Looking for Bill

Last week I attended my first Security Council (SC) meeting. In this meeting the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, briefed the SC about the humanitarian situation in Haiti. John Holmes had just returned from Haiti and stated that the humanitarian situation in Haiti had improved and that the most needed medical needs were pretty much taken care of. He emphasized, however, that much more needed to be done in terms of emergency shelter, non-food items and sanitation. He was calling for a “shelter and sanitation surge” for the Haitians still in need after last month’s devastating earthquake. Alain Le Roy stressed that the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) counted on the SC’s support to help the Haitian government meet the enormous challenges before it. Since 12 January MINUSTAH has been supporting and assisting in relief operations and in securing security and public order. Le Roy, made clear that the security situation in Haiti is stable, but still fragile. Finally, Leo Mérorès, the Permanent Representative of Haiti at the UN extended his thanks to the “great family of nations” in assisting his country.

To be honest I did not pay much attention to the words spoken by the speakers during this 30 minute meeting. Luckily there are always press releases after each meeting. I was rather looking for Bill Clinton as he is the United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti. The day before, he and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the UN’s largest-ever appeal for $1.4 billion to assist 3 million Haitians in need. Some colleagues told me that they had seen Clinton during a SC meeting on Haiti last October. I did not see him unfortunately. Maybe he was still recovering from the heart procedure he underwent two weeks ago. My colleague, Joseph, has written an interesting story on his blog about the irony of Bill Clinton’s current role in Haiti. It is an interesting read.

Besides looking for Bill, I was also observing the fifties style chamber of the SC. I had seen a photo of the SC chamber taken in 1954 and I came to the conclusion that it has not changed a bit. The decorations on the wall, the two large windows overlooking the East River, the huge mural between the two windows, the council’s horseshoe table and the seats for the delegates and diplomats. It made me think about all the decisions taken in this chamber in the last 58 years that have had major global impacts (think of the Korean War, the Gulf War, the economic sanctions against countries such as Iraq, Iran, Nord Korea). It also reminded me about the moments the SC did not rise to the occasion (think of Srebrenica, Rwanda and Darfur). It made me realize that it is always nice to read about the SC from books and articles, but you get a better sense of reality while sitting there up close and seeing the council at work.

By the way it is snowing again...  

Snowmageddon II and Bantanamo

Today it is President's Day. The day that all people working for federal offices enjoy a national holiday on the third Monday of February. This holiday is to honor the birthdays of both former Presidents Washington (February 22) and Lincoln (February 12). GPF ofcourse is an independent non-governmental organization. Nevertheless, our boss decided to give us the day off. It was also his way of thanking us for showing up at work last wednesday. This was the day the heavy snow storm reached New York. The day before, weather analysts warned us to brace ourselves for the coming snow blizzard and the NY authorities decided to close all schools and to deploy a full armour of snow plow operators on the streets. On the internet jokes were being made about ´Snowmagaddon II´. Actually not a strange thought as New York, especially the Statue of Liberty, is always the first city to go in natural disaster movies. Think of: The Day After Tommorrow, Armageddon and War of the Worlds. Well at least I had the honour of being in New York as the world was coming to its end. 

As we all know by now New York held its ground and I managed to get to work the next day. It did feel, however, as if I was walking through a ghost town. Everyting was covered in snow and there were hardly any cars and people on the streets. I could actually sit in the train which is a rare novelty during NY rush hours and I arrived at work earlier than usual. I believe 60% of the NY people stayed home that day including all UN staff. I was impressed, however, by the effective and efficient way the New Yorkers dealt with the snow. It reminded me of our own efforts in dealing with the snow back home. 

