Last night the United Nations played host to a delegation from many lightyears away. Cast members and producers of the sci fi program Battlestar Galactica — and one host of The View — attended a panel discussion with the UN Department of Public Information’s Creative Community Outreach Initiative. The new outreach program aims to expose global issues through partnership with international film and television industries.

Actors Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, known to fans as Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin respectively, joined producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eicke, as well as moderator Whoopi Goldberg (… for some reason) in discussing human rights, terrorism, children and armed conflict, and reconciliation between civilians and faiths. The program has canvassed these themes repeatedly over its four seasons. The audience was shown clips from the show depicting the ostensible “good guys” torturing prisoners, executing collaborators, and resorting to military might over the rule of law. Each clip was followed by a discussion of real-world conflict and United Nations responses. The audience was composed largely of high school students.

Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under-Secretary-General for Public Information, said the panel showed “how skilful storytelling can elevate the profile of critical humanitarian issues.” The event offered the opportunity “to deliver a message about the many harsh realities that still exist worldwide.”

For its part, the UN contingent consisted of Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; Craig Mokhiber of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning; and Famatta Rose Osode, from the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the UN.

Olmos, a former UNICEF ambassador and an outspoken proponent of social justice for Latinos in the US, critized Mokhiber and the UN for “using the word ‘race’ as a cultural determinant”. He told the assembly, “There is only one race: the human race” before concluding with Admiral Adama’s terse sign-off when addressing his crew: “So say we all!” The audience gamely shouted it back to him.

The event precedes the series finale of the program, airing this Friday at 10:00PM, on the SCI FI channel in the US and on SPACE in Canada. (Canadian viewers can get caught up with season 4 online via SPACE’s website.)

Juan Carlos Brandt, chief of Nongovernmental Organizations in the UN’s Department of Public Information, joined Evan Solomon on Q this morning on CBC Radio to discuss the event. That interview is available here.