About
In 2015, all 193 member-states of the United Nations voted to adopt the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 goals were described by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as “a roadmap to ending global poverty, building a life of dignity for all and leaving no one behind.”
But with the global spread of Covid-19, the UN is addressing a unique humanitarian crisis while adapting its responses to the existing SDGs.
This panel of experts will examine the UN’s efforts with a special focus on employment and labor protection issues.
"The UN Sustainable Development Goals During Coronavirus" is part of the virtual discussion series Global Fragility and Pandemic: Insight from Asia and Notre Dame, a collaboration between the Liu Institute and Notre Dame International. Read about the series here.
This panel discussion will be held through a Zoom webinar. It will be held at 8:30 p.m. China Standard time.
Moderator and Panelists
MODERATOR
Jonathan Noble
Senior Assistant Provost for Internationalization, Notre Dame International, University of Notre Dame
Jonathan Noble leads Notre Dame International’s global research, international partnerships and advancement, and serves as the University’s regional leader for Asia and Europe. As such, Noble is responsible for the regions’ academic affairs, research strategies and programs, gateways and centers, institutional partnerships, and operational effectiveness.
As assistant provost for Asia between 2012 and 2017, Noble was the founding director of the Beijing Global Gateway and founder of the Greater China Scholars Program. He served as the advisor to the provost’s office for Asia initiatives between 2007 and 2011, during which he assisted in the establishment of the Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Studies and its Asia Leadership Forum.
Noble’s research focuses on contemporary Chinese culture and society. He holds a Ph.D. in East Asian languages and literatures from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in East Asian studies from the College of William & Mary.
PANELIST
Diane Desierto
Associate Professor of Human Rights Law and Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
Diane Desierto’s research publications focus on overlapping areas of public international law and dispute settlement; international economic law and development and its structural, normative, and interdisciplinary intersections with international human rights and humanitarian law; comparative constitutional and other public law; maritime security, and the evolving regional law of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Desierto is also active as lead/collaborating counsel in human rights and public interest-related economic disputes in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, including in matters successfully litigated before the UN Human Rights Committee, the International Criminal Court, the Philippine Supreme Court, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Desierto has held law faculty appointments at the University of Hawaii and Peking University School of Transnational Law. She is an alumna of Yale Law School, the University of the Philippines, the Academie du droit de l’arbitrage in Paris, and the Xiamen Academy of International Law in China.
PANELIST
Yifeng Chen
Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for International Law, Peking University
Yifeng Chen is an associate professor at the Peking University Law School and assistant director of the Peking University Institute of International Law. Before joining the Peking University, He was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki from 2010-2013 and continues to serve as a docent in international law at the University of Helsinki. He was a visiting scholar to the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, and others. His fields of interest include history and theory of international law, international organizations, international and comparative labour law.