 Hello everyone, I'm Keith Webster, Helen at Henry Postner, Junior Dean of University Libraries, and I'm delighted to welcome you to today's event, Global Advocacy for Local Change, a conversation with Ambassador Maritza Chan, permanent representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations. This afternoon's event is hosted by Carnegie Mellon's Sustainability Initiative, a priority of Provost Jim Garrett. The initiative is home to Carnegie Mellon's endeavours towards a more sustainable future, and we support the university's efforts to advance the global goals, 17 objectives identified by the UN, to guide the planet toward peace and prosperity now and in the future. The initiative is led by Alex Hinnigar. Alex's approach to sustainability is informed by 15 years of experience working across the globe, and also by her time as the Senior Director of the Global Goals Programme at the New York City Mayor's Office for International Affairs. Chanel works with our community to incorporate the global goals into our education, research and practices. Joining Alex's Ambassador Maritza Chan, the first woman to serve as the permanent representative of Costa Rica to the UN, she'll share her country's priorities at the UN, how she employs the global goals to advance that agenda, and how universities can help the world achieve these ambitious objectives by 2030. As always, I'm grateful to my colleagues at the university libraries who have worked so hard to bring this event to you, and most especially our events and external relations teams. Today's event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Student Diversity and Inclusion, the Department of Modern Languages, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, the Institute for Politics and Strategy, the School of Design and the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research. Many thanks to all of them for their support. At the end of the afternoon, you'll have a chance to join in the conversation, and I encourage you to submit your questions to inform a discussion on how we can all prioritise the global goals in our work and daily lives. Thank you all again for joining us today. Without further ado, I'll turn things over to Alex to get the discussion started. Thank you, Dean Webster, and thanks so much to everyone who's joining us this afternoon. I'm really excited about this panel, which we've been planning for quite some time, where we'll hear from a dear friend of mine that I've had the pleasure of working with for many years. I'd like to welcome Ambassador Marisa Chan, who's a Costa Rican career diplomat, academic and activist, and she's the first woman to serve as the Costa Rica's permanent representative to the United Nations since Costa Rica signed the United Nations Charter in 1945. She has over two decades of professional experience at the highest political level. She's represented Costa Rica before the United States and multilateral organizations in both Washington DC and New York. She's an expert on international peace and security issues and an advocate for the women peace and security agenda. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today, Ambassador Chan. Thank you, Alex, and thank you to all of you for being here with us today. I'm very pleased to speak to your students and talk about my experience, and hopefully some of my thoughts and advises can be used for them with their careers. I'm certain they can. So as I mentioned, I've had the pleasure of working with Ambassador Chan of the United Nations over the past decade, and I've seen firsthand the impact that she's had. And now that I'm responsible for Carnegie Mellon University's implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, I see so many ways that the work that our students, faculty and staff are doing is contributing to this ambitious global agenda. For example, all of our co-sponsors that Dean Webster mentioned are teaching courses that are related to Costa Rica's priorities at the United Nations. So I thought it would be really helpful to have Ambassador Chan join us to help make those links between what we're doing in our daily lives interested here at our university, and how she's working to make the world more sustainable, and how these topics are being addressed at the United Nations. So let's get into it. Sir. The priorities of Costa Rica at the United Nations are ambitious. We not only pay attention to international peace and security, and that comes with paying attention to excessive military spending or military spending, especially in a world that's post-pandemic. We pay attention to the rule of law, to the fight against impunity, human rights, and particularly women and girls' rights, sustainable development, financial development, middle-income countries because Costa Rica is one, and middle-income countries are facing a major challenge in this current environment because the attention is going to these developed countries and not us who did things well. We also pay attention to conflict management and resolution, mediation, the role of regional organisations, international law, international humanitarian law, the fight against terrorism, the working methods of the Security Council, the reform of the Security Council, the revitalisation of the General Assembly in particularly the election of the Secretary General, as well as the role of the President of the General Assembly, the Women's Peace and Security Agenda, the Youth Peace and Security Agenda, protection of civilians, and this is where all are working and this argument plays a role. DSDGs, particularly in a world post-pandemic as a roadmap, as our common agenda, and how can we make this world safer and better than we found it? Basically, that's in a nutshell, that's our priorities