It is almost time to say goodbye to New York! It feels bittersweet. The friendships I have made, the valuable experience I have gained and just the feeling of being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of New York will be greatly missed. However, it has also been four long months since I have seen my family and friends in Canada and a part of me cannot wait to set foot back home. All the employees at the Canadian Mission were invited to a holiday dinner at the Ambassador’s residence today and I could not have imagined a better way to say goodbye to my New York family.
Now to continue from where I left off my last blog post…
I mentioned last time that I had started representing Canada in some informal negotiations of draft resolutions. As Thanksgiving weekend started, there was real pressure to finish discussions on these drafts and begin the silence procedure (this means that the draft resolution has been agreed upon and countries have 24 hours remaining after the resolution has been put to silence to voice out their concerns. If the silence is maintained for 24 hours, the resolution is ready for action in the general assembly). One of the negotiations that I attended before that hectic Thanksgiving weekend was on a Commodities resolution and I was told to say that Canada reserves its position for deletion of a particular paragraph. Let me tell you that even though that is all I had to say, I learned a lot about diplomacy even through that experience. There was so much pressure to end the negotiations and broker a deal and all of our like minded countries gave into a compromised text proposed by the Group of 77 (developing countries), which made things a bit awkward for me. I soon learned that even in the diplomatic world, you are nothing if your friends do not stand by you. Another interesting thing that happened that day before Thanksgiving started was that the Group of 77 wanted to introduce a new paragraph last minute on the International Decade of Soils resolution (prior to this, the resolution had almost been finalized and was ready to be put under silence). The G77 delegate actually saw me and asked me if Canada could support their new text. Even more amusing was the fact that he asked for my business card to send the text and since I am an intern and I do not have a business card, I told him I was all out! Anyways, I gave him my email address and we didn’t have any further comments to provide, so it all worked out in the end.
My most interesting experience, however, was on the draft resolution on the promotion and protection of telework. Even though most delegations were skeptical of the purpose of the resolution and no one could agree to the text, I learned and grew a lot from attending the negotiations on this resolution. Since I was the only one from Canada that ever attended the informal negotiations on this resolution, I would get emails from other delegates that had been present at the meeting in the middle of the night about certain problems they faced with regards to the resolution. I was the direct point of contact for Canada in those negotiations, which made me feel quite important!
As second committee resolutions wrapped up, I was again tasked with attending various side events and briefings for second and third committee and reporting back. Just the other day, I attended briefings on the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s work in