"I shook hands with Mary Robinson!!"

On Tuesday, after my long day on my beat, I decided I still have a teeny weeny bit of energy left to go to a forum on the UN on the eve of the UN Summit. My tentative plan for my master's project is that it will be on the UN (it's a VERY tentative plan!), so I thought going to this forum would help me crystallise that plan into something more specific.

It was a very different experience from any I've had so far in New York, just in terms of the dialogue and discussion. It comes as no surprise to most of the world that the US is a pretty insular place, for all the pies it has its fingers in (apologies for the cliche!).

So, the forum was a very refreshing experience. Featuring such well-known names as Shashi Tharoor (UN Undersecretary general for public affairs and author), William Pace of the World Federalist Movement, Luis Inacio de Silva, president of Brazil (on tape, presented by a member of his staff), Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN undersecretary general for economic and social affairs (ECOSOC) and Erkki Tuomioja, foreign minister of Finland.

The last session, on the Millenium Development Goals and UN Reform, was the only one I was able to attend, and the discussion proved very educational, if somewhat predictable (with the US- and Bush administration-bashing that seems to characterise any dialogue on anything these days).

All called for putting civil society (NGOs), rather than governments, at the centre of the UN agenda for change. Most called for ECOSOC to have a larger role in the UN, with financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF reporting to this agency.

Gina Vargas, of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty Feminist Task Force, pointed to the reason for her organisation's demand for UN reform. The five permanent members on the UN Security Council have 80 percent of armament trade in the world, she said. "They are not capable of defining what are situations of imminent/latent threat or danger," she said. The Millenium Development Goals are insufficient, and they cannot be reached without far-reaching UN reform, she said.

At the end of the session, my friend Anits and I debated whether to stay for the "political and cultural event" that was to follow. With speakers including Mary Robinson, Jesse Jackson and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, it was very tempting. Anits was eager to hear Mary Robinson, among whose claims to fame are her presidency of the Republic of Ireland and her role as Human Rights High Commissioner of the UN for five years.

We decided to stay for Mary Robinson's talk. And we were glad we did. She reminded the audience that, at the turn of the century, the UN's goal had been to ensure that globalisation would work for all the world's peoples. However, with the emphasis on fighting terrorism following Sept. 11, globalisation and the role of human rights in globalisation got shoved to the back burner. She pointed to the fact that human rights issues have been removed from the UN summit's agenda this year, and called for change.

She also cautioned against settling for a weak UN reform plan. "It's important that we don't get into the kind of mood where we think that something's not so bad, because it used to be so much worse," she said.

After her talk, Anits and I slipped out of the church where the forum was being held. As we exited the building, we spotted Robinson standing by herself on the sidewalk. Anits studied human rights in undergrad, and to her Robinson was an idol, one of the leading figures in the field. So, we had to go speak with her. We approached her, introduced ourselves, and thanked her for her talk. Anits, who's a lot more informed about human rights issues than I am, then chatted with her about the need to bring human rights back into the UN agenda, while I gawked.

As we walked away from Robinson, Anits was in heaven. "I shook hands with Mary Robinson!!" she exclaimed jubilantly. "I feel like a child who's seen Madonna or someone for the first time! No one's going to touch this hand!!"

Anyway, as we walked away, what struck me the most was my own ignorance about the UN, and all the roles it plays. Listening to the talks, I realised how little I knew about the Millenium Development Goals, the UN reform agenda, the agencies that make up the UN, everything. My knowledge about the UN barely skims the surface.

So, I've decided. . . I'm going to read up on as much as I can about the UN over the next few weeks. So ask me in a few weeks!!