here at the UN. That's a lot, and I know that you're very busy, which is especially why I'm so grateful that you took the time to join us today. And for our listeners, I want to provide a little bit of context about the United Nations because a lot of people think of it as one big meeting that happens every September where world leaders come and make big proclamations that may or may not come true. But what's interesting is that there's so much work happening throughout the year. So you have the United Nations General Assembly with 193 members. The General Assembly has six committees ranging from peace and security topics to human rights to decolonisation to the law to the budget. We have the United Nations Security Council that addresses many of the topics you just mentioned. And then there's all of the UN agencies and the United Nations Secretariat, which is the people working to do this. So how do you manage addressing all of these critical topics across these many different UN agencies and departments and negotiating with your other diplomats? Well, it's a lot of work. It takes a lot of my own personal commitment. I do have a team that is comprised of six experts that each expert is doing one committee. But you think about this a lot of work for just one person. There are states who have three, four, five, or even 10, 15 representatives for just one committee. That's not the case in Costa Rica. The advantage we have is that we're guided by principles. And when you negotiate based on principle, it's much easier to call for better transparency for real funding for more coherence within the system because the UN is a very complex web of systems, organs, agency programs. And this second time around that I have come back to the UN, it's been a very interesting opportunity to untangle the UN as it is and to navigate the waters. And it takes a lot of my own personal experience, my own commitment in making sure that not only I'm able to address the issues at hand, but also where I'm located in the list of speakers. Because most of the ambassadors will be at the first session of a debate, but they will not attend the second part of the session. So you need to make sure that you speak also the first part of the session that takes foresight. And translating that experience, my own experience, an expert to my own colleagues here. It gives us an edge to be able to engage and also have a fresh take on issues that probably some countries will look into different lenses than us. And that's a take that I want for delegations. What is the take off of what Costa Rica said? What was this, you know, important? That comes from my own background as a speechwriter, but also knowing that at the UN it doesn't matter how big your country is. It just matters the strength of your principles, the voice in which you call for change. You actually call out people or member states when they're doing things that are against the UN charter or against international law, international humanitarian law. So it's a very complex, but you know, I don't complain. Yeah, I, one thing I've, you know, you mentioned that you were at the UN before and you went down to DC and did some, you did service there and you've come back to the United Nations as the first woman to serve as the ambassador of Costa Rica. And I'm so curious, having this new title, having this new, how is that influenced how you're able to engage in discussions, how people listen to you, has it changed? Because I've always admired the fact that you've been a leader even before you had the titles because of the precisely the approach you took to this and your incredible work ethic. So I'm curious how it's changed with the new fancy title. It's more, you know, I have more responsibility on my shoulders. I don't have much freedom as I wish and never that I ever had, you know, but I don't have the luxury of just saying I'm going to focus on just disarmament. Because the agenda of Costa Rica, the UN is more than disarmament or international peace and security. And I have, you know, I have to force myself to be more confident or learn more about sustainable development, for instance, financial development, human rights. And those were things that I, they were part of my other colleagues agenda. The bar for a woman is always higher. And don't let, you know, and I've been completely honest and this is an honest conversation between you and I. The bar will be higher for us everywhere, anytime. So I'm not just challenged to be technically stronger in issues that I never have to deal with. I have to be gracious, engage, interested. I do have the luxury of being tired. You are like an actress that are able to deliver at a point to attend events. Sometimes you have to speak without a script. And that's something that you must be very, you must be very careful about because the words that are coming from your mouth are the words of a state. You represent the voice of Costa Rica. In a way I'm also fortunate because that gets me an edge. It gets me some gravity when I stress how uncomfortable we are with injustice, with impunity, with how much, you know, suffering certain people in the world facing that are enduring because those who have the power to change the status quo won't do it because it benefits them militarily, economically, geopolitically. So that gets me certain, you know, credibility and legitimacy, I would engage with certain actors, but the challenges remain there at every stage. Also, I'm quite young for the position I am and certain member states have said that it's unthinkable to have a female, an ambassador of my age. I'm from the United Nations, but I'm here, I'm here to stay. I haven't been in this title for one year, and I already have pain, subtraction and disability. And I owe that