8 March HSP Seminar with UN ASG Fabrizio Hochschild

Graduate Program on Human Security, the University of Tokyo, will be hosting a seminar by UN Assistant Secretary-General (Strategic Coordination) Mr. Fabrizio Hochschild on 8 March 2018. He was my boss at the UN-OHCHR, and it will be a good opportunity to hear his view on the prospect of considering human security and the UN in the struggling world, given his broad background in human rights, humanitarian work and peacekeeping/peacebuilding.

13:00-14:20, 8 March 2018 at Komaba campus, the University of Tokyo

Open to public. The seminar is in English. We look forward to seeing you there.

Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA Commissioner-General

Time flies and it has already been a few weeks ago, but I attended a seminar by Mr. Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA Commissioner-General on 25 January 2018. UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) works for 5.6 million Palestinian refugees.

His undeterred passion for what he works for was inspiring. Three points that I took home from what he said.

First, he stated that he refuses, and we should refuse for that matter, anominity of suffering. Suffering is deeply personal and individual.  Removing anonimity is a step to understand what wars do to people.

Second, he called for robustly defending norms and values inherited from World War II. That is the UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Conventions and Refugee Convention. Human rights is under assault not only in the conflict but also in discourse.

Third, he stated that skepticism is the least sophisticated form of surrender. If something is difficult, that is not a reason to stop, but that is the reason that we try.

Thank you very much for inviting me to attend further discussion over reception after the seminar.