Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110227
Author(s):  
Bimbisar Irom
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Emergent Technologies ◽  
The World ◽  
Distant Suffering ◽  
Global North ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Safe Zones ◽  
Crisis Situations

The paper brings together two segments of contemporary humanitarian practice – celebrity advocacy and virtual reality (VR) – in order to more fully comprehend the relationship between emergent technologies and humanitarian advocacy efforts. Numerous VR documentaries intended to immerse audiences into the full experience of “distant suffering” have been crafted for audiences in the global North. Between 2015 and 2019, the United Nations invested in at least 21 VR documentaries covering crisis situations around the world. VR’s popularity is premised on the promise of bringing spectators and “distant sufferers” together through immersive experiences. Performances of humanitarian advocacy use traditional representational tools of Western humanitarian discourse. This leads to the question whether advocacy efforts using immersive VR flatten real and material differences that exist between sufferers and spectators in safe zones through the “illusion of co-suffering”? To what extent do such experiences risk “improper distance” by translating the irreducible alterity of other lives into familiar terms?

The Impact of the United Nations Upon Africa

1978 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Gareau
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Latin America ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
World Organisation

Observers have been intrigued by the relationship which has developed between the United Nations and Africa, a continent that now houses one-third of the membership of the world institution. Investigators have been seduced by subjects such as African frustration with the world organisation,1 African cohesion on Assembly roll-calls,2 African co-operation with Latin America in New York,3 or the impact of Mother Africa's offspring upon the United Nations.4 A few authors have sensed the magnitude of the impact which the world organisation has had upon the continent5, and several have detailed discrete instances of what has happened. What we have not seen is a general assessment of this impact with supporting data. My aim is to fill this gap in the literature, and to determine to what extent the existence of the United Nations has made a difference for Africa.

Nightmare and Noble Dream: The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights

1994 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Susan Marks
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
World Conference ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

The World Conference on Human Rights, which took place in Vienna in June 1993, was convened by the United Nations with three principal aims. The Conference was to evaluate progress made in the field of human rights in the period since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948; to consider the relationship between human rights and other priority concerns of the world community, such as development and democratisation; and to examine ways of strengthening the protection afforded human rights and improving the United Nations' human rights programme. An earlier UN conference on human rights had been held in Teheran in 1968 and the General Assembly decided that, 25 years later, reconsideration was appropriate. This decision, taken in 1989, seemed vindicated as events following the fall of the Berlin Wall opened up new opportunities, as well as new dangers.

CZY ZALEWA NAS FALA PRZEMOCY? POLITYCY I MEDIA VS. DANE STATYSTYCZNE

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Hamer ◽  
Hanna Hamet
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Police Data ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Drugs And Crime

By detailed analyses of Polish and world statistics, the authors search for the answer if in fact,as some politicians and citizens claim, the world and in particular European Union and Polandare overcome by the wave of violence. Data gathered, among others, by Polish Public OpinionResearch Center (CBOS), Eurostat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD), aswell as anthropologists and police, clearly prove the opposite. Scientific comparisons concerningviolence over the centuries show that its scale drastically decreased and the world gets saferwith time. Statistical reports of the United Nations especially clearly indicate European Union(including Poland) as particularly peaceful region against the rest of the world, having the lowestmurder rates. Eurostat data confirm these results, also showing decrease in other crimes overthe years. Polish police data similarly prove existence of this trend and CBOS indicates thatit is reflected in increasing sense of security among Poles. In the second part of the article theauthors explain potential reasons for using such false slogans as “increasing wave of violence” bypoliticians and raising fear in voters as well as psychological mechanisms responsible for theirpotential effectiveness.

A Bifurcated Global Nuclear Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

The very destructiveness of nuclear weapons makes them unusable for ethical and military reasons. The world has placed growing restrictions on the full range of nuclear programs and activities. But with the five NPT nuclear powers failing to eliminate nuclear arsenals, other countries acquiring the bomb, arms control efforts stalled, nuclear risks climbing, and growing awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, the United Nations adopted a new treaty to ban the bomb. Some technical anomalies between the 1968 and 2017 treaties will need to be harmonized and the nuclear-armed states’ rejection of the ban treaty means it will not eliminate any nuclear warheads. However, it will have a significant normative impact in stigmatizing the possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and serve as a tool for civil society to mobilize domestic and world public opinion against the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.