to the clarity of our positions. You know, we are ambiguously clear on where we stand and the values and principles that we defend and there's honour in that. I think also as you mentioned you have the background on all of this you've been in this, you've done the work you know how these negotiations are conducted and actually what happens behind the scenes like I mentioned throughout the year and we already have a great question from the audience member that I think is relevant to what you just said which is how you work to promote these values across countries while taking into consideration the cultural differences and how they may affect a nation's political goals with 193 countries. We respect. There are negotiations like I'm the co-chair of the vice president of the open and the working group on conventional nominations. And think about, you know, weapons and guns, but guns are useless without the admission is the ammunition is what makes him lethal. So we are in the we're going to head into the third session of that open and the working group and and sometimes as the vice chair. I take the role of negotiating on the sidelines for certain delegations part of the text that requires more work. I can do it individually and that I can do it in the group of countries. How do you know for me is respect showing that you understand what they're coming from. I never I have never found any delegate who was not was not comfortable. I tried to be always with, you know, with a balance, the gender balance team, but to one or two, you know, one man and a woman with me so that person feel uncomfortable and understanding where they coming from and trying to find it around and you will be surprised how many people want to find it around. And the level of ambition can be, you know, if there's, we can find that balance if we're able to just for every member state to see where each other's coming from. Maybe just maybe we are able to have something and I'm very surprised at the things that we are able, we have been able to manage and achieve in this year and have that in the last year with things that, you know, we're unthinkable to achieve in this global environment that we're facing now. Very challenging. Yeah, and I mean, one of the issues that you just mentioned is disarmament and both you personally and the country you represent are considered global leaders on this topic. I mean, I know you through, we first met through your work as Costa Rica was the president of the convention cluster munitions, but you know you're also the lead negotiator for the arms trade treaty Costa Rica recently hosted a conference for over 30 countries called for a ban on autonomous weapons. You actively speak out on the links between disarmament environment I can go on. Oh, use of heavy explosive weapons and populated areas you were instrumental to that declaration. You've been recognized by the United Nations Regional Center for Peace Disarmament and Development Latin America and the Caribbean Caribbean is one of the leading agents for change. There's so much. There's a lot to discuss. But I want to start off with the fact that Costa Rica has does not have a military. Can you share more about why that is and how you managed to navigate these negotiations with great military powers and have so much success across this broad range of issues. Well, I think that the fact that we don't have a military, it has played an added in our advantage percent of our GDP goes to location. We have universal health coverage for everyone. We were we are the first country in the world who were able to revert before a station so now practically we're aiming to 60% of the country being preforested 99% of our electric grid comes from this rule those sources. So, by having a very strong civil service. And as a civil servant, I can tell you that is the quality of our public sector. That has made Costa Rica what it is. It has taken also enlightened leadership that we always have had good very good presidents across party lines have one vision, one mission and one vision of what Costa Rica should look like. And that have been able to take us where we need to be in different times in history. So, when in 1949 when the armed forces were abolished, we started taking a different path and the temptation to to go to the weapons to resolve our conflicts with dismantle. We also created a culture of peace and mediation that some friends of mine from Colombia said, listen, pay attention to what the Costa Ricans do. There were like five or six of eight students doing like a model UN and they said, okay, let's vote. What kind of pizza we want. So they bought it and everybody. That's what we do. You know, we don't close ourselves. And we try to find a middle ground. And I think that's that's cultural. And I don't have to explain that to my own colleagues, because that level of ambition my own experts here at the UN have it. We understand that we need transparency. They understand that impunity must be with the bygone of this era, as per equality, that that comes from nine. It's not an ideal. It's a must if you, if we are able, you know, especially the global south, if we want to achieve the fruits of our labors and enjoy those that harvest. That is something that I can say that it's an advantage and it help us by negotiating based on principles. Principle based negotiation is much easier than having to deal with just comas. You can identify the paragraphs that are to request for, you know, to, to enact change. And, and we have seen many, many successes. I mean, Costa Rica was the lead negotiator or Ambassador White led the process for the treaty for the to ban nuclear weapons. And that is a huge accomplishment. And I know that you personally also played a really important role in our