Competition: Draft a Speech for UN Secretary General
The United Nations Academic Impact
and the Brookings Institution in Washington DC are launching a
global contest for university students, inviting them to imagine a
speech that would be made by the Secretary-General at the opening
of the next session of the General Assembly.
There is today a growing consensus concerning our global
interdependence. Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights enshrines everyone's right to an international order where
the inherent dignity and rights of all are fully realized. What is
less clear is what sort of a global civics is necessary and
feasible for us to navigate this growing interdependence.
University students from around the world are invited to
ponder these vital questions in submissions, in English and
up to 1500 words in length, which address -- in the form of a
draft of the imagined speech by the Secretary-General -- what
responsibilities we can all take on towards people who happen not
to be our compatriots, and what rights we can claim, as we work to
solve global problems together in a shared culture of intellectual
social responsibility.
The competition is open to all students currently enrolled at a
university. Submissions should be sent simultaneously to
academicimpact@un.org and haltinay@brookings.edu by June 15, 2012. Please
put SPEECH COMPETITION in the subject line. Authors of what are
judged to be the top three submissions, at least one of whom will
be from an UNAI member institution, will be invited to New York and
Washington DC to meet with the United Nations Secretary General and
the leadership of the Brookings Institution respectively.
