Poster Photo Caption: A photo of the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in the General Assembly.
Greetings fellow Laidlaw Scholars!
This Tuesday, June 23 marks four weeks since I landed in NYC, and around two more weeks before I return to Toronto. This last week has included a trip to the UN Secretariat for a closed session on disarmament, creating throwback videos from the ILF's video archives, and some more exploring of the city.
At the Office
This week in the office, I shifted focus to editing the ILF's older videos, categorized under the theme, "Lookback" (a more professional form of "throwback"). These videos, some of which were filmed 15 years ago, were recorded at a much earlier stage in the ILF's journey and were chosen for development today to give modern viewers a view into the ILF's past. One minor challenge that arose when editing the videos was that, given their age, some videos featured outdated information which needed to be edited out. However, as the basic model framing the entire Foundation has existed since its conception, the overall ideas underpinning each video were still relevant.
The editing process itself was completed using Canva, and involved editing the original video, resizing it as an Instagram reel, and developing a reel cover. My favourite part of this task was working on the International Fellow interviews. Fellows are essentially lawyers from countries like the U.S. and Australia who volunteer to travel to ILF offices around the world and train public defenders. These videos featured a Fellow from the U.S. working in Myanmar and one from Australia in the West Bank. The interviews were so fascinating to work with as they granted a brief but clear view into the work these Fellows did - work which is fundamental to the mission of the ILF.
Out of the Office, Still on the Clock
On Tuesday, I returned to the UN Headquarters to touch some new ground - the Secretariat building, where I went up to the 15th floor to partake in a collaborative event between the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Peacebuilding and Peace Support, during the annual UN Peacebuilding Week, which takes place from June 22 to 26.
The event was organized by the Co-Chairs of the Inter-Agency Working Group on Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration, and was titled, "Our Shared Responsibility: Supporting pathways out of violence," and served to mark the 20th anniversary of the Integrated DDR Standards.
This event is actually not part of the scope of the ILF and is typically closed to anyone not involved with the program. I was fortunate, however, to receive an invitation for the event from a speaker at the event, whom I met at the Rule of Law event on June 3rd.
So - what is DDR? DDR stands for "Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration," a peacebuilding process to help ex-combatants leave their weapons and armed groups and transition into civilian or even political life. The process was codified in the Integrated DDR Standards (IDDRS) in 2006 by 27 UN entities, which together form the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR. The standards were meant to "provide guidance in post-conflict contexts where DDR forms an integral part of comprehensive peace agreements, usually where peace operations have also been established and mandated to support national DDR efforts" (https://www.unddr.org/the-iddrs/).
The event featured various UN individuals working in DDR programs in various regions, including Haiti, Cameroon, and South Sudan, who spoke about the peacekeeping and disarmament progress in their respective countries. The program was split into two segments: 1, which featured "DDR owners," and was titled, "Spotlight on national experiences and perspectives on DDR's relevance, effectiveness, and adaptability"; and 2, which was a "Round table comprised of IAWG Members, IDDRTG Co-Chair(s), Member States and Research Institutions, addressing the fitness for purpose of DDR and international support/partnerships."
The event was opened by my contact who had invited me to the event, a UNDP Global Advisor who noted how 2026 marked the 20th anniversary of the IDDRS and how DDR is a core instrument of supporting pathways out of violence.
Segment 1 featured multiple DDR UN officials. The panel was moderated by Xavier Michon, the UN Representative in Haiti, who soon passed the floor to a UN representative from Haiti (who had flown in just 5 hours before the event!), who began her statement by making clear the currency situation of Haiti. She noted how the DDR strategy must be tailored to the country's socioeconomic situation and must be developed to restore peace. She also shared numerous alarming statistics regarding the societal degradation brought about by armed conflict, such as how gang violence has caused over 16,000 deaths since 2022, over 1,600 schools were closed last school year, and 52% of the population facing acute food insecurity with over 1.8m in an emergency situation.
Over the course of both segments, a key idea that was discussed is the shifting place of DDR in the time of peacebuilding. In the past, when the standards were established, DDR often came after a peace agreement. Today, however, DDR often must precede peace, as seen in Haiti, which has no peace agreement in place, or Cameroon. Another key aspect of the talks was the importance of Community Violence Reduction (CVR), which is relevant for situations where it is too early or not possible to carry out DDR. In such circumstances, CVR programs help lead to the right conditions for political progress and the disbandment of armed groups, essentially serving as a precursor for an environment more conducive to DDR.
CVR came up when discussing a very notable statistic pertaining to Haiti: roughly 0.3% of youth are involved in violence, leaving 99.7%. In such a case, with so much potential for increased violence but also the chance to empower the presently non-violent, CVR is a critical framework that can help guide efforts to prevent youth and children from (re)joining armed groups. Such stabilizing work can both prevent increasing numbers and shift the tide of violence. Such methods were also relevant in South Sudan, where programs are being developed in collaboration with the UNDP to increase employment through skills training, as unemployed youth are most often drawn into violence. Even with stabilization or the reduction of armed gangs, another obstacle noted by the Haitian representative was how it is not always easy for people to forgive those who once engaged in violence and are now re-integrating with society, creating a need for holistic community engagement.
In Cameroon, however, the situation differs, as the nation is more primed for DDR, given that most participants in violence weren't hardened fighters, given how they laid down arms knowing it's a voluntary process. In the country, the government operates DDR centres to process former members of armed groups who wish to rejoin life as a citizen and access training and support in the process.
After the event, I had the chance to network with certain attendees including one of the moderators, a member of the UN Peacebuilding team, and the former Chief of Haiti's National Police. After grabbing lunch in the Riverview café, I did some more exploring before returning to the ILF's office to finish off the day.
Out of the Office (Really, This Time)
Outside of the office, I used the weekend to do some more exploring of the city. Coming into Manhattan, the place at the top of my travel list was the American Museum of Natural History, the only major museum I hadn't visited the last time I came to NYC. Given my endearment with the natural world, I was greatly looking forward to visiting the Museum, which is composed of 21 buildings and 45 exhibition halls, and contains 32 million specimens. With multiple hours on my hands to explore, I visited nearly every exhibit, starting off with the major ones recommended by a museum guide, including the Human Origins, Asteroids, Fossils, and Mammals exhibits. Among my favourite exhibits is the Fossil Hall, which features the fossils of the first T-rex ever found with a complete skull (in 1908), and the case of the huge 122-foot-long Titanosaur fossil discovered in 2012, which is so large that its head and neck extend out of the display room! I also had the chance to watch, "Encounters in the Milky Way," at the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater.
On Sunday, a friend from I-House, Trevyn, and I travelled to Brooklyn to take photos at one of the most popular NYC photo spots: a DUMBO street with a view of the Manhattan Bridge. We then walked across Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan (the entrance to which took us a while to locate), where we visited Katz's Delicatessen, sometimes considered the most iconic NYC restaurant, and the futuristic dessert spot, "Rice to Riches."
Looking Back
With some more cool adventures both in and out of the office, this week comes to a close on a good note, and leaves me primed for Week 5, which will open with an event featuring a US Diplomat to the UN and an ILF Team Lunch.