passionate about this issue. And that took many years. Can you tell us a little bit about your role in this process for for negotiating the treaty because you were both at the UN and I think in the US for a little bit. I'm not sure, but yeah. I was back in Costa Rica. So, okay. I left the UN when in February 2016. And I went back to Costa Rica, and I was handled the desk of the organization of American States in Washington after doing this on and then they give me a sick day that is a comedian terrorism. I was the expert to attend those negotiations. So, I was not doing any UN related issue. They wanted me to do a treaty, but it was not related to what I was doing and being to that officer of just one organization by yourself. It's a lot. So, and that organization requires ministers to travel to Washington back and forth and you need to be the last on the ministries. So, but the ambassador of Costa Rica here he was to be my boss. Talk to the minister and said, Costa Rica is the president. But that means that all my team will go to work with her, and we will lose our voice. We cannot lose our voice to please send Maritza for one month in New York. So we won't miss that chance. So I remember that I came here after the first week of general statements and engage until the end of the treaty. And I remember focusing a lot in the positive obligations and and being part of you know of this small groups of negotiations part of groups because that happens usually when you have a treaty or a big negotiation. And the major stakeholders are the ones who have different levels of ambition that are more vocal about it. I called to a separate room and there's where you find common ground. It was a very interesting process, but what I'm happy about is that we did not lose our voice because by being president. You just are you're there you're not necessarily you have to engage but we were able to do both and doubt that that mattered. That's a great point I didn't think about that because you're the neutral party I guess in a way managing with all of this but you also have so much to say about it. That's a great experience and perspective and like you yourself know all of the mechanisms through the many first committee resolutions that you had already negotiated over over your time there. That brings me to another question that speaking of negotiations that I wanted to ask about because it's making the news a little bit in my rounds is there's this new effort to recognize the right to a clean healthy and environment as a human right and to call for greater global efforts to ensure that this is upheld, and this is being discussed I guess in the United at the United Nations in New York and Geneva where there's a human rights Council, human rights Council and you have played such an instrumental role about the Costa Rica has played such an instrumental role in that I think even introducing the resolution. So what do you hope to achieve by this resolution. Can you tell us more about how it came about and and the process of it. So this resolution was adopted first in Geneva the Human Rights Council, but the Human Rights Council is not universally membership, the General Assembly is. The General Assembly, and it was an historic vote, it obtained 95.3% of support the highest so far for this type of resolution. The example was resolution 64 slash 292 which recognized a human right to water and sanitation in 2010. Resolution had 122 votes in favor out of 163 74.8 support so we had 95.3 support. Why this just resolution relevant because it has many implications, it's, it's recognizes the right to clean healthy and sustainable environment as a human rights. First for human rights, which makes environmental protection a fundamental aspects of human rights protection, and it also it's a very important step towards the introduction of human rights perspective in environmental litigation. At rates human rights norms into environmental norms, and it sends a very strong political message that it will help shaping and instructing stronger international environmental laws standards and policies of the national regional and international level. And it shows also that the multilateral system has a role to play in international environmental law. Was the ground that cemented the way forward to the resolution that we just adopted by consensus. It's a group of countries with Banwatu to ask an advisor opinion to the international court justice on climate change and human rights. So something on climate justice. And now the ICJ will have to respond to that question but that our resolution take the ground for that and I'm certain the ground many more other resolutions, or, you know, decisions at the international level. The emblematic of also the sustainable development goals or the principles behind the sustainable development goals, recognizing, I conveniently have the background of the 17 sustainable development goals here that there are so many different topics that are related to sustainability. It's about poverty and hunger, good health and well being. I personally I'm still shocked that goal 16 on peace justice and strong institutions was agreed to by all 193 Member States. Of course, they're not perfect but they're really important framework that we can use as countries, you know I used to lead New York City sustainable development goals program, and now as universities. I think that making these links as you did between the human rights in the environment, and also what you've done by making the links between conflict in the environment through some of the work I know that you've been doing with Pax is really important because all of the goals are equally important and none of them can be achieved on their own but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming