09/15/2014
Here is the first report from Jimin Park, day 3 of their internship at the UN in Geneva.
They are being supported by our inspirational Carolyn Handschin, WFWP Director, Office for UN Relations and International Vice President:
HRC panel on the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty
3 Side events on :
1. better spending to realize children’s rights.
2. Issue of abductions by North Korea
3. Water and sanitation
Date: 11th.September.2014
Written by Jimin Park
It was such an interesting and exciting day because Je-ok and I interviewed Ms.Eugenia Bonetti who is a nun working to rescue girls from being trafficked and also help women get out of the prostitution industry. We could ask her a question “what could the government do to protect the family?” It was challenging to borrow her time because she was in a hurry to leave. However, thanks to Mrs.Carolyn, we could interview her successfully at the end. I learned a lot from Mrs.Carolyn that we need to be courageous and sometime even push ourselves over limit until we achieve our goal. I had a good lesson today. It was somewhat scary and shy to go up to the person who is at high-level position but once I did it, I felt so good and became courageous to do it again next time.
I started my day early at UN. I went to HRC room, then to 3 different side-events. First I went to the HRC panel on the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty such as prisoners, detainees, migrant children deprived of liberty, etc. They talked about ensuring the dignity of the prisoners, giving them work opportunity and proper mental medical assistance, healthy cultural entertainment and sports activities. As for the migrant children, they said they should arrive to the destination safely without being detained or being separate from their family.
Then I went to a side event with a topic on better spending to realize children’s rights. Mr.Bob libert, from save the children, said that the investment in children is economic social benefit. According to Mr. Libert, 24% of the public money is wasted which should rather be sent for the children. Dr.Hamid, from the African child policy forum, showed the overall development from investing in children; consistent economic growth, decline in the residence of poverty, a general sense of peace in most countries (fewer children dying of conflict related causes than before for example). The children are the future of this world. I also think that investing in children is one of the most crucial take we are facing. We need to protect children from all forms of violence, provide education, safe-guarding and care.
The second side event was on issue of abductions by North Korea. I knew that many of the South Koreans, especially the elites and intellectuals were abducted to North Korea after Korean War but I did not know that so many other people from different countries were also abducted by North Korea. The abductees are also from Japan, Macao, China, Romania, Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Italy, Netherland, Jordan, and America. I felt so sorry for the family of the abductees who had to go through so much sorrow and pain and even until now.
Lastly, I went to the meeting on water and sanitation. There are numerous problems related to water, especially in South Africa. Someone in the room said that the girls would go to school more if there is water at school. But the panelist responded with an unfortunate example. A school that we visited had a beautiful toilets and even the poster saying ‘wash your hands’ was put up on the toilet wall but when she asked the kids at the school, they said that the toilets don’t function. They were broken. The tanks were badly built that the children couldn’t even use the toilet. There are many issues regarding water. Even it is said that the water will be the most precious resource that people will have to pay in order to have it. We are yet fortunate to have the water but we never know when such a scary day will come. The main panelist at this event, who is special rapporteur, said that working with water issues is not like a 100-meter long run but a long marathon. She also said that ultimately it’s the empowered people who can trigger and change the situation and we need to continue working hard until the great things happen. Primarily we should promote education, training and awareness raising. It is true. One can see the limit to its ability for the moment but one need to keep going forward until good deeds happen.
