Year in Review by the Director

The Internships

During the COVID pandemic and in the fall, the work of U.N. agencies and government missions surely did not stop. States continued to negotiate policy. The General Assembly rolled on, with its component committee meetings and geopolitical idiosyncrasies. In some ways there were few changes, and, of course, in other ways, the entire period was new and unprecedented.

The College made a decision to suspend the in-person component of the program in late July/early August, when it became clear that Oxy could provide less security for students and faculty. Concurrently, U.N. headquarters suspended much of its on-site operations and generally shifted to remote format. Agency and government mission staff took cues both from the U.N. and from New York City and state public health regulations. In short, Oxy held on as long as it could before closing the door to an in-person experience. When it became clear that there was no safe option on a few fronts, the decision was made to alter the plan. Of course, this was deeply disappointing for all involved.

However, our group of 18 students–the G’20, as they came to be known–dove into their professional experiences with maturity and deep commitment. Many of the students monitored meetings that started at 6 a.m. in California; one student completed her internship from six hours ahead of New York time, working until after midnight each night.

COVID provided, for at least some of the students, an accidental theme across their work. One student designed the official General Assembly face mask for the U.K. mission. Another analyzed data for the United Nations Development Programme’s first publication on COVID and development. Still another reviewed rights of young people in the context of the pandemic for UNICEF.

For some, though, the work remained all about “the regular things” of the General Assembly. They reviewed U.N. budgets, helped craft statements on resolutions, and researched current pressing topics including gender-based violence, the war in Syria and reducing threats in outer space. One student working for the Costa Rican mission supported a campaign for that country’s candidate to the International Criminal Court.

U.N. AGENCIES STUDENTS HIGHLIGHTS

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Trevor Mairs, Olivia Shinners, Amy Kang

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) John Hammer, Hannah Trautwein Support for work on a groundbreaking research project and publication on COVID and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); support for an HIV/AIDS health-based project on decriminalization and strategic litigation and a national review of COVID-related laws. Support for projects related to faith leaders and rights of young people, as well as young people and rights in the context of the pandemic.

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)

UNHCR (The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

UNF (United Nations Foundation) [1]

UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) Adelaide Willis Research on the climate crisis, gender and reproductive rights.

Emma Harwood, Zach Goodwin

Research on humanitarian issues in various regions, with emphasis on Mozambique and Ethiopia; tracking analysis of government missions’ positions on various policies. ´Nina Srdic Hadži-Nešic Intensive monitoring of and reporting on the General Assembly.

Zoobia Jilani Support for development of a training module for mission staff.

DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS STUDENTS HIGHLIGHTS

U.K. Mission

Guatemala Mission

Costa Rica Mission

Maya Angulo, Wafa Abedin, Dylan Jones, Will Canavan Support for coordinating the country mission’s engagement at the GA (work included drafting of statements, communications and media); intensive monitoring of and reporting on Second Committee (economics/finance), Third Committee (human rights and social affairs) and Fifth Committee (U.N. budgets and resources); monitoring of the Security Council.

Darla Chavez Chavez, Madison Taggart Monitoring of and reporting on the GA, with an emphasis on Second and Fourth Committees (special political and decolonization issues and peace and security concerns).

Ashley Aulestia, Ellie Farrin Monitoring of and reporting on the GA, especially Sixth Committee (legal issues) and providing various forms of support for the Costa Rican International Criminal Court candidate.

[1] The U.N. Foundation is not technically a U.N. agency. However, its work is directly connected to U.N. engagement and the content of the internship is completely focused on U.N. proceedings.

Courses/Academics

The program maintained its academic and U.N. focus areas and its high standard of quality courses supplemented the analytical and practical pillars of the U.N. system: human rights, peace and security, and development. Students also analyzed current and historic events and discussed the myriad topics 2020 presented in both academic and more personal contexts. And course content continued to intentionally echo learnings in the U.N. system.

As has been true in the past, students were required to take two classes:

• DWA 401, which is focused on human rights and “unusual entry points” in looking at geopolitics, human rights and the U.N. system. Topics included human rights basic principles, gender and sexuality, and conservative attacks on the U.N. system and on the human rights system itself. COVID/health and racist policing also were theme areas in the semester. Highlights included exploring U.S. engagement in international systems, including decisions to pull out of/withhold funding for various agencies and U.N. projects (i.e., the Human Rights Council, WHO, UNFPA, etc.) and the Pompeo Commission on Inalienable

Rights (the U.S.’ not very veiled policy initiative meant to redefine priority rights areas).

• The overall purpose of DWA 402 was to examine the opportunities in, as well as constraints upon, the collective capacity of international organizations–and the U.N. in particular–to prevent deadly conflict.

The course was structured around conceptual and political issues, the tools and practice of operational prevention, approaches to structural prevention, and the systemic prevention and thematic discussions of the theory and practice of prevention. These had a focus on cross-cutting issues such as gender, transnational organized crime, population and demographic pressures, climate change and migration, and pandemics.

Building Community

It’s worth noting that the program benefited deeply from the assistance of three program assistants, Maya Angulo ’21, Nina ´ Srdic Hadži-Nešic ’21, and Darla Chavez Chavez ’21, during the semester. They helped coordinate various outreach and community-building activities, including producing three newsletters, maintaining the program’s Instagram account, designing a program personalized T-shirt, and hosting a remote Halloween movie and costume night and a T-shirt tie-dying event. They were also invaluable assets for the directors as the eyes and ears of the group.

