30 September 2022, New York, USA – The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) New York Office launched the Fall Global Diplomacy Initiative (GDI) Programme. This programme provides students with practical knowledge and experience of global diplomacy, current global issues and challenges as well as all things United Nations.
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Mr Marco A. Suazo, Head of the UNITAR Office in New York, welcomed the participants and gave a brief about the program objectives focusing on understanding what the United Nations does and its international Agenda. He introduced the professors and panellists who shared their experiences and expertise at the United Nations. He introduced H.E. Ambassador Dr Yuriy Sergeyev (Former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations), Dr Angel Angelov (First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Bulgaria, Former Deputy Permanent Representative of Bulgaria), Ms Jelena Pia-Comella (Former Deputy Executive Director, International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, Former Deputy Permanent Representative of Andorra), Michele Lee Clarke-Ceres ( United Nations Secretary Staff and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Consultant), Cemre Ulker (Human rights expert leading global development initiatives for the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and UN Representative of JWF to the UN DGC) and Ms Larisa Schelkin, (MS PE, MS CS CEO & Founder, Global STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Education Center, Inc. 501(c) (3) non-profit and President, Global STEM Education Consulting, LLC). Before moving on to the panellists, Mr Suazo then gave a brief overview of the GDI agenda and invited all students to introduce themselves and advised them to engage with the panellists
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H.E. Ambassador Dr Yuriy Sergeyev (Former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations) shared his experience as an Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Nations and what he will tackle in his course. He mentioned that the international criminal justice and diplomacy course will focus on geopolitical injustice. For instance, wars, aggressions, human rights and injustice which turns into a crime in genocides and crimes against humanity, economic and environmental crimes all under the concept of criminal justice and how global diplomatic teaching works or does not in forming mutual norms and principles for that issue particularly to maintain international criminal justice. By the end of his course, the students will learn about the answer to why the member states of the United Nations have not been able to prevent all major world conflicts.
Dr Angel Angelov (Consulate General of Bulgaria, Former First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Bulgaria and Deputy Permanent Representative of Bulgaria) shared his experience representing the Bulgarian mission at United Nations focusing on his role at the Security Council. He then tackles the content of his sessions which will include an advanced introduction to the UN system, the main players of the UN sharing his 11 years of experience. Also, he will focus on how the UN react to complex issues in different situations. Dr Angelov will get a better insight into how this complicated system works.
Michele Lee Clarke-Ceres (Trilingual Executive career coach who worked on a city-state on federal level in New York state, United Nations Secretary Staff and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Consultant), started sharing her different experiences on both that connect with the course she provides and how the content will give the students an insight on how to enhance their brand and which strategies and tactics they can use to promote to themselves.
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Cemre Ulker (Human rights expert leading global development initiatives for the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and UN Representative of JWF to the UN DGC with a special focus on monitoring and reporting on civics and political rights violations) During her course, she will unfold the intersectionality between human rights and press freedom focusing on violence against women rights defenders. Then she proceeded with more details about the content with a particular concentration on media literacy.
Furthermore, Ms Larisa Schelkin, MS PE, MS CS CEO & Founder, Global STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Education Center, Inc. 501(c) (3) nonprofit and President, Global STEM Education Consulting, LLC, talked about the evolution of science diplomacy. She talked about the current situation and each individual’s responsibility, the structure of the UN environment. Ms Schelkin mentioned the environment article published by the UN called GEO- 6 and discussed where our planet stands using realistic data points.
Ms Jelena Pia-Comella (Former Deputy Executive Director, International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, Former Deputy Permanent Representative of Andorra), shared her experience as a diplomat representing a small country and being a woman in the multilateral diplomacy in a male-dominated field. She will walk the students through why it matters to develop normative standards at both international and national levels for not only the promotion of human rights, and women's rights but also peace and security in general. She will also touch upon the challenges of having international law violations at the security council. Moving towards the end of the session, Mr Suazo thanked both panellists and students for attending. He then advised students to reach out to the UNITAR team for any assistance or support and look forward for the rest of the programme.