United Nations Conference

"It's just a bunch of men with guns who forgive other men with guns for crimes against women" ~ Donald Steinberg speaking about accountability problems over issues of rape being used as a weapon of war.

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This strange looking building is the United Nations headquarters. Notice that the flags are not flying, indicating that the various assemblies (the General Assembly, the Security Council etc.) are not sitting.

The UN is known for its many displays of unusual art. This is a gun with a barrel tied in the knot. I know it is obvious from the photo, but I thought I'd write it as well for the benefit of the blind readers of my website.

This is the registration desk where I collected my "UN pass" which was much less fancy than I thought it would be. I'm not sure why I didn't realise, but apparently people dress up to go to a place like the UN. I rocked up with a rather daggy t-shirt, long pants (thank god it was cold) and sneakers. I didn't really fit in with everyone else at the conference, which included employees of the various countries' missions to the UN, representatives from various different UN committees, UN staff members and the odd ex-ambassador.

Here is my security pass... we were in the "Penthouse" above the Dag Hammarskjöld Library (try saying that ten times in a hurry).

The room was kinda weird. The view was very nice but the artwork... like most of the artwork around the UN is of a questionable nature... and a little distracting at times. It is difficult to see here, but the walls are slightly concave, which gave the room some very strange acoustic properties - and made the lives of the audio engineers who set up the microphones and speakers a living hell.

Our first keynote speaker was the former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans. He happens to be the CEO of the International Crisis Group, and of course his accent was the easiest to understand. I can't really imagine our current foreign minister, Alexander Downer running an international crisis group... although I could imagine him causing an international crisis.

After the speeches, there was extensive panel discussion which, while very interesting, often didn't seem to go anywhere... much like most UN action.

One of the nice things about these events, of course, is you get a chance to rub shoulders (no, literally!) with some pretty cool people. For example - Jean-Marie Guehenno, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations in the UN.

During the day, we got a generous lunch break which allowed me the opportunity to roam the inner sanctums of the UN with my little security pass.

Past and present UN secretary generals. This has changed slightly since the last time I was here... Ban Ki Moon's portrait has been added.

Distinguished speakers, both young and old, spoke of the difficulties and challenges of humanitarian crisis situations. David Hamburg was among my favourites... describing the situation of a country in a post-conflict state by beginning with "Once humpty dupty is smashed..."

The final panel discussion was the most interesting as it allowed for audience participation. If it wasn't for idiots in the audience who just want to stand up a accuse panel members of this-and-that, it would be perfectly justifiable to make the whole day an audience particiaption plenary session (which is what I generally think of when I hear the words "conference" anyway). The best quote of the day came out of this session from a person who's name I cannot recall. This man was talking about the UN security council and he hit the nail right on the head with:

"If you have a fire department run by pyromaniacs, you have a problem"

 

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