Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Its been a busy couple of weeks at work and I had a not too exciting/lazy/relaxing weekend in Veyrier. I can tell you more about the activities I am doing at work. As you know the office I work at is an NGO at the United Nations. And therefore I am able to attend all the public meetings for the Human Rights Council. We are a liason for all the sisters working around the world to protect the rights of children and women, and most importantly the right to receive an education.
The UN is a complicated system and with the help of the girls in the office and doing a lot of reading on the website I have been able to learn about how the process works. The UN does a lot of great things like going around the world to understand what the Human Rights situation is in different countries and certain issues. Although it cannot force any country to implement its recommendations, it tries to persuade countries to comply to certain universal rights that every person should be allowed. It is obviously a lofty expectation considering all the terrible things and situations going on around the world.
As you can imagine it is very difficult for countries to agree on many issues and the standards of human rights. It is therefore a drawback when all countries come together as it becomes very politized and more about back and forth blaming than actual change. It is important to know that there is a body that protects people's rights and is trying to be a voice for those who have no voice.
Our office gets the information that we receive from the sisters around the world to make recommendations to governments about what needs to be changed and how it should be implemented. NGOs are so important because they are closest to the people and have direct contact with the real needs of the people. Our goal is to urge states to guarantee every child has first of all an education, and second a quality education that is taught in his mother tongue language which can include training of teachers in langauges and certain other special skills.
This coming two weeks I will attend 3 meetings in Committees associated with the Human Rights Council and will hear about what states have done to implement HR initiatives and what they are doing wrong and how to improve. It is a continuous process that will never be perfect, but I know that everyone here wants to improve the lives especially of the most vulnerable. One of those meetings will be a review of the United States. So this will be interesting to witness the comments by other states, and to hear the US response to the spectrum of issues.
After the meetings conclude I will write a report that will be sent to the sisters in the country so they are informed about the measure being taken by the government and issues that will be addressed in the future. It will also let them know there is a chance for them to have a voice where decisions are being made and they can make a difference. The reports that my fellow Italian interns write I will have to correct the grammar, which I am becoming very accustomed to doing. And I have realized things about my language that I never thought about like how many prepositions we have, we use the word "pretty" a lot, the same word means many different things, etc. As well as that, other tasks will include creating a database for the office to condense all the information they need to be organized and follow up on recommendations.
I am happy I am able to use some of the skills I obtained from work experience and college for this placement. And that mission work needs people in important places as well as on the ground. We need to use our minds and creativity in the business world to help the children as well as our hands and through teaching.
I hope you all have a blessed week. Ciao
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