On the Human Rights Council General Assembly floor.

Throughout out the weeks leading up to the Human Rights Council’s first meeting, the buzz was about the United States. At many of briefings with U.N. officials and NGO agents in the weeks leading up to the first Council meeting, we discussed whether the U.S. would make an appearance at the conference at all. But, it really didn’t matter. The U.S. was definitely a presence, if even by its absence.

The United States issued its first statement on the floor of the General Assembly Tuesday, in response to the formal speech given earlier in the day by the Cuban delegation. Not surprising… the Cuban official statement was scathing and obviously directed to hit the United States in the solar plexus.

The speech opened--

~~Today is a particularly symbolic day. Cuba is a founding member of the Human Rights Council and the United States is not. Cuba was elected with the overwhelming support of 135 countries; more than two-thirds of the United Nations General Assembly, while the United Stated did not even dare to run as a candidate. Cuba relied on the secret vote for the same reason that the United States was afraid of it... The absence of the United States is the defeat of lies, it is the moral punishment for the haughtiness of an empire.~~

The United States delegation requested a right to reply to Cuba and the right was granted at the end of Tuesday’s session. Several of the students were in the gallery (and only about 50 other delegates were in the General Assembly hall at the time) when the students heard the delegate from the U.S. say:

~~... Cuba, rather than explain how it intends to comply with its pledge (to protect human rights), chose instead to engage in gratuitous and unfounded attacks against the United States. Perhaps it is because those pledges sound hollow, especially in the ears of the Cuban people… I want, however, to make one thing clear. The American people need no one else to speak for them, particularly officials of an autocratic government.~~

Students listening from the press gallery.

Some in the press think Cuba was coaxed into making these strong statements against the United States by other discontented countries. Regardless, it made for a lively close to the second day of the general assembly—and the elephant in the room had spoken.

Today was a big day for our group. We were off to attend a Kofi Annan press conference.

We arrived early. We had to pass through a metal detector especially set up for this occasion outside of our usual press conference room, Salle III. The room was full with security guards, both in uniform and suits.

Right in the middle, you can see Liz Lamb-Ferro waiting for the press conference to begin.

There were many more journalists in the press room than usual--about two hundred. I went right up front with the other photographers, so I was about 10 feet from Kofi.

This was the vantage point for the students. You can see the backs of some of their heads.

Annan walked into the room and immediately announced some breaking news about a discussion he had with the Iranian delegation about nuclear arms. He then discussed other issues of human rights.

Because we attained only temporary and auxiliary press badges, we aren’t allowed to ask questions at formal news conferences. But, our group had a burning question (about the chances of a woman secretary general being elected to take over next year).

So, before Annan arrived, I asked my journalist pal, Hedayat Abdel Nabi from the Kuwait news agency, to ask our question. She told me she was preparing to ask about the killing of Palestinian children--a decidedly more pressing issue. But, when it came time for questions, (she was the second person called on) she asked her question AND ours. The students were thrilled. And Kofi’s response was worth writing about (watch this space for another student publication!).

Below are some of the close-up photos I took of Kofi.

One of the reporters asked who he favored in the World Cup... Ghana, bien sur.

While much of the international human rights community is fixed on the happenings at the Palais des Nations, the rest of the world (at least on this side of the planet) is watching la coup du monde.

It’s like the Superbowl, the World Series, all the year`s tennis championships and the Olympics rolled into one. Unless you`ve traveled to Europe during la coup du monde, it`s hard to imagine the intensity this global sports competition generates. It goes on for several weeks with three matches played each day (until the teams are whittled down, of course).

Riding on the tram through the middle of town, last week, I found myself face-to-face with coup du monde fans from Portugal. About 50 people were gathered dressed mostly in red with red flags around their necks or holding the flags above their heads. They marched along side the tram singing and shouting. Most of the supporters were young, about 15 to 30 years old and there were as many women as men in the group. As they shouted at the tram, (something I didn`t understand) they pounded on the windows. Some folks in the tram also shouted back in support. A few stops further into town, a group of about 100 blocked the tram line. Those of us on the tram didn`t mind the inconvenience because their exuberance was fun to observe from the safety of inside the tram.

I decided to observe a match first-hand last night. England was playing Swede... apparently the Swedes had the upper hand, because England hadn`t beaten them since 1968... Everybody knows that, right?? I decided not to go to an upscale restaurant, the Press Bar at the UN, or even a pub… but I could have observed the match at any of these venues. I trekked over to a large dirt parking lot in the middle of the residential part of town. I wanted to be where the working-class person or poor student in Geneva enjoyed the sport.

