About the UN Liaison Office

Why does MCC staff a liaison office at the United Nations?

MCC strives to be a voice for those with whom we work around the world.

The UN is the only international institution in which the most powerful nations are held accountable to the least powerful ones, the UN, at its best, acts as a set of moral principles and political mechanisms that mediate political, economic and military conflict in pursuit of basic well being for all.

The perennial problem of the UN is that it is too weak, not that it is too strong. Great danger does lie in the self-interest of its member states, which allow only what suits their national agenda.

MCC supports alternatives to domination and self interest as the basis for world order.

 Kirk Harris – Program Associate

A 2006 graduate of Whitworth University with a B.A. in International Studies, Kirk has traveled and studied social and political change in Africa and Latin America. Prior to coming to MCC, Kirk Harris worked for the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Nairobi, Kenya as a writer and researcher with an African ecumenical organization focused on Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Doug Hostetter – Director, MCC UN Liaison Office

Doug Hostetter is the Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Liaison Office in New York City. He has spent his life working for nongovernmental organizations in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Previously, he has been the Director of the New England Office of the American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, New York, and was the Resource Specialist for Peace for the United Methodist Office for the UN. Doug Hostetter is a Sociologist by training and has taught at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and Goshen College, Goshen, IN. Doug has been published widely on the issues of war, peace and nonviolence.