end- not put that role to good use and thus make the London lessly to solve the Rubik’s Cube of new permanent mem- Olympics an occasion that will be remembered for more bers?” (24 November 2010) than just sporting achievements?” (11 October 2010) Climate change: Cancún conference A letter was also sent to the FCO to this e%ect, calling “[C]ongratulations on the Government’s input into this on the government to include con"ict prevention in the conference and on the way in which both the previous UN General Assembly ‘Olympic Truce’ resolution the Government and this Government have refused to be dis- UK will table. couraged by the outcome at Copenhagen. I think that that was admirable...On veri!cation, does the Minister not agree Climate change: IPCC leadership that if there is to be a legally-binding agreement, which is, “Practically all the criticism that has been levelled at I think, the objective of many, it will be sustainable only if the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and there is a proper international veri!cation process? Will he say other bodies supporting it has been about personalities whether the European Union could take a lead in the months and process but has not shaken the fundamental case. It ahead in shaping up the sort of international veri!cation pro- would be much better if the critics concentrated on the cess that will be necessary if business and the electorates are to fundamental case – if they can disprove it, which I do have any con!dence in this?” (13 December 2010) not believe they can – and laid o# on the process and the personalities.” (25 October 2010) Read more at www.una.org.uk/parliament

LOBBY UNA-UK has launched an online toolkit to FOR THE support the 2010-11 ‘Lobby for the UN’.

Focussing on our two policy priorities for the If you have already engaged with your year – the UN Millennium Development Goals local representatives, please let us know. and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament Send copies of your correspondence or UN – ‘Lobby for the UN’ aims to encourage UK reports of meetings to Natalie Samarasinghe, Join in the conversation government action in these areas and to foster Head of Policy & Communications, on dialogue between voters and MPs on UN issues. [email protected] or by post to The Lobby toolkit contains briefing notes and UNA-UK, 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL. action points, alongside information on how to We will be contacting UNA-UK branches, lobby local representatives and how to find out regions and nations later in the year to find out more about parliamentary processes. It can be more about local lobbying activities. accessed at www.una.org.uk/lobby

The UN & the UK | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 21 Round-up: signs of hope beyond 2010?

The relatively successful Non- for a world without nuclear weapons in facing the Alliance and the capabilities Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review accordance with the goals of the NPT” NATO needs to meet those threats in the Conference in May 2010 buoyed hopes though it maintained its position that future...the UK will be closely involved that the momentum on nuclear disarma- “deterrence, based on an appropriate mix in this review and in the forthcoming ment and non-proliferation issues would of nuclear and conventional capabilities, NATO-Russian Council discussions on be maintained in the following months. remains a core element of our overall short-range nuclear weapons.” To some extent, it was. strategy.” Perhaps the biggest victory came on In the UK, the new coalition govern- 22 December 2010, when the US Senate ment revealed, for the !rst time, the ‘Progress will require rati!ed the Strategic Arms Reduction precise number of the country’s nuclear Treaty (START), the arms control agree- warheads, echoing announcements made inclusive diplomacy ment with Russia, which President by the US at the Review Conference. to push ahead on Obama personally negotiated with $e UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Dmitry Medvedev, his Russian counter- Review in October 2010 reiterated its international efforts part. $e rati!cation followed domestic commitment to a nuclear deterrent (the to foster nuclear and international pressure on undecided big decision on Trident is to be delayed disarmament and senators, including from members of the until ‘around 2016’) and to Continuous Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians at Sea Deterrence. But it also outlined a counter proliferation’ for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament number of steps to support multilateral and Non-proliferation who published disarmament e#orts. $ese include re- On 22 November 2010 UNA-UK’s a letter in !e New York Times on 1 ducing the number of warheads on board Chair, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, con- December calling for START rati!cation. each submarine from 48 to 40, reduc- tributed to a debate in the House of $e group, convened by Lord Browne of ing the overall nuclear weapon stockpile Lords, asking for clari!cation from the Ladyton (who writes in this issue of New to no more than 180, and a Negative Leader of the House, Lord Strathclyde, World, see page 24), wrote: “as clearly Security Assurance – essentially a guar- on the government’s commitment to stated by NATO leaders at their summit antee to non-nuclear-weapons states not working with Russia for the eventual in Lisbon, the security of the UK and to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons removal of tactical nuclear weapons from the security of its allies, including the against them. As with US declaratory Europe. Lord Strathclyde responded US, depends on reducing the threat from policy, unveiled in April 2010 as part subsequently in writing: “the disparity nuclear weapons, ballistic defences and of its Nuclear Posture Review, the UK’s in short-range nuclear weapons between improving our relationship with Russia.” assurance leaves open the possibility of the US and Russia will need to be ad- If 2010 has been a busy and impor- doing so for countries that are ‘not in dressed as we work to create the condi- tant year for nuclear issues, 2011 and good standing’ with the NPT. tions where further reductions are pos- 2012 should prove just as pivotal. A At the Lisbon summit on 19 sible...[the Lisbon declaration] tasked conference on a Middle East zone free of November, NATO heads adopted a New the North Atlantic Council to look at nuclear weapons and all other weapons Strategic Concept. $e text expressed how NATO implements the principles of mass destruction, proposed for 2012 NATO’s commitment to “seek a safer agreed in the Strategic Concept. $e and agreed by states at the 2010 NPT world for all and to create the conditions review will examine the strategic threats Review Conference, will have to gain THE UN & THE UK

