The United Nations University will organize the fifth regular session of its six-week long UNU International Courses (UNU/IC) at UNU Centre in Tokyo, Japan, from 17 May through 25 June 2004. The UNU/IC programme is designed for postgraduate students and young professionals (with a college or university degree) in various occupations in Japan and abroad who wish to pursue careers in international fields in public-service or private organizations, including the United Nations, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations as well as national foreign service organizations. The courses are designed to provide analyses of global issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The UNU International Courses are taught in a cooperative fashion by a team of scholars and practitioners comprising both in-house and outside experts. One of the unique features of the UNU/IC is that many of the practitioners come from United Nations organizations. Another important characteristic of the UNU/IC is the direct access to teaching faculty and the support provided to course participants by the UNU in-house academic staff who serve as academic counselors. The UNU/IC also draw on the research projects undertaken at the UNU Centre in Tokyo and at various UNU Research and Training Centres and Programmes (RTC/Ps) located around the world. The courses, though advanced in nature, are open to graduate students and professionals in various occupations who do not necessarily have to be specialists in the field.

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The four courses to be offered in May and June 2004 are:

1. United Nations System: International Civil Service and Contemporary Global Challenges;

2. Environment and Sustainable Development;
3. Human Rights: Concepts and Issues; and
4. International Cooperation and Development.
   

There will be eighteen 90 minute sessions per course, i.e., three sessions per week over the six week course period. The courses will involve considerable reading and study, but will be scheduled to allow students to have sufficient preparatory and review time for each session.

There will be three sessions each day (10:00-11:30, 14:00-15:30 and 17:00-18:30), and no one course may take the entire three sessions of one day. The final schedule will be made available in May 2004.

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The expected learning outcomes for UNU/IC participants include:

• Deep, sophisticated understanding of the subject at a high level
• Sharpened analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Intellectual interaction with a wide cross-section of lecturers and fellow participants from around the world from diverse academic and professional backgrounds.
• Social interaction with fellow participants from diverse cultural backgrounds.

The learning environment and facilities prepared for the UNU/IC include:

• Complementary theoretical and practical perspectives, from academic experts and practitioners, respectively.
• Guest lectures by leading specialists and practitioners in Japan and overseas, including those in the UN system.
• Access to the library and other resources of the UNU.
• Close contact with UNU in-house specialists in small-group settings.
• Opportunity to sample life in one of the world's great metropolises.

The UNU/IC will be administered and coordinated by the UNU Centre. Each of the courses will be handled by a responsible UNU academic officer (or a team of UNU academic officers), who also will teach at least part of the course. In principle, each course will be taught by a combination of the academic staff of the UNU Centre and the RTC/Ps, adjunct professors and other scholars involved in related UNU research projects, and representatives of various UN agencies and other internationally oriented organizations, as well as prominent professors from universities in different parts of the world and professional experts in relevant fields.

The tuition fee per course is Japanese yen 100,000 - about US$900 at the current UN exchange rate - or Japanese yen 150,000 (about US$1,350) for two courses. Those participants from developing countries** who take two courses and who can demonstrate a need for financial assistance are invited to apply for a limited number of UNU fellowships. (Those who wish to apply for a UNU fellowship should click here to download UNU Fellowship Application forms. Hard copies are available upon request.)

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The UNU has located a low-cost hotel facility in Tokyo to accommodate course participants from outside Tokyo and Japan.

Participants who successfully complete at least one course will receive a UNU Certificate of Completion at the UNU/IC closing ceremony. Requirements include written assignments and regular class attendance as well as active participation in class discussions.

Application 

[APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED FOR THE 2004 SESSION]
(Notice for the 2005 session will be posted from October 2004)

Ms. Wilma James, Training Assistant, United Nations University Centre
5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925, Japan
Tel: +81-3/3499-2811; Fax: +81-3/3499-2828; E-mail: james@hq.unu.edu

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The UNU International Courses Committee will review applications primarily based on the following criteria:

• Relevance and level of the applicant's educational and professional background;
• Linkage of the chosen courses with the applicant's future career plans;
• Demonstrated interest of the candidate in issues of global concern;
• Analytical capacity;
• Academic and professional performance; and
• English language skills.

UNU is committed to achieve geographical and gender balance and genuine diversity in all its research and teaching activities.

UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM: INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE AND CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Globalization is being accompanied and underpinned by international organizations that are moving beyond their peripheral roles in the interstate system to become important actors in world politics. Yet the sovereign state and power politics remain central to the international system. The United Nations, besides playing its traditional roles, is now being called upon to assume wide-ranging duties and maintain its key relevance.

This course introduces the participants to the United Nations System, its core components, the roles they play in the international system, and the UN System's work in the promotion of peace and maintenance of security. More specifically, the course offers a discussion of the historical evolution and contemporary significance of the United Nations by focussing on the concept, ideal and reality of the international civil service. It discusses and analyses the UN's roles in meeting some of the most pressing international problems from this perspective. The course also addresses proposals to reform the UN system to allow it to play a more constructive and crucial role in the creation and maintenance of international peace and security.

In the early years of the United Nations the international civil service was a novel, even a revolutionary, concept. The "great experiment" had survived the League of Nations and there was a renewal of the pioneer spirit. On the basis of independence, impartiality and public service this "new human category" would underpin an international society of rules, justice, progress and institutions. In a world of states, could this idealism ever be a reality?

• Introduction: the international system
• International organizations since the League of Nations
• Brainstorming session on "Global Government or Global Governance?"