The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Organizational Relationships ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
International Mediation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

The United Nations Secretary-General and the United Nations Security Council spend significant amounts of time on their relationship with each other. They rely on each other for such important activities as peacekeeping, international mediation, and the formulation and application of normative standards in defense of international peace and security—in other words, the executive aspects of the UN’s work. The edited book The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council: A Dynamic Relationship aims to fill an important lacuna in the scholarship on the UN system. Although there exists an impressive body of literature on the development and significance of the Secretariat and the Security Council as separate organs, an important gap remains in our understanding of the interactions between them. Bringing together some of the most prominent authorities on the subject, this volume is the first book-length treatment of this topic. It studies the UN from an innovative angle, creating new insights on the (autonomous) policy-making of international organizations and adding to our understanding of the dynamics of intra-organizational relationships. Within the book, the contributors examine how each Secretary-General interacted with the Security Council, touching upon such issues as the role of personality, the formal and informal infrastructure of the relationship, the selection and appointment processes, as well as the Secretary-General’s threefold role as a crisis manager, administrative manager, and manager of ideas.

The World Economy through the Lens of the United Nations

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The United Nations

This volume documents the intellectual influence of the United Nations through its flagship publication, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) on its seventieth anniversary. Prepared at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and first published in 1948 as the World Economic Report (subsequently renamed the WESS), it is the oldest continuous post-World War II publication of this kind, recording and analysing the performance of the global economy and social development trends, and offering relevant policy recommendations. This volume highlights how well WESS has tracked global economic and social conditions, and how its analyses have influenced and have been influenced by the prevailing discourse over the past seven decades. The volume critically reflects on its policy recommendations and their influence on actual policymaking and the shaping of the world economy. Although world economic and social conditions have changed significantly over the past seven decades and so have the policy recommendations of the Survey, some of its earlier recommendations remain relevant today; recommendations in WESS provided seven decades ago seem remarkably pertinent as the world currently struggles to regain high levels of employment and economic activity. Thus, in many ways, WESS was ahead of the curve on many substantive issues. Publication of this volume will enhance the interest of the wider community of policymakers, academics, development practitioners, and members of civil society in the analytical work of the UN in general and UN-DESA in particular.

Conference on the Role of Industrialisation in Developing Countries

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-442
Author(s):  
Ronald Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

At the fourth Cambridge conference on development problems, the role of industry was discussed by ministers, senior officials, economic advisers, and business executives, from 22 African, Asian, and Caribbean countries, the United Nations, and the World Bank. Have some, if not all, of Africa's new nations now reached the stage when it would pay them to put their biggest bets on quick industrialisation? Or must they go on putting most of their money and brains into bringing about an agricultural revolution first, before striving for industrial take-off? These questions started the conference off on one of its big themes.

UNICEF in Central America

1960 ◽  
Vol 329 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Alice C. Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Central America ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Central American ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Integrated Programs ◽  
Regional Basis ◽  
The United Nations

Central America has been one of the pioneer areas for the United Nations Children's Fund assisted pro grams. When the United Nations Children's Fund, under a broadened mandate from the United Nations, shifted the emphasis of its aid from emergency to long term and from war-torn countries to those economically less developed, Cen tral American governments immediately requested its assist ance to strengthen and extend services to children and mothers. As one of the first areas in the world to aim at the eradication of malaria and to have engaged in an inten sive campaign against malnutrition on a regional basis, the Central American experiences in these fields have become known, watched, and studied by people from many countries. Against this background, international and bilateral organi zations are working together with governments as they broaden the scope and the extent of their programs. Ten years of co-operative action have highlighted the need for train ing of personnel, both professional and auxiliary. This period has also made clear the value of more integrated programs with wider collaboration both within the ministries of government and between the international organizations.

The Future of Human Rights: A View from the United Nations

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Summit ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peace And Development ◽  
Made In

Ever since the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945, human rights have constituted one of its three pillars, along with peace and development. As noted in a dictum coined during the World Summit of 2005: “There can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and neither without respect for human rights.” But while progress has been made in all three domains, it is with respect to human rights that the organization's performance has experienced some of its greatest shortcomings. Not coincidentally, the human rights pillar receives only a fraction of the resources enjoyed by the other two—a mere 3 percent of the general budget.

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