Towards Zero Roundtable, November 2010

A busy winter for UNA-UK’s ‘Towards 3 Sub-strategic nuclear weapons in “I was pleased to participate in UNA- Zero’ project culminated in a high-level Europe and NATO’s New Strategic UK’s high-level roundtable. The par- roundtable held at the Royal Society Concept ticipants contributed to a constructive on 29 November 2010. Entitled ‘$e Guy Roberts, NATO Deputy discussion of the challenges facing the prospects for nuclear disarmament Assistant Secretary-General for international community as it pursues and non-proliferation beyond 2010: Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy this important agenda, and the format NATO’s New Strategic Concept and contributed to a candid and enlighten- the outcome of the NPT Review 4 #e US policy perspective ing discussion.” AMBASSADOR BURK Conference’, and featuring some of the Ambassador Susan Burk, Special most respected international authori- Representative of the President of “I found it most stimulating to discuss ties in the !eld, it provided a forum the United States for Nuclear Non- the hot issues with so many insightful for lively debate and discussion on the proliferation experts. I am also delighted to have the pressing issues facing us today. chance to present a Chinese perspective $e day’s debate was structured Each area was the subject of energetic on such issues.” LI HONG around four sessions, each opened with and thoughtful discourse. To build an expert presentation: on these discussions, UNA-UK has “The UNA-UK roundtable was a useful, commissioned papers to elaborate on spirited and stimulating exchange of views 1 Countering nuclear proliferation two of the most crucial areas. Once among interested experts and profession- and facilitating a Middle East completed, they will be made avail- als grappling with the vision of a world Nuclear Weapons Free Zone able to the main UK political parties, without nuclear weapons in the harsh Alison Kelly, Director, Disarmament policy-makers and UN Associations reality of today’s world where prolifera- and Non-Proliferation, Department internationally in advance of a second tion of nuclear weapons continues to be a of Foreign A#airs, Ireland high-level roundtable due to take stark and sobering reality.” GUY ROBERTS place in June 2011. $rough such 2 China’s future role in nuclear disar- roundtables, UNA-UK seeks to initi- “An invaluable opportunity to learn and mament and non-proliferation ate an expert dialogue that can be to reﬂect upon a number of the key Li Hong, Secretary-General, China sustained at the highest levels, by a challenges facing the nuclear disarma- Arms Control and Disarmament broad range of parties, nationally and ment and non-proliferation regime in Association internationally. the period ahead.” ALISON KELLY

support and momentum quickly if it is later, Iran surprised many by inviting tion of !ssile material for warheads, and to take place. Much will depend on the international representatives (the US was has complicated proceedings by asking US, the European Union (EU), China notably excluded) to inspect its nuclear for regional conventional arms control, and Russia providing a strong, united sites. Envoys from Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, something India and others have rejected front in encouraging Israel and Iran to Syria and Venezuela were given a tour on outright. take part. Iran’s uranium enrichment 15-16 January but China, Russia and the What is certain is that 2011 will pre- will also be a factor: will it continue its EU declined. EU foreign representative sent similar obstacles and opportunities enrichment programme despite interna- Baroness Ashton emphasised that it is the to 2010. Progress will require inclusive tional demands? Will it allow thorough role of the IAEA to inspect facilities. diplomacy to push ahead on international inspections by the International Atomic What 2011 will bring for the Fissile e#orts to foster nuclear disarmament and Energy Agency (IAEA) of its key nuclear Material Cut-o# Treaty (FMCT) also counter proliferation. Candid and coura- facilities? remains to be seen. Obstructions within geous conversation, of the variety on dis- On 5 December 2010 this prospect the UN Conference on Disarmament play at UNA-UK’s recent ‘Towards Zero’ seemed slim. Iran announced that it could have crippled movement on the negotia- roundtable (see box), will be required to now use domestically-mined uranium to tion of a veri!able treaty banning the avoid the mire of inaction. produce nuclear fuel, giving the country production of !ssile materials for nuclear complete control over a process some in weapons. Pakistan continues to express UNA-UK will continue to report on de- the West suspect is geared toward pro- its apprehension over the proposed treaty, velopments and to strive to in"uence the ducing nuclear weapons. But a month which would call a halt to its produc- agenda in the UK and other key states. Des Browne, then-UK Secretary of State for Defence, meets UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York in 2007. © UN Photo/Mark Garten

Des Browne, former British Defence Secretary, on the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation

Not so long ago, advocates of heads are also held in their stockpiles. In Since then, progress on implement- nuclear disarmament were comparatively a world where those destructive materials ing these words has been slow. However, rare in mainstream politics, particularly in are sought by rogue states and terrorists, over the last two years, important steps the UK. $e accepted wisdom was that furthering nuclear non-proliferation and have been taken in both non-proliferation such policy was inconsistent with strong disarmament, and improving the security and nuclear security and a steady stream defence and its advocates inevitably were of nuclear materials is more important of politicians, leading statesmen, senior unelectable. $is has changed. Nuclear than ever. military and civil society representatives disarmament is !rmly back on the agenda When the States Parties to the Treaty have called for nuclear disarmament in the and is being advocated by some of the on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear context of non-proliferation and nuclear world’s most in"uential !gures. Weapons (NPT) met in 2000 they security challenges. First, in January 2007, Almost two decades since the end agreed that this challenge could not there was the Wall Street Journal op-ed of the Cold War, there are still nearly be overcome by half measures. $ey by American statesmen George Shultz, 21,000 nuclear warheads in the arsenals concluded that “total elimination of Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn and William of eight states across the world. Large nuclear weapons is the only absolute Perry. $en, the ‘UK four’, Malcolm quantities of !ssile material with the guarantee against the[ir] use or threat Rifkind, David Owen, Douglas Hurd and potential to be converted into more war- of use”. George Robertson, wrote in !e Times of