to look at 17 goals 169 targets 232 indicators and say all right let's get into it so. I think it's a great step and I congratulate you on on making that effort I know, nothing is easy when it comes to bringing people together around controversial topics like this. And that brings me to my next question a little bit more about your engagement with universities because you're also an academic and as mentioned, we at CMU have committed to the sustainable development goals, not only because we believe our operations contribute to making the world more sustainable for students but we also see that the way that we're educating not just our students but our faculty and staff is really important for thinking about how we're going to solve some of the world's greatest challenges. We also conduct a ton of research and I think I'm new to academia and I see so many great opportunities to better link all of the research that's going on with my colleagues and what's happening at the UN in New York, but I think it's a little bit hard sometimes to see how these big global. Discussions that you're talking about relate to the day to day activities that we're conducting here either in our personal life or in our research or education or practices. So, what do you think about the links between how universities can help contribute to the sustainable development goals and are you working in your capacity as an academic or with Costa Rican universities on on these sorts of topic. Well, this kind of work and universities can do many things with us. I will go and give you a couple of examples. We do have a couple of, you know, like systems in which certain universities provide us with interns doing throughout the year. It's either with us virtually or in person. It doesn't have to be in person because we do understand that not everybody can come to New York and rent an apartment at the levels that we are seeing now that are, you know, that it makes, that makes. I mean, it doesn't mean that entering with an mission here is impossible. It is possible. If you're interested and engaged. What do universities do? Well, we're now working with Fletcher and we probably will have a training course for young diplomats from developing countries and small countries that will attend online courses and then in person meetings in Fletcher. On climate negotiations on and which are very technical, and we need to create a new cohort of diplomats who are technically strong. I'm also working with Columbia University, I think with but finders and it's 16. And they provide us with studies with research. For instance, gun violence, the recognition or common agenda that one of the latest reports of the Secretary General recognizes that urban violence, gun violence in cities have are providing us with more death than conflict. So that idea that he wasn't, you know, people die more in conflict areas, it's gone. It's happening in our cities because of black controls. So we're working with them to bring that about and now to put that into the new agenda for peace. But you cannot achieve anyone of the SDGs without SDG five. We are women and girls, you won't be able to have these ones, you know, stable societies, or just achieve, you know, private sector, because it requires gender balance. So there are many of the SDGs that you can make them, you know, compress them and look into them through a gender lens. And that's something that also it's been one of my priorities of the UN to translate everything through gender lenses. And that has been intellectually stimulating and then you take on issues that not necessarily were on the table. But that comes from an academic background and looking into those issues and reading about it. And that gets me the chance to provide a new take on matters that were not there. So that's how you bring universities into the UN. I also work with SOAS, the University of London, and they do have a program called Scrap Weapons. And they are training diplomats or students on future diplomats in international disarmament treaty bodies. So they understand the NPT, the NW, they understand basically the program actions when arms are like weapons. But mostly on nuclear weapons, they work a lot. And it's great to have the support because it takes time to learn these issues. It takes a life, it takes years to understand the language and then understand the little pieces that will go into negotiation. But if you don't have that background, sometimes harder, but if you have a student who can look into issues for you and help you advance at least the research, you can make a statement much stronger. And that elevates the quality of the discussion and elevates the quality of your own statements of the United Nations. And that matters. The words that we put out there matter. They have weight. People are listening or engaging or your statements will, people will look into your statements for research on the position of Costa Rica on its wide issue. And I usually pay attention to the summary that the UN does on certain debates and I can see some of my positions reflected because it was a different angle. That's the academic in me looking into ways to reflect this course in a different way or engage in a conversation with an angle that no one else has. Yeah, and I'm glad you met mentioned nuclear weapons in particular because one of our co-sponsors of this event is the School of Design, because a professor Peter Sinfeli is teaching a course about nuclear disarmament. And he actually asked a question that I think is related to this about what some of the what are some of the largest obstacles to global nuclear disarmament and what role might everyday people play in promoting nuclear disarmament. Well, I think that particularly those who live in the