Mark Oettinger, Attorney and World Court of Human Rights Design Team Leader, discusses the concept of the World Court of Human Rights (WCHR). The concept was launched in 1947 when the UN was temporarily in Paris and was debating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which passed on December 10, 1948. The UDHR is often viewed as the “Constitution for the World,” having drawn upon concepts from the American “US Constitution” and the French “Rights of Man,” WCHR is viewed as the third leg of the Supranational Courts: ICC, ICJ and WCHR. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, was established by the UN, is not part of the UN System today and pursues criminal prosecution procedures against world leaders who have been charged with committing genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity It is intended to punish. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), one of the six organs of the UN, is a civil court which resolves disputes between and among nations when boundaries or treaties are contested, e.g., fishing rights between the US and Canada.  WCHR’s major purpose is to intercede when major violations of human rights occur, e.g., Russians in Ukraine, Rohingyas in Myanmar, or Uyghurs in China.  Funding for the WCHR is based on the percentage of wealth of an individual state, much as the funding arrangement at the UN today. Discussions are incubating at the UN as to how the WCHR would interact with the UN Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

Dr. Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, is a leader in highlighting this sanitation issue. Generally, humans use the toilet 6 to 8 times a day, however, over 2 billion people of the Earth’s 8 billion population do not have access to safe or sufficient toilet facilities and openly defecate. Two million people die each year from diarrhea. Dr. Sim has collaborated with a wide range of professionals to shine the spotlight on this, at times, sensitive topic by working with Bill Gates, Rotary International and several United Nations agencies. The UN has declared November 19 as World Toilet Day. Goal number 6, of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, has six outcome targets that include: Safe and affordable drinking water; end open defecation and provide access to sanitation, and hygiene, improve water quality, wastewater treatment and safe reuse, increase water-use efficiency and ensure freshwater supplies, implement IWRM, protect and restore water-related ecosystems.  

Steve Killelea, an Australian national, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Charitable Foundation and the Institute for Economics and Peace. He had a successful career as an IT innovator and global philanthropist.  In the pursuit of peace, he launched the Institute for Economics and Peace and the Global Terrorism Index. He has worked closely with Rotary International and the United Nations, two of the premier organizations striving for a more prosperous, equitable and peaceful world.  He maintains that peace is a hard-to-describe transformational concept that can be defined simply as an absence of violence and fear of violence. The economic cost of violence to GDPs around the world is estimated to be in the tens of trillions of dollars.

Examples of the most peaceful countries would include Iceland, some of the Nordic countries and New Zealand. The USA and China are ranked in the mid-range, whereas some of the most violent are Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Jared Yates Sexton is an author whose recent book is: "THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis.” Mr. Sexton is also the host of The Muckrake podcast. The “Midnight Kingdom” starts very early in Western history and delineates how anti-democratic forces blossom and perpetuate lies, myths and rhetoric that protect entrenched power in the West. One major concern is the growing extremism of America’s right-wing and anti-liberal democracy movements, as recently exemplified by the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection that allegedly was invited, incited and partially coordinated by Donald Trump. The cycle of “protecting Western civilization” has continued throughout history and is maintained through oppression by white supremacy and patriarchal control. Additional fuel to exacerbate the problem is provided by extremist so-called news outlets, such as Fox, Newsmax and OAN that are pushing misinformation about the bogus threats of Critical Race Theory and WOKE issues, which are actually benign and non-threatening.

Charles F. “Chic” Dambach, Global Peacebuilder and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, has a wide ranging career that  includes being the former President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, former President of the National Peace Corps Association, and past Chief of Staff for Congressman John Garamendi of California. His memoir, Exhaust the Limits, the Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder, features a lifetime of service and successful initiatives for peace.  Mr. Dambach highlights how peacebuilding is the responsibility of everyone, especially for members of the U.S. Peace Corps, Rotary International and the United Nations. Previously, Mr. Dambach was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and he led a grassroots peacebuilding effort between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1990s.  One hopeful trend today, as opposed to decades ago, is there are diverse educational programs on peacebuilding that are available to the general public so that people can learn helpful techniques to promote peace, and  realize that there are no winners in a war.

John Feffer, author of Splinterlands, and director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, focuses on  policies of the Trump and Biden Administrations. Support for Ukraine is critical to America’s interest. Donald Trump implemented several international policies that adversely affected the USA and endangered the world, such as withdrawing from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord. While the Biden Administration has had more positive policies, it needs to accelerate its efforts to bring Iran into a new nuclear deal, move more quickly to combat climate warming and re-prioritize its policies in dealing with the “international community.” For example, over $100 billion has been spent to support Ukraine, while only $2.5 billion has been dedicated to all of Latin America. Many of the apocalyptic predictions in the dystopian novel Splinterlands are unfolding today where some superpowers have fractured, global temperatures are soaring, the global economy is teetering and violent nationalism is rampant. 

John R. Wilmoth, Director of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division at the United Nations, discusses the role of DESA’s Population Division and the recent “World Social Report 2023: Leaving No One Behind in an Ageing World.”