Approximately 2,500 people gathered at about 9 p.m. The crowd was decidedly more men than women this time, with a spattering of children. The ages ranged from about 15 to 35. The dirt parking lot was surrounded by about 40 tents advertising food and, of course, beer and drinks. The food ranged from Afgani delicacies to pizza. The beverage of choice was decidedly beer.

The game had barely started when I saw two blokes shouting, then wrestling, then throwing punches. A fellow in a dark shirt quickly broke up the altercation.

The game is easy to follow and rarely, if ever, interrupted by commercials. When either team scored, the crowd erupted equally with joy or distress. Flags were waved and drinks were lifted in a toast.

After about two hours of play, the game tied 2-2... but it was much more exciting than the score reflects.

Arguably, one of the best excuses to drink beer and shout at the top of your lungs available in the world today.

GENEVA--Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, said she listened all day yesterday to the Human Rights Council speeches and never once heard the environment mentioned.

“We need to learn to think holistically,” she said. She called for more attention to the environment at human rights sessions like this. Conversely, she wondered why so few human rights advocates do not attend environmental meetings. “Environmental rights are human rights issues,” she said.

The Nobel Peace Prize judges in Norway realized peace was contingent on managing resources equitably Maathai said. “Conflicts are over access and control of resources… although nobody says that."

It was serendipity.

I met a woman from the BBC at a book signing. She told me about an online news organization in Geneva looking for English writers--especially now with the opening of the Human Rights Council in just a few days.

Jonathan Bongard arrived at the news organization the next day to investigate. Within a week, he was published online on the Human Rights Tribune. After I met with the director of InfoSud, Daniel Wermus, we determined our student journalists could help cover stories during the Human Rights Council. Now, the students are pitching and submitting stories to this online Geneva publication.

Daniel Wermus, Director of InfoSud (far right).

The philosophy of InfoSud, which is the parent organization of the Human Rights Tribune, suggests Geneva is an ideal place to observe and write about global changes. Since 1988, this news organization has addressed these changes by publishing stories much of the world media simply ignores.

Here`s a link to Jonathan`s first publication… look down toward the bottom.
http://www.humanrights-geneva.info/sommaire.php3?lang=en

For the last few days, Jonathan and I have been sitting in on the Human Rights Journal`s news meetings. While most of the eight at the meetings parler français, they will occasionally break into English for my and Jonathan`s benefit. It`s been a thrill listening to them discuss world politics right in the middle of this historic Human Rights Council session. They are all seasoned journalists working for various other Swiss and French news agencies as well as the Human Rights Tribune.

Today the question of who should be the next Secretariat General of the UN. One of the French-speakers asked, “why not Bill Clinton.” Intéresser, ce n'est pas?

Today was the opening day of the first session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The air around the U.N. was thick with humidity but static with electricity. U.N. guards had appeared to multiply exponentially over the weekend. A gross of new metal were detectors had been ordered and graced every entry to the Palais.

The students were giddy with excitement. Three of them had secured positions with NGOs so they could attend the week’s festivities. One of them, Maren Anderson was working for a French NGO translating all the official statements (about 10 hours of speeches!) into French. The journalism students were prepared to spend the day in the press gallery but ended up chasing down stories both in and out of the General Assembly Hall.

Way up there at the top row of the Assembly Hall are Andrea Stanaway and Valerie Smith.

Emma Lugenbill landed an exclusive interview with the President of the Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso de Alba, Ambassador from Mexico. She had been in constant communication with de Alba’s press secretary since Friday. Finally, the press secretary found seven minutes for our Emma.

Jennifer Henricksen stumbled upon a spirited protest outside of the U.N. where about 30 people from the Ogaden region of Ethiopia hoped the Council would hear their plea. Jenn was ready to listen.

This evening the Swiss government hosted a gala event on the grounds of the Palais. Here, the students were on the lookout for more stories.

Jonathan Bongard sought an interview with the member of the Japanese delegation.

Emma Lugenbill met her hero, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai.

And Jenn Henrichsen and Emma introduced themselves to Jan Eliasson, President of the United Nations General Assembly and the Ambassador from Sweden.

The Human Rights Council will be in session here in Geneva for the next two weeks… Stay tuned.

TRANSPORTATION IN GENEVA

We no longer plop ourselves in the car and motor off. Here in Geneva our primary mode of transportation happens to be PTD... personalized transportation devices... or our feet. While no one has a pedometer, we have guessed that we walk about 5 miles on an average day and some days up to 10 miles. (Sorry, I don't yet seem to have mastered how to translate to kilometers.)

Our other most prevalent form or transport is the bus. The number 3, to be exact. Its last stop is our humble abode, the Cité Universitaire. It takes us to the center of town or the Gare de Cornavin (rail station) in about 15 minutes. From there, we can get just about anywhere in town.

