"New Zealand at the United Nations"

Friday May 9 was the initial first half of the UNANZ conference, which as mentioned, was held at parliament in the Legislative Council Chamber. To begin, the conference was opened by MP Dr. Kennedy Graham, and then the National President of UNANZ, Graham Hassall. This was when I had to step up my game and snag some quality photos! Graham had told me that he wanted some detailed close up shots, and assured me that no one would be offended if I was blocking their view.

The first speaker for the conference was one of the most interesting in my opinion. Ms Charlotte Darlow is from The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She spoke about how New Zealand has been contributing to the United Nations and the role that is has to play. She also spoke of the chances New Zealand has at gaining a seat on the UN Security Council. New Zealand is up against Italy and Turkey. Even though New Zealand is the smallest out of the 3, Charlotte was confident that New Zealand still had a good chance at gaining a seat because of New Zealand's stability as a country, and its anti-nuclear views which is shared and supported by a lot of other countries in the world.

The second speaker was Rachael Milicich from Statistics New Zealand. Rachael was followed by Col. Martin Dransfield from the New Zealand Defence Force. He spoke about what it means to work as a Peacekeeper for the New Zealand Army. One of the areas he concentrated on was work that NZ Peacekeepers had been doing in Bougainville and East Timor.

The Conference

The day finally arrived when I was to attend the 2014 UNANZ National Conference on 9/10 May. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. The first day was held at the old parliament building, and the second at Victoria University. I was lucky enough to stay with a friend who lives in Wellington Central so I was in walking distance of both Parliament and Victoria.

Even though New Zealand is a small country at the bottom of the Pacific, I was still in awe of the magnificence of Wellington Parliament. The Beehive is a massive building with a strong presence, and the old parliament building is just as impressive. When I arrived, the National President of UNANZ Graham Hassall showed me to the the room where the conference was to be held. It was a grand old room which started filling up with guests at about 9am.

A surprising twist for me was that on the day, it was realized that the photographer for the day had not shown up. It is important to showcase these types of events to put photos in the newsletter and upload pictures to the website, so Graham asked if I could take the photos for the day with his camera. I was more than happy, seeing as I don't have any experience as a photographer! I also took some of my own pictures using my iPhone which I have used for my blog.

Global Public Goods

The next aspect of the conference I want to understand more about is Global Public Goods.

What are Global Public Goods?

The term Global Public Good is hard to define. The best definition is rather vague, but still gives a reasonable idea. A Global Public Good is a "good" that is available on more-or-less worldwide basis. Global Public Goods traditionally have the three following properties:

- Non-Rivalrous: Consumption of this good by anyone does not reduce the quantity available to other agents.
- Non-Excludable: It is impossible to prevent anyone from consuming that good.
- It is available more-or-less worldwide.

According to Kaul, Grundberg and Stern, Global Public Goods have usually consisted of 'Traffic Rules' between countries and border issues such as tariffs. Today, targets such as disease control, pollution reduction, crisis prevention, and harmonized norms and standards are what is considered "important". The reason being enhanced openness, growing systemic risks, and the policy demands of the growing number of transnational actors in both business and civil society. A major reason for the under-provision of this new class of global public goods — we call them global policy outcomes — is that public policy-making has not yet adjusted to present-day realities. There are three major gaps:

- Juristictional Gap: The discrepancy between the global boundaries of today’s major policy concerns and the essentially national boundaries of policy-making.
- Participation Gap: Which results from the fact that we live in a multiactor world but international cooperation is still primarily intergovernmental.
- Incentive Gap: Because moral suasion is not enough for countries to correct their international spillovers or to cooperate for the global public good.

Cooperation is everything when it comes to the continuation of Global Public Goods. And not just cooperation that mistakenly assumes that the sphere of “public” ends at national borders, but cooperation that recognizes that an efficient system of global public policy is a necessary ingredient of an efficient global economy.

Global Governance

The next topic I have looked into is Global Governance, a further issue that will be discussed at the Wellington Conference. Global Governance is concerned with sustainable development. In order to maintain a steady rate at which the world will develop, it is believed by some that in order for this to happen, there must be global governance.

In an article by the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, it is believed that successful global governance has not yet been achieved, however its importance is recognized as the world is becoming more interdependent and there has been an increase in trade and capital flow. The United Nations is an important aspect of inclusive global governance as it is the only universal and inclusive multilateral forum.

Another reason why it is important to recognize the significance of global governance is because of illegal workers due to gaps in global governance which make progress in social development more difficult. This creates weak protection for migrants moving into a new country as well as restricted access to health benefits, agriculture, and other areas.




GOVERNANCE OF THE GLOBAL COMMONS

Stewardship of the global commons cannot be carried out without global governance because the Global Commons are defined as those parts of the planet which fall outside national jurisdiction - for example the oceans, the atmosphere, the Antarctic, and outer space. Science, information, education and peace are also sometimes thought of as global commons. Our planet is facing critical changes to the environment including climate change, the depletion of the ozone layer, and degradation in Antarctica. Without global governance, if business prevails, these problems will likely worsen and will negatively impact the global commons capacity to "provide ecosystem services for human well-being."

A number of treaties have been put in place to help to prevent this happening, as there are those who acknowledge that there is a problem. These include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 and instruments governed by the International Maritime Organization and UNEP’s Regional Seas Conventions to govern the high seas; the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) ensuring the protection of the Antarctica fauna and flora; a multitude of international environmental treaties that administer and protect the atmosphere and deal with the air pollution and atmospheric depletion, like the UNFCCC and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; and the Treaty on Principles governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space.

Global Commons

To gain a better insight into what the May conference in Wellington is about, I looked further into 'Global Commons.'

Global Commons is defined as a term used to describe international, supranational and global resource domains in which common-pool resources are found. The term 'Global Commons' includes earth's natural resources, the atmosphere, outer space, and the northern and southern polar regions, plus possibly cyber space (a new idea).

The 'Commons' is the bounteous inheritance of resources that makes life possible.
The 'Commons' includes: physical, biological, social, intellectual, and cultural dimensions both tangible and intangible.

Much of what adds texture and vitality to life is, in fact, participation in one form or another of the commons. There are essential inter-dependencies among these examples which reflect assets that are collectively shared and must be responsibly stewarded on behalf of succeeding generations.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE:

As the world becomes more inter-connected, Global Governance will increase in relevance to be able to achieve sustainable development. Deepening economic globalization, and increasing migration, trade and capital flows, and climate change and increased activities in the global commons – those resource domains that do not fall within the jurisdiction of any one particular country, and to which all nations have access – make individual States more susceptible to policies adopted by others.

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 -