The Next Page

Our Knowledge Rising series is particularly focused on young activists, knowledge-shapers and change-makers. In this episode, we are joined by young activist and UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, Kartik Sawhney, who shares about his ongoing work in accessibility, education and entrepreneurship. As a disability advocate and technologist, Kartik has worked to redefine the term “impact” in accessibility, empowering other people with disabilities to be successful in their own pursuits in technology and innovation.  A computer science graduate of Stanford University, Kartik co-founded I-Stem (previously called Project StemAccess), which provides technical training, mentorship and hands-on opportunities to people with disabilities around the world. As the first blind student to pursue science education in high school in India, he also advocated for accessible and equitable education for other students with disabilities in the country. He is currently a software engineer/AI scientist at Microsoft where he works with the Cortana Team, the company’s virtual assistant. In this conversation, Kartik shares about his unique activism at the intersection of accessibility, education and entrepreneurship, his personal experience as a blind person, and the important role of multilateralism — at the level of individuals, companies and nations —in the fight for accessibility. Suggesting different ways in which we can all help to make a difference, Kartik emphasises the need to work collectively together to achieve truly transformational impact.  Resources: Podcast transcript: https://bit.ly/2CS0Vjp  Engage with Kartik and the rest of the team at I-Stem: https://www.inclusivestem.org/ More on Kartik: UN Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/kartik-sawhney/ UN Exclusive Interview with Kartik: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/01/exclusive-interview-kartik-sawhney/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartiksawhney Readings: 2015 study on digital capital and its relationship with disabled students: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131514002541 Content: Speakers: Kartik Sawhney Host & Editor/Producer: Karen Lee Images: Medium Blog Recorded & produced by the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

This episode continues our Knowledge Rising series, which is dedicated to conversations with young people – activists, knowledge-makers, change-makers – on their work and their views on the issues they’re passionate about. Today, more than 1 per cent of the world’s population, around 79.5 million people, are displaced. This is according to the latest Global Trends Report by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and is the highest total the Agency has ever seen. But displacement is much more than statistics. In this episode we’re joined by Ahmed M. Badr, one of the UN Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals. He’s a writer, multi-media artist, a social entrepreneur and a former Iraqi refugee. He’s now a graduate of Wesleyan University and the founder of Narratio, a platform for youth empowerment through creative expression. Ahmed shares about his work at Narratio and his interest in the intersection of creativity and youth, particularly youth who’ve been displaced. He underlines the importance of creating spaces for them to tell their own stories, to transcend the circumstances that caused the displacement and to claim their own stories that really move beyond the numbers and the data we often see associated with refugees and displaced persons. Moving forward, he also shares his views on how creativity and multilateralism have much to learn and gain from each other.  Resources Podcast: Resettled, hosted by Ahmed, by VPM (Virginia's NPR and PBS station): http://vpm.org/resettled Podcast: A Way Home Together, Stories of the Human Journey, formerly hosted by Ahmed: http://ahmedmbadr.com/awht-podcast Narratio, a global platform for youth empowerment through creative expression: https://narratio.org/ While The Earth Sleeps We Travel, combining Ahmed's own poetry with the personal narratives and creative contributions of young refugees, available 13 October 2020: https://www.earthsleepswetravel.com/ Find Ahmed at his website: http://ahmedmbadr.com/, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/uBadrand on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mesopotami/   Content: Speaker: Ahmed M. Badr Host & Editor/Producer: Natalie Alexander. Images: Ahmed M. Badr, Edward Grattan and Bob Zurr.  Recorded & produced by the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