countries who have nuclear weapons. They need to engage because you, you need to know this every minute. A nuclear armed weapon states spend $130,000 a minute. Imagine how much money that is. How many schools. Can you build how many people can you reintegrate into society. How many women and girls would have a chance or how many scholarships can you provide to one, you know, first generation. You know, American or first generation, Native American or second, you know, how many opportunities can you have if you were to live virtual resources into peace and not to the industry of death. Does the parents work. Does it make a difference. What impact would that happen to the environment if there's an explosion and believe me. Those weapons are not secure. They are vulnerable to cyber attacks to accidents and miscalculation and having weapons in high alert that we saw that just now a few months ago with a year ago with the word to Ukraine and Russia. It's such a bad signal because it's destruction such that you need to be aware of where your tax money is going. And we don't have the problem, but my region, you know, Latin America in the Caribbean is completely in the nuclear eyes. We do not have weapons. We declare ourselves a zone of peace. But that requires high levels of awareness and understanding that your security. And it doesn't mean my, my demise that secure what, you know, it means understanding security to let different lenses to the ones that traditionally we understood understand it and. And also to to understand that human security is different to state security. If if you understand that difference, you hope you will world view will change and you may become an activist and say okay there's we have. We have a situation here that that that requires the engagement international community, but but please, you know, raise your hand and pay attention to where do money is going. I cannot go to an industry of death and destroy and destruction. I really like that idea your security does not mean my demise I think that's an important principle to apply not just to international negotiations around nuclear weapons but also in our day to day activities. There's one other point I wanted to make you mentioned that you, you really focus on women and girls and the role of gender at the United Nations. In the entire history of the United Nations, we still have not had a woman serve as a secretary general. In the last campaign, there was this entire global effort with millions of people adding their voice but somehow, somehow, we still could not elect, or the Security Council and eventually the General Assembly could not elect a woman to serve as it. So we're on the seventh secretary general. What do you think it's going to take to finally have a woman serve as the secretary general the United Nations and why do you think that matters. You know, I've been very vocal about this because you can preach that you're champion of human, you know, women's rights, and then as an organization not have women reflected at the high echolons of power. They have always been, you know, we are, this is the 77 General Assembly. And there have only been four women as president of the General Assembly for. There has never been a female secretary general. And the problem emanates from the UN Charter. The UN Charter says that he will be the chief administrative office of the United Nations. He. That error is compounded by the first one resolution for 1946 that says that also reiterates that that is a him. He, because he's not always been pain. It's, it's a matter of principle and also a matter of coherence in our message as, as the global Tennessee Afro nations. Please don't stress that we need women or girls to to achieve every single one of the SDGs, and then don't have that represented at the high echolons of the UN. It's, if we don't, if you cannot see her, you cannot be her. What message are we sending to our, you know, I, when I was appointed to primary representative. I get messages from girls in Costa Rica, so thank you, because you, you're telling me that I will be able to sit in your table in your share. And I want that for every single woman. I want every single woman and girl to open, you know, open the old doors and leave it to your own power, your own intelligence and determination to, to, to, to determine your destiny, but not to your gender. And, and I want to see, you know, we have gender structure problem at the United Nations full stop. It comes from the United Charter, and it is has, you know, we took us 55 years to get the first resolution of the Security Council women peace and security. We celebrate a lot women peace and security, but not the fact that took us 55 years to get there. It's a matter of principle. It's a matter of time. It's about time we have a woman as gene and that every in that the whole structure per se has must have gender balance because gender party is the floor, not the ceiling. So for me, it's a matter of principle of coherence and also to correct on historical injustice to women and women leaders around the world. I really appreciate that that the idea that's not the floor. It's not. Let's say that it's not the floor because I think something you know I'm teaching a class right now called local advice advocacy for global change where we're looking at everything that's happening in in Pittsburgh and trying to link that to what's being discussed at the United Nations and something that comes up again again is this question of representation because we have unique to Pittsburgh our own challenges in terms of racial disparities and economic disparities. And I think that what we keep landing on is that representation is just the first step. Being at the table is just the first thing. Once you actually get