Seventh time lucky?

Hosted by:

The event will start on: Tuesday, 19 April 2011 6:00 PM

And will end on: Tuesday, 19 April 2011 7:30 PM

At The Glover Cottages, Sydney

124 Kent Street , Sydney NSW

02 9247 8504     nswexec@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: nsw   

The United Nations, now in its seventh decade, can claim many achievements but it also has many detractors. Even admirers of the organization admit that its reform process is incomplete. Yet the world depends on its developmental and relief efforts, and the work of its specialist agencies. The UN is the nearest thing we have to a world parliament, and its membership continues to grow.

Non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council, one of which Australia will seek in 2012, are hotly contested. The Australian bid will emphasize our long record of involvement in the UN, our contributions to development, peacekeeping, and disarmament, and the fact that we have not held a seat since 1986. What factors will count against Australia and for our two competitor countries? If Australia succeeds, what contribution can we make to the Security Council?

These and other important issues will be discussed by Alison Broinowski, Richard Woolcott,  and Angela Evans.

Dr Broinowski, a former diplomat, was counsellor at the Australian Mission to the UN in New York in 1989-90 and co-author, with James Wilkinson, of The Third Try: Can the UN Work? (Scribe 2005).

Richard Woolcott AC held positions as Australia's ambassador to Indonesia and The Philippines, as well as High Commissioner to Malaysia, Ghana and Singapore. He was the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations from 1982 to 1988, and served as the President of the United Nations Security Council for Australia's term in November 1985. Dick Woolcott then served as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1988 to 1992. As DFAT Secretary, he was involved in the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and has worked closely with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Australia's bid for a Security Council seat next yerar.

Angela Evans is a research associate at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a former vice-President of the NSW UN Youth Association. In 2010 she completed her BA honours history thesis on Australia’s UN Security Council bids from 1945 to 1972, which was awarded the Sydney University Medal.