ILO Campaigns to End Bullying in the Workplace | UNESCO Celebrates Press Freedom | Week in Review: Macron and Lula Ruffle Feathers | Weekend Travel Edition: Bourgogne and Beaune
UNESCO World Press Freedom Day | Brazil and France's call for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine
This week we cover the venture capital firm Speedinvest and their energy transition investments, UNESCO and their call for consultations for the Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms, and ILO campaigns to end bullying in the workplace.
We will also start to cover more venture capital firms that are investing on social impact technologies to address the energy transition, the green transition.
UNESCO celebrates World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd.
Check below the events and panel discussions that you can join online.
Labour Day marks the start of the Summer in the US, with barbecues and garden parties, and the day to protest in France. :-) Not really, the Writers Guild of America is also planning striking today.
ILO Launches campaign to end bullying at the workplace. Scroll down for more.
Then there is Bourgogne. To celebrate those who labor in agriculture. Our Weekend Edition covers a winery near Beaune that is turning 100% organic and sustainable.
Generative AI Panel
San Francisco Press Club
Microsoft, in partnership with the San Francisco Press Club, convened a panel of Bay Area tech journalists that cover and employ AI in their reporting.
Presented by Microsoft
The World Needs Cybersecurity Experts
Microsoft Expands Training Programs for Women in 28 Countries
Learn more about Microsoft’s engagement with the UN here.
Arrivals and Departures
Meet the newly appointed head of the UN News and Media Division at the Department of Global Communications at the UN in New York, Phillip Ian.
He was international news director at AP, and a war correspondent.
Quote of the Week
“Green growth won’t get us out of the ecological catastrophe we face. Sufficiency for all, not accumulated wealth for a few.” President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins
1 May
International Labour Organisation
ILO Celebrating Labour Day
Campaign to end bullying and harassment at work
The impact of violence and harassment in the workplace is devastating and long-lasting. By ratifying ILO Convention 190, we can take a step towards creating a safe and healthy world of work, free from fear & intimidation. Spread the word.
ILO Official Meetings Agenda 2023 here. Some are public. Some are online.
Tags: decent work, conventions, workers rights, social justice, occupational safety and health, Director-General, Labour Day, ILO, International Labour Organisation
Related content:
Watch the launch of the 2022 World Social Protection Report
Venture Capital
Emerging Tech and Social Impact Investing
The UN Brief focuses on covering multilateral issues from the prism of new and emerging tech as well as the digital transformation of multilateral organisations.
We cover the OECD, the European Commission, the IMF, World Bank, the UN and its specialised agencies, funds and institutes, such as UNESCO, UNDP, ILO, WMO, UNICEF, ITU, UNIDIR, UNFPA, and other bodies in the UN system including the WTO.
Because our focus on covering these organisations is on issues of sustainability, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, that are addressed by new and emerging technologies, we interview founders, startups, and investors in the innovation and sustainable development ecosystem.
We have launched a series of interviews on founders and venture capital firms that focus on climate tech, AI/ML, energy, green transition, and social impact.
Listen to my interview with Peet Denny, Founding Partner at Climate VC, a climate-focused VC firm based in the UK. We spoke via Zoom about one of the companies they have invested on, Global OTEC, that is delivering ocean thermal energy conversion technology to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and LDCs.
On the spotlight São Tomé and Príncipe, in West Africa.
SPEEDINVEST, Vienna
We interviewed Daniel Keiper-Knorr, founding partner of Speedinvest, a venture capital firm based in Vienna, Austria, that focuses on green investing too.
Listen
Watch
Related content:
Interview with Jon von Tetzchner, the co-founder and CEO of Vivaldi, a browser that is keeping your data private. He was at CES and spoke about the automotive industry shift to EVs and how Vivaldi is working with Renault and other car manufacturers.
European Union
Portugal
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal Joao Gomes Cravinho analysis of Lula’s comments on the engagement of a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.
European Parliament
European parliamentarians comment on Macron’s voicing its reticence on the strategic decisions to address the end the war in Ukraine. France24.
UNESCO
World Press Freedom Day
To mark the 30th Anniversary of World Press Freedom Day a panel with USAID Samantha Powers and Felipe Neto will take place in New York on the 2 May.
A number of events around the world will take place, check here to sign-up.
Watch Guilherme Canela, Chief of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists section at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, speak about how UNESCO supports freedom of expression and safety of journalists through their programs and policies.
3 May
It is The UN Brief Anniversary (Happy Birthday to me!)
The case for the UN, that is what The UN Brief means, as in “if the UN did not exist we would have invented it along similar lines”. A brief is lawyer-speak for a case. It is not in brief, not brief, but a case, the UN case, making a case for the UN. Got it? It is THE UN Brief, not the UN Brief, Foreign Affairs journal already has a section called that way.
Then there is the UN Dispatch, the UN Times, and others. We wanted something even shorter like The Case, or The Brief, but alas, the URL was already taken. If you come up with something snappier and shorter please send us. We will credit you for it!
