3 February 2014
2014 Vienna UN Conference: Facing Changing Realities –
The Evolution of UN Policies
By Selda Yuecel
The ACUNS Vienna Annual Conference, which was held from 15 to 17 January 2014 at the Vienna
International Centre, took a closer look at the evolution of UN policies over the past decades. The fifth
annual conference brought together more than 420 diplomats, academics, graduate students and interested
persons from civil society. The Conference with 52 speakers in 11 panels was hosted by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and was sponsored by 27 institutions.
This international gathering looked at a diversity of topics such as the changes in UN drug policies, the
evolution of UNIDO´s emphases, the evolution of UN youth policies, Energy for all and the Environment,
increasing UN interactions with local actors, and also the new humanitarian approach to the abolition of
nuclear weapons. On the third day of the conference, the closing session of the second academic year of the
Regional Academy on the UN (RAUN) together with the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), took
place. This year for the first time, graduate students also made poster presentations on their research related
to the United Nations topics.
In his opening statement, the UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov cited Secretary-General and stated
that "there can be no peace without development, no development without peace. And neither can be
achieved without full respect for human rights and the rule of law." He stressed the importance of achieving
the fundamental goals of the UN, namely to safeguard health, human rights and justice in drugs and crime
policy. Further, he also stated that this included promoting a balanced approach in addressing the world drug
problem, one that focused on drug abuse prevention and treatment, and on promoting alternative livelihoods,
as well as on countering the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
In a further opening statement, the Executive Secretary of Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Lassina Zerbo, spoke about the new operational role that
his organization had assumed in providing monitoring assistance in relation to tsunami warnings. He said
that the key elements to approach are enhanced cooperation through technical workshops, conferences, to
facilitate sharing of information and promoting research. At the opening of the conference, the Deputy
Director General of IAEA, Janice Dunn Lee, reviewed the multiple roles that IAEA was now assuming in
the nuclear field.
Professor Christer Joensson of the Swedish Academy of Science gave an overview of how he saw the UN
opening to civil society and academics in a keynote speech. He said that with globalization, international
organizations (IOs) had become more prominent actors, whose policies had increasingly affected individual
citizens around the world. He discussed that IOs were engaging non-state actors as policy experts, service
providers, compliance watchdogs and stakeholder representatives. In addition, he stated that with limited
resources, IOs had found it useful to benefit from the contributions by these actors.
The first panel on „Changing UN Drug Policies“ chaired by the Director for Operations of UNODC, was
about the expansion of the program, the linkages to organized crime and corruption, and the "balanced"
approach related to prevention, treatment and suppression. Other topics such as the illicit economy of drugs
in Afghanistan, harm reduction strategies as an essential component of an effective drug treatment system
were also discussed. This panel was particularly interesting in view of the recent national decisions to
legalize certain drugs and the increasing levels of the drug trade and consumption that led to many questions
at the end of the panel.
According to the Director of Statistics and Strategic Research Branch of UNIDO, throughout five decades,
the concepts of industrial development and industrial policy have been affected both by the international and
domestic context and by the changes in development theory. This panel reviewed the evolution of the
policies of UNIDO from its establishment to the last General Conference held in Lima, Peru in December
2013. The ambitions and the temperament of the times in the 80's and today regarding the focus on
industrialization and development objectives, as well as future programme of activities for UNIDO were also
discussed.
Another panel chaired by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, together with
the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Vienna, discussed new approaches to
advancing nuclear disarmament by emphasizing the humanitarian and human rights consequences of the use
of nuclear weapons. At the end of this panel the head of Red Cross Austria and the president of International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Austria responded to the messages of the speakers.
States are no longer the only counterparts of UN Agencies. Local actors (cities, regional authorities) and
civil society as well as academic institutions have now been recognized as being crucial by the Secretary
General and most UN organizations for the implementation of programs or "provision of global public
goods". The panel to this topic was chaired by Mr. Miroslav Polzer, the Secretary-General of the
International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global challenges (IAAI). He
stated that UN body cannot reach out to engage every global citizen to contribute to a sustainable future,
therefore new governance models and information techniques are needed.
The panel entitled ‟Energy and Environment” was moderated by Mr. Luis Gomez Echeverri, Senior Advisor
Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Sustainable Energy for All, who started
off with an overview on today’s energy and environmental issues. Mr. Echeverri also started his speech with
the shocking number of more than one billion people, who don’t have access to electricity worldwide. This
subsequent panel involved the head of the Seibersdorf Environment Laboratory, the head of the Soil and
Water Management Section, and the head of the Economics Studies Section in the IAEA and provided an
inter-agency dialogue with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4all) initiative, the
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), and the International Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
On the last day youth policies and practical examples were also presented. The UN Secretary-General's
Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, addressed the conference and stated in his video message that, working
with and for young people is one of the top priorities of UN Secretary-General. Ban Ki-Moon himself
declared that, there is a need to listen to all voices of young people and that there is also a need for special
programs for the youth. As an example, he mentioned the programmes such as the ‟Crowd-Sourcing
Initiative”, ‟Youth Volunteer Program” and the ‟System-Wide Action Plan on Youth”. Additionally, Mr.
Billy Batware, President of the United for Education and Sustainable Futures (UESF) and Coordinator of
RAUN gave a more practical view on the Evolution of Youth Policies and presented a new program called
‟Youth Education Ambassadors” (YEA). He concluded his statement with a quote of Nelson Mandela ‟It
always seems impossible until it’s done”.
After the Youth panel, the participants of the 2013 Regional Academy presented their research papers to
jurors composed of UN staff and professors. The papers ‟Youth and the importance of internet in the light of
post- 2015 sustainable development agenda”; ‟How to overcome the Security Council Deadlock in R2P
Situations” and ‟Sex Trafficking of men: Trapped between crime and stereotypes” were awarded prizes by
the Academic Council. The ACUNS Vienna Annual conference ended with an award ceremony and
afterwards with a social event, where the students from the Regional Academy on UN celebrated together
with the Vienna based volunteers.