Ambassador Kamal

by Maria Ng
SBU AA E-Zine Editor

The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization with headquarters based in New York , NY . Currently this organization is composed of 192 Member States. The United Nation’s goals include preserving global peace, maintaining equal rights and the equality of nations, and promoting individual human rights and freedoms. These goals must be obtained harmoniously.

The individuals that compose the core of the United Nations are generally people with years of experience in their particular fields. However, some of the staff members have recognized that the future of the UN rests not in their hands, but in those of the younger generation. As a result, The Ambassador’s Club at the United Nations was formed, holding its first conference in 1998.

The Ambassador’s Club is a voluntary association comprised of UN ambassadors and senior UN officials. The purpose of the Ambassador’s Club is to create a better understanding of the United Nations and its programs among students in universities and other research and academic institutions. In order to spread awareness about the UN and its programs, UN ambassadors and senior officials host frequent video conferences and make personal presentations to the involved universities and institutions.

Stony Brook University comprises one of the academic institutions that are currently part of the Ambassador’s Club. Stony Brook University offers a three-credit class, cross-referenced as POL 374/SOC 374, whose curriculum centers around weekly video conferences with Ambassador Kamal, the Former Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations. This unique course allows students to interact with representatives of the UN and provides an opportunity for students to question and discuss current problems, policies and issues in the UN. Ambassador Kamal invites prominent guests based on the current week’s discussion.

One of the discussion sessions held in a Spring 2007 conference dealt with the International Criminal Court. The featured guest was Professor Lee, the Executive Secretary to the International Criminal Court Conference. He was one of the founding members of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC was designed to be a permanent global tribunal founded to ensure the fair prosecution of individuals for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The court is fairly new. It came into effect in 2002 after the required 60 states had ratified the Rome Statute. The Court currently has four pending cases. The ICC was a huge step towards global justice. In contrast to the International Court of Justice, the ICC is compulsory and is not part of the United Nations though it is a product of it. The ICC was a huge accomplishment.

Each of the other featured guests had similar accomplishments.  These individuals included Ambassador Dzundev of Macedonia and Randy Rydell, Senior Political Affairs Officer of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament. These representatives were experts in the discussion topics of diplomacy and disarmament and global security, respectively. Additional conference topics include Human Rights, Environment and Change, and UN Reform. 

The Ambassador’s Club provides a way for individuals to access and question the inner workings of the UN. It offers contact with important United Nations representatives. The Ambassador’s Club offers the first step to solving current international issues by providing its members with a first rate source of information.  

United Nations Associations:
http://www.unausa.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKRI8MPJpF&b=260414

Class Website
http://www.sinc.stonybrook.edu/class/soc401