UN Charter Dialogues Report

A monumental act of creation took place in San Francisco at the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building from April 25, 1945, to June 26, 1945: after two months of negotiations and consultations the United Nations Charter was signed by all delegations. To commemorate this event, the United Nations Association of the USA, San Francisco Chapter (UNA-SF) and its partners hosted a series of online events on June 26-27, 2020 that started with international dialogues on past, present, and future of the United Nations (UN) and its Charter.

Over one hundred and twenty participants and delegates from at least thirty eight countries gathered online to contribute with their perspectives. Twelve United Nations Associations (UNAs) from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas sent delegates or were represented by members and volunteers. Participants’ experiences included employment, contract work, or volunteer service with the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM-UN), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-UN), UN Volunteers, and the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN. 

Ambassador Richard Narich, Secretary-General of the French Association for United Nations, Ms. Norma Rojas, President of the Association for the United Nations Venezuela, Rev. Dr. Mark Nii Lamptey, Director of Communications of the United Nations Association—Ghana, Mr. Joshua L. Cooper, National Council Member of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, and Ms. Kulsoom Siddiqui, Manager of Partnerships, External Affairs, and Fundraising at the United Nations Association of Pakistan served as Rapporteurs. The participatory process was designed by Mr. Fyodor Ovchinnikov, Chair of the UN Global Consultations Committee of the UNA-SF. Committee Members Ms. Swagata Sen and Ms. Tatiana Vekovishcheva served as Co-Hosts. 

In the spirit of democracy and inclusion, UNA-SF made strategic efforts to include people from different walks of life along with current and former UN employees, diplomats, and UNA leaders. Interested members of the general public were included if they were members of their local UNA or if they were unable to join a UNA for reasons beyond their control (mostly because their country did not have a UNA or their UNA did not have a clear way to become a member).

The UN75 Charter Day Dialogues were advertised to over 100,000 people around the grobe. Over 2,500 expressed interest in the event, over five hundred people registered, over three hundred people were declared eligible for participation (sensible responses to registration questions, self-reported proficiency in English, and UNA/UN affiliation or verified barriers to joining a UNA), attendance of one hundred and twenty one participants and delegates was verified. 

A tailored version of the participatory process called World Café was used to combine the benefits of small group conversations and cross-pollination of diverse perspectives of the group-at-large. During the World Café, participants and delegates rotated across several virtual breakout rooms to share their perspectives, link ideas, identify patterns, and articulate insights. After that group representatives worked with five Rapporteurs to come up with summaries of the conversations. All participants and delegates had an opportunity to add to the summaries by filling out a Google form if they felt that something important was missing.

All summaries and comments were processed into a collective narrative in accordance with the Collective Narrative Methodology. Every idea included in this report can be traced back to the summaries shared by the Rapporteurs or the comments submitted by participants and delegates. Likewise, every idea shared by the Rapporteurs or properly submitted by a participant or a delegate was included in this report. UNA-SF does not automatically endorse any ideas presented in this report but it is committed to making voices of all participants and delegates heard. Key points of this report were submitted to the UN through the UN75 Feedback Form contributing to the #UN75 Global Conversation started by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres in January 2020.