At the Conference

Bob Rae is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York. He has served in this post since August 4, 2020. Since assuming this role has been active in all aspects of the work of the UN, culminating in his election to the Presidency of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for 2024‑25, the second Canadian to assume this role, and joins Lester Pearson (President of the General Assembly 1952‑53) and George Davidson (ECOSOC 1958‑59) as Canadians elected in their personal capacity to preside over UN Charter bodies.

Mr. Rae served as Premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments eleven times between 1978 and 2013. He has been honoured by the alumni of both bodies for his distinguished service.

Mr. Rae received his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto, an M.Phil in Politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College in Oxford University, and graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1977. He was a Lecturer in the Faculty of Business (1976‑77) and also served as assistant to the Canadian General Counsel of the United Steelworkers from 1975 to 1977. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in February in 1980 and was named a Queen’s Counsel in 1984.

Mr. Rae has worked with three law firms, Sack Charney Goldblatt and Mitchell (1977 to 1982), Goodmans LLP (1996 to 2007), and Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP (2014 to 2020), each drawing on his skills as a scholar, an advocate, a mentor and a mediator. Among other notable assignments, Mr. Rae led the restructuring of the Canadian Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and chaired the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He also wrote “Lessons to be Learned” on the Air India bombing, and “Ontario a Leader in Learning” - a study of the Ontario higher education system. He was also named to the Security and Intelligence Review Committee by then Prime Minister Chrétien. He served as the Chief Negotiator for the nine First Nations that are members of the Matawa Tribal Council in Northern Ontario between 2013 and 2018.

Mr. Rae’s return to Parliament for the constituency of Toronto Centre in 2008 led to his appointment as Foreign Affairs spokesman for his party, and to his election as interim Leader in 2011. From 1996 to 1999 and between 2013 and 2020, he taught law, politics, public policy at the University of Toronto, and was a partner and senior counsel to the law firm OKT LLP, specializing in indigenous law and constitutional issues. Mr. Rae is a Fellow of the Forum of Federations (an organization he co-founded in the 1990’s), Massey College, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

In October 2017, Mr. Rae was appointed as Canada’s Special Envoy to Myanmar. In this role, he engaged in diplomatic efforts to address the crisis in the country’s Rakhine State and wrote the report “Tell Them We’re Human” in 2018. In March 2020, he was named by Prime Minister Trudeau to be Canada’s Special Envoy on Humanitarian and Refugee Issues. This led to his report “A Global Pandemic Requires a Global Response”, which was made public shortly before his appointment as Ambassador to the UN.

Mr. Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and has numerous awards and honorary degrees from institutions in Canada and around the world. In addition to several government reports, he is the author of six books, “From Protest to Power”, “The Three Questions”, “Exporting Democracy”, “Canada In The Balance”, “What’s Happened to Politics”, and “Reflections on a public life (The Symons Lecture”). His hobbies include music, reading, and writing, he loves tennis, golf, and fishing. He is married to Arlene Perly Rae, a writer and public advocate on issues affecting women and children. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.

Source: https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/un-onu/new-york-rep.aspx?lang=eng

Graeme Simpson is the Principal Representative of Interpeace (NY) and Senior Peacebuilding Adviser at Interpeace, a global peacebuilding organization headquartered in Geneva and working in multiple conflict and immediate post-conflict zones around the world. Previously Graeme Simpson held the positions of Interpeace Director of Policy and Learning, and then Director of Interpeace USA.

In September 2016, Graeme was appointed by the UN Secretary General as the Independent Lead Author on the UN Security Council-mandated “Progress Study” on Youth, Peace and Security, under UN SCR 2250 (presented to the Security Council in April 2018 and to the UNGA in September 2018).

He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Law at Columbia University School of Law in New York City, where he has taught a seminar on transitional justice and peacebuilding for the past 17 years, and was appointed as a visiting Professor at the African Leadership Center at Kings College in London (2021-2023).

Graeme Simpson has an LLB and an MA in History from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was co-founder (1989) and from 1995-2005 Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), in Johannesburg, South Africa. During this time he also served as Civilian Adviser to the Minister of Safety and Security in the first Mandela cabinet, and in that capacity was one of the primary authors of the South African National Crime Prevention Strategy (May 1996).

From 2005-2007, Graeme Simpson was the Director of Country Programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), headquartered in New York City, and in that capacity oversaw the organization’s work on Transitional Justice in more than fifteen countries globally. Thereafter, he was the Director of Thematic Programs at the ICTJ for two further years (till November 2009), leading work on Prosecutions, Reparations, Truth-Seeking, Security System Reform, Memorials, Gender Justice, and a program on Peace & Justice.

Graeme Simpson serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) published by Oxford University Press. Simpson was also co-editor of a Special Issue of the International Journal on Transitional Justice (IJTJ) on Youth and Transitional Justice (March 2022). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Peacebuilding Research and Education Program (PREP) at New York University; for four years to May 2023, sat on the International Advisory Committee of the Knowledge Management Platform for Security and the Rule of Law (KPSRL) based in The Hague, the Netherlands; is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia University School of Law; is on the Advisory Board of Impact Peace, at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego; and is a member of the Advisory Board of CDA, Boston. Until 2016 he served as a member of the International Advisory Board of The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University, Northern Ireland.

Graeme Simpson has published widely in books and journals covering a wide range of issues and has been centrally involved in national and international civil society organizations for more than 30 years. He has worked as a consultant to both governmental and non-governmental organizations in various countries, as well as to various UN Agencies and Entities.

Source: https://www.interpeace.org/member/graeme-simpson/#

Hikaru Wakeel Hayakawa is a Caribbean and Japanese American social entrepreneur, climate justice activist, and Indigenous Studies researcher.

He is the Executive Director and a founding director of Climate Cardinals, one of the world’s largest youth-led climate organizations, mobilizing 16,000 volunteers across 134 countries. He developed its signature translation program in partnership with Translators Without Borders and Google Cloud. In 2023, Climate Cardinals became one of the first youth-led organizations to secure six-figure funding from Google’s philanthropic arm.

Hayakawa represents Climate Cardinals on UNESCO’s Youth Climate Action Network Steering Committee and has spoken at events hosted by UNESCO, Columbia University, Google, Deloitte, and the Smithsonian. His work has been featured in Forbes, Grist, and Teen Vogue.

A magna cum laude graduate of Williams College, he earned highest honors in Global Studies for his thesis on the global Indigenous rights movement. He has worked with the UN Environment Programme, the Ecologic Institute, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation.

He has been recognized as a Global Student Prize finalist and named to the Grist 50 (Class of 2024) and American Councils' 50 Alumni for 50 Years.

Source: https://www.climatecardinals.org/hikaru-wakeel-hayakawa