This coming 3rd May is World Press Freedom Day, it is also the day I started The UN Brief, to cover multilateral issues, organisations, the digital transformation of diplomacy, and the impact of new and emerging technologies on the work of the UN, the EU, OECD, and other multilateral bodies.
I started my career as a journalist in 1980 when I worked for the Brazilian government national news network, then called Radiobrás (now ECB) at one of their shortwave stations in Brasilia, Amazonia Radio, that broadcasts to the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, in Brazil. Those were interesting times. Competing for the airwaves.
I then left journalism and embarked on a career in the performing arts, to return to journalism years later, joining Bloomberg TV covering consumer and health tech, and business, then I joined UN Radio (after a passing, with flying colours, a test reading copy with names of ministers and heads of state that were real tongue trippers) at UN headquarters, where I produced the UN Radio Portuguese Language daily news bulletins and website updates. Our daily news bulletins were distributed to more than 100 partner stations in Brazil, Portugal and all Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and Asia. Radio France International and BBC World also aired my stories daily.
I graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Political Science. I had a broad education on news media, writing, policy, history of diplomacy, international affairs, art history and comparative politics. Then came another detour through the private sector working on press relations for tech companies, where I coordinate product launches on multiple Latin American countries and Europe.
But my training as a journalist came much earlier, with my father, Ayrton Fagundes, who was the bureau chief of Jornal do Comercio in Brasilia, Brazil. He was a well-respected news anchor, columnist, and award-winning journalist.
I own everything I know about the news business from my father, from deontology to journalistic integrity when working with sources and sensitive matters, and the reason why journalism is a pillar of advanced, well-functioning democracies.
Thank you for your support and spread the word!
To celebrate we are offering a super sale, subscribe for a year for only 80 CHF.
UNESCO
CALL FOR INPUT
Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms
Source: UNESCO
UNESCO is engaged in a series of consultations to develop a set of draft global guidelines for regulating digital platforms, to safeguard freedom of expression and access to information.
These guidelines focus on the structures and processes needed to ensure users have a safer and more critical interaction with online content, to simultaneously support freedom of expression and the availability of accurate and reliable information in the public sphere.
UNESCO’s Internet For Trust Conference (21-23 February 2023) brought together 4,300 participants to discuss the guidelines and gain further insights from the various stakeholders. UNESCO will be undertaking further consultations to finalize the Guidelines in the months following the conference.
How to engage in this stage of consultation?
UNESCO is organizing two virtual consultations to collect inputs on Draft 3.0. You can register to participate in any of these open consultations through the links below:
May 10th from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm in Paris time (UTC+2)
May 15th 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm in Paris time (UTC+2)
WEEK AHEAD
New York
Switzerland presides the UN Security Council in May
Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations is the President of the Security Council for the month of May.
GA: High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development
The High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development (HLD-FFD) is the main platform for reviewing and monitoring the financing and means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The Permanent Representatives of South Africa and Luxembourg to the UN will hold a consultation with Member States regarding the possible scope, format and programme of the dialogue.
The question of safe refuge for journalists at risk
A total of 67 journalists were killed in 2022; the percentage of journalists killed in countries not experiencing armed conflict has been increasing since 2016.
A panel discussion organized by the Government of Estonia, the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom and The Committee to Protect Journalists takes place on Monday, at UN Headquarters in New York.
High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation
21st session (1 May 2023 and 30 May to 2 June 2023)
The 21st session of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation will be convened on 30 May to 2 June 2023 to review progress made towards implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action.
The meeting will focus on “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through South-South and triangular cooperation”.
Geneva
France Review - 43rd Session of Universal Periodic Review
Human Rights Council country-members and NGOs review the track-record of France in the implementation of the protection and promotion of human rights.
United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
The group meets to discuss how legislation is being implemented and the respect for the rule of law in various countries in what touches
Committee Against Torture (CAT)
The Committee Against Torture (CAT) and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is the body of 10 independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by its States parties.
The Committee Against Torture works to hold States accountable for human rights violations, systematically investigating reports of torture in order to stop and prevent this crime.
Weekend Edition
United Kingdom
King Charles III coronation takes place on the 6th May, so we thought we would give you a birds-eye view of the wineries and the fabulous sparkling wines being produced in the UK.
We interviewed Julia Trustam Eve, Head of Marketing for Wines of Great Britain a body dedicated to the promotion of vineyards, wine producers, and wines produced in the UK. Keep your eyes peeled for the interview coming this week.
INTERVIEW to come 4 May
China
Brazilian diplomat visits to discover gastronomic delights.
Weekend Travel
France
Bourgogne is closer than you think. Just about 2 1/2 hours by train from Geneva.
Continuing our series on Bourgogne, we have our last interview with another wine producer from the Beaune region, Philippe Guillemot of Domaine Pierre Guillemot, in Savigny-les-Beaune.
We spoke about his dedication to sustainable production, how wine making starts with the soil, the pruning, the tending of the vineyard in order to produce impeccable fruit.