Many Genevoise also enlist people-powered and motorized bikes to get around town. I have been often surprised to see women peddling their bikes in high heels and it's not unusual to see full-skirted women tooling around town seated on a Vespa scooter.

My favorite way to get from one side of the lake to the other is by bateau (boat). For the price of a bus ride, you can climb aboard one of the small city transport boats and take the scenic route from one bank to the other.

Not a bad commute...

Maren Anderson and Jenn Henrichsen after a long day at the U.N.

I caught this shot of Emma Lugenbill chatting with Hans Blix after she attended a seminar on Weapons of Mass Distruction. She asked him what young people in the United States could do to address this growing problem. You'll have to read one of her articles to see what he said.

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Valerie Smith is highly informed and passionate about the plight of Palestine refugees. Here she is questioning a representative of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)

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Jennifer Henrichsen, a student deeply interested in conflict negotiation and peace journalism, attended a book launch (along with several others) for "Kings of Peace, Pawns of War" by Harriet Martin. The book is based on interviews with six senior conflict mediators. Here, Jenn and Maren Anderson enjoying a chat with Martin as she signs their books.

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I caught this shot of Liz Lamb-Ferro, Emma Lugenbill and Maren Anderson plugging away at stories in the United Nations library.

In addition to being the center of humanitarian aid for the United Nations, Genève is also a spectacularly beautiful central European town.

One of the city's most famous sites is Lake Genève and its stunning Jet d'Eau. This fountain is one of Europe's tallest, shooting 130 gallons of water 390 feet into the air every second at 120 mph (wind conditions permitting). Tourists need to be careful not to venture out too far... I know, I've been too close when the wind changed. The water is aerated on the way up by a special nozzle, making it appear white.

Students Jenn Henrichsen, Andrea Stanaway, Maren Anderson and Jonathan Bongard (he's not really a student... he graduated this spring.) enjoying the sites from the other side of the lake.

Our first official visit as guests of the U.N. Information Service was with the International Committee on the Red Cross/Red Crescent(see blog below).

In addition, we`ve met and been briefed by agency officials from more than two dozen organizations—below is a brief sampling of the what we learned about specific United Nations agencies.

(I`ve included in parentheses the country of origin for each of our speakers. I found it interesting we met no one from the United States.)

OCHA—The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: This organization was described to us as the one entity that brings all the other U.N. humanitarian aid agencies together during a disaster. The Advocacy and External Relations Officer, Madeleine Moulin (Swiss), told us that in addition to this coordination, OCHA also deals with fundraising for the victims of natural disasters. She said, at the time, she was working on a specific appeal for the victims of the Indonesian earthquake.

We had an opportunity to speak informally with OCHA. (Pictured: Liz Lamb, OCHA officer Moulin, Jenn Henrichsen and Jonathan Bongard.)

UNHCR—The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Here we spoke to Pablo Mateu (El Salvador), Chief Reintegration and Local Settlement Section. Mateu demonstrated the deep passion he had for his work by routinely bringing his hand to his heart to describe how his work touched him to the core. He told us that at other U.N. agencies, officers often deal with people in the aggregate… but at UNHCR they are dealing directly with people. "It`s personal," he said. He also smiled when he told us Angelina Jolie is the spokesperson for UNHCR even though most of the (uninformed) press and nearly all people think she represents UNICEF. "Everybody knows UNICEF," he said, "but they don`t know about us... because our acronym can`t easily be transformed into a word." Seems the U.N. officials also recognize the power of BRANDING.

Mateu chatting with our group outside of the UNHCR offices.

DDA—Department for Disarmament Affairs: Mr. Zalenski (Polish) gave our group a quick but detailed history of the nuclear test ban treaty. He described the working of the treaty as one of consensus. This notion of consensus was a running theme throughout our briefings. Nearly all the U.N. agencies spoke to us about consensus building. We discussed this after several briefings. We determined this stress on concensus maybe both a strength and weakness for this vast international operation. Zalenski also told us about the sensitive detection mechanisms used to determining if a country has nuclear weapons or if it has tested any nuclear weapons. He said the mechanisms are so highly refined they can detect nuclear material in dust.

OHCHR—Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Enrico Muratore (Italian) was a Human Rights Officer. He had worked in the field in Angola, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo so he was well-versed on Human Rights abuses and the reporting of these abuses. He told us directly, "Human rights is not in Geneva, it`s in the field." He described to us how the first Human Rights Commission was developed right at the time of the Rwandan genocide. He said this Rwandan human rights offense was a test of the new commission. He added he thought the commission had failed its first test.

UNCTAD—United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: Again we heard about consensus building. Christine Cattell (Canadian) was the Public Relations Officer for the organization. She told us her agency`s primary focus was to build up the 77 countries underdeveloped countries in the world. Research on trade and development is UNCTAD`s primary concern.

