Working at the U.N. headquarters seems for many a dream. I had a chance to work in New York for a couple of months – and it is exciting but also so different to my field experience. The UN in New York is really about member states. Its the only platform that we have where all states come together and talk. The United Nations came into the existence because peace and stability was thought as the new political order and war was largely considered as illegitimate except when certain criteria in the charter was fulfilled. The objective was to end “the scourge of war” and to regain “faith in fundamental human rights among the 50 nations that signed the charter while Europe was in ashes and large parts of Africa and Asia continued to be under colonial rule by the very nations who signed off. While it has always been criticized, I have also seen the power of it and the powerlessness. The politics of the security council and the failure to come together on core issues, the working together behind the scenes to draft resolutions that advance women’s rights, and countries that speak out when no one else does. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but someone once said, which I believe is true, its the best we got.
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