[act-ma] Posting for Feb. 18 event on transforming the UN

[spearce at igc.org]

Dear Act-MA, 
Would you kindly post the following event?  Please let me know if you need it cut down to the essentials!  Thank you. I am now a member, so trying again!

               Best wishes,  Suzanne Pearce

When:  Tues., Feb. 18, 2014, 7:30 pm

Where:  Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge. (Off Brattle St., just outside Harvard Square.)

Sponsored by the Committee to Form a Foundation for Democratic World 
Federation. Cosponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action, Greater Boston 
Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the 
Center for Global Community and World Law. 

A public lecture and discussion on

Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World 

by  Joseph E. Schwartzberg 
Distinguished International Professor Emeritus University of Minnesota; 
author, Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable 
World. 

Moderator: Winston E. Langley 
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Professor of Political 
Science and International Affairs, University of Massachusetts Boston. 

Free and open to the public. Handicap accessible. Books will be available 
for signing and purchase.For more information, contact Suzanne Pearce at 
617 354-7648 or spearce at igc.org. For updates, including parking and snow 
cancellation, call 617 682-0324 or check #UNtransformers on Twitter.  

How can we build a peaceful, just and sustainable world?  Global problems we face--including the existential threats of climate change and nuclear attack-- require global solutions. However, the United Nations, as presently constituted, is incapable of addressing many global problems effectively. What if the veto in the Security Council were not an obstacle to effective action? What if a World Parliamentary Assembly that truly represented the world's people were to function alongside the General Assembly? What if human rights and environmental issues were to be addressed at the highest level of the UN system? Joseph Schwartzberg will share his thinking on these and other issues where the UN could be redesigned and its institutions gain legitimacy, particularly through improved decision-making, in which the interests of regions could supplement those of nations, and the voices of ordinary citizens could be heard.