WFP—World Food Program: The WFP is the largest humanitarian food program in the world today. Simon Pluess (French), the WP Public Information Officer, told us his organization is responsible for food aid around the globe—but only after a request is made from the government of the hunger victims. He described the focus of one of the U.N. Millenium Development goals, which is to reduce hunger in the world by 50 percent by 2015. How an agency approaches famine, Pluess explained, is a complex issue that can impact local economics as well as hunger victims. "What you don`t want to do is disturb the local food market," he said. He was blunt when he told us that one week of agricultural subsidies in the developed world would be enough money to provide food aid for one year in the undeveloped world.

CITES— Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna: CITES is basically a treaty. Stephen Nash (Canadian), from the CITES Capacity Building Unit, told us the United States is the biggest importer and exporter of wild flora and fauna. He gave us a comprehensive account of how an animal or plant becomes endangered--and described another area of consensus building. He said because it can be subjective, but the countries that are party to this treaty ultimately decide what is endangered and what is not.

This furry fellow was used by Nash to describe issues of illegal transporting of endangered species.

UNISDR—United Nations Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction: This agency is actually a think-tank in Brussels. Michele Cogghiglia (Italian), Associate Expert for the Information Management Group, told us there has been a five-fold increase in natural disasters between the 1960s and the 1990s. He said his organization does nothing to reduce disasters, but it works to reduce the risk of disasters. He added that "disaster reduction is a sustainable development issue."

IOM—International Organization for Migration: The IOM is not a U.N. agency, but an intergovernmental body, we were told by Jean-Philippe Chauzy (French), Head of Media and Public Information. He added: "Migration is always a balancing act of opening the door by not depleting the population of the other (country)." Migration is often motivated by a peoples' quest to imporve the life of the following generation. "People usually migrate for their children," he said.

Don`t worry, there will not be a test on these acronyms.

Next time… I`ll describe the NGOs we visited.

POINT OF PRIDE: The U.N. Office of Information Service has heard from nearly all of the officials who briefed us. It has been reported that our students were highly informed as well as significantly engaged.

Quick update on the students` publication records…

In addition to Andrea Stanaway`s News Tribune op ed piece and Emma Lugenbill`s article in the Salem, Ore. Statesman Review, folks have placed stories in the following publications :

Elizabeth Lamb-Ferro – The Baltimore (Maryland) Chronicle
Maren Anderson – The Northfield (Minnesota) News
Jonathan Bongard – InfoSud (Geneva-based news agency)
Emma Lugenbill – a second publication with the Statesman Review in Salem, Ore.

And we are still awaiting word from dozens of other publications reviewing students` articles right now.

These students are not only privy to top-level meetings, but they are doing a splendid job of articulating the significant material and sharing their thoughts with a much broader community than simply mom and dad back home.

Bravo

The students had been advised to dress up for our U.N. meetings. Each day they dressed in stylish suits and most of the women sported high heels. (Not me.)

Now, it`s important to remember, the Palais is like a fortress. Each day iron gates about 12 feet high are rolled back and forth on a rail built into the sidewalk of the main entrance. The initial entrance is also guarded by at least three guards at all times, with nearly a dozen others waiting in the nearby building to x-ray the baggage of visitors, pat people down and generally intimidate just about everyone.

On this particular day, we were just leaving the Palais des Nations after a long day of meetings with several UN officials. We were filing out of the Palais in roughly a single line. Just as I walked past the main gate, I heard a commotion behind me. Our single-file group had turned into a glob of students next to the gate. A few of the students were on their knees. I turned and took a few steps back to see what was happening.

The reason folks were kneeling down was because one of the women students, whose initials are Maren Anderson, had stepped down sharply with her high-heel shoe and the heel of the shoe was wedged in the opening in the sidewalk just outside where the gate slid across the entrance. It was stuck in an iron drain that ran parallel with the gate rail.

Maren watched with one shoeless foot as others twisted and yanked at her high heel stuck in the grate. Several folks took a stab at it. It was taking a long time.

Japanese tourists waiting in line to enter the U.N. looked over and giggled and pulled out their cameras. The incident even caused one of the guards to chuckle. But the smiles turned to panic when an ambulance was spotted backing up toward the entrance.

The ambulance’s back-up horn was beeping out the seconds as several of the students continued the struggle to save the shoe. The ambulance was moving closer and it looked like its tires were in a direct line to run over the trapped shoe. Maren was contemplating returning home with just one shoe. The guard was about to shoe us away when suddenly, the captured high heel broke free and the students quickly stepped out of the way of the ambulance.

Just another small story of freedom for the U.N. in Geneva.

(Don`t miss the smile on the guard`s face.)