Day two

The conference and interaction with NGOs in particular suffers from technical problems. I couldn't report on the first NGO briefing yesterday because once again there were no outlets in the conference room. Monolingual participants are suffering from translation difficulties: today, for example, speeches in the high-level segment are only being translated into English for those following them from the NGO room (only one participant per organization is allowed into the main assembly hall).

In general, the organization yesterday was extremely chaotic: there was no up-to-date official program (of side events, in particular), and even those who have been in Geneva for a while were often confused about the schedule: e.g. there was supposed to be a first NGO briefing in the morning, but in the end it only took place after 6.30pm.

The first NGO briefing itself was very instructive for me in that many of the participants were complaining bitterly about what they saw as the UN's overly lenient treatment of anti-Ahmadinedjad protesters. I had not realized how many NGO representatives (as well as country delegates) have sympathy for Ahmadinedjad, viewing him as a mouthpiece of Southern grievances against the West and its double standards. Africans in particular, but also African-American, Canadian, British, German and other activists strongly supported A's right to speak and be heard, often viewing the Palestinian problem as a new version of apartheid and the West's response as a policy of double standards akin to many countries' support of the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Of course many of those opposed to A are boycotting the conference or left during/after his speech, and others were stripped of their accreditation for disruptive protests, or in any case decided to attend only to oppose Ahmadinejad and are not much interested in the other events. Still, the sympathies for A and the importance of the Palestinian issue to many of those present should not be underestimated.

Now listening to very moving accounts from indigenous Bolivians who have suffered discrimination in their country - in one instance, an Indio was picked up by an ambulance with a leg wound and delivered with bullets in his head and chest. The event is co-sponsored by the Bolivian government, and some participants present it as an "indigenous government" that tries to get rid of structural discrimination. It is interesting, in any case, that Morales' government seems to be happy to address continuing discrimination in Bolivia instead of claiming that it has solved the problem.
Although I doubt that anything of great interest is being said in the general assembly, there seems to be little interest in events such as this: at any rate, there hardly seem to be any non-Spanish speakers in the room.

I have also sent a brief report on the first day, in Russian, to SOVA: I imagine it will appear on www.sova-center.ru at some point today.