24 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | The UN & the UK THE UN & THE UK the need to work multilaterally towards cians, which has proceeded at a pace sur- nuclear disarmament. $is was followed prising even to us. $ere are a number of by the creation of Global Zero, a grouping reasons for that. Principal among them, New UNA-UK chair to of over 100 political, business, civic and however, is that the European political participate in BASIC Trident military leaders campaigning to eliminate environment was ready for it. Many sen- Commission nuclear weapons. In April 2009 in Prague, ior European politicians and statesmen US President Barack Obama set as a goal just needed to be asked, not persuaded. Sir Jeremy Greenstock, incoming a world without nuclear weapons and Although it is counter-intuitive to many Chair of UNA-UK, is to participate that summer, then-UK Prime Minister that European leadership should be in the BASIC Trident Commission. Gordon Brown released his ‘Roadmap driven from London, our initiative across Created by BASIC – the British to 2010’. $is ambition was made inter- Europe has been met with enthusiasm. American Security Information national through UN Security Council Council – the Commission will Resolution 1887 in 2009, the Nuclear ‘There is no doubt bring together senior political, Security Summit, a successful NPT review in my mind that military, diplomatic, scientific, conference in May 2010, and a plethora of and academic figures to conduct encouraging initiatives and statements by the existence of the the most rigorous and credible decision-makers. Top Level Group examination of UK nuclear In the UK, a cross-party group of weapons policy ever conducted mainstream Parliamentarians, inspired helped create the outside government. by the US example and building on the environment in ‘UK four’ initiative, has formed. $is Top It will be co-chaired by Lord Level Group (TLG) – comprising former which the signi!cant Browne of Ladyton, former military chiefs of defence sta#, several nuclear disarmament Labour Secretary of State for former foreign and defence secretaries, Defence; Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former NATO Secretary-General and announcement that former Conservative Defence and other prominent senior Parliamentarians, was the Strategic Foreign Secretary; and Sir Menzies 21 in total – shares the vision of a world Campbell, former leader of the free of nuclear weapons and wants to help Defence and Liberal Democrats and Shadow achieve that objective. In !e Times op-ed, Security Review was Foreign Secretary. the ‘UK four’ pointed out that any nuclear accepted without disarmament initiative could only succeed The Commission, which will launch “by working collectively and through mul- any controversy by on 9 February at Portcullis House tilateral institutions”. $e TLG agrees with Parliament’ in Westminster, will conduct that analysis and has set itself the task of research, host events and receive doing just that, from a UK base. evidence throughout 2011. A final $e Group’s !rst priority is to make a 2010 was considered a year of progress. report is due to be published in consistent contribution to the debate in 2011 must not be a disappointment. $e early 2012. the UK. $ere is no doubt in my mind TLG and the developing ELN have set www.basicint.org that the existence of the TLG helped themselves a challenging agenda for the create the environment in which the sig- coming year. When we meet together as ni!cant nuclear disarmament announce- the ELN on 25 January in London, we will ment that was the Strategic Defence and begin to address that agenda with a wide- Security Review was accepted without ranging discussion about NATO’s nuclear of Lord Hannay of Chiswick, both any controversy by Parliament and the weapons policy in the light of the recently in his capacity as the Chair of UNA- political classes when it was announced revised Strategic Concept and in anticipa- UK and as Co-Convenor of the All- on 18 October 2010. tion of the expected Review of Deterrence Party Parliamentary Group on Global $e second principal objective is to announced at the Lisbon Summit. Security and Non-Proliferation. He has ensure that the UK mainstream politi- Later in the year, we will move on to made a characteristically e#ective and cal voice is heard in the US corridors of audit the contribution of European insti- indispensable contribution to inform- power. For example, Group members tutions to nuclear non-proliferation and ing this debate. In particular, he has led have been in constant dialogue with US disarmament, engage in a trans-European a programme of events in Parliament senators to encourage the rati!cation debate on NATO-Russia relations, and that have exposed Parliamentarians and of the New Strategic Arms Reduction make a contribution to the ful!lment of their sta# to the world’s leading think- Treaty with Russia. My own experience our obligation to convene a conference ers on these matters. I am enormously is that if we do not speak for ourselves in on a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free grateful to him for his support and en- Washington DC, then others will misrep- zone in the Middle East that has arisen couragement. resent our position. $e distinctive na- from the NPT review action list. ture of the TLG is such that it has strong I am honoured to convene the Top Lord (Des) Browne of Ladyton is links and a credible voice in that arena. Level Group, and working beyond convenor of the Top-Level Group of UK $e third and !nal element of our ini- Parliament with NGOs and other arms Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear tial strategy is acting as a catalyst for the control organisations has been a high- Disarmament and Non-proliferation, and development of a European Leadership light of my time in this o%ce. In clos- former UK Secretary of State for Defence Network (ELN) of like-minded politi- ing, I want to pay tribute to the work

The UN & the UK | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 25 LETTERS have applied to participate despite the appearance of just one perpetrator. $e fact that these crimes are deemed grave Send your letters to: enough to constitute the focus of an inter- Natalie Samarasinghe, UNA-UK, national prosecution is a message of hope 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL to the victims. It tells them that their lives matter. It also tells the parties to con"ict email: [email protected] that respecting women’s rights – even in the midst of war – is an obligation, not an aspiration. It is my hope that beyond the courtroom, this trial will inspire a global !is letter was sent to Margot Wallström, General on Sexual Violence in conversation aimed at replacing the vi- Special Representative of the UN Con"ict. Since my appointment cious cycle of silence and impunity, with Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in in February of this year, I have twice a virtuous cycle of recognition, justice Conﬂict, with a copy to the Editor. Her visited the Congo to assess the situation, and repatriation in the Central African reply is included below. hear !rst-hand accounts, and gather Republic, the DRC and elsewhere. information on how best to address the $ank you again for writing. I take my Dear Ms Wallström, atrocities through my mandate. For a mandate very seriously and care deeply full account of my second visit, please about improving the UN response to As members of the UNA Isle of Man, see my statement to the UN Security preventing sexual violence and protect- we are writing to express our concern Council on 14 October 2010 (available ing victims. While I was in the Congo, about the treatment of women in the from www.securitycouncilreport.org). I heard women say: “A dead rat is worth Democratic Republic of the Congo My small but dedicated team is work- more than the body of a woman.” It is (DRC). Many international groups are ing very hard to end the impunity of my hope that you will continue to raise reporting that thousands of women are perpetrators, deliver justice in the form awareness and decry these crimes against being raped and gang raped by Congolese of reparations and services to victims, humanity occurring in the DRC through soldiers in the east of the DRC, that protect and empower women as the the use of your own platforms and con- rape is being used as a weapon of terror foundation of prevention, and ensure nections in the Congo, the Isle of Man, in the war there, and although women’s that women are included in all measures and internationally. For advocacy e#orts, groups in the Congo have been appealing taken on their behalf. With those goals you may !nd the website that my team to the UN Security Council for many in mind I have not only travelled to the has put together helpful: years, no help seems to be forthcoming. Congo in the last year but also to Liberia www.stoprapenow.org Indeed it is reported that although a UN and Bosnia to speak to the women and peacekeeping group was able to provide communities that have been a#ected, Respectfully yours, an escort for a commercial truck to pass NGOs working for and with these com- Margot Wallström through one area safely, no intervention munities, and UN !eld actors. $ese Special Representative of the Secretary- has been made on behalf of women. It trips have greatly guided my work at the General on Sexual Violence in Con"ict appears that rape, terror and kidnapping UN headquarters in New York, where my are all being used as war tactics. team is designing a new monitoring and 30 years since the Convention on the reporting system to track sexual violence Dear Editor, Elimination of all Discrimination Against in con"ict areas and make sure that any Women entered into force, it is time for instances are immediately known to the I was amused by the 1957 UNA-UK the UN to take more positive action to government in question and the Security pamphlet ‘United Nations News’ repro- make sure that women are protected. Council. We are also working on devel- duced in the last New World (Feature: oping early warning indicators for sexual Queen Elizabeth, Autumn 2010): under- Yours sincerely, violence so that when a community is resourced UN operations, the Secretary- Reverend David Shirtli$ in danger of acts of sexual violence as General struggling to glean more than Isle of Man a weapon of war, local, national, and warm words from member states, ag- international actors can immediately gression from North Korea, the debate respond and prevent the situation from over a permanent UN police force… Her Dear Reverend David Shirtli#, escalating. $e two brie!ngs that I gave Majesty is not the only one to have en- to the Secretary-General and the Security dured these past few decades! I very much appreciate you taking the Council on the state of sexual violence in time to write to the UN regarding the the countries I visited serve to foster their William Banks situation of women in the Democratic understanding of the issue and motivate Manchester Republic of the Congo. Secretary-General action from the UN system as a whole. Ban Ki-moon recognised the grave situ- In November 2010, I attended the ation of women in the Congo and in opening of the !rst international criminal Dear Editor, other con"ict areas where women are justice case against crimes of sexual vio- being systematically raped as a weapon of lence in war, the Jean-Pierre Bemba trial $e dawn of the new millennium was war. In an e#ort to ramp up the UN re- at the International Criminal Court. $e accompanied, it seemed, by global opti- sponse, I have been appointed as the !rst trial gives voice to more than 1,200 vic- mism. Now, as we enter a new decade, Special Representative of the Secretary- tims of the Central African Republic who there appears to be a sense of apprehen-