Finally, I would like to get back to the UN staff. Last week Aleks send me this interesting article about the new temporary headquarters of the UN. The UN headquarters tower and the General Assembly hall are currently undergoing a $1.87 billion renovation. Therefore, a three story steel building has been erupted on the UN north lawn. According to the article the building looks like ``a cross between a suburban big-box store and a high-security lockup facility`` that ``bears a resemblance to Wal-Mart or Ikea``. I have seen the building with my own eyes and these comparisons seem justified. Many UN staff argue that the UN has lost much of its grandeur and have nicknamed the new building `Bantanamo´. Last Tuesday I finally got my UN pass and on Friday I entered the ´old´ UN building for the first time together with Joel. We went up the 37th floor which, like all other floors, was completely deserted and a huge mess. It was a sobering experience. There I was, in the epicentre of global decision making which looked like a hurricane struck desert. The only positive thing was the magnificent view of midtown Manhattan.         

Disclosure of information

The first week at GPF is behind me and it has been a week of many activities both inside and outside the office. I must admit that I felt quite nervous at the start of my first day. That feeling of having to start all over again and those many questions that run through your head constantly. Why am I doing this? Why is this fun? What kind of work will I be doing? Will I like my colleagues? Will I get there in time? Which tie should I wear? In the end ofcourse it all turned out fine. As I walked out of Grand Central that monday morning into that thrilling chaos New York is known for, I got that magic feeling of excitement again. Seeing all those people rushing to work, the newspaper and food vendors on the corner of the streets, the smoke coming out of the wells and all those yellow taxi's honking their horns made me forget all about my nerves at that moment.

After a warm reception by James Paul (hereafter JP) and my colleagues I was shown my desk and computer. Then I started reading my introduction map which included the instructions for my portofolio, the website, the office rules, my usernames and passwords, and my personal GPF cards. One of the things I read was that GPF aims to use a very direct and straightforward language in its texts. As interns we must avoid writing in vague, wordy and specialized terms as often used in the academia. The reason for this is that our texts and documents must remain accessible for the 'normal' public. I could not resist a smile on my face when I read that we should not use words such as 'conceptualize'. Then I had my first meeting with JP. He told me that my primary task would be to follow all latest developments on the topic of international justice. More specifically, this means that I will be searching for critical and analytical articles on the internet relating to the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals and the Special Courts and topics such as universal jurisdiction. I will then post these articles on our website and I will be fully in charge of the maintenance of this website section. JP also told me that I would get involved with the UN Security Council portofolio during a later stage of my internship. It all sounded good to me. When I applied for the internship position I was actually hoping to get one of these two portofolio's. 

I spend the rest of the day reading all my instructions and getting to know my colleagues better. As I wrote  earlier the interns all have differerent backgrounds in terms of country and education ranging from law to poltical science and sociology. The interns I work with are Joseph and Nicola for England, Joel from Canada, Trish and Denise from Australia, Duygu from Turkey, Segolene from France and Alice who is half French and half British. We all share a common workspace and the atmosphere in the office is low on stress and high on results. Everyone seems to get along very well and people meet regularly outside of work. That same day we had a dinner at Trish's place who lives one block away from me. Last saturday there was another social gathering at Duygu's place who is leaving us next week. It was really 'gezellig' as we say in Dutch on both occasions and my integration into the group has been very natural.

The remainder of the week I have mainly read a lot of documents in order to become familiar with my portofolio. Furthermore, I posted my first article on the website regarding the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the ICC to reverse the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber not to include the crime of genocide in the arrest-warrant against President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. I have also tried to get my UN badge for entering the UN buildings, but the UN staff  were tossing me around the whole week. In other words, I got my first taste of 'UN bureaucracy'. 

On friday I attended my first NGO working group with the Security Council representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Barbalic, and his staff. B&H is currently one of the non-permanent members of the SC. During this meeting the representative of B&H briefed representatives of NGO's such as Oxfam, Human Rights Watch and Security Council Report on all current topics on the agenda of the SC. The NGO representatives were allowed to ask questions about topics that concerned them. It was an interesting meeting, but in my view the respresentative of Bosnia circled around a lot of questions. His favourite answers were in the line of: "We are addressing that", "We are working on that", "We will look at that" etc. I suppose he is not allowed to give much information about matters discussed at Security Council meetings. My colleague Joel told me that other countries, especially big players like Russia and China, tend to be much worse in the non disclosure of information.  He told me this story in which a Russia representative during a meeting at his university answered a student question by simply saying that "These matters are not of your concern".