TOYING WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW

For a field that deals with some of the most serious issues in world affairs, international law souvenirs, merchandise, and memorabilia frequently engage with the whimsical and child-like, most obviously in merchandise aimed at raising money for UNICEF – the United Nations Fund for Children. Children’s toys and games such as Barbies, teddy bears, Rubik’s cubes, dress-ups, aim to raise money for UN works, while encouraging children to engage with the work of the UN. Some of these items make obvious connections between the UN and children – the teddy bear and the Miffy toy, for example.

Others call to the adult collector, like the Eleanor Roosevelt Barbie, created to honour her involvement in the drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Other items sit at a more complex intersection – the Rubik’s cube for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is striking in that it places the complex issues at the heart of the SDG on a toy that is notoriously difficult to solve – perhaps an unintended ironic commentary on the SDG themselves.

Likewise, the toy Peacekeeper’s helmet sits in tension with the historic failures of UN peacekeepers to protect the vulnerable.