there, you will have to face many of the same challenges that you faced in your process to get there. And so it's really important, I think, to keep at it. You're not resting on your laurels now that you're the first woman to serve in this. You're still fighting for for these principles that you've clearly committed to. But I want to move on. We also have some questions that have been submitted by people from the audience and also from students who are taking other courses. I add that we have actually another reason that we thought about doing this is we have someone who leads a study abroad course in Costa Rica for students in our Department of Modern Languages or her name is Teresa Tardio. She is a professor of Spanish and one of her students submitted a question that I wanted to share with you. That maybe you can have some insight on which is a lot of your work has to do with international peace, disarmament and nonproliferation and what ways do you think that the sustainable development goals and sustainable development implementers do a good job of addressing these really big issues and where do you think there's room for improvement. And the second part of that question that came up in the chat is, how do you work to address these goals regionally within your region you mentioned that you're all working together and that was submitted by Robert Summers burger who graduated in December 22 with a major in IPS and a minor in Hispanic studies. Jesus. It's a big question. Originally, you know, Central America. We are finally a mind zone free of mind of minds line from line minds. So there are no line minds in Central America and that's an achievement because we're free and the that was at the organization American States at that the effort and and we're free of line minds. Also, as the Western is pure and and relax speaking countries, you know, English and Spanish and some other countries as have French. We were, you know, we've signed a treaty of Platanol co. And they're not room for nuclear weapons in that in our nations. Also, Can you restructure the question again. Yeah, it was a really big question. And I think one of the things that I'm thinking of when I asked it also is another thing that I really appreciated during my time working with you at the UN is that you worked in partnership with diplomats from all of the countries in your region to address issues like the arms trade treaty because your region. Not your country, but your region is particularly affected by this topic. And I appreciated that I could go to, well now Ambassador Richardson, the ambassador of Jamaica to Japan and to Charlene who's in the mission of Trinidad and Tobago and you all work together to address these collective challenges and ensure that that representation happened at the UN, but there are limits to the sustainable development goals like you. What are those limits and Okay, I think that the understanding disarmament and development. It's It's very complex and not a lot of people have done research on that interlinkage. And when you look into a military spending and what can be achieved with those resources in terms of achieving the SG 16 or ensuring SG five, making sure that we have drinkable water. Portable water upstream downstream cleaner oceans. Those things, they do need a lot of research that needs to go into the implementation. But now everything is fragmented. Part of the art of diplomacy is putting those things into context and understanding that If we do not pay attention to, you know, the fact that women are spending women and girls are spending millions of hours just bringing portable water from their homes, because there's no clean water to drink. And they could be investing that time. It's in their studies in their own empowerment and emancipation. We weren't be able to achieve those, those goals. And to the SG, it's a roadmap roadmap that all of us need develop or developing countries or these developing countries as a guide to what do we do in order to get to development. And, and making, you know, bringing the SG is into these conversations is crucial. Because this is when you are, you're showing that you are engaged in a whole conversation in not just a siloed, because we just translate things into just disarmament or security. We are not able to make the linkages to other issues that are crucial. And for instance, and I spoke about this a little, it was looking into security to a general lens that is able to identify that the language and nuclear weapons or cyber security is hypermasculized. That also there's two women just professionals in cyber security at the time that the gender gap is huge when it comes to these issues that are relevant and current. And why do we have so many women in and girls in certain areas, but not in others, like cyber security or as the Secretary General of the UN or President of the General Assembly. But how can we make those decisions intentional? And I think my appointment was intentional in the sense that a point in the first female representative to the UN is a conscious decision of member states to appoint a woman because we need to create a pattern of uninterrupted male leadership of the UN. Not only, and thus, that allows me to ask for that same representation at the UN because we were able to do that. So we are coherent in our local and international discourse. I like that word coherency. I think it's really important and it's often we see a lot of incoherency in local and global policies. I want to get to a couple more questions because we're getting to the end. One person asks, what's the process for updating the charter so that it better represents the value of our times considering you mentioned the word that he and him were limitations from when the charter was