It was another beautiful day in Geneva, sunny and in the mid-80's (about 25 Celsius). The Sub-Commission continued to meet and discuss item 2 of the agenda today, but the working group on transnational organizations was meeting in parallel in the morning and the working group on the administration of justice was meeting simultaneously in the afternoon. In addition, in the plenary the Sub-Commission in the afternoon began its debate of item 6 relating to specific human rights issues such as women's rights, terrorism, bioethics, universal treaty ratification, weapons of mass destruction, and small arms/light weapons. In other words, it was quite a busy day.
Under item 2, we continued to receive complements on yesterday's Minnesota Advocates' speech. We also received many requests for additional copies of the statement. One of the items we had criticized in in the speech was the UN press office practice in recent years of softening its press releases under item 2, by not naming any countries in the headline paragraphs. The press release yesterday gave prominent mention to specific countries, in a sharp turnaround of this practice. You can see this press release, dated 29 July 2003, on the official Sub-Commission website.
In order to give as much attention as possible to the subject of reform of their structure, the Sub-Commission has delayed its plenary discussion of this subject until tomorrow morning, so as not to compete with the working group meetings that were going on today. At tomorrow's session, the main focus will be the reforms suggested in the opening speech of Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertie Ramcharan. But several experts also said the suggestions raised in the Minnesota Advocates item 2 presentation will also be considered. The chair of the Sub-Commission asked the Minnesota Advocates to make additional copies of the statement available to all of the members.
The working group on administration of justice met for its final time this year during the afternoon. They got to item 7 of their agenda very late -- pertaining to transitional justice and truth & reconciliation commissions. We made a brief statement at the end of the day regarding the Minnesota Advocates Peru Project under this agenda item, but we did not have enough time to read the entire statement. See a copy of the full statement in the speeches page of this site (we read only the first 3 paragraphs in the working group meeting). We will also distribute copies of the statement tomorrow in the Sub-Commission room, so that hopefully those that are interested will be able to see the complete text.
For those following the developments of the TNC working group, the discussions held today apparently went well, and the results will be announced at tomorrow's session of the working group.
A scheduling note to those team members who will be arriving next week: we went ahead and signed up today on the speakers list for both item 3 (administration of justice) and item 5 (prevention of discrimination). The item 3 speech will probably be on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. The item 5 speech slot will probably come up on Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Hopefully the relevant team members who will be making these presentations will be here in Geneva these dates. But if not, please let us know so we can prepare to make these presentations before you arrive.
Tomorrow, Thursday, will be the last day the Sub-Commission meets this week. Friday is a holiday (celebration of the formation of the Swiss Confederation between the Swiss cantons over 400 years ago). This means tomorrow evening we will get to see the annual fireworks show over the lake. The traditional celebration includes fireworks, candle-lit lanterns, a community bonfire, parades, speeches, the reading of the original Act of Confederation, and a local soup
A final photo note: The peacocks that wander the UN grounds definitely own this place. We caught this one resting outside one of the lakeside windows late in the afternoon.
