UNITAR
25 March 2024, New York, USA - UNITAR and Columbia Law School launched the spring 2024 iteration of one of UNITAR´s longest partnership programmes, The Columbia University Law School Series, with the first session titled "Empowering Women in the Peace Process". UNITAR Project Coordinator, Ms Hannah (Athena) Gana opened remarks on behalf of Mr Marco Suazo, Head of the UNITAR Office in New York, with a powerful statement on engaging in discourse and listening to the experiences of women, particularly in spaces predominantly male. Professor Alex Carter, Director of Columbia Law School's Mediation Clinic, began with her remarks on this longstanding series and the fruitful partnership between UNITAR and Columbia Law School. She then proceeded to introduce the Columbia Law School team that will deliver the day's presentation.
UNITAR
The first session of the three-part series saw around 75 participants in person and online, discuss important topics of women empowerment and gender issues. The Columbia Law School team presented slides describing SDG 5 and Resolution 1325 before diving into several real-world case studies on amplifying women's voices and inclusion in diplomatic spaces. The in-person attendees split into groups to discuss several questions on the case studies, while online participants engaged passionately in the chat.
After a short break, the presenters covered several proven methods of promoting inclusion and concluded with an 8-step approach to empowering women in the peace process which combined top-down leadership styles with bottom-up buy-in approaches.
UNITAR
UNITAR