• The 'classical' model of the international civil service
• The 'classical model' under threat
• Structural approaches to the international civil services

• The evolution of the Office
• Potential, controversies, and limitations of the Office
• An agent-structure approach to the SG

Week Four - International Civil Service and Peace and Security

• The international civil service and Peacekeeping
• The international civil service and conflict prevention

• The international civil service and transitional authorities (eg. Cambodia, East Timor, Kosovo)
• The international civil service and the promotion of democracy

• Multilateralism under challenge and the UN response: the Secretary-General's reform agenda
• Combining idealism with effectiveness; corporate culture; working with the private sector.

The course will be taught by the staff of the UNU Peace and Governance Programme and selected guest lecturers.

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

To increase the course effectiveness it is clearly advantageous to draw on institutional strengths of UNU as well as respond to issues highlighted in the UN system through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular MDG No. 7 - Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, the Water and sanitation, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity (WEHAB) Initiative proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the World Summit on the Information Society. This includes the integration of biophysical, social and economic issues, the active participation of local communities and strengthening of institutions in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development. To understand the environment and how people can interact with it in sustainable ways, this course will cover the key topical and policy issues of environment and sustainable development.

The course will draw on the institutional strengths of UNU as well as respond to issues highlighted in the UN system through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular MDG No. 7 - Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, the Water and Sanitation, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity (WEHAB) Initiative proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Case studies will also be used to provide insights into the social, political and economic aspects of a range of issues including land degradation, deforestation, desertification, air and water pollution, human disease, biodiversity issues and coastal-zone management. Participants will experience a cross-disciplinary approach to managing environmental problems. The course will focus on issues related to both renewable and non-renewable natural resource use, and the special challenges associated with addressing these problems in developing countries. The course will discuss the mitigation of major and cumulative environmental impacts which are necessary for decision-making about the environmental feasibility of development projects or policies. Analysis of global environmental issues, policies and governance at regional and global levels will be part of the curriculum.

Week One - Sustainable Urbanization

• Course overview
• Sustainable Industrial Development
• Human security - disaster mitigation
• Globalization and Urban environment transition

• Water quality assessment
• Global water crisis
• Governing International Waters

• Land degradation and sustainable livelihoods
• Agrodiversity
• Biodiversity issues

• Combating desertification
• Geomorphology-Environment-Society linkages
• Environment and Poverty alleviation

• Inter-linkages among the Multilateral Environmental Agreements
• Information and Society
• Information technology in education

• Global environment - monitoring
• Global environment - modeling
• Review Sessions

The course will be taught by the staff of the UNU Environment and Sustainable Development Programme and external experts from the field of environmental research and studies.

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HUMAN RIGHTS: CONCEPTS AND ISSUES

The concept of human rights has been essential to the development of democratic systems and international institutions. It has also been, and continues to be, at the centre of much heated debate concerning its scope, its validity in different cultural contexts, or the legitimacy of its application to justify infringements on nation states' sovereignty. The course is intended to provide participants with the knowledge and awareness to address human rights issues from a historical, comparative and global perspective in order to develop feasible solutions to current problems related to human rights.

The course will start with a thorough overview of the philosophical and legal basis of the concept of human rights, its historical development and its political implications, with strong emphasis on the different perceptions and definitions of human rights in different national, historical and cultural contexts. Based on this theoretical foundation, the course will review and evaluate the legal basis and political functions of human rights organizations. The general knowledge thus gained will then be applied and expanded by an analysis of past and current human rights practices, instruments and institutions with a focus on a number of central areas of human rights: globalization, women's and children's rights, and the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. Finally, the interlinkages between various human rights issues will be explored through a comparative regional analysis of human rights regimes in Africa and Asia.

Week One - Human Rights: Concepts and Norms

• Notions and concepts of human rights
• Human rights in historical and cultural contexts

• Historical development of international human rights instruments and organizations
• Institutional mechanisms within the UN system and evaluation of their effectiveness
• Roles of Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations and Experts

• Impact of Globalization on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
• International Trade, Transnational Corporations and Human Rights
• Case studies

• Norms, Institutions and Practices Concerning Women's and Children's Rights
• Linkages between International and National Perspectives
• Case Studies

• Norms, Institutions and Practices Concerning the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
• Current Issues, Case Studies

• Regional Human Rights Mechanism in Operation: The African System
• Human Rights Regimes in Asia
• Comparative Perspectives

• The course will be taught by in-house and external academics specializing in human rights issues as well as officials from human rights-related organizations.

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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The course particularly looks at the cross-cutting issue of globalization and the challenges of development strategy in an era of interdependence. It highlights the roles of different actors and the principles of best practice in international cooperation. It will also give substantial attention to political issues, questions of gender, culture and the social dimensions of development and to alternative approaches to development thinking, and it will emphasize the analysis of actual case studies. The course will also consider the challenges facing the key actors in the development assistance network, including the role of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods system and Japan's own development cooperation agencies.

Week One - Development Theory, History and Policy

• Welcome, Introduction and Overview
• Overview of Thought and Practice in Development
• The Evolution of International Cooperation

• Gender, Culture and Development
• Child Labor and Human Rights
• AIDS/HIV and Their Development Impact

• The Issues of Culture and Religion in Development
• Eco-social Visions of Alternative Development
• Culture and Social Movements

• Case Studies
• Analyzing the Project Cycle
• Why Do Projects Go Wrong?

• Trade and Development
• Developing Countries and the World Trading System
• Aid and International Cooperation

• Governance and Development Assistance
• Democratization and the Politics of Development
• International Relations and Development

• This course will be taught by the United Nations University staff and selected guest lecturers from academic organizations around the world as well as officials from international organizations and Japan's development cooperation agencies.