Some of the findings indicate that people are living longer, for example the approximately 760 million people today above-65 will double by 2050, and the above-80 population will triple by 2050. This “demographic transition” shows a shift to longer lives, fewer births and smaller families. Spectacular improvements in health, survival and reductions in fertility have driven this momentous shift.  The Covid-19 pandemic was detrimental in several ways, especially since life expectancy for the world dropped a precipitous 1.8 years.  A major challenge is the lack of social protections systems that do not exist or are very limited in many countries.  Population aging has been a remarkable success because life expectancies have increased, yet population growth is slowing.

Suzanne Nossel is Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, and a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally. She is the author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. Over her ten-year tenure, she has established a Washington, D.C. office, and overseen groundbreaking work on free expression in Hong Kong and China, Myanmar, Eurasia, and the United States.  She was Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, and a diplomat in the Obama and Clinton administrations, where her work focused on the United Nations. PEN America has been at the forefront of the defense of free expression in the current climate of spreading book bans, classroom gag orders and other attacks on free expression and free speech in education, both K-12 and colleges and universities. PEN America also focuses on suppression of freedoms in Iran and Russia’s attempt to eradicate the Ukrainian culture.  

Lynn Levine Greenky, Associate Teaching Professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, authored “When Freedom Speaks: The Boundaries and the Boundlessness of our First Amendment Right. “Professor Greenky highlights the relationship of the First Amendment to our government, politics, and culture, especially in the areas of book banning, teacher and student speech, campus codes and cancel culture such as undertaken by Florida Governor DeSantis and Critical Race Theory demagogues. She delineates the difference between incitement and advocacy. For example, many of the January 6 insurgents who attacked the Capitol believed the election was stolen and were lied to by Donald Trump who, reportedly, admitted several times he had lost in a fair and free election to Joe Biden. First Amendment protections, freedom of assembly and a free press are critical to democracies that are under siege by anti-democratic forces such as those operating in the US, Brazil, the Philippines, Turkey and Hungary. 

Dr. Chuck Powell is the CEO for Encompassing Leadership Associates, and is a member of the board of the Daisy Alliance which challenges the establishment view that nuclear weapons make the world more secure. Daisy Alliance’s goal is to change the conversation by reframing how nuclear weapons are viewed by both policymakers and the public. Previously, Dr. Powell was in the US Air Force and oversaw up to 150 nuclear warheads. Some of the major questions are do nukes make the world safer, should the US have a “No First Strike” policy and is it effective to invest a minimum of $634 billion over the next ten years to modernize an aging nuclear weapons system, as opposed to reducing nuclear stockpiles? Three of the most important mechanisms to reduce nuclear threats and create a safer world are the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs; the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Olga Tokariuk, an independent journalist, is a fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford, England and a non-resident fellow at CEPA (Center for European Policy Analysis). Her professional interests include international relations and disinformation research. She details how resilient the Ukrainian people and military have been in confronting a more powerful Russian military. The former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin tried to destroy the identity of Ukraine; much the same way Putin is. Putin felt emboldened to invade Ukraine because he received no repercussions for his aggressive behavior in Chechnya, Georgia and the Crimean Peninsula. Major efforts should focus on continuing sanctions and aid, and combatting the propaganda campaign by Putin to use a myriad of disinformation techniques, such as humor, to undermine Ukrainian resistance and Western resolve. The incoming Republican House of Representatives’ leaders have indicated that the US aid will be reduced and there will not be a “blank check” to confront Russian aggression, although no “blank check” currently exists.

Mark D. Walker, a Returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer from Guatemala, is President of Million Mile Walker. His most recent book is “My Saddest Pleasures.” A previous book was titled “Different Latitudes.” Mr. Walker discusses the philosophy of his Million Mile Walker through the celebration of international travel and literature, cross-cultural relationships, overseas development, philanthropy, and social justice. He shares his keen insight into 50-years on the road and some of the most valuable lessons learned. One unique experience was with a group of Rotarians during a coup d-etat in Bolivia. His Rotary coverage illustrates the importance of Rotary International, the United Nations and the US Centers for Disease Control to eradicate the scourge of polio worldwide. Additionally, he features PEN America and the importance of promoting the freedom of the press and our efforts to deal with the growth of the book-banning movement around the country and the world.

Dr. David Marchick, Dean of American University’s Kogod School of Business, hosted the popular Transition Lab podcast addressing presidential changes of power with the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition. His most recent book is: The Peaceful Transfer of Power: An Oral History of America’s Presidential Transitions. The acceptance of the results of a fair, free and democratic election, plus a seamless transition from one administration to the next, is crucial to a functioning and viable democracy. Attacks on democracy have become more prevalent, e.g., Orban in Hungary, Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey, Trump in the US. and Bolsonaro in Brazil, Ken Burns, the famous documentarian, suggested that it has been a miracle for the past 246 years that wthere were peaceful transitions, until the January 6, 2021 insurgency which was invited and incited by Donald Trump. The Presidential Transition Act requires outgoing administrations to pursue a professional transition.