26 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | Letters sion – unsurprising, perhaps, given the vast array of problems facing humanity: climate change, international terrorism, in- tra-state con"icts, the spectre of economic Resources and !nancial meltdown, not to mention the increases in global population. Determined e#orts must be made to address these challenges in the only way possible: through multilateral solutions ‘Get the Goals’ and robust international laws and systems UNYSA campaign pack for enforcement. $e UN should be at LOBBY FOR THE the centre of this approach. UNA-UK’s youth wing has released In my opinion there has never been a campaign pack to support its a point in time, since the creation 2010-11 ‘Get the Goals’ initiative of the UN, where the need for this UN (see page 32). Organisation has been greater. Under Join in the the leadership of Ban Ki-moon, the UN must rise to the need and be pro-active in ‘Lobby for the UN’ toolkit: tackling all these challenges and in ful!ll- Developed to support UNA-UK’s ing its crucial role. 2010-11 ‘Lobby for the UN’ Member states too must step up. We campaign (see pages 18 and 21), must remind our national representatives of the toolkit includes: the opening line of the UN Charter: “We – tips on how to lobby e#ectively the Peoples of the United Nations deter- as an individual or part of a local mined…” $ey should listen to the voices group of their peoples, and be more truly united – information on Parliament, de- and determined to address these challenges. volved administrations and local authorities David J #omas – details of free training on parlia- Porthcawl mentary business and processes – brie!ng notes on UNA-UK’s two policy priorities for the year: the Available from www.una.org.uk/youth Dear Editor, UN Millennium Development Goals and nuclear non-proliferation I was very moved by the story and com- and disarmament mitment of Setsuko $urlow (Opinion, Available from www.una.org.uk/lobby Autumn 2010) – to have witnessed a ca- tastrophe like Hiroshima at such a young age, and to be brave enough to share this experience for the greater good of a world without nuclear weapons – such dignity and grace are both rare and inspirational.

Sheila Barnes London

UN International Days UN Forum highlights Dear Editor, UNA-UK has teamed up with $is short !lm showcases highlights the UK National Commission from UNA-UK’s biggest event of I am writing on behalf of the Trustees for UNESCO to develop a series 2010, UN Forum, including of the UNA Trust to express our warm of activity sheets for primary and previously unseen ‘vox pops’ from appreciation to all those who gave to the secondary schools to celebrate participants and speakers. Trust in 2010. UN international days. To date Available from $e Trust is entirely funded by dona- the following sheets have been www.una.org.uk/UNForum2010 tions and legacies and we are most grate- published, with more coming ful for the generosity of UNA-UK mem- online soon: UN Day, Universal bers. Your gifts enable us to continue Children’s Day, World AIDS Day, educating the public on the work of the International Day for the Abolition All resources are available for free UN, and to nurture a new generation of of Slavery and Human Rights Day. download from the UNA-UK website. If globally-minded citizens. you do not have access to the internet, Available from please contact our Membership Ofﬁcer, www.una.org.uk/education Rod Fielding Rich Nelmes, on 020 7766 3456 or [email protected] Chair of $e UNA Trust

Resources | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 27 UNA-UK MEMBERS

We the Peoples: the !lm festival by panel discussions – in seven university strikes back campuses as well as the Riverside Studios Grassroots and St. Ethelburga’s Reconciliation $e UN’s 'three pillars of freedom' – Centre. inspiration freedom from want; freedom from fear; Attracting over 300 people, one of the and the freedom to live in dignity were main events was 'Young Film-Makers the principal themes of the 2010 We the Day' at the National Film $eatre. This section of New World will continue Peoples Film Festival. Organised by the Festival organisers worked with NGOs, to feature inspiring stories from our UNA Westminster branch and now in its youth groups and industry profession- members, UNA-UK news and views, and !fth year, the festival remains a highlight als to put together a multi-activity updates on ﬂagship activities. For up-to- in the UNA calendar. programme using three cinemas to date information on membership events Held from 22 November to 2 screen !lms made by young !lm-makers around the UK, and the latest comments December last year, the festival sought to from the UK and around the world. and articles from our members, please mark the UN’s international themes for Workshops o#ered expert guidance on visit our online event calendar and mem- 2010: biodiversity, the rapprochement how to make documentaries and there bers' forum. You can also subscribe for of cultures and youth. Working closely were live video 'link-ups' with young free to our monthly UNA-UK, youth and with UNA youth and student groups, the !lm-makers from the Bayerebon School, young professionals e-newsletters. branch hosted screenings – most followed Ghana and from Soweto, South Africa.

