On September 3-5, over 1300 representatives attended the 61st annual DPI (Department of Information) Conference of recognized NGO's in Paris at the UNESCO headquarters. It was the first time that the NGO conference had ever been held outside of NY because the UN headquarters there are currently undergoing renovation.
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The theme of the conference was "Reaffirming Human Rights for All - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 60." Paula Daeppen and Pam Perraud, UN/NGO Co-Directors attended the conference on behalf of FAWCO.
At the opening session, attendees were welcomed, via video, by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and by Srgjan Kerim, President of the 62nd Session of the General Assembly. Opening speakers included Mme Simone Veil, former French Minister of State as well as Rama Yade the French Deputy Minister in Charge of Foreign affairs and Human Rights.
There were four main roundtable discussions all related to Human Rights themes- including "Upholding the UDHR", "Overcoming Discriminiation to Realise Human Rights", "Human Rights Education" and "Addressing Gross Human Rights Violations." Top experts from around the world and representatives of NGO's discussed what had been done in these key areas and what remains to be done.
Because the theme was the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, Eleanor Roosevelt's picture as well as some of the other key members of the original Human Rights Committee were prominently displayed with 10 feet high photos on the main dais. As members of the Eleanor Roosevelt Team in Geneva, Pam and Paula distributed flyers which highlighted her role with the UDHR.
Several speakers mentioned Eleanor Roosevelt in their talks. Jan Eliasson, former head of the Foreign Ministry in Sweden and former special envoy of Kofi Annan's to Darfur said that he always kept a copy of the UDHR wherever he was in the world. He showed the copy he carried - a first edition, printed in 1949, signed by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Shamina de Gonzaga, the Chair of the 61st conference, gave a special tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt and the special Eleanor Roosevelt Team.
At the closing session, attendees heard from Stephane Hessel, member of the French resistance, a survivor of Buchenwald and the only surviving member of the drafting committee of the UDHR. At 90 years old, he delivered a powerful speech on what has been achieved in 60 years in the field of human rights.
After he spoke, Ingrid Betancourt, the Columbia-French politician who was recently released after spending almost 7 years in captivity in Columbia, addressed the group via live video from New York. She spoke in moving terms of what human rights meant to her and to those who are still being tortured and abused by others in the world.
If you wish to see highlights of the conference, including the speeches by Hessel and Betancourt, you can go to www.un.org/webcast/dpingo/archive.asp?go=080905.