Monday, April 20, 2009

UN Watch side event

Having found caffeine and an outlet, I am now sitting at the UN Watch side event. UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO that monitors UN activities. See a link to their blog on Durban in my list on the right. From that blog, I learned among other things that Russia is the summit's no. 1 sponsor, having contributed $600,000 worth of funding.

Speakers at the side event:

Esther Mujawayo - is giving an impassioned speech criticizing the UN and Western countries for their inaction during the Rwandan genocide (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Mujawayo).

notes:
Feels uncomfortable every time she has to speak in a UN building.
Lost almost her entirely family in 1994.
The genocide was predictable and preventable.
Feels very angry when she realizes that the UN was meeting during the genocide, treating it as a theoretical issue rather than a matter of life and death, and discussing whether it is a massacre or genocide?
"Don't get out of Geneva without facing your responsibility and doing something concrete."

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