UNA Westminster branch, to the director who "ew in from Spain. www.promofest.org/en/ﬁlms/casta-nano- the-new-indian-middle-class

t'3&&%0.'30.'&"3$"5&(03: – Winner: !e Team – Director: Uduak Isong Oguamonom (Kenya) Following the devastating post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, this TV se- We the Peoples: ries depicts a football team with its own tribal, ethnic and social dimensions. winning !lms $e successful formula has now been copied in several African countries. t#&45'*-.*/'&45*7"- $e award was presented by (also winner of ‘rapprochement of Rahwa Kiros, Director of the Addis cultures’ category) Ababa Film Festival, and received by – Winner: Paradiso Lawrence Kershen QC, Search for Still from ‘Under Rich Earth’ – Director: Alessandro Negrini Common Ground UK, whose US (Northern Ireland) partner !nanced this initiative to- t5)&&/7*30/.&/5$"5&(03: A colourful musical journey following a gether with the UK Department for – Winner: Under Rich Earth group of elderly musicians in Derry who International Development. – Director: Malcolm Rogge (Canada) decide to challenge the ‘fear of the other’ www.sfcg.org/programmes/cgp/the-team.html Ignored by the government and the by getting together after 40 years to or- police, Ecuadorian farmers facing evic- ganise a big night in their old dance hall, t'3&&%0.50-*7&*/%*(/*5: tion due to a mining project face down inviting their old enemies. CATEGORY armed paramilitaries – a poignant tale Alessandro Negrini was present to – Winner: No Sharp Objects of hope and determination. receive his award in person. – Director: Johan Eriksson (UN Relief $e award was accepted by David www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/tv/pro- and Works Agency) Wardrop, UNA Westminster branch, grammes/paradiso Fifteen 15-year-old boys who have on behalf of the director. never left Gaza embark on a remark- http://underrichearth.ryecinema.com t'3&&%0.'30.8"/5$"5&(03: able journey to the US. $ey return – Winner: Casta Nano having made friends and gained a new t:06/('*-..",&3$"5&(03: – Director: Jaime Otero (Spain) perspective on the world. – Winner: War School India’s new middle class is burgeoning, but $e award was presented by – Director: Ben Newman alongside dreams and aspirations there is Vivienne Eka, UNA Westminster Awards were made to the winning also pollution, anarchy and poverty. branch, to the director who was travel- three young !lm-makers and included $e award was presented by Prince ling through London from Norway to authoritative guides on making !lm Mohsin Ali Khan, Vice-President, UNRWA in Jerusalem. documentaries.

28 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | UNA-UK members $e !lm made by the Soweto young- sters, Wembley to Soweto, was screened simultaneously in both locations, followed by a live discussion and joint project planning. Later that evening, the winners of the !rst ever We the Peoples !lm awards were announced. Categories covered development, human security, human rights, the environment, the rapprochement of cultures and youth. Winning directors "ew in from Spain, Norway and Northern Ireland to receive their awards, some stay- ing on to attend the screenings of their !lms. $e category winners are listed on page 28 and on the festival website: www.wethepeoples.org.uk. David Wardrop, Chairman of UNA Westminster branch, who contributed this article, commended everyone who worked on the festival, saying: “we are so lucky to have such brilliant volunteers from UNA and UNYSA branches and elsewhere to curate screenings, assess sub- Harpenden inspired by ‘peace art’ missions, write copy, update the website and so on. Our warm thanks also go to UNA Harpenden branch set up a peace art competition as part of its UN day of the British Universities Television and peace (21 September) celebration. Organised with local primary school children, Video Council for funding the awards, the celebration also featured poems, readings and songs performed by groups from and to Sainsbury’s and the Institute of di#erent schools. $e branch o#ered prizes for art submissions under the theme Development Studies for their contribu- ‘what peace means to me’, and selected some of the paintings to use for the branch tion to the success of the awards ceremo- Christmas cards. $is picture by Aimee Gorman, a 10-year-old pupil at Grove Junior ny. Now we must choose a name for our School, was one of them. 2011 awards and I invite UNA members to suggest one”. MSPs, to NATO and to UN Associations rehearsing their speeches and researching Edinburgh discusses NATO internationally. what their countries think about nuclear Strategic Concept disarmament. With Trident missile sub- Model UNers in Lancaster call for a marines being built in Barrow, it was a 120 people attended UNA Edinburgh’s world without nuclear weapons very topical issue and one which the stu- Still from ‘Under Rich Earth’ one-day conference on ‘$e New NATO dents engaged with to a very high stand- Strategic Concept and Global Zero’. On 7 December 2010, some 20 sixth ard. $e UN wants to hear the views of Sponsored by Malcolm Chisholm MSP, formers participated in a Model UN young people (see page 33) and we will the event was held on 1 November 2010 Security Council conference in Kendal, now send the outcome of their meeting at the Scottish Parliament, and was organised by the UNA South Lakeland to the UN in New York.” chaired by Dr Gari Donn, convenor of & Lancaster City branch. Students took UNA Edinburgh. part in a lively debate on nuclear is- 25 years of Liverpool MUNGAs Expert speakers included Lord sues, culminating in a resolution that Hannay of Chiswick, Chair of UNA- rea%rmed the aim of a world without Enid Lodge, secretary of the UNA UK; Ambassador Kim Traavik, Embassy nuclear weapons and called on the US Liverpool branch, has been working to of Norway; Dana Linnet, Principal and Russia to reduce their ballistic missile engage young people in the UN's work O%cer, US Consulate, Scotland; Dr. capability by half. for over two decades. On 19 November Rebecca Johnson, Executive Director, $e debate was chaired by former 2010, she organised her 25th Model UN Acronym Institute; and Lord Browne Mayor of Kendal John Bateson. Two General Assembly, at which students of Ladyton, convenor of the Top Level students from Queen Elizabeth School, from schools across the region debated Group of UK Parliamentarians for representing Mexico, won 'best team peace, development, human rights and Multilateral Nuclear Non-proliferation performance', while William White, environmental issues. and disarmament (see page 24). from Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Over the years, some 5,000 sixth- $e conference provided a unique op- took the 'best individual speaker' form pupils have bene!tted from Enid's portunity for discussions on the future of prize for his role as the Permanent MUNGAs, gleaning a taste of inter- NATO and global disarmament e#orts. A Representative of Austria. national diplomacy and learning skills report of the conference !ndings is avail- Luckshan Abeysuriya, branch secre- such as research, negotiation and public able from www.edinburghuna.org and tary, said “it was a very important day speaking. $e !rst event was held in was distributed widely, including to all for the students who have spent months 1985 in a lecture hall in St Katherine's

UNA-UK members | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 29 UNA-UK MEMBERS

