2014 UNANZ National Conference

Now that I have given a small taste of information on the United Nations and UNANZ, and introduced some ideas of what it's all about, I can get on to the main topic of why I initially created this blog.

On May 9/May 10, a conference is being held in Wellington, New Zealand to address four critical sets of questions that relate to the above title. The conference is being collaboratively organised by the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies, Victoria University's Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, and the United Nations Association of New Zealand. It is the national conference of 2014 for UNANZ.

The questions that the conference will be focusing on are as follows:

1. Global Commons - What is within the "global commons" today? Does it include, for instance, outer space? Is the concept of "planetary boundaries" useful in defining the global commons in a territorial sense?

2. Global Law - Who bears rights an obligations for global commons? what is the current law of the global commons? Is it situated within "the law of nations" or is it situated separate to the law of nation? Are conventions that seek the agreement of an endorsement of some 190 nation-states the best way to govern the global commons into the future?

3. Global Governance - Are current structures adequately governing the global commons? Are their negotiation and decision-making structures appropriate? At what point do the legitimate policies and actions of individual states become the concerns of all?

4. Global Public Goods - Is there need for other forms of global executive action?

Here is the current promotions posters for the Friday and Saturday conference:

Career Opportunities

Before I started work with UNANZ, I used to wonder how one was supposed to establish some sort of a career working for an organisation like the United Nations. Such establishments can seem intimidating and 'out of your league'. But looking through the UNANZ website, I found that there is a useful option on the web page for those who wish to pursue a career with either UNANZ or the UN. For those of you like me who would be interested in a career in New Zealand or possibly overseas working for the United Nations, the UNANZ website offers some guidance and opportunities available.

On the UNANZ website, under the subtitle 'THE UN', there is a list of UN Recruitment Sites which link you to some opportunities available.

- United Nations Careers Website
- International Civil Service Commission
- Volunteer Opportunities

There is also a huge amount of organisations listed on the UNANZ website that are linked to the United Nations and offer those who are interested in getting to know the UN better or are curious about pursuing some sort of a career with the UN. Just some of these organisations include:

- An internship held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York

- The United Nation's Children's Fund UNICEF

- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

- World Health Organisation WHO

There is also a list of organisations that are related to the United Nations. To have a look in more detail at these options including many more that are mentioned on the website, click here -

UN Youth Aotearoa New Zealand

UNANZ also offers something that could be a great stepping stone for keen minds who are looking to possibly pursue a career with the United Nations.





UN Youth NZ offers the chance for young people to get a taste of the United Nations. An example of this is the UN Youth National Council which is the supreme policy-making representative body of National and Regional UN Youth office holders that meets 3-4 times a year around the country. For more information on this, including the current members of the UN Youth NZ National Council, click here.

Here are all of the organisations associated with UN Youth New Zealand.

The Curriculum or the message that is portrayed to youngsters who join UN Youth NZ is about:
-Nurturing Global Citizens
-Understanding International Relations
-Understanding Values
-Equipping young New Zealander's to contribute to their communities
For a detailed look into the curriculum, click here.

UN YOUTH PRESIDENT

-The current UN Youth President for 2014 is Sally Wu

Human Rights

I recently watched a film that has made more of an impact on my thought than just about any other film I have seen before. "12 Years a Slave" is the true and very revealing story of Solomoman Northup, a man who in 1840s America, was kidnapped as a free African American man, and was forced into slavery in the southern states of America where slavery was socially accepted and was a way for the southerners to create their massive plantations that amounted to considerable wealth.

For me, watching this film was a significant reminder for me of the importance of Human Rights, which is something that the United Nations emphasizes as an important aspect of community and society. On the UNANZ website, Human Rights are described as,

"rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible."

Human Rights became official on 10 September, 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly. It was written up as a document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration has 30 articles or statements about human rights and freedoms. For a broad overview of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, click here.

Other Key Human Rights Treaties are:

- 1965 International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination - 1966 International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights - 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights - 1979 Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women - 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment - 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Millenium Development Goals

One of the reasons I have gained a lot of respect for the United Nations as an organisation is because of its humanitarian efforts to build a healthier, safer world society. The United Nations seeks to eradicate poverty in the world as much as it can and to offer assistance with halting the spread of deadly illnesses like the Aids virus and malaria.

Yes, it is easy to sit back and think "I've heard all of this before, everyone says they are going to eradicate poverty and change the world but it never happens."

But to make change happen, small steps must be taken to ensure that things happen efficiently and with a purpose. The United Nations has come up with what is called the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) which are goals set to be hopefully met by 2015. Of course some of the goals can be seen as unrealistic because there is no possible way of, for example, eradicating poverty in the word by next year. However, if you read some of the statistics in the links below, you might just understand why these goals were put into place and better understand why they are important and should be acted upon.

The first goal was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

The second goal was to achieve universal primary education

The third, promote gender equality and empower women

The fourth, reduce child morality

The fifth, improve maternal health

The sixth, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

The seventh, ensure environmental sustainability

And lastly the eighth, develop a global partnership for development

The United Nations

The United Nations organisation was officially set up in 1945 after World War II. 50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the United Nations charter.

The name was originally used by the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations, an organisation which was first brought together during World War I, to promote international cooperation and peace.

More information on the origins of the United Nations can be found here

UNANZ

What this blog is all about...

In 2011, I enrolled myself at Auckland University of Technology to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English + New Media and taking two minors, one being Social Sciences, the other being Creative Writing.

It is 2014 now, and the time has come for me to step it up and apply some of the stuff I have learned from my degree to the real world. In all honesty, its rather intimidating, but still exciting to begin a new challenge and put my knowledge to the test. I am now doing what is called co-operative education. Its sort of like work experience or an internship, except I have to reflect on everything that I have learned throughout the process and present it as an assignment to be able to graduate with my degree. 

That is how I ended up creating this blog. It's part of a project I am working on for my current co-operative education position. I was extremely fortunate to be accepted to do my co-op internship with UNANZ (United Nations Association of New Zealand), an international organisation I am very proud to work with. I met with Graham Hassall the National President who is very wise and was open minded about my position. I am going to be posting to this blog all of what I learn about the United Nations and in particular UNANZ, and will also be attending a conference in May in Wellington on Global Governance, Global Commons, & Global Public Goods: The State of Play. I hope that this blog will be an accessible and interesting read for people of all ages, and hopefully provide some more knowledge for people of how the United Nations affects us. 

I have created this blog as a way of incorporating the English + New Media side of my degree, and also incorporating the Social Sciences side of my degree with the information that I will be posting. This blog will be (hopefully) an interesting look into what UNANZ is all about. I plan to research in to what UNANZ is involved with, how it came to be, and hopefully spark some interest in the United Nations, especially with people around my age group because I believe the United Nations is a very important aspect of our worldwide interconnectedness, even for a little country like New Zealand.
Stay tuned!