Jasmine Cintrón Soto ’25, Antje Hipkins ’24, and Ellis Clay ‘25 deliver statements to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee.
In October, Peace and Justice Studies and Political Science students Ellis Clay ’25, Antje Hipkins ’24, and Jasmine Cintrón Soto ’25 delivered statements to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee, a forum focused on global disarmament and international security.
Clay, Hipkins, and Cintrón Soto are interns at Dyson College’s International Disarmament Institute and, under the advisement of Professor Matthew Bolton, PhD, and Associate Professor Emily Welty, PhD, engage directly with the UN General Assembly First Committee and with civil society organizations.
Clay’s statement was drafted by students in Bolton’s Global Politics of Disarmament and Arms Control course. Through consultation with 70 civil society organizations and coalitions around the world, including two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Abdulla Al Suwaidi ’25, Finance (Lubin); Elena Bater ’25, Peace and Justice Studies; Victoria Klioutchnikov ’25, Global Marketing Management (Lubin); Ke Luo (Luke) ’24, Political Science; Gianna Matteo ’26, Arts and Entertainment Management (Lubin); Chandler Murphy ’24, Political Science; and Daniel Welden ’26, Political Science, helped prepare the testimony, which centered around youth inclusion and disarmament education.
Hipkins, whose internship placement was with Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, delivered a statement focused on gender, intersectionality, and disarmament that was co-signed by 17 civil society organizations.
Cintrón Soto’s statement focused on the “use [of] cyberspace for peaceful purposes.” Speaking with endorsements from ICT4Peace and eight other organizations, she emphasized, “The Internet and connected devices are being weaponized in ways that negatively impact on human rights, such as through surveillance, hacking, censorship, and intentional disruption of internet services and access.”
