Giving presentations about the United Nations, traveling the globe to discuss international issues and writing lobby papers to advance agendas are routine commitments on the calendar of one New York nun.

Cecile Meijer, RSCJ, is the non-governmental organization representative for the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The organization shares information with the Sacred Heart community about crucial world issues and facilitates contributions of members’ experiences, reflections and analyses to the international policy debate, according to the Society of the Sacred Heart.

“I am from the Netherlands, but the type of international law I practiced [there] is not a big deal in this country,” Meijer said. “I knew I had to find something different from what I did in Holland, so I switched to another area of international law, which became human rights law.”

A lifelong Catholic, Meijer joined the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1986. She completed religious formation programs and worked in other ministries before returning to international law as a focus. Meijer became the NGO’s representative 13 years ago when the Society became a lobby group at the United Nations.

NGOs are private organizations characterized by humanitarian or cooperative objectives — as opposed to commercial — committed to international advancement of developing countries in numerous ways.

Thousands of NGOs exist around the world, each with its own mandates and expertise, according to Meijer.

“To be an NGO at the UN is a conscious choice,” Meijer said. “You work at a structural, international level with the UN Secretariat and governments to make the world a better place through the sharing of experience on the ground.”

The Sacred Heart NGO works with the Department of Public Information at the United Nations to disseminate information regarding items of critical importance to the congregation, including education, social justice and global interconnectedness.

“I go to a lot of meetings, whether it be with the General Assembly, the Security Council, or the Economic and Social Council,” Meijer said. “I keep up with some of the issues they are working on — what’s new or what’s not new.”

Meijer also collaborates with other NGOs, building coalitions with like-minded groups to strategize the most effective ways to share insight and knowledge with the 193 member countries of the United Nations.

“The Society is a member of several NGO committees, which is very exciting,” Meijer said. “That means you work with collective wisdom because, if we put all our wisdom together, we get a better product.”

Another pivotal piece of Meijer’s role is as communicator to the wider Sacred Heart community through both domestic and international travel and a designated website, sharing information about the work of the Society at the United Nations.

“I want people to make a link between local issues and global issues,” Meijer said. “Solutions that people may have come up with to solve local problems could also work on a global scale, and that is where I come in.”

Full text of position papers and other information about Meijer’s work at the United Nations is found on a tri-lingual website, www.sacredheartattheun.org.