  This episode delves into the world of negotiation. As we mark 100 years of multilateralism in Geneva and the UN turns 75, what is the role of negotiation in the multilateral context? For this conversation, we’re joined by Jerome Bellion-Jourdan for an online recording. He’s currently a Senior Fellow at the Global Governance Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and before that he served as the lead EU negotiator on a range of thematic issues such as Business and Human Rights as well as country situations in the UN Human Rights Council for almost 9 years. In this conversation, he shares insights into negotiating at the multilateral level, but also some opportunities he sees for change and evolution in the practice of negotiation to address global challenges. He is currently working to explore the potential for an initiative which would provide the space to experiment new formats of negotiations with notably the use of technology to make them more inclusive, and to foster negotiations towards the greater good. He is supported by a team of individuals from international organisations, governments, business, civil society and others contributing pro bono to prepare for a first experiment of a “virtual and inclusive negotiation for the world after COVID-19”. He also shares on some tips on how we can all bring more inclusive conversations and negotiations into our own fields and daily lives. Here below are some resources from the conversation and more.  Resources on the project for an international negotiation platform (Global Governance Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva) Exploring the potential for an international negotiation platform (including access to a survey for listeners interested to complete) https://graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/exploring-potential-international-negotiation-platform Preparation for the experiment of "a virtual and inclusive for the world after the COVID-19 outbreak": see more at the Blog & LinkedIn page to contact Jerome Bellion-Jourdan. Readings: Multilateralism: the Anatomy of an Institution, by John G. Ruggie. International Organization, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 561-598 https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/john-ruggie/files/multilateralism.pdf Getting to Yes with Yourself (and other Worthy Opponents), by William Ury. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015, 256p. https://www.williamury.com/books/getting-to-yes-with-yourself/ The UN Human Rights Council. A Practical Anatomy, by Eric Tistounet. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020, 384p. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the-un-human-rights-council-9781789907933.html Content: Speaker: Jerome Bellion-Jourdan. Host & Editor/Producer: Natalie Alexander. Images: UN Geneva Library & Archives, Jerome Bellion-Jourdan. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.  

This episode begins a new series on the podcast called Knowledge Rising, which is dedicated to speaking with young activists, knowledge-shapers and knowledge-makers, in order to hear their own insights on the global issues they’re working on and are passionate about. The series is a space to build our understanding collectively about how we can act on the issues that affect our common future. We kick off with a conversation on the global impact of what we wear: the fashion and apparel industry. Holly Syrett (Senior Sustainability Manager at the Global Fashion Agenda) and Colette Grosscurt (a Responsible Investment Officer at ACTIAM) are based in Amsterdam and are dedicating a lot of their work to helping change the fashion industry to a more sustainable one. They’re both part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers community, a network of young people driving action and change on global challenges. They together co-founded the initiative called Shaping Fashion, and in this conversation share their own insights into this industry, which accounts for at least 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse emissions among other impacts on the environment, labor rights and gender equality. They also share what is needed to bring about change globally through multilateral efforts, but also what we can all do to act now by choosing more consciously what we wear. Further Resources: The Shaping Fashion initiative: https://www.weforum.org/projects/shaping-fashion & https://www.globalshapers.org/impact/shaping-fashion Two 2020 collective action projects supported by Shaping Fashion: Slow Fashion Season: https://collaction.org/projects/slow-fashion-season-2020/174/details Closet Mass Index: https://dirtylaundryamfi.wixsite.com/mysite The NGO Fashion Revolution: https://www.fashionrevolution.org Fashion for Good initiative: https://fashionforgood.com Good on You, a resource for rating brands on sustainability and ethical production:: https://goodonyou.eco ACT, the first global commitment on living wages in the garment, textile and footwear industry: https://actonlivingwages.com New Standard Institute: https://www.newstandardinstitute.org/ The Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/sectoral-engagement/global-climate-action-in-fashion/about-the-fashion-industry-charter-for-climate-action The UN Fashion Alliance: https://unfashionalliance.org/ Content: Speakers: Holly Syrett and Colette Grosscurt. Host & Editor/Producer: Natalie Alexander. Images: Holly Syrett and Colette Grosscurt/Shaping Fashion. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

