Students rally for U.N. goals

Students rally for U.N. goals

by Nevada Carney and Rachel Nusbaum
Washington Square News
September 12, 2005

Days before political leaders from 191 countries will meet at the opening of the United Nations World Summit, youth leaders gathered Saturday at the Kimmel Center to discuss the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

The goals - a set of eight U.N. objectives set forth in 2000 that were approved by each nation and are supposed to be met by 2015 - include reducing extreme poverty by half, promoting gender equality and halting the spread of AIDS. The U.N. plans to discuss the goals at the summit, which will be held Wednesday.

More than 550 students from countries around the world - including Trinidad, Ghana and Argentina - participated in the conference. They attended workshops like "Fighting for What's Right," which is about educating and motivating the community to support the goals, and "Messaging 101," in which students discussed effectively communicating with Americans about global development issues.

There was also a fair with tables set up by 35 non-governmental organizations associated with the U.N., where students could speak with representatives about ways to get involved.

"The event couldn't have happened at a better time," said Suzanne DiMaggio, the director of Global Policy Programs at the United Nations Association of the USA, a foreign policy organization and center for policy research.

At the conference, the student leaders signed a petition asking Congress to support recently introduced resolutions affirming United States' support for the goals.

Speakers at the conference said that the United States originally agreed to contribute 0.7 percent of its gross domestic product to the effort, but that it currently only contributes 0.16 percent.

"The goals are ambitious but not impossible," said Gillian Sorenson, the former U.N. assistant secretary general. "All of your governments signed the Millennium Compact. Press them, lean on them - remind them that you vote and that you care."

Saturday's conference was co-sponsored by Global Justice, a group that assists student advocacy organizations, and Americans for Informed Democracy, a group that organizes conferences about global issues.

Speakers at the conference urged participants to educate their home communities about the importance of the goals and to pressure elected officials to hold their governments to their commitments.

"[It was] great information for career connections," NYU junior Laura Kasinof said.

The students who attended did so for a variety of reasons.

Zach Eggleston, a senior at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, said he is an aspiring photojournalist and wanted to see what he could do to help.

Sarah Ihmoud, a senior at Sarah Lawrence University, said she wanted to learn what she could do to "hold the government responsible."

Please note: The NYU Public Health Alliance (not mentioned in the article) was a primary sponsor of this conference.