written. I think that it requires all member states to pass that amendment to their own congresses. And the last amendment to the charter was done in 1963, I think, when the Security Council was enlarged from 11 to 15 members. It's a very tedious process and not all punctures ratify what they are signing to and especially requires the five permanent members to ratify that in their national constitutions. Sorry, for context for everyone, the five permanent members of the Security Council are Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. And the Security Council, even though it's only 15 members and those five members are the permanent members, they often have overarching decision-making priority setting things instead of the UN General Assembly. So the five members that Ambassador Chan is referring to are those countries. Just to be crystal clear. Those five permanent members need to ratify in their own constitution frameworks, the Congress and Senate, that amendment to the charter. So it's not an easy process and some people in the current international environment wouldn't like to address or not even getting to that because it's a risk. But it's a long process and believe me, not all countries when member states are aware or are aware of the cascade effect that being a permanent member has because it's translating positions of power in dividing your amount of five permanent members, the most important organs, funds and programs in the United States. So you always have an American in unison. You always have an American. Yes. Is this Russian still leading DPKO or is that still they have come to the reason I see that's right. I forgot that. So we have one more question is that we're noticing that some private global corporations are economically more powerful than nations. So how does the UN engage with private corporations that operate in many nations. So how are how are corporations represented or engaging at the United Nations. I think it depends, it depends on the processes and and even you know their discussions in which we have to claim or ask for relevance stakeholders to be involved in the discussion because this is organization driven by and and and that represented that represent the voices of the member states, that NGOs, not companies, not CEOs member states. But for us for Costa Rica, we need civil society, we need private sector, we need companies to address issues that required expertise. For example, cyber security, the cyber security. It's we are basically lagging behind a discussion that it has taken place internationally at private sector and member states are just addressing these issues now. And we we just, you know, we have just an open and the process for five years to address the peace and security aspects of ICTs. So in certain cases, we don't have that engagement philanthropy. We don't have that engagement. And it is true certain companies have had more resources or GDP than other states. And that's how it is, but but the voices that are represented and hurt here are those countries. Rydyn ni'n gwneud o'r nôl. Yeah, no, it's been really interesting when I when I mentioned I was the director of New York City's program and navigating the role of cities and UN discussions considering cities implement the majority of sustainable development goals was, you know, they're sometimes and it was really welcome but at the end of the day. And I don't disagree with this. It's member states who are the ones who vote and who have positions and we should be working with our national governments. But it's also interesting to navigate how, you know, civil society and other actors do have a role to play at the moment. So that's of course working with really supportive partners like you and your colleagues who are engaging with universities with cities with other other private sector actors. So we're coming we have one minute left. I want to conclude by asking you a really simple question but very difficult one which is, you know, you've worked on these issues for decades and sometimes it can be really, really challenging when you go in and just people aren't agreeing with the light at the end of the tunnel. What is what is what motivates you personally to keep going when you don't see that there's a resolution coming right away to the many different topics that you work on. Simple. I want to leave this world better than I found it. All right. But you know, I mentor young women. I specifically only have female interns for me to help me with my things with my engagements. I will tell you, you know, if we have to be, if you're, you know, taking your class and and implement or at the city level that makes a difference. If you have someone like you're doing that at the New York level, it means that someone is really paying attention to a commitment that was taken worldwide. I think that the administrators for that city will be higher because there was someone who was paying attention. So I'm that someone who's paying attention to things that are not that little that will make a difference for another woman in my shoes coming from the global south and engaging in the people with intelligence, integrity, competence, and also back doing it with grace and and and wisdom, certain kind of wisdom that we are in a tremendous deficit of. Well, I don't have anything to add after that. That was a perfect conclusion. And I, again, thank you so much for taking the time and also to our audience for taking the time to join us today. I'm hoping to make this part of a regular series because Ambassador Chen has so many wonderful colleagues who have their own insight to and I hope to bring them aboard starting in the fall. But for now, I hope everyone has a wonderful afternoon and thank you again, Ambassador Chen. I'll see you. Bye.