This episode brings a conversation on peace: how is it defined and achieved in communities and societies, and how does it stick?  UN Geneva Library & Archives Director Francesco Pisano speaks with Scott Weber, the president of Interpeace. Interpeace was originally founded in 1994 by the United Nations, but as it evolved became an independent non-governmental organization in 2000, with continued strong links with the UN.    Scott has dedicated his career to supporting people in many parts of the world to build peace for themselves. You'll hear his insights into what he sees as vital to measure and to focus on as communities seek to build peace amid conflict and after conflict; what he thinks are some key challenges in current peacemaking and peace-building; and some ways in which Interpeace is framing peace processes and tools in different ways, and building on the knowledge and resilience of communities.  Interpeace Resources  To learn more about Interpeace, visit their website: https://www.interpeace.org/ and follow Scott Weber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Scott_M_Weber   Library & Archives Resources  You can also visit our dedicated Research Guide on Peace: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/peace or our more specific Research Guide on Women and Global Diplomacy: From Peace Movements to the United Nations: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/womendiplomacy/peace   Content: Speakers: Scott Weber & Francesco Pisano. Host & Editor/Producer: Natalie Alexander. Image: Interpeace. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

Pour marquer la Journée internationale du multilatéralisme et de la diplomatie au service de la paix (24 avril) et le lancement du nouveau site Web de l'ONU à Genève, le Service de l’information des Nations Unies à Genève présente son nouveau journal radio « ONU Info Genève ». Tous les vendredis sur le site web de l’ONU à Genève, retrouvez l’essentiel de l’actualité de la semaine du Palais des Nations et de la Genève internationale alimentée par nos journalistes. Au menu de cette première édition: La Directrice Générale des Nations Unies à Genève, Tatiana Valovaya, qui évoque les deux événements liés à la Journée internationale du multilatéralisme et de la diplomatie au service de la paix. Les conséquences potentiellement désastreuses du Covid-19 sur la sécurité alimentaire. Le Covid-19 ne doit pas éclipser la lutte contre les changements climatiques.

Welcome to The Next Page, the podcast of the UN Geneva Library & Archives. Episode 24 brings a conversation on two subjects that are also interconnected: social justice and leadership, especially women in leadership. We’re joined by Caroline Kende-Robb, who currently serves as a Senior Advisor at the African Center for Economic Transformation. Before that, she held a range of roles including as the Secretary General of CARE International, the Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel, and roles at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and in The Gambia in the field of community development. Caroline has dedicated much of her life to fighting social injustice and to supporting women in leadership. In this conversation, she shares with UN Geneva Library & Archives Director Francesco Pisano her experiences and her knowledge about these ideas, especially as they relate to our changing world. You’ll also hear stories from her time working in these different organisations, as well as how she sees leadership, including women in leadership, as we continue to question, debate and explore the idea of leadership today and in the future. Resources To learn more about Caroline and her work, follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKende.  Find out about Yuvel Noah Harrari's books, mentioned by Caroline: https://www.ynharari.com To learn more about the African Progress Panel and their reports, visit: http://www.africaprogresspanel.org/ & https://twitter.com/africaprogress Library Resources Check out the Library Resource Guide on Women & Gender Equality: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/gender and Women & Global Diplomacy: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/womendiplomacy.  Content: Speakers: Caroline-Kende Robb & Francesco Pisano. Host & Editor/Producer: Natalie Alexander. Image: Caroline Kende-Robb. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

