On March 26, 2024, Seton Hall University welcomes His Excellency, Mr. Dennis Francis, President of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, as part of the World Leaders Forum speaker series. Hosted by the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, the event will take place in the Chancellor’s Suite of the Bishop Dougherty University Center, beginning at 4:30 p.m. The University community and the public are invited to attend, but due to limited capacity, registration is required (https://events.shu.edu/event/33389-world-leaders-forum-president-of-the-78th-un-general-a) and the event also will be livestreamed here: https://www.shu.edu/diplomacy/wlf-dennis-francis.html.

A career diplomat, Ambassador Francis served as Trinidad and Tobago’s permanent representative to the UN. He is a strong advocate for human rights and gender equality. In his
recent address to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, he expressed deep concern about the impact that conflict and climate change are having around the world. “Human rights,” he said during the Council’s 55th session, “are universal and must be enjoyed by all in equal measure without exception.”
In June 2023, Francis was elected president of the General Assembly for a one-year term. As the UN’s primary policy-making body, the GA aims to maintain peace and security among its member states. In his role as president, he presides over high-level meetings, shapes the Assembly’s priorities and facilitates negotiations among UN member countries.

“We are proud to continue the tradition of welcoming influential world leaders such as Ambassador Francis to Seton Hall,” commented Courtney Smith, Ph.D., dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. “The World Leaders Forum gives our students a unique opportunity to learn about the challenges we face in our global society and to also consider how we as individuals have a role in addressing them.”

From 2012 until his retirement in 2016, Francis acted as Trinidad and Tobago’s senior advisor to the minister of foreign affairs on all multilateral-level matters, including climate change and the negotiations of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development. He also represented his home country at the World Trade Organization, the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO.

Francis is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He worked at the Trinidad and Tobago consulate in Toronto from 1988 to 1996, including as Deputy Counsel General, before becoming Deputy Director of International Economic and Trade Relations at the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1996 and Director of the European Affairs Division of the Ministry in 1997.

In 1999 he was appointed Ambassador-Designate to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti as well as High Commissioner to Jamaica. From 2004 to 2006 he served as Ambassador to the Dominican Republic before being appointed as Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations Office in Geneva. Between 2006 and 2011, he served as the non-resident ambassador to Austria and Italy.

ENGAGING WITH GLOBAL LEADERS
Francis’ address at Seton Hall marks the latest in a series of recent events featuring leading United Nations diplomats. In January 2023, Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, the President of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, was the featured speaker at the World Leaders Forum. In May of 2022,  His Excellency António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General delivered the commencement address at the University’s 166th baccalaureate commencement ceremony. The month before, United States Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield took part in a fireside chat hosted by the School of Diplomacy, answering questions from students about the United States’ agenda at the UN, and diversity within diplomacy and international affairs careers and gender equity.

In 2016, Samantha Power, then the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, addressed a rapt audience of students, faculty, staff and alumni the day after President Obama’s final State of the Union address. UN Secretaries-General Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan have also addressed the Seton Hall community.

The World Leaders Forum provides an opportunity for speakers to encourage dialogue in search of new avenues for building peace. As part of this signature program, the School of Diplomacy has welcomed Nobel Prize winners Leymah Gbowee and Nadia Murad, former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tony Blair, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, and former President of Poland Lech Walesa, among other distinguished visitors.

To learn more about the World Leaders Forum and register for the event, please visit: https://events.shu.edu/event/33389-world-leaders-forum-president-of-the-78th-un-general-a

ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF DIPLOMACY
An affiliate member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, the Seton Hall University School of Diplomacy and International Relations is a professional school offering graduate and undergraduate programs, online and in person. The School embraces Seton Hall’s long tradition of values-based education emphasizing student leadership, seeking to make a substantive impact in solving global challenges. With a diverse student body and faculty, intimate class sizes, and an agile curriculum, diplomacy students are colleagues, working on collaborative research, policy and field work and innovations alongside faculty. To learn more, please visit www.shu.edu/diplomacy.