Councillor Hazel Williams, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, who opened the 2010 conference, presented Enid with a red Lamb Banana and a citation to mark her achievements in the past quarter of a century. Based on a sculpture by Japanese Artist Taro Chiezo commissioned by the city of Liverpool, the Lamb Banana is one of the city’s most recognisable and popular symbols. In addition to MUNGAs, Enid has initiated a range of projects to foster global citizenship, including visits to the European Parliament and the UN O%ce in Geneva, and a !lm production funded in part by the UNA Trust, which saw students from the UK travel to Benin to learn more about Liverpool’s and Benin’s slave trade history. Produced in Enid Lodge (third from right) and her husband posing with a 2007 MUNGA delegation from collaboration with the UK National Sri Lanka. The exchange was arranged by UNA-UK member Fiona Gow (second from right). © UNA Liverpool branch Commission for UNESCO and Anti-Slavery International, the !lm is entitled ‘Following Equiano’ – a Teacher Training College, with students persuaded the City of Liverpool to give freed slave – and can be viewed at from Liverpool. Since then, more and students the experience of real debate. www.una.org.uk/MembersForum more schools have been drawn to these She has also been assiduous in !nding Enid continues to be an active member annual events, with delegations from sources of funding for the conferences, of UNA-UK and of Liverpool UNESCO Knowsley, St Helen's, Sefton and Wirral with the UNA Trust, Liverpool Hope Associated Schools. She is currently now in regular attendance. $e lecture University and the Liverpool Schools' working on a follow-up !lm called ‘Who hall has been replaced by the Town Parliament supporting the MUNGAs in cares about human rights?’ with pupils in Hall and Council Chamber, after Enid recent years. Italy, Sweden and the UK.

A Tribute to Dr Dorothy Eagleson, 1923–2010

Dorothy Eagleson grew up in Belfast A member of UNA Belfast branch in a family that took a keen interest for over 60 years and its Executive in her education. $e Second World Committee for over 50 years, Dorothy War spanned her student days in the served as both Membership Secretary Sixth form at Richmond Lodge School and Honorary Secretary. She carried her and her undergraduate life in Queen’s interest into the other organisations she University, which she entered already belonged to, encouraging Soroptimist of con!dent and independent mind. International and the Queen’s Women’s Dorothy trained as a Youth O%cer Graduate Association in their support but quickly realised that many adults of charities involved in international who had earlier foregone an educa- development work. She set a high value tion were asking for advice on gain- on her work on behalf of the UNA-UK ing quali!cations, careers guidance membership and actively participated in and improving literacy and numeracy the local branches of UNIFEM and the skills. She recognised the need to UNESCO Club. For many years she was provide adults with a range of ser- the main organiser of an annual UN Day vices wider than that set up for young event in Belfast which included all the people and in 1967 she established UN organisations represented in the city. the Educational Guidance Service Dorothy’s valuable contribution to for Adults. $is pioneering work ex- promoting worldwide a#airs within tended beyond Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland will be sadly missed. Dorothy was later a founder member, and the !rst President, of the National Judith Fawcett

Association for Educational Guidance UNA Northern Ireland © UNA Belfast branch for Adults. Representative to the UNA-UK Board

30 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | UNA-UK members Dates for the diary

UNA-UK ‘roadshows’ – help us plan our strategy! UNA-UK 65th policy conference in Cardiff As UNA-UK is approaching the discussion on potential areas of end of the period for its current policy focus. Each event will last We are delighted to announce that the next UNA-UK policy-making strategic objectives, the Board of approximately two hours. conference will take place on Saturday 18 June 2011 at the Temple Directors decided, at its meeting Any member of UNA-UK of Peace in Cardiff. Prior to the conference, on Friday 17 June, on 27 November 2010, to begin can attend a road show event. members have the option to take part in a host of workshops, and developing a new strategic plan Invitations will be sent to each to join UNA-UK's new Chair, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, and Executive to cover the period July 2011 to UNA nation/region/branch and Director, Phil Mulligan, for a buffet dinner and the ever-popular UN June 2015. any UNYSA branches in the quiz. A draft of UNA-UK’s new strategic plan will also be presented. While the ultimate area, and we hope that as many On 18 June, motions submitted by the membership will be debated responsibility for adopting a members as possible take part in in plenary sessions and policy commissions. new strategic plan rests with these events. Venues are being All members should have received the following the Board, it is important that sourced by the nations/regions. enclosures with this issue of New World: a letter of invitation UNA-UK members are involved If you are a member and from Kate Grady, Chair of Conference, a conference booking in its development. Building are not able to attend one of form and a provisional programme. If you have not received on the meetings that UNA-UK the roadshows, you can send this documentation, please contact Rich Nelmes, UNA-UK Executive Director Phil Mulligan us your views by completing Membership Ofﬁcer, on [email protected] or has already held with a number a feedback form, available 020 7766 3456. of branches and regions, the on request by contacting Please refer to the enclosed documents and UNA-UK’s Board approved his proposal to [email protected] or Objects & Rules for details on submitting motions. These hold a series of ‘road shows’ 020 7766 3456. Completed forms are available from www.una.org.uk/conference2011 or by around the country during the should be returned no later than contacting Rich Nelmes using the above details. ﬁrst quarter of 2011 to help 28 February. generate ideas for the new plan. CONFERENCE POLICY-MAKING TIMETABLE: Each road show event will have DATES two key purposes: 15 April 2011 10 June 2011 t'FCSVBSZNorthern Deadline for submission of Deadline for Final Agenda 1 To present to the membership Ireland policy issues and domestic to be circulated, though initial ideas on our vision, t'FCSVBSZ Scotland motions this will likely be sent out mission and approach considerably earlier. t'FCSVBSZLondon 6 May 2011 2 To work with members on & Southeast Deadline for Preliminary 17 June 2011 generating ideas on potential t'FCSVBSZCentral Agenda to be sent out Optional pre-conference areas of policy focus t'FCSVBSZSouthern events 20 May 2011 Counties The format of each event will Deadline for submission of 18 June 2011 be a presentation by UNA-UK t.BSDIEastern comments/amendments to Conference in Temple Executive Director Phil Mulligan, t.BSDIWales the agenda of Peace followed by an interactive

UNA-UK Annual General Meeting The AGM of UNA-UK will take place on 4.30pm at 10 March 2011 2010/11 ‘Outreach Grants’ in The Eastwood Room, The Farmers Club, 3 Whitehall Court, As part of our current membership drive, UNA-UK is delighted London SW1A 2EL. to announce that it has again established a fund to help All paid-up members of UNA-UK are welcome to attend and branches, regions and nations organise activities around the UK. should have received the AGM notice, minutes of the last meeting and ﬁnancial summary with this issue of New World. If you are a Grants of £100-£400 are available for events that will member and have not received the AGM documents, or if you are take place before 30 June 2011. Applications must be unable to attend and would like to submit a proxy voting form, received by 31 March 2011. Full details are available from please visit www.una.org.uk/AGM2011.html or contact Carol Carol Hodson, Deputy Director (Finance and Governance), Hodson on [email protected] or 020 7766 3455. on [email protected] or 020 7766 3455.