Guests

The Kahane U.N. Program continued to offer students the opportunity to learn from extraordinary advocates and policymakers who work within or around the U.N. system. Throughout the fall semester we hosted dynamic discussions with:

• Dominique Day, chair of the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Dominique spoke of the inner workings of the U.N. Human Rights Council, particularly with regard to its 2020 discussion on racist policing–a groundbreaking session sparked by global outrage following the murder of George Floyd. She also discussed the ways legacies of colonialism and inequality appear within international governance and the U.N. system. Dominique returned during U.N. Week in a conversation with Victor Madrigal-Borloz (the U.N.’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity) on challenges faced by those who bring progressive agendas into the U.N. system.

• Elizabeth Edelstein, political affairs officer in the Office of the Under Secretary General for Political and

Peace Building Affairs

Elizabeth detailed her field experience serving in South Sudan in U.N. peacekeeping missions and work to address realities such as inter-ethnic tensions and abductions of women. She shared her thoughts about political tensions within the U.N. itself and how these carry over into country-level governance and policy.

• Mariam Jalabi, representative of the Syrian Opposition Coalition to the U.N. and co-founder of the Syrian

Women’s Political Movement

Mariam offered background on the situation in Syria and then discussed current mediation and negotiation efforts between the Opposition Coalition and the current regime. Her work also is centered on highlighting women’s voices about the Syrian conflict and women’s leadership in the quest for peace and political change.

• Marina Kumskova, advocacy officer at the Global Partnership for Prevention of Armed Conflict

Focusing on capacity-building of local and regional peace efforts, Marina explained the vital role of local advocates to redefine power within conflict spaces and to carry out peace-building agendas. She also gave us insight into her previous work with the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF)

• Susana Fried, former UNDP senior gender advisor: HIV/Health and Development Team

Susana provided valuable insight into the development of the Global Commission on the HIV & the Law Project and pioneering publication. She spoke to ways U.N. commissions can bring so-called controversial issues to the table and “elevate them to an international level.” Susana explored human rights issues related to HIV, sex work and, in particular, violations resulting from criminalization of HIV transmission.

After the semester, the U.N. Program continued to coordinate ongoing discussions for our students with:

• Ambassador Harriet Elam Thomas

The program hosted a dynamic conversation in which Oxy President Harry J. Elam, Jr. introduced the former U.S. Ambassador to Senegal (and his aunt), who spoke about her rich experiences in the fields of diplomacy and global engagement. She shared lessons learned in her trajectory from growing up in Boston to holding senior positions representing the U.S. government in posts around the world. Remarkably, this conversation took place on January 6, literally just as the riot at the Capitol in D.C. was taking place.

• Bernadette Meehan, chief international officer for the Obama Foundation

Bernadette shared a bit of her career trajectory in diplomacy under the Obama administration, and then offered students a master class in preparing to be their most effective, mature and professional selves in the future. Among other gems, she flagged the importance of “embracing the red pen” to really learn about writing (“better to do that with professors than with bosses”), and of utilizing the Oxy Hameetman Career Center (“because that might be the last time someone is paid to help you figure out your career”).

The Kahane U.N. Program also organized and co-sponsored a number of campus-wide events during U.N. Week–which really turned out to be U.N. Month in its 2021 remote format. More information about these events can be found on page 7 in Kahane U.N. Program Committee Co-Chair Laura Hebert’s remarks.

• Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General: Stéphane returned as a guest speaker and offered insight into what it requires for the U.N. to “message about” politics every day.

• Victor Madrigal-Borloz and Dominique Day: In this conversation, Dominique, Victor and I focused on the

Human Rights Council and working on our human rights agendas in a context of backlash and attacks on the human rights and U.N. system.

• Jacques Fomerand, assistant director of the Kahane U.N. Program: Jacques recently published his revised Historical Dictionary of Human Rights and shared thoughts about that topic and others regarding the U.N. system.

In addition, students were thrilled to hear from Bill and Elizabeth Kahane a number of times during the year. They both hosted a “fireside chat” (sadly, without the fireside), during which they posed thoughtful and provocative questions to the students and offered advice about moving ahead when times feel stressful. Also, Bill met with students just before graduation to check in and to impart wisdom. Students were so appreciative and genuinely pleased to be able to absorb some of his guidance and generosity.

The Kahane U.N. Program remains vibrant and stable. Our core commitments remain the same and, simultaneously, we look to offer a few enhancements in coming semesters:

The program will strengthen its human rights core alongside other established priorities (conflict/peace/ security and development). The public narrative of the program will offer more emphasis on human rights and social justice, as well as on the humility and responsibility required to ethically engage in U.N. spaces and geopolitics. One goal here is to promote a particular purpose of the program: for students to contribute to (and study) multilateralism and the U.N. system in order to be better global citizens, to be less U.S.-centric in thinking and in policy development, and to understand ourselves and the U.S. government as part of global systems that benefit some but not others. A related objective is to use the U.N. system to create and be effective agents of change.

The program will begin to integrate occasional NGO placements into the roster of host sites where those organizations are doing vibrant work directly related to the U.N. While the large majority of the hosts will remain U.N. agencies and government missions, these NGO placements will fit within the overall vision of the program; will likely focus on the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council; and will be made with the same expectations of supervisors providing a rigorous and rewarding U.N.-related semester for students. Students will have the advantage of learning systems from a civil society standpoint in research and advocacy designed to strengthen U.N. outcomes, programs or policies.

The program also will continue to expose students to workings of the U.N. system (and its concomitant parts) outside of the silo of the U.N. in New York with additional emphasis on the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. This will help to place the New York U.N. dynamics in a wider global context. In addition, this will allow students to develop a broader view of what the U.N. really means and how it functions across place, time and issue.