ELSA Delegations and World Forum for Democracy

VALENTIN BADERT

Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences MARIA GAWECKA

ELSA Poland STEPHANIE PAYER

ELSA Austria

ELSA Delegations indeed has a place in the category of the very prestigious projects that ELSA is offering to its members. Even if this project has been running successfully for a long period of time, we always aim to improve ourselves and what we provide. This is why one of the priorities this year had been, for example, to build up on the observership status that we have been having at the United Nations for the past 25 years and develop new opportunities.

We are indeed very proud that this year we had the opportunity to finally be recommended for provisional admittance as an observer NGO at the UNFCCC which inter alia will grant ELSA the opportunity to send Delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) happening for the first time this year at the COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. This is a tremendous opportunity for future ELSA Delegates and a step forward for the ELSA Delegations project and our Association as a whole. Truthfully, participating in COP will give our association additional recognition for the work it has been doing for the past 40 years.

From the internal work point of view, my team and I decided to work on making ELSA Delegations clearer and more transparent. Firstly, by updating our selection criteria to give more certainty to the selection process for our applicants. Secondly, by introducing pre and post- Delegations calls to give the opportunity to adequately discuss with all ELSA Delegates any questions they might have and to use all their feedback to improve the project. This feedback was for example used to update our guidelines and cover the specificities of the online version of our ELSA Delegations, as well as to create a Facebook group for the community of current and former ELSA Delegates. All of this combined is always done with the aim of developing ELSA Delegations to the point where it is recognised and promoted in the Network as a very prestigious opportunity that every member or alumni should go for. Commonly to other areas, our goal this term was also the return to our physical ELSA Delegations at the United Nations and WIPO headquarters. This provided a great experience for our ELSA Delegates to go on-site, like Maria and Stephanie who attended an ELSA Delegations during this year:

“Participating in the WIPO Symposium on Trade Secrets and Innovation as an ELSA Delegate was a great privilege. It was a fantastic opportunity to broaden my horizons on a topic near and dear to my heart. Being on-site in Geneva enabled me to meet experts on the topic, diplomats and my fellow delegates. I would recommend this experience to everyone.” - Maria Gawecka

“After almost 2 years of Online-Delegations, I had the incredible opportunity to be a UN ELSA Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW UN ECOSOC) at the UN Headquarters in NYC. Participating in the Delegation on-site was one of the most enriching experiences in my professional life so far. It was breathtaking to witness international decision-making and to be surrounded by an incredibly inspiring international community. UN ELSA Delegations offer a vast array of main sessions and side events to attend, where you get the chance to interact with internationally renowned experts and diplomats from all around the world.” - Stephanie Payer

Last but not least, we also had the chance to attend once again the World Forum of Democracy, organized by the Council of Europe. This year’s topic was ‘Can Democracy save the environment?’. As Head of Delegation, I had the opportunity to lead our 10 delegates to the World Forum, where we fully dedicated ourselves to actively participating and sharing the ideas promoted as much as possible. This year’s topic aimed at starting a discussion on whether some democratic actions, such as public society debates or the use of people’s freedom of expression, should be the way we deal with climate change. I believe that it was a very insightful opportunity for our ELSA Delegation and we left it with the knowledge of the tools we have at our disposal to start the lead of fighting climate change with the help of our democracies.