UNA-UK members | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 31 Panel discussion at UNA-UK’s youth campaign launch in November 2010. From left to right: Annah O’Akwanu (UNA-UK Youth Council), Andrea Paltzer (UN World Food Programme UK of!ce), Imogen Martineau (UN Environment Programme), Janos Tisovszky (UN Regional Information Centre, Brussels) and Mitali Nikore (UNA-UK Youth Council)

MDG 1 have yielded substantial results, makers. It also includes some frequently with east and south-east Asia, Latin asked questions on the goals, and re"ec- America and the Caribbean, and north tions on criticisms levelled against the UNYSA Africa on track to halve the proportion MDG initiative – for example – that the gets the goals of hungry people by 2015. But sub- goals do not adequately measure the pro- Saharan Africa and south Asia still have gress of certain vulnerable groups, such as a long way to go. When people are the elderly or persons with disabilities. 350 students and members of UNA-UK’s Praising UNYSA’s initiative, Josette youth wing, the UN Youth & Students Praising UNYSA’s Sheeran said “I was impressed by the Association (UNYSA), crammed into the initiative, Josette enormous enthusiasm among students Institute of Education on 23 November for reaching the !rst MDG – what I call 2010 for UNYSA’s campaign launch Sheeran said “I the ‘gateway goal’ because it a#ects all event. Entitled ‘Get the Goals’, UNYSA’s was impressed the others. I really believe your genera- campaign for this academic year focusses tion is the generation to end hunger. $is on the UN Millennium Development by the enormous is possible; this is not something that is Goals (MDGs). enthusiasm among a dream without possibility. It doesn’t At the event, keynote speaker Josette students for reaching require new scienti!c breakthroughs. In Sheeran, head of the UN World Food fact, nation after nation has been defeat- Programme, spoke passionately about the !rst MDG – what ing hunger.” her organisation’s e#orts in helping to I call the ‘gateway meet MDG 1 – eradicating extreme You can download the ‘Get the Goals’ poverty and hunger. $e event also fea- goal’ because it toolkit and view videos and photos of the tured a lively panel discussion with Janos affects all the others” event at www.una.org.uk/youth Tisovszky (UN Regional Information Centre), Imogen Martineau (UN hungry, all other development activities Over the next few months, Environment Programme) and Andrea are thwarted – they can concentrate on the UNYSA Youth Council will be Paltzer (WFP UK o%ce), who answered little other than their next meal – so scaling up its Model UN activities, students’ questions on the MDGs and achieving Goal 1 is vital for the achieve- starting with the re-development working for the UN. ment of all MDGs. of UNA-UK’s MUN portal Globally, one person in seven does UNYSA’s ‘Get the Goals’ campaign (www.una.org.uk/mun) and the not get enough food to be healthy. aims to equip young people in the UK creation of a UK school and Hunger and malnutrition continue to and abroad to take action. A brand new university MUN database. Do be the number one risk to health world- toolkit, produced for the campaign and you know of a MUN society or wide – greater than AIDS, malaria and presented at the launch event, contains conference that is not yet afﬁliated tubercolosis combined – even though a progress report and ‘future forecast’ for to UNA-UK? If so, please contact there is enough food in the world today each goal, along with practical ideas on Rich Nelmes, UNA-UK Membership for everyone to have the nourishment what young people can do to raise aware- Ofﬁcer, on [email protected] they need. International e#orts on ness of the MDGs and lobby decision-

32 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | UNYSA: UNA-UK Youth most vital challenge to peace and security facing your generation?’ Young people Over 900 entries from 90 countries were received via email, post, Facebook challenge the UN and YouTube, including several from UNYSA members in the UK. Questions Security Council to were also put directly to the Security Council by young people from states do more currently represented on the Council. Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, “What does peace and security mean in who chaired the session, said “you have the 21st Century? What about human a stake in our debates every day, but security?” asks Emma from the UK. today you and your generation will have Hani from Lebanon wants to know “if a a voice as well”. dispute was to originate in one genera- In their submissions, UNYSA mem- tion between two nations, how is it that bers focussed on issues ranging from the same dispute ignites a war nearly ethnic cleansing and violence against 50 years after?” Jelena from Serbia and women to the changing nature of con- Alexander from Kenya are worried about "ict and threats to international peace the lack of sustainable energy sources and stemming from poverty, climate change, Young people participate in a UN Security con"ict over resources, while Bashir from resource scarcity and terrorism in all Council youth event entitled ‘Your world, your future: voices of a new generation’. Yemen and Gloria from the Democratic its forms, including cyber-terrorism ©UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras Republic of the Congo (DRC) say all – themes that were echoed by young they want is peace. people from around the world. Several $ese are some of the concerns raised entries, from war-torn and peaceful bers blocked a video about the Lord’s by young people participating in the countries, concentrated on the dire Resistance Army, claiming it reinforced !rst UN Security Council youth event consequences of con"ict for young negative African stereotypes. on 21 December 2010. To mark the people, for example, in the DRC, the Regardless of whether they came from International Year of Youth (August Middle East and Somalia. $e selection rich or developing countries, or from 2010-August 2011), the US Mission of process for submissions to be screened those aged 13 or 21, the overall mes- the UN, which held the Council presi- at the event was not without contro- sage was clear: young people long for dency in December, invited young people versy: France vetoed the screening of a sustainable peace and believe that the from around the world to submit their German submission on nuclear disar- best way to achieve this is by ensuring thoughts on the question ‘what is the mament while African Council mem- the next generation is healthy, educated and has a secure environment in which to develop. 17-year-old Fabiola Estrada from Venezuela summed it up best. In a powerful video submission, she called on Security Council members to “stop !nancing war [and] instead of it, !nance our future’, urging them to exchange a weapon for a smile. During the event, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon spoke movingly about his own youth. “I, too, grew up in war. I, too, saw my village destroyed. $e United Nations helped rebuild my country. It shaped my life.” Like Fabiola, he focussed on sustainable development as a precondition for peace, noting that “every year, the world spends $1.4 tril- lion on weapons. With a fraction of that we could cut poverty, fund schools, provide health care and protect the environment”. Just one year of global military spending could cover the UN’s budget for 732 years. Ban concluded by saying “young people don’t just want talk. At the recent climate change conference in Cancún, a 17-year-old girl wore a t-shirt that read: you have been negotiating my Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, speaking at UNA-UK’s youth campaign launch event ©UNA-UK/Mark Makela whole life – don’t tell me you need more time”. Over to you, world leaders.