Welcome to Episode 23 of The Next Page podcast. In this episode, UN Library & Archives Geneva Director Francesco Pisano speaks with Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This conversation will take you on a deeper look into the ICRC, established more than a century ago. Peter Maurer shares about its identities that have developed over time, and gives insights into its connection with the United Nations; the role of young people in the work of the organisation; the value of new ways of thinking and mobilising resources to ensure work that has impact; and what multilateralism means for the ICRC in practice today and in the future. As this episode is recorded online, as we together respond to the pandemic of COVID-19, he also shares what the ICRC is doing and learning from this current situation.  ICRC Resources To learn more about Peter Maurer and the work of the ICRC, head to: https://www.icrc.org/en/person/peter-maurer and https://www.icrc.org/en/who-we-are.   You can also keep up-to-date via Twitter: https://twitter.com/PMaurerICRC and https://twitter.com/ICRC.   In addition, learn more about the Geneva Conventions: https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions, and the book A Memory of Solferino by Henri Dunant: https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/0361-memory-solferino.  Library Resources To explore the Library's online collection on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), visit here: https://tinyurl.com/oaihl20  or take a  look at the Library's selection of resources on IHL from our collections (print and online) for the last 10 years: https://tinyurl.com/ihl201020 Content: Speakers: Peter Maurer & Francesco Pisano. Host: Natalie Alexander. Editor & Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander. Image: International Committee of the Red Cross. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

Welcome to Episode 22, featuring Glenda Sluga, Professor of International History at the University of Sydney. She's the author of the book Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, among other publications, and her research interests span from nationalism and internationalisms, to global and international history, diplomatic history, women and gender, peacemaking, and more.   She visited the Library recently for a debate on the Evolution of Multilateralism, Perspectives from the Global South. We have a video recording of that Library Talk if you’d like to check it out. We also invited her for a conversation on the podcast, where she shares her thoughts on the meanings of multilateralism and internationalism. What are the differences and connections between the two, and why is this important? We also look at her views on how multilateralism has evolved over the past century, how it’s impacted such areas as gender equality, and also how multilateralism is linked to our everyday lives and our understanding of our place in the world.   To explore more resources, head to the links below:  UN Geneva Library & Archives Library Talk on the Evolution of Multilateralism: Perspectives from the Global South: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itLGwAtmyZk&list=PLmzrhlc0gF6KfnUyPYsCw5RfJj_UuXydp&index=6   Follow Glenda Sluga on Twitter through the Laureate Research Program on International History account: https://twitter.com/IntHist  Learn about the Edith Trilogy of novels by Frank Moorehouse, a fictional series set at the time of the League of Nations: https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2011/10/05/frank-moorhouse-author-of-the-edith-trilogy-grand-days-dark-palace-and-now-cold-light-answers-ten-terrifying-questions/   Visit our website on the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva: https://multilateralism100.unog.ch/ Content: Speaker: Glenda Sluga Host: Natalie Alexander. Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander. Image: University of Sydney.  Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.  

In Episode 21, our podcast guest brings you ideas from the perspective of a diplomat. The UN Geneva Library & Archives Director, Francesco Pisano, sits down with Jivan Gjorgjinski, a diplomat who served for 3 years in Geneva as Head (chargé d'affaires) of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of North Macedonia to the UN in Geneva from June 2016 to July 2019.    In this discussion, he shares what it was like working in multilateral diplomacy in Geneva, and what this means in action, giving particular highlights from two key experiences: chairing the 2018 Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and the 2019 CCW GG on LAWS, or the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems.   He explains more about these legal instruments and why they are key examples of multilateralism in action. He also looks at some critical questions: the role of small-state diplomats in the UN, the role of and opportunity for small states in multilateralism, and how diversity, creativity, and finding common ground come into play in multilateralism.  You’ll even hear a bit about why we should be more like a sci-fi series you might know well!   To follow Jivan Gjorgjinski on Twitter, head here: https://twitter.com/jivan_gj  You can also find out more about the Biological Weapons Convention: https://bit.ly/2VPkiRf and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: https://bit.ly/2VPkiRf at the UN Geneva website.  We also have Library Research Guides on Biological Weapons & Chemical Weapons, check them out here as part of the Disarmament series: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/?b=s.  Content: Speakers: Jivan Gjorgjinski & Francesco Pisano. Host: Natalie Alexander. Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander. Image: Jivan Gjorgjinski. Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.