Side Event Shenanigans (or, How we pulled off the thing that consumed our lives for the past two months)

WE DID IT! WE ARE WINNERS!

That’s right, this past Thursday we successfully held our office’s side event “Youth for Human Rights and the Common Good” at the 34^th session of the Human Rights Council! With co-sponsorship from 21 countries and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, we had one of the most supported side events during the session (so basically, all those emails and phone calls were actually useful!).

(I made this flyer. Just so you know. I'm very proud of it.)

The past week was spent preparing the panelists for the event, helping them prepare their speeches, and teaching them about the UN system (like UPR, treaty bodies, etc.).

Or at least, that’s what some people were doing this week. I was generally in the office or at the UN, working on the flyer or taking notes on the different meetings happening regarding Item 3. We all also went to a side event hosted by the Holy See on the issue of unaccompanied minors (which are migrant or refugee children that travel to another country with no adult assistance). As you can imagine, children are the most vulnerable travelers, especially when they have no adult assistance, as they are more likely to be subjected to abuse, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation.

But back to the side event!

All the interpreters showed up and were able to get their accreditation badges so that they could get into the UN, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. They all went up to their booths and I double-checked the sound and let the moderator know which language was on which channel so that everyone could listen to their language of choice. The panelists all got situated, as did the keynote speaker (Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders), the moderator (Nuno Cabral from the Permanent Mission of Portugal), and the presider (Ambassador Carmen Elena Castillo of El Salvador).

Me telling the moderator the language channels

Gotta get some hot chocolate for two of our awesome interpreters!

The panelists were from five countries and they all did somewhat different work. Zareh from Syria works in the oratory with children 7-18 and has a special group that he mentors. Prence from Congo is a teacher and travels to remote villages to teach children and their communities about their rights. Marian from the Philippines has done literally everything, from a mobile education library to medical missions to political lobbying for anti-bullying and anti-corporal punishment. Peter from Slovakia is getting his degree is theraputical education and lives and works with marginalized children, particularly the Roma children. Then there is Guillermo, who runs human rights education programs for people, usually young adults, that are being detained in prisons.

Room during the side event. Pretty good turnout!

Now, don’t you feel inadequate?

But really, all the panelists have been super fun and we’re all pretty sad to see them go (they’re all leaving this weekend L). There wasn’t a super strong language barrier as only one of them didn’t understand English well (Prence speaks French), but there were some interesting translations going on between people speaking in Spanish or Italian which then had to be translated into English while Pedro was translating it into French for Prence. We are very multicultural here at the IIMA Human Rights Office!

At the side event, they all spoke very well about their work and their goals regarding human rights education. The one thing that I think we maybe should have done differently was instead of having all the States ask their questions and then asking the panelists to answer them, we should have probably let a few people ask questions, let the panelists answer those, and then have some more questions. Over ten different State representatives asked questions, some of them asking multiple questions during their speaking time. That’s difficult for experienced speakers to handle, not to mention for our panelists (who have never done anything like this). They handled themselves well though.

So the whole point of this side event was to offer an opportunity to let States hear from actual young people regarding human rights and human rights education. Often at the UN, people forget about young people. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is applicable for children up to 18. However, once you hit eighteen, you are suddenly a full adult. The UN forgets that, for all intents and purposes, most people do not suddenly become fully functioning adults the day they turn eighteen. Heck, I was still in high school then, and I was definitely not an adult. I was like, a pre-adult. So the fact that the UN hasn’t really addressed the challenges facing young people is kind of a big problem.

Luckily, El Salvador championed a resolution on youth and human rights last year (HRC Resolution 32/1) and the UN Security Council acknowledged the role of youth in peace and security in its Resolution 2250 in December of 2015. This shows that the UN is moving in a more positive direction regarding the role and importance of young people in international policy formation. After all, young people are the ones who are going to have to live in the world that the current policy-making generation is creating; therefore, they should probably have some say in what is going on. Some people may think that young people aren’t aware enough to have good opinions, but if I’ve learned anything from graduate school, my time in Kenya, and the panelists that I’ve been hanging out with all week, it is that young people are far more aware than most people give them credit for. They are also far more frightened and far more hopeful that what’s gone wrong can somehow be fixed.

Our generation is the most globally aware generation that has ever existed. We have more opportunities for cultural diversity and appreciation, and we are more likely to meet people from other countries and traditions. That doesn’t make each person perfect. Discrimination is obviously still a thing. However, the younger generation truly is willing to dialogue if people will listen.

And that, if nothing else, is cause for hope.

Let's Get It Started! (or, The 34th Human Rights Council session begins)

Bonjour, everybody! Guess what?

THE 34^TH SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL STARTED ON MONDAY! That’s right, a whole bunch of people came together in Room XX to listen to a bunch of speeches by important people from different nations!

The opening meeting was clearly a place for socializing. One could see friends catching up with each other, acquaintances offering each other handshakes, and those awkward people who do not really have any friends sitting at their desks with their computer open, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. The difference between this meeting and a university meet-and-greet was that all the participants were high-level diplomats representing the interests of their countries.

I was most impressed by the opening statement for Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. He spoke about the ‘disease of disregard’ that currently is spreading in the world and emphasized human rights are not a luxury and are not political tools, but rather they are an intrinsic part of all we do and who we are. Drawing upon his past experiences growing up in a dictatorship, Mr. Guterres was able to strongly declare the need for the Human Rights Council and the work it does through its various treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review. Additionally, in his speech Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that human rights are the first pillar of the UN, put in the preamble before any other. He also made some pointed comments about the increasingly xenophobic policies of Donald Trump, though not naming him specifically.

Regarding the speeches, I felt that all the ones we heard could fit into a few categories: I want assistance, I want to offer my knowledge, the UN needs to do something about this, and I am doing good things in my country. Some speeches had aspects of multiple categories, but usually they fell strongly into one.

For example, the President of Palestine used his time to call the UN to action against the illegal occupation of Palestinian land by Israel while the President of Libya and First Vice-President of South Sudan requested more technical assistance from the UN to deal with their respective civil conflicts. The Minister from Croatia offered his country’s assistance with knowledge about post-conflict rebuilding as did the Minister from El Salvador. El Salvador was also interesting because of their willingness to quote Pope Francis and mention Blessed Oscar Romero as key figures in their speech, showing the importance of religious figures in their country and government.

I also found the speech by the Philippines interesting because while there was truth in what the Minister said, it was also a speech I have heard many times in the past from different politicians in the United States. It is the speech that offers reasoning for the government doing things it knows are wrong in order to maintain security within the country. It is the one that says the ends justify the means. It sounded even more familiar because the Minister from the Philippines had a very American style of speaking. I do not necessarily agree with what he said because it is a dangerous road to travel, justifying actions in the name of security. We see what is happening in the United States right now because of this same type of justification.

And just think, these are only a few of the many, many states that gave speeches during the first three days.

As I’m sure a lot of you have already seen on Facebook (thanks to a certain sister of mine), I also got to make an intervention (special UN terminology right there) on climate change and the rights of the child. If by some miracle you haven’t seen the video, I’ve posted it below. I’m actually going to make another intervention next week regarding migrant youth over the age of eighteen, so wish me luck.

Until next time!