Vienna International Centre
4 April 2007
On 4 April 2007, UNIS Vienna hosted a Students Forum titled "Vienna as a Headquarters of International Organizations: A Hub against Uncivil Society".
This year's forum centred on the UNIS client country Slovenia. The participants were 65 students of International Relations and Security Studies at the University of Ljubljana, with two professors. The delegation was led by Professor Anton Grizold, former Minister of Defence, Republic of Slovenia (2000 - 2004). The Students Forum was Prof. Grizold's second participation in a UNIS event. The concept of the project was initially developed in June 2006, when Prof. Grizold was keynote speaker at the UNIS Public Diplomacy Symposium.
The event was organized in cooperation with the City of Vienna and the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations (Vienna). This year's Students' Forum was part of a series of events in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the UN, making use of the synergy resulting from the Slovene Chairmanship of the Boards of Governors, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Other events in the series included the Public Diplomacy Symposium "Meeting Emerging Security Challenges", held on 14 June 2006 and the forthcoming visit of the United Nations Association (UNA) Slovenia to Vienna headquarters on 20 April 2006. With the City of Vienna, UNIS managed to re-engage a partner that had supported the Students Forum in recent years and which has become a major sponsor of other 2007 events hosted by UNIS. This cooperation allowed UNIS to provide the students not only with the opportunity to participate in the forum at the Vienna International Centre, but also to visit the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) HQ in Vienna.
Programme
In her opening remarks, UNIS Director Nasra Hassan quoted UN Secretary-General Ban, who on his visit to Vienna in February had remarked that Vienna was a very important UN headquarters, which carried out a lot of vital work for the international community, from disarmament and industrialization, to our fight against crime and illegal drugs. Ms. Hassan emphasized that UN headquarters in Vienna, the only in an EU capital, plays a vital role in peace and security issues.
Christian Anderle, representing the City of Vienna, welcomed the students in the name of Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna.
The Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations (Vienna), Ambassador Ernest Petric (former Foreign Minister as well as former Permanent Representative in New York) in his speech encouraged Slovene students to take interest in the United Nations in general, and in the UN headquarters in Vienna in particular. "There is not only New York, but a very important UN centre - number two, perhaps number three - here in Vienna", he said. Amb. Petric outlined Slovenia's active participation in UN and other international organizations, in particular its current chairmanship of the IAEA Board of Governors. He also mentioned the coming Presidency of Slovenia of the European Union in 2008, in which Slovenia would lead EU policy in decisions which also affected the UN. Talking about his role as Chair of the IAEA Board of Governors, Amb. Petric stressed two tasks of the IAEA: "to support", with regard to the peaceful use of nuclear technology, and "to prevent", namely to avoid the abuse of nuclear energy as weapons. In the discussion following his speech, the students mainly raised questions on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues. The discussion was held in English and Slovene. After Amb. Petric's statement, Colonel Valter Vrecar, Defence and Military Attaché of the Republic of Slovenia, spoke briefly on the role of military attachés abroad and emphasized the good relations between Slovenia and Austria.
An IAEA representative gave a briefing on the work of the IAEA, mainly focusing on nuclear non-proliferation. The students' questions following the briefing mainly centred on the differences in commitments of nuclear weapon states as compared to other states that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. There was also discussion about states that are non-signatories of the treaty. The students were especially interested in the capacities and means of the IAEA to carry out its tasks.
Spontaneously invited by Ms. Hassan, Ambassador Walther Lichem, former Head of the Department for International Organisations of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who was in the building for a meeting, joined the Students' Forum and made a statement on intra-societal security. Amb. Lichem, a member of the Slovene ethnic community in Austria, addressed the group in both Slovene language and in German. His remarks were particularly important owing to a series of sensitive issues affecting the Slovene community in Corinthia, in southern Austria, which are being followed closely in Slovenia.
A UNODC terrorism prevention expert briefed the students on the organization's activities in the field of counter-terrorism assistance to UN Member States. The difference between terrorism and freedom fighters, as well as between terrorism and state terrorism resulted in a lively discussion. The students expressed their deep concern on the negative implications of the fight against terrorism on the protection of human rights.
The students also participated in a guided tour of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) and watched the film "Year in Review 2006", providing the participants with an insight into the activities of the UN offices and specialized agencies based in Vienna in particular, as well as with the work of the United Nations in general.
At the event, UNIS Vienna disseminated UN information material to support and encourage the students in their further research on the issues covered. Each participant received a UN folder containing general documents about the UN, as well as publications from IAEA and UNODC. Additionally, Prof. Grizold was provided with several copies of "Basic Facts About the United Nations" for the library at the University of Ljubljana.
