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From left to right: Mr. Christian Strohmann, UNIS Officer-in-Charge, Mr. Bojan Bertoncelj, Chargé d'Affaires a.i. Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations (Vienna), Ms. Martha Villa Godínez, Associate Information Officer, Prof. Anton Grizold and Prof. Bojko Bucar from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia |
VIENNA, 9 May (UN Information Service) -- UNIS Vienna hosted a Students' Forum entitled "The Role of Vienna-based International Organizations as Hub against Uncivil Society". This year's forum focused on the UNIS client country Slovenia. The participants were students of International Relations and Security Studies of the University of Ljubljana. The delegation was led by Professor Anton Grizold, former Minister of Defence, Republic of Slovenia (2000 - 2004). The Students' Forum was Prof. Grizold's fourth participation in a UNIS event.
The event was organized in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations (Vienna). The timing of the event coincided with Slovenia Presidency of the European Union and took place only two weeks after the visit of the UN Secretary-General to Vienna also in the spirit of cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union. The forum is one of two major UNIS events in 2008 focusing on Slovenia along with a visit of the United Nations Association (UNA) Slovenia to UN Vienna headquarters as planned for October 2008. The students also visited the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) during their visit to Vienna.
Programme
In his opening remarks, Christian Strohmann, UNIS Officer-in-Charge, spoke of his experience in Sierra Leone and how it helped him see the direct impact of the work of the United Nations in the context of a beneficiary country which is also achieved through interaction between headquarter organisations such as based in Vienna and missions on the ground. He also recalled the Secretary-General's, statement saying the United Nations could only be as effective as its Member States and emphasizing the role of the EU as driving force among UN members. Christian Strohmann mentioned further that a continuous dialogue with young people belongs to the priorities of the Secretary-General.
Bojan Bertoncelj, Chargé d'Affaires a.i. Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations (Vienna), presented the work of Slovenia as President of the European Union. He said that Slovenia had the lead with regard to EU policy. He also spoke about the United Nations in general and the different organizations based in Vienna. His remarks were held in Slovene.
An IAEA representative gave a briefing on the work of the IAEA, focusing not only on nuclear non-proliferation, but also on sustainable development in fields of energy, environment, health, and agriculture. The students' questions following the briefing focused on the current situation in Iran, North Korea and Syria.
A UNODC crime prevention expert briefed the students on the organization's activities on crime prevention and technical assistance to UN Member States. Questions after the presentation centred on how UNODC determined which countries received technical assistance. The crime prevention expert answered that such assistance was provided based on requests from Member States and only after a needs assessment mission, especially to countries which did not have the means to finance their own crime prevention activities.
The students also participated in a guided tour of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) and watched the documentary "Year in Review 2007", 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. Every participant received a UN folder containing general documents about the UN, as well as specific publications from the IAEA, UNODC and other Vienna-based organisations of the UN.
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