Blog 3

Hey team,

Our team visited the United Nations (UN) Vienna Headquarters and learned a vast amount of information. Our group was fortunate enough to have the former UN Secretary-General (of MacEwan University’s Model UN Club), so our education was incredibly well-rounded and well-informed. There were three topics that we learned about during our visit that we will discuss throughout this blog post.

The main conference room of the United Nations Headquarters at Vienna.

It was interesting to note the importance and innovation of UNO-City. In the 1970’s, when the UN Headquarters in Vienna were founded, employees couldn’t return to the town center of Vienna before the shops closed. The UN uniquely created UNO-City to ensure that the basic needs of all employees were met through shops, entertainment, and hygiene. There are all forms of goods and services available at UNO-City, including a hair salon, travel agency, bank, kindergarten, and grocery store.

The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals for the 2030 Agenda.

Our first lecture was presented by United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), which is the core legal body of the UN for private international trade law. The mandate is for the modernization and harmonization of international trade law. They have three different bodies: the commission, the working groups, and the secretariat. They’re focusing on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 8, 9, and 16.

After our lecture with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it was clear that the goals were climate change, disasters and conflicts, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, resource efficiency, environment under review. They’re also focusing on ecosystem-based adaptation and multilateral environmental agreements. There are five legally binding protocols that are part of national legislation.

Today: visitor. Tomorrow: staff.

We hope your visit to the UN was as exciting for you as it was for us (especially Ashlee - she literally was almost in tears). We pose a question to our readers after attending the lecture with the UNEP: what can Canada do in the mountain region of Alberta/British Columbia to ensure the 2030 Agenda is being met to its fullest capacity?

Wishing you peace, love, and fulfillment of the SDGs,

Ashlee & David