QUNO Geneva - Journal Letter - March 2009
Jennifer Rosenburg
QUNO, Geneva
Dear Friends,
The winter in Geneva has been busy, eventful and full of snow!
Two significant events over the last few months have been the 3rd and 4th Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) at the Human Rights Council (HRC). I began to explain this process in my last letter, but even since then the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) seems to be changing and evolving. One very visible example of this is that as people begin to understand the process better, more States want to take part in making comments to the State under review. Some of these are genuinely interested in the Human Rights situation in the country, and some of them are merely political game playing. However, the increase demonstrates a general shift in attitude and it is causing problems for the Council in terms of time restrictions. Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, the current president of the HRC, even joked that we are becoming ‘victims of our own successes’ and that something needed to be done!
Some of the most interesting and controversial of the reviews have included Israel, Turkmenistan and Colombia in the December session and China, Cuba, The Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia in the February session just gone. It is also interesting, however, to see some of the States often not mentioned in Human Rights discussions, such as Germany and Canada undergo the same process as the others. On occasion, local Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) groups come over to run side events for their country’s review to try and give an alternative perspective of situations on the ground. Colombian and Mexican NGOs both ran insightful sessions, and the Mexican Ambassador in Geneva attended the latter meeting which led to an interesting discussion.
Whilst attending the UPR sessions I simultaneously attended a course on the UPR run by CONGO (The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations). This was an excellent way to understand the often highly politicised statements of the day and look at the bigger international picture. It made the UPR sessions much more interesting and meaningful and gave me a better feel for the overall process. At times the realisation of just how politicised the human rights discussions can be, as well as being enlightening, was quite depressing for the discussion group. However, it is also important for anyone wanting to work promoting human rights at the U.N. to understand that this is how it works and be able to work with it effectively.
One particular meeting that I did find disheartening was the emergency Special Session organised to discuss the urgent situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was a highly politicised discussion, focussing more on the practicalities of the meeting than the real and urgent issues at hand. The end result lacked any real action or aid plans and was a powerful demonstration of the problems that the U.N. faces when dealing with issues of State sovereignty and regional loyalty versus urgent human rights abuses.
On a more encouraging note, as NGOs are not able to speak during the UPR Working Group, the Quaker UN Office (QUNO)’s Human Rights and Refugees Programme has been discussing with a number of governments ways of raising the profile of the issue of children of imprisoned parents through the UPR, as well as suggesting questions and recommendations on conscientious objection to military service. It has been encouraging to see how these themes are being raised increasingly and how the States under review are beginning to give more detailed and comprehensive answers.
Another positive development is that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education has been conducting a survey on the right to education of all persons deprived of their liberty. We were able to contribute our findings on this matter and hope that his report, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council in June, will again shed more international light on the issue of children in prisons.
During the 4th UPR working group, QUNO also facilitated discussions about better inclusion of indigenous issues in the UPR, and co-sponsored a side event at the U.N. looking both at the idea of ‘collective rights’ for indigenous peoples as well as some more in-depth country situations.
There have been some interesting meetings on the development of the draft Guidelines for Children without Parental Care. We are hoping that there will be significant progress on this over the next few months with a view to their presentation for adoption at the Human Rights Council and, subsequently, U.N. General Assembly.
In terms of more general QUNO events, I was involved in organising the December Quaker U.N. Committee (QUNC) meeting that took place over a weekend in December. It was nice to meet the Committee members and to see how QUNO fits into the bigger Quaker infrastructure. It was also interesting to hear about projections for the future of QUNO and to meet with the thematic reference groups to bounce around programme specific ideas.
In a similar vein, it has been a new experience for me to take part in the Social Concerns Committee Meetings for Geneva Quaker Meeting. It is a valuable insight into the decision making side of charitable donations.
Outside of work, Geneva has continued to surprise and delight me. And despite warnings from many that the winter here is ‘not worth living through if you don’t ski’… well, I don’t ski (although I do intend to try it at least once) but I have managed to enjoy the wintry months so far. I have ventured into the mountains to try my hand at a bit of ‘snow-shoeing’ and the views from the snowy mountains of the Jura are breath taking. When on ground level, the inhabitants of the Foyer in which I live are endlessly resourceful at finding other, warmer, alternatives for wintry weekends, highlights of which include cake baking, knitting parties and various other craft or food based events!
That being said I am also looking forward to a bit more spring sunshine along with the new challenges of the coming months.
In friendship,
Jenny Rosenberg
March 2009
