The United Nations: Looking Towards the Future From history to the current and future challenges of global governance and law
META-UN launch conference.
The META-UN Global Outreach Project of the 4EU+ university alliance is designed for researchers and students from primarily the social science, humanities and law to enter a science-policy exchange with the UN. The project includes a range of themes from the history and historical heritage of the UN, contemporary challenges to global governance related to policy development and sustainable development goals, and finally discussions about future reform of UN decision-making and international law. META-UN offers a much-needed space for meta-reflection about the UN itself.
META-UN aims to organise scientific and educational meetings between the most prominent scientific experts, junior researchers and students of the 4EU+ university alliance and relevant staff, agencies and institutions of the UN. In this manner, it will be possible to disseminate new scientific and educational results, while at the same time, new research and educational ideas are nurtured relevant to the challenges of the UN. By hosting a continuous science-policy exchange between the 4EU+ alliance and the UN, META-UN thus offers the necessary framework for genuine scientific and policy innovation.
The launch conference of META-UN offers three distinct themes that are highly pertinent to the UN. The conference includes researchers from the eight universities of the 4EU+ alliance, leading academic experts beyond the alliance and UN staff.
The aim is to begin a dialogue about how researchers of the 4EU+ alliance can contribute to and engage with the United Nations and what kind of research and insights the United Nations would find interesting. A second step will be to organise a new seminar/conference in late 2025 or early 2026 that deepens the dialogue and directly works on establishing a permanent science-policy exchange between META UN and the UN.
The conference is open to all interested parties, but a limited number of seats are available. If you want to participate, please contact organizer Morten Rasmussen before 26 January 2025.
Thursday 6 February
| 9:00 - 9:15 | Welcome Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Haakon Ikonomou & Morten Rasmussen |
| 9:15 - 9:45 |
The role of science in multilateralism and common strategies for science-policy engagement Nicolas Seidler, (Geneva Science-Policy Interface) Moderator: Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen) |
| 9:45 - 10:45 |
United Nations: History and Heritage Moderator: Patrick O. Cohr (University of Florence) |
| 10:45 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 - 12:15 |
Everyday histories of the UN Diplomatic Marginality and Influence From the League to the United Nations in the UN Archives Geneva Moderator: Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen) |
| 12:15 - 13:15 | Lunch |
| 13:15 - 13:45 | Presentation of Centre for Digital Humanities & Multilateralism Grégoire Mallard and Davide Rodogno (Geneva Graduate Institute) |
| 13:45 - 14:45 |
United Nations: Architectures of global governance in times of transition Moderator: Louise Dalingwater (Sorbonne) |
| 14:45 - 15:30 |
Towards a new design of global governance? – Part I Challenges of the universal system of forced migrants’ protection - the Global Compacts Moderator: Professor Agata de Laforcade (ISIT-Université de Paris Panthéon Assas)) |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Break |
| 16:00 - 17:00 |
Towards a new design of global governance? – Part II Supporting a wider and more inclusive framework for women's health and wellbeing in the SDGs Global South - a silent majority in the global governance? Moderator: Agata de Laforcade (ISIT-Université de Paris Panthéon Assas)) |
| 17:00 - 18:00 |
Roundtable: 100 Years of Multilateralism - a meta-reflection Moderator: Sandrine Kott (University of Geneva) |
Friday 7 February
| 9:00 - 10:00 |
Keynote: International Courts and the Crisis of Multilateralism: Resilience and Transformation Moderator: Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen) |
| 10:00 - 10:40 |
Is international law on the verge of transformation? – Part I New roles for International Court of Justice in the times of growing maturity of international law |
| 10:40 - 11:00 | Break |
| 11:00 - 11:40 |
Is international law on the verge of transformation? – Part 2 Business and human rights: are soft law instruments suitable to influence business behaviour? - Anton Stefan Zimmermann (University of Heidelberg) Moderator: Dorota Heidrich |
| 11:40 - 12:40 |
Round table: Challenges within the contemporary International Law system - a conversation between the United Nations system and the Academia Moderator: Giovanna Adinolfi (University of Milan) |
| 12:40 - 13:40 | Lunch |
| 13:40 - 14:40 |
Conclusion – Next steps towards establishing a science policy exchange between META UN and the UN Moderator: Haakon Ikonomou |
Steering group
- Chair - Haakon A. Ikonomou - (Director of HUM:global, University of Copenhagen)
- Vice-Chair and Flagship 2 Coordinator - Associate Professor Morten Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen)
- Professor Giovanna Adinolfi (University of Milan)
- Professor Sandrine Kott (University of Geneva)
- Professor Louise Dalingwater (Sorbonne University)
- Professor Anton Stefan Zimmermann (University of Heidelberg)
- Professor Jan Kuklík (Charles University)
- Professor Agata de Laforcade (ISIT-Université de Paris Panthéon Assas))
- Professor Dorota Heidrich (Warsaw University)
4EU+ university participants
- Sambor Grucza, (Vice rector, University of Warsaw and Representative of the Presidency of the 4EU+ alliance)
- Olivier Vincent (University of Geneva)
- Olga Hidalgo-Weber - (University of Geneva)
- Véronique Plata Stenger - (University of Geneva)
- Ludovic Tournès (University of Geneva)
- Patrycja Grzebyk - (Warsaw University)
- Patryk Kugiel - (Warsaw University)
- Justyna Nakonieczna-Bartosiewicz - (Warsaw University)
- Marco Pedrazzi - (University of Milan)
- Mikael Rask Madsen - (University of Copenhagen)
- Marine Pierre (University of Copenhagen)
- Léa Renard (University of Heidelberg)
- Veronika Bílková (Charles University)
- Fabienne El Khoury Lesueur (Sorbonne University)
- Manlio Cinalli - (ISIT-Université de Paris Panthéon Assas/University of Milan)
External researchers
- Alanna O’Malley (University of Leiden)
- Roberto De Vogli (University of Padua)
- Patrick Cohr, (University of Florence)
- Davide Rodogno (Geneva Graduate Institute)
- Grégoire Mallard (Geneva Graduate Institute)
- Nicolas Seidler, (Geneva Science-Policy Interface)
Practioners from the UN system
- Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, UNOG (Institutional Memory Section of the United Nations Library Geneva)
- Francesco Pisano (Director, United Nations Library, Geneva)
- Dorothea Hoehtker (ILO)
- Pierre Sauvé (World Bank)
- Giuseppe Nesi, (UN International Law Commission)
- Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf (Institutional Memory Section of the United Nations Library Geneva)
- Oliver Liang, (Head of the Public and Private Services Unit, International Labour Organisation)
Guests
- Michael Jonas, (Helmut Schmidt Universität, Hamburg)
- Nicol Savinetti, (University of Copenhagen)