Mark Stoll, a professor of history at Texas Tech University, teaches environmental history and the history of religion. His recent book is an environmental history of capitalism titled: “Profit: An Environmental History.” He explores the Capitalistic System and how it intersects with environmentalism. Over millions of years, Capitalism has evolved through a variety of stages, the last two being industrial and consumer Capitalism. Capitalism has been instrumental in raising the GDP, developing products to enhance longevity and improving the quality of life in most countries over the centuries. The main challenge is that an unbridled form of Capitalism may be at odds with the efforts to combat climate change and preserve the planet for future generations. How can the system be utilized to productively promote sustainability and not destroy the Earth through a series of miscalculations and initiatives that are counterproductive? Some form of Capitalism is pervasive in most economic systems today, so how can it be tweaked to be of greater assistance?

Robert Bilott, an American environmental attorney and author, is known for lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of plaintiffs from West Virginia and has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of dangerous chemicals, especially PFAS. His most recent book is Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont? U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines a host of health effects associated with microscopic PFAS exposure, including cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. This microscopic plastic pollution problem is found in thousands of products distributed worldwide. As with the fossil fuel and tobacco companies, many chemical companies had scientific studies showing the ill-effects of certain plastic pollution, however, that information was often not shared with the public. Mark Ruffalo, renowned actor and activist, portrayed Mr. Bilott in the movie Dark Waters. Last year, the United Nations held a major conference on plastic pollution—as well as several environmental conferences over the decades.

Liz Karan, Project Director of Protecting Ocean life on the High Seas with the Pew Charitable Trusts, highlights the challenges to protect the marine life and water quality in the oceans.  The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Treaty and the International Seabed Authority are the foundations for a comprehensive global approach to preserve biodiversity, prevent pollution and contamination of the oceans. The International Seabed Authority is working to develop the regulations for safe mining the seas to extract valuable ores, such as manganese nodules. Several countries, such as Chile and Costa Rica, are pushing to develop environmental regulations and guideline to prevent environmental disasters. Some countries want to ban deep-sea mining because, if not properly regulated, it can create environmental devastation. Recent United Nations Conferences on oceans and deep-sea mining have contributed to developing these critical guidelines.

Philip Lymbery is Chief Executive of a leading international farm animal welfare organization called Compassion in World Farming. He was appointed an ambassadorial “Champion” for the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021. His most recent book is: “Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future.” Compassion in World Farming strives to reduce the inhumane treatment of animals who are removed from the land and put in factory farms that utilize overcrowded crates or feedlots.  These animals no longer contribute to rejuvenating the soils. If the current depletion continues, it is quite probable that the world will have only 60 more harvests until the soil can no longer provide basic food supplies. Humans can choose to eat more plants, less meat and dairy, and use non-factory farm sources, pasture fed animals, regenerative and organic agriculture.    The recent UN Environmental Conference focused on methane impacts from farming, and the heat, drought and flooding impacts of extreme weather on agriculture.  

Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. The Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) was established to work with and support United Nations member states to negotiate the peaceful uses of weapons of mass destruction to small arms. Currently, nine countries have nuclear weapons.  The risk of accidental or purposeful use of nuclear weapons is the highest it has been since the Korean War. The UN is striving to provide incentives to reduce the nuclear stockpiles, especially since nuclear weapons could destroy life on the planet. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a cornerstone to encourage non-nuclear states to use technology for peaceful purposes and the nuclear powers to reduce their stockpiles. The policy of No First Use has been under discussion for years. In order to reduce the potential nuclear risks, it is critical to involve women and youth in the decision-making process to help solve these thorny problems.

Professor Andrew Koppelman, a John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University, is the author of “Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed.” Libertarianism has deteriorated into a more doctrinaire form as espoused by Ayn Rand or Charles Koch. President Franklin Roosevelt dealt with a stock market collapse, bank failures and high unemployment which are some of the reasons for establishing a social safety net, such as Social Security. Libertarianism argues that people should be unencumbered, and shrinking the size of government and giving tax cuts will be beneficial. The climate crisis and Covid pandemic have proven these concepts inaccurate. Joe Biden has a coherent belief in both a free market and a governmental apparatus to help when the market fails. Donald Trump does not have a fixed philosophy but wants to assist his business colleagues, even if it endangers employees and the public. A balance should be reached between individual freedom and government overreach.

Patrick Sciarratta, President of the Global NGO Executive Committee, discusses how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interface with the United Nations Department of Global Communication regarding issues to eliminate the devastation of war, promote economic and social development and enhance human rights. Many NGOs have Consultative Status at the United Nations with organs such as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). One NGO that has been a major UN partner is Rotary International (RI). In 1987, Rotary invited some UN agencies, namely the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), along with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to form a unique public-private partnership to combat the scourge of polio. Other NGOs such as Kiwanis International and Lions International have collaborated with UN agencies on a wide-range of health and legal problems. Nearly 2,000 NGOs representing faith-based, businesses, environmentalists, labor, human rights, etc. groups are networking with the UN.