UN delegate sees doors open to international career
Meet Australia's ambassador to the United Nations in 2015. He's Giridhar Ravishankar a QUT law student who is well on his way to achieving his dream of joining the UN as a diplomat.
Giridhar has just returned with the award for the Outstanding Delegate among the 250 delegates at the Asia Pacific Model United Nations Conference of the World Federation of United Nations Associations in Seoul.
The UN held the conference to enhance the experience of the world's future leaders by giving them the opportunity to operate on a global stage.
"It was a great exposure to meet future world leaders," Giridhar said.
"Studying law at QUT helped me to speak in public, debate and negotiate effectively with other UN delegates and lobby diplomats.
"I met a lot of UN representatives from around the world and shared diverse perspectives and ideas on how the world should achieve the millennium development goals by 2015."
He said there was one topic which united the gathering of young people.
"Even though it wasn't on the agenda, a topic brought to attention by the delegates was nuclear disarmament - young leaders from around the world want an end to nuclear weapons," he said.
Giridhar was part of the committee that discussed ways to reduce the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries.
"I believe in moral, ethical globalisation from the heart not from a business point of view in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals," he said.
"Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people live in areas that lack access to information and communication technologies which are the prerequisites for a knowledge-based economy."
He helped draft the committee's resolution with a host of provisions to improve education and provide low-cost computer and software to the world's poor.
Giridhar and his committee presented their resolution to the plenary sitting where it was accepted.
"We called for such initiatives as the development of operating systems in all languages, the provision of free or low-cost software to schools and women's organisations, and increased funding of incentives such as food and school supplies to promote increased school attendance."
Giridhar was awarded the Outstanding Delegate award by the Secretary General of the World federation of United Nations. He will now represent Australia at a UN-Security council gathering in Tokyo in December and will also travel to The Hague, and Moscow. He also plans on attending the inaugural Youth United Nations Assembly in Geneva.
