On 16 September, the Foundation and Uppsala University hosted the Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture, one of the highlights on the Foundation’s calendar. The lecture is available to watch on our website.
‘Reaching shore: Multilateralism and the value of International Law’, by Rena Lee, Ambassador for International Law and the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and ‘The Lessons from Hammarskjöld for Conflict Resolution Today’, by Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, were the respective 2023 and 2024 Dag Hammarskjöld Lectures.
The well received talks were followed by a panel discussion hosted by Peter Wallensteen, Senior professor in Peace and Conflict Studies. An audience of about 250 people attended the ceremony with a strong representation of students, university staff, and a record number of participants from the international diplomatic community as well as the public.
During this occasion Uppsala University also bestowed Rena Lee and Jan Egeland with the university’s special Dag Hammarskjöld Medal that was created by the Swedish artist Annette Rydström and features Dag Hammarskjöld’s portrait and a handshake, the old symbol of Concordia, representing Hammarskjöld’s diplomatic work on the inverse side.
The medal is awarded as recognition for their work rooted in the values of compassion, humanism, and commitment to international solidarity and cooperation aspired by Dag Hammarskjöld as United Nations Secretary-General.
Peter Wallensteen, Jan Egeland, and Rena Lee shared the stage with Mary Theodorah Ajal, master’s student in Sustainable Foods Systems at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Linnea Törnlund, a bachelor’s degree student in Political Science and vice-president of the Uppsala Association of Foreign Affairs, together with Janithrika Jayasundara, a Rotary Peace Fellow and master’s student in Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University, for a vibrant interactive panel discussion. The student panel is an important part of the lecture programme as it also brings together a student form the Swedish University of Agricultural Science and students from Uppsala University.
The Foundation continued the tradition of organising roundtable discussions with the lecturers as keynote speakers.
On the same day as the main event, Sigrid Gruener, the Foundation’s Deputy Executive Director and Programme Director for Peacebuilding, hosted the ‘Humanitarian horizons: Reflections and strategies for future action’ roundtable discussion with Jan Egeland.
The conversations centred on the need for investment in preventing conflict and building inclusive and lasting peace. Jan Egeland shared some of his most recent experiences as leader of the Norwegian Refugee Council whose staff is working in some of the world’s worst conflict zones. The participants shared experiences from their work in the field as academics, civil servants, and the non-governmental as well as the multilateral sector.
The ‘From Agreement to Action: Envisioning the future of the ocean conservation’ roundtable discussion with Rena Lee was facilitated by Foundation’s Executive Director Björn Holmberg. This event was co-hosted with the International Centre for Water Cooperation and the Stockholm International Water Institute with Håkan Tropp, Programme Director Capacity Building and Acting Chief Operating Officer as co-facilitator.
Many of the participants, who are mainly active in the terrestrial and freshwater domains, were keen to understand how their work can support the broader ecosystem issues as raised in the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement, more commonly known as the High Seas Treaty). It ws adopted in June 2023 by the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions and convened under the auspices of the United Nations. The BBNJ Agreement is the third implementing agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
On this occasion the discussions explored the negotiations and implementation challenges as well as the mechanics of the negotiations process with an emphasis on the next steps in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 14, ‘Life below water’.
