It’s been an exciting few weeks at the new UNA Coventry Branch!

Contents

This newsletter contains the following sections

• Steps Towards Formation of UNA Coventry Branch
• First Event and Podcast
• Future Events
• Who Should Lead the United Nations?
• Global Governance and the Future of Democracy
• Surveys
• Campaigns
• Online Discussions
• Sovereignty: What is it and should countries share it?
• UN Drugs Policy: In Need of Reform?
• Newsletter News
• Get Involved

Steps Towards Formation of UNA Coventry Branch

By an amazing co-incidence, for several months both Shagufta Hamid Khan and Philip Brown had been trying to start a branch, without either being aware of what the other was doing! After an introduction thanks to UNA-UK, they finally met up on 29 March and agreed to work together to start the branch. Shagufta’s forte is networking so she was the obvious candidate for the role of Chair. Philip is an author (under the name Wyken Seagrave) and company director, so the role of Secretary and Treasurer were ideal for him. You can read more about them both here.

In order to start a branch the names of six UNA-UK paid-up members who support its creation are required and, again with the support of head office, this list was quickly created and the application to form a branch was submitted. We now eagerly await final comfirmation after the next meeting of the Board.

First Event and Podcast

Philip’s twigglet of the branch ran its first event on 3 March, when Jennifer Philippa Eggert gave a stimulating talk on the subject “Women in ISIS: Victims or Perpetrators?”, which provoked much discussion among the 100 or so members of the audience. Details here.

The event was recorded, and a podcast has been published here.

Future Events

We have booked the following events. More will be added over the weeks and months to come.

To keep up to date visit here.

Who Should Lead the United Nations?

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm 25 May 2016
Room S0.21 University of Warwick
Book here

This event will explore issues related to the “1 For 7 Billion” campaign which aims to find the best possible to replace Ban Ki-moon when his term finishes at the end of 2016.

The speaker will be Kseniya Oksamytna, a sessional lecturer at the University of Warwick. She has a PhD from LUISS Guido Carli and the University of Geneva, completed in the framework of Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate on Globalisation, the EU, and Multilateralism.

Global Governance and the Future of Democracy

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm 11 November 2016
Book here

It has long been recognised that the UN is in need of reform. The veto of the five permanent members of the Security Council and the secretive method of appointing the Secretary-General are only two of the issues which have been raised.

But what reforms are really needed, and what is stopping them from being implemented?

This discussion will focus on how the UN might be taken out of it’s post-World-War model and made fit for the 21st century.

The speaker will be Professor Michael Saward, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. Professor Saward’s key area of research is contemporary democratic theory.

Surveys

We are running surveys which give you a chance to decide what events this branch runs in the future, what questions to put to UN Secretary General candidates, and provide feedback on events you have attended. Please visit here for a full list of active surveys.

Campaigns

We have started a Campaigns section of the website where you can find out more about the campaigns UNA-UK is running. At the moment this focuses on the selection of the next UN Secretary-General.

Online Discussions

We realise that it is not always easy for people to attend a physical event, so we have added on-line forums to our website, where you can discuss topics of interest from the comfort of your own home! The first two topics are

Sovereignty: What is it and should countries share it?

In the lead up to the referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Union, United Nations Association Coventry Branch will be running a discussion on the issue of “Sovereignty: What is it and should countries share it?” We invite you to contribute your thoughts to this forum.

UN Drugs Policy: In Need of Reform?

There will be a 3 day debate in the UN General Assembly from 19 to 21 April 2016 to discuss the UN policy on illegal drugs. This so-called UN General Assembly Special Session UNGASS will be an opportunity to explore the issue of whether the use of drugs should be regarded as a crime to be punished or an illness to be treated. This forum is intended to give UNA supporters the opportunity to discuss this important topic.

Please feel free to contribute to these conversations! Click here a complete list of discussions.

Newsletter News

We have moved the newsletter emailing system from Mailchimp to generate directly from our main website. If you subscribed to the previous newsletter you should ensure that your email client will accept mail from news@unacov.uk

If you have not subscribed please complete the subscription form.

Get Involved

We are looking for more people to join this young dynamic branch and help us organise exciting new events. Visit this page to express your interest and we will contact you.