Moderation:

Stephanie Fenkart, Director, International Institute for Peace, Austria
Jakob Wöllenstein, Director, Country Office Belarus, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Germany
Yauheni Preiherman, Director, Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, Belarus

Panelists:

Angela Kane, Vice-President, International Institute for Peace (IIP), former UN Under-Secretary-General, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs
Mona Ali Khalil, Founder and Director, MAK LAW INTERNATIONAL, Affiliate of the Harvard Law School Programme on International Law and Armed Conflict, former Senior Legal Officer in the UN Office of the Legal Council (UNOLC)
Olaf Wientzek, Director, Multilateral Dialogue Geneva Office, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Germany
Aliaksandr Biachorau, Professor, Belarusian State University; former Director for International Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belarus

Content:

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world more than any event since World War II. Among other impacts, it has had profound geopolitical implications for the United Nations and the Security Council – the bedrock of peace and security in the international legal and political order. To better understand these impacts and implications, the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, KAS Belarus, and the IIIP co-hosted a virtual panel discussion as part of The World HandCOV’d series.

This online event will address the following questions:

How successful has the UN been in adopting a global Covid-19 response? Why has the UN Secretary General’s effort to promote a global ceasefire amid the pandemic remained largely unheard?
How has the coronacrisis affected UN peacekeeping missions?
Do Member States see the UN, at 75 years old, fit for contemporary security challenges?
Does civil society have a role to play in supporting the UN and boosting multilateralism at the time of prevailing unilateral actions?