Graham Thom, Refugee Coordinator 

Amnesty International Australia

“Human rights impacts occur when governments don’t take action. […] It’s going to be up to civil society to make sure that governments take action to ensure firstly that their people are supported when extreme climate events are happening. But if people are forced to flee, then governments are stepping up and looking after those people who are on the move, particularly once they’re forced to cross borders.”

Lucia Solano, Legal Adviser

Permanent Mission of Columbia

“As a Colombian diplomat, I wake up every day thinking we can make a difference, we can change the world. I am very idealistic in many ways. You have to believe it’s possible, and you have to talk. We have to listen to each other, we have to cooperate more.”

Dr. Macharia Munene, Professor 

United States International University

“Peace in itself is a contrived reality. People on all sides have to come together and work at it. Once they do that, then you have peace. The minute you stop working at it and assuming it’s there, then you lose it because it does not exist on its own.”

Ali Mustafa, Co-Chair 

UNDGC Civil Society Youth Representatives Steering Committee

“Young people should be on the table [in the process of decision-making]. Rather than be part of the problem, they can be part of the solution. They can tell the world what they want, what their grievances are, and how the world can help them. With their presence, the decision-making process can be more efficient. Intergenerational collaboration is really important.”

Philippa McDonald GAICD, Award-Winning Journalist

Australia

“Media freedom is about trust and accountability. Holding power to account. And it’s about the truth. You need a free media so the citizens of a country can know what’s going on and that can be about a whole lot of sustainable development goals. Never before has the world been in such peril when it comes to media freedom.”

Stephan Blanks, Advisory Board Member

Affinity Intercultural Foundation

“The Affinity Intercultural Foundation cultivates interfaith dialogue and seminars, communication, and interconnections. It’s an organization that links people who otherwise wouldn’t know each other. There are no preset agendas. People are free to talk, free to establish connections.”

“One of the problems we have in Australia is that Australia doesn’t take its international obligations seriously. What I would like to see is more international pressure on the Australian government to be more observant of human rights violations.”

Savita Pawnday, Executive Director

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

“For everything in the human rights sphere, it starts with expectations. It starts with norms and ideas. These should guide our behavior. Is every state fulfilling this responsibility to protect? Not really. But everyone should try. And the way they can do this is by supporting initiatives and resolutions.”

Sotirios Livas, General Manager

Gefira Foundation

“We should fight against hate speech by exploring all the negative ideologies and all the things that distress people and make them hate one another. We do this by bringing together people and showing them that all the negative things are in their minds, and not in one another.”

“We should help the UN. We should not ask what they are doing for us, but what we individually are trying to do for our planet, for society, and humanity.”

Dr. Reginald Nalugala, Professor

Tangaza University College

“Sustainable development can be found in peacebuilding, in the economic building of families and groups that are marginalized, and in developing laws. […] Building harmonies comes with international partnerships.”

Vonya Womack, Executive Director

Refugees Unknown Stories Untold

“It’s really important to have both government organizations and NGOs or civil society together to come up with different types of ideas and solutions to problems.”