Journal Letter - QUNO - Geneva

Dear Friends,

Like many Friends, Geneva has 'enjoyed' a winter of arctic proportions, not that I am one to exaggerate. To begin with Quaker House and its garden looked magnificent, covered by a sugar coating of fresh white snow; this soon began to lose its charm by the third or fourth bout of trudging through salty sludge long after the sun had set. However, I am now pleased to say that winter appears to be ebbing away and I return home in daylight, often watching the sun setting over the Jura mountains. Crocuses and snowdrops are defiantly pushing their way through the ground and I eagerly await the skeletal trees around Quaker House springing back to life.

In December the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform held its Annual Forum, entitled "Saving lives or building peace? Roles and Responsibilities of Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Actors in Conflict Settings". The Forum was a great success and hopefully will soon become a fixed date on the calendar of Geneva's international community. The event brought together all manner of people from the far corners of the world; journalists, academics, diplomats, NGO workers and UN staff from many of its agencies. I found it quite inspiring to see such a divergent group under one roof, all with the common objective of alleviating suffering and restoring peace. The event was privileged to have the new Assistant Secretary General for Peacebuilding - Judy Chen-Hopkins - as its guest of honour, whose opening speech set a defiant tone for the day. The Forum did not shy away from asking critical, and at times difficult, questions that are frequently avoided rather than confronted in peacebuilding efforts. However, underpinning this reflection was the collective desire to assist the most vulnerable populations even in politically complex situations. I felt that due to this uniting factor, although spirited and confrontational, the discussions were healthy and productive.

With the turn of the New Year came a new session of the Conference on Disarmament. Unfortunately, despite predictions that the Conference would promptly build upon the 2009 Programme of Work this year's discussions have become as frosty as the weather outside. Yet again the Conference has been disrupted by the obstinacy of a state unwilling to engage co-operatively. As a member of the NGO Disarmament Committee QUNO is looking for creative ways to engage with the diplomatic community, notably to remind those involved in the Conference on Disarmament that civil society is monitoring their lack of progress and wishes to support the Conference in any way it can. I am pleased to report that QUNO's engagements with wider disarmament issues have been much more fruitful. I apologise in advance for the ensuing alphabet soup of acronyms. As part of its efforts to support the Geneva Forum's preparations for the 2010 Fourth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS4) to the United Nations Programme of Action (UNPoA) on the Illicit Transfer of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Quaker House has been host to several events. Through such discussions we hope to build trust and establish a strong foundation for negotiations at the BMS next summer. These events have also demonstrated to me the very special role QUNO has in Geneva, providing a quiet and neutral space away from the sterile formalities of the Palais des Nations.

Since my last letter QUNO's work on armed violence and development has been injected with a new energy by the prospect of a conference to be held in Oslo. Over two days in April the Norwegian capital will host both nation state delegations and a broad section of civil society organisations engaged in armed violence reduction. On a personal level I find the work on armed violence particularly interesting, as it speaks to the underlying motivations that brought me to QUNO: that violence does not occur in a vacuum, it is determined by various factors that frequently centre on socio-economic deprivation, and that to build peace it is of equal importance to confront these inequalities as it is to condemn acts of violence. Assisting QUNO with its contribution to the Geneva Declaration (on Armed Violence and Development) process has been an invaluable opportunity to channel both my moral beliefs and strengthen my academic understanding. This experience has been such a strong influence that I recently applied for several Conflict Resolution masters programmes. Wish me luck!

Outside of the office I have been honing my skills at sliding down large, frozen hills whilst strapped to two planks of wood. I jest, I love skiing, but unfortunately the tropics of Asia that I had been living in before Geneva hardly provided the appropriate climate. Now that I have snow covered mountains on my door step I have been treating myself to the occasional day trip to the Alps. Other winter activities have included a trip to the Christmas market in Montreux; a Geneva intern pot luck Thanksgiving; QUNO Christmas lunch cooked by myself and Holly; and the 'Escalade', a Genevan celebration of their defence against the Savoyard (French) in 1602, which gave an interesting insight as to why Switzerland feels the need to maintain military service. At the time of writing, I am looking forward to attending the annual European peace workers seminar in March. The seminar will provide the opportunity to re-unite with the other QPSW peace workers and to meet the QCEA programme assistants from Brussels. Not only is the seminar a chance to share experiences, but also a time to reflect upon the role of Quakerism in our various employments.

I end this note on a high, in terms of what I feel I have achieved and in anticipation of what the second half of my placement has in store. Not wanting to dwell, but it is also tinged by a touch of sadness as I now have only one letter left to write.

In Friendship,
Tom Richardson
March 2010