UNYSA: UNA-UK Youth | Spring 2011 | NEW WORLD | 33 What qualiﬁcation or experience do you think most helped you to get where you are? My background in international relations, humanitarian law and human rights has certainly been an asset, as have research and analytical writing skills. And continuing education (long distance) on more speci!c skills, such as managing emergency THE YPN INTERVIEW: operations, enabled me to change roles more easily within the organisation. NAME: Marianna Franco Yet, the ‘skill’ that I have found the most useful so far has been, without doubt, curiosity! Whether it is exploring contexts, JOB: Programme Development problems and solutions; listening to people’s needs and ideas; or establishing links with di#erent stakeholders; being passionately Manager, ACTED curious is what continues to drive my personal and professional PLACE OF WORK: development in the humanitarian !eld. Port-au-Prince, Haiti Which posting have you found the most challenging/rewarding? YPN MEMBER SINCE: 2010 A di%cult question! Each setting was unique, and challenging and rewarding at the same time. Working in the !eld is an in- Marianna and a colleague make What do you do at credibly enriching experience. But it can be overwhelming, espe- friends during a !eld visit to Dashti ACTED? cially in remote and/or insecure areas which call for strict security Shor, Afghanistan © Marianna During my four-and-a- protocols. Emergency contexts are highly intense, personally and Franco, 2007 half years at the NGO professionally, 24 hours a day, and you need to be ready as keep- ACTED (Agency for ing a more or less balanced life is very challenging indeed! Technical Cooperation and Development) I have had How would you summarise your year in Haiti? the chance to take on dif- $e !rst two months were incredibly tough: long working hours ferent positions in several in precarious conditions, an extremely complex operating envi- countries. After an intern- ronment and massive urgent needs to respond to. ACTED has ship at the Paris headquar- been present in Haiti since 2004 but our earthquake emergency ters, I began my !rst !eld response required a substantial scale up, operationally and struc- position in Afghanistan, turally. It was an interesting process to be part of and when my starting as a Reporting support mission came to an end, I felt too committed to leave O%cer and later becoming and requested a permanent assignment. Reporting Manager, producing project proposals and reports for My main objective was to contribute to the development of an donors and developing communications strategies. At the end intervention strategy "exible enough to adapt to the changing con- of my two-year assignment there, I was sent to India as Team text and to ensure that a pertinent response was given to evolving Leader of ACTED’s emergency response to the 2008 "oods in needs. We started with emergency distributions of food and non- Bihar. I spent a year in the Middle East as Regional Programme food items; we then ensured access to water and sanitation facilities Development Manager, serving in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and provided quick income-generating opportunities to the most Syria, Iraq and Yemen. vulnerable people. As ACTED is committed to both relief and On 13 January 2010, on return from an exploratory mis- development, strategic discussions quickly turned to long-term sion in Yemen, where thousands of people had been caught up reconstruction e#orts whilst simultaneously planning for shorter- in !ghting between government troops and Al Houti forces, I term needs, such as preparing for the cyclone season. received a call asking me to go on an emergency support mis- 2010 has certainly not been a kind year to Haiti. October saw sion to Haiti, which had just su#ered a devastating earthquake. I a new emergency – a cholera epidemic – spread through the coun- reached Port-au-Prince ten days later and am still based there as try. A couple of weeks later, Hurricane Tomas struck, threatening Programme Development Manager, liaising with the UN, NGOs the 1.2 million Haitians still living in tents. $e year ended with and the donor community, and developing ACTED’s emergency protests and barricades following the disputed elections, which we interventions and longer-term recovery activities. In March I will feared could hinder NGO access to vulnerable communities. be rejoining the Paris headquarters to oversee all ACTED’s coun- Being an aid worker in post-earthquake Haiti is possibly my tries with a focus on linking emergencies to reconstruction and most di%cult assignment to date – my commitment was pushed then development. to the limit. ‘Macro’ needs being met with ‘micro’ solutions make you question humanitarian operations as a whole and your role Wow. That’s some four-and-a-half years. What moti- as an individual within them. But despite all its ups and downs, vates you to keep going? this year has been one of the most interesting experiences I have When you work for such a dynamic NGO you are exposed to had so far. I have !nally found my answers to these questions new challenges on a daily basis and your professional growth is and believe there is still a lot I could do within this !eld. incredible. ACTED is very much !eld-based and relies heavily on young motivated professionals, so your opinions are taken into ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) is a account by senior managers and, providing you demonstrate you non-governmental organisation that supports vulnerable populations can achieve your targets in a qualitative way, you are given the a%ected by war, natural disasters and/or economic and social crises. opportunity to set your own goals. www.acted.org

34 | NEW WORLD | Spring 2011 | YPN: UNA-UK Young Professionals Network Looking for the perfect present? UNA-UK membership – a gift that inspires

UNA-UK gift membership available throughout 2011! Costing just £25 for 12 months, UNA-UK membership lasts all year and can spark a lifetime’s interest in the United Nations.

The gift welcome pack includes: Limited-edition UNA-UK travel card wallet and luggage tag The two latest issues of UNA-UK’s ﬂagship magazine New World A UNA-UK pin badge

Throughout 2011, your chosen recipient will also receive: New World magazine, the UK’s leading source of news and comment on the UN Publications, newsletters and resources Invitations to exclusive UNA-UK events

We can send the gift welcome pack to any address in the UK, either directly to the recipient or to you – in case you want to add a personal message.

UNA-UK membership – a gift that inspires

Visit www.una.org.uk/perfectpresent or contact 020 7766 3456 or [email protected] for a gift form. What’s your new year’s resolution?

UNA!UK

A strong, credible and effective United Nations UNA!UK Help us determine UNA-UK’s policy priorities UNA-UK Conference 2011 | 18 June, Temple of Peace, Cardiff Findwww.una.org.uk out more and register: www.una.org.uk/conference2011