Annual Review 2017/18

Celebrating the students promoting world peace

The Nobel Prize has celebrated world-changing excellence for more than a century, with many winners having strong links to the University of Edinburgh. In 2017, the Nobel Peace Prize added two more.

ICAN campaigning in New York, USA
ICAN campaigning in New York, USA

It was Edinburgh Law School graduate Mr Daniel Högsta who took the call from Mr Olav Njølstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. They had 10 minutes, he said, to prepare for the public announcement that the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) – the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Daniel worked for – had just won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

“I wish I could say it was a totally smooth, professional operation to get our press release out, set up the press conference,” says Mr Högsta. “But it was just manic.”

Within the hour, in an Edinburgh café, Ms Dagmar Topf Aguiar de Medeiros, a PhD student in the Edinburgh Law School, received a text message from her mother. It read ‘You guys actually won it’.

“I immediately looked it up online to see if it was true”, says Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros. “I was so excited.”

At the heart of the campaign

Daniel Högsta
Daniel Högsta

At the time, Mr Högsta was ICAN’s network coordinator. It was his job to manage relationships with around 500 partner organisations, ensuring everyone had the most appropriate information to lobby the United Nations (UN) to secure the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros was a member of the Scottish delegation that spent 10 days in New York working with ICAN to convince world leaders to ratify the treaty. It was passed on 7 July 2017, making it the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize announcement followed in October.

For both Mr Högsta and Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros, the journey began in the University’s Old College.

In 2012, Mr Högsta was on the accelerated LLB programme for graduates in the Edinburgh Law School, but unsure of his next steps. That changed when Professor James Harrison, a lecturer in public international law, suggested Mr Högsta seek an internship with a small NGO to gain practical experience of the sector.

“I’m indebted to him for implanting that idea,” says Mr Högsta. After sending out several applications, ICAN offered him an internship at their Geneva office after graduation.

The journey to Oslo

ICAN’s goal was the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Mr Högsta soon went from intern to communications assistant, then campaign assistant. In 2014, he became the network coordinator. By the time of the UN negotiations in 2017, it was an integral role.

“We all had to take responsibility,” he says. “I was in a unique position in that I could see all the moving parts, from our lobbying at the UN to the work that our campaigners were doing in capitals. It was a very fulfilling and enjoyable position.”

The signing was, he says, “emotional”. Then came the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the ceremony in Oslo, the audience was a mixture of Nordic royalty, parliamentarians, and scores of campaigners that Mr Högsta had spent the last several years working with to secure the treaty. “It felt like a huge validation,” he says. “To be deemed worthy of such a high honour and knowing what it would mean for the stature of our organisation; that was very energising.”

Mr Högsta joins a distinguished line of Edinburgh alumni, staff and associates – such as Professor Peter Higgs and Sir Alexander Fleming – associated with the Nobel Prizes. In 2017 alumnus Dr Richard Henderson jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Professor Michael Rosbash – who was a researcher at Edinburgh in the early 1970s – shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

I know that I can have an influence. I never would have thought I would have had a part in a Nobel Peace Prize by the age of 25.

Ms Dagmar Topf Aguiar de Medeiros

Making connections

Dagmar Topf Aguiar de Medeiros
Dagmar Topf Aguiar de Medeiros

Like Mr Högsta, Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros’ association with the Nobel Prize began with a recommendation from within Old College’s walls. She arrived in Edinburgh for her PhD in 2016 and was keen to work with voluntary organisations. Her supervisor, Dr Kasey McCall-Smith, suggested United Nations House Scotland, a civil society organisation.

Her first event was on nuclear weapons, held at the Scottish Parliament. She made connections and, bolstered by her legal training, she was invited to be part of the Scottish NGO delegation that would assist ICAN’s negotiations at the UN.

In June 2017, Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros worked 14-hour days in New York lobbying, presenting and reporting. “It was a whirlwind,” she says.

She feels very much part of the successes that followed. “ICAN encourages all its partner organisations to take pride in and feel ownership of the Nobel Peace Prize,” she says. She was able to hold a copy of the prize at a celebratory event in London. “Because of this and the work I contribute locally to the disarmament campaign, I feel like I’m part of the movement that got us this treaty and the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Ms Topf Aguiar de Medeiros is teaching while completing her PhD and finding her time with ICAN is having an impact in her classes.

“Often when students ask questions about treaty ratification, what the role of NGOs is, I find it valuable to have these experiences to demonstrate and answer the questions,” she says. “I know that I can have an influence. I never would have thought I would have had a part in a Nobel Peace Prize by the age of 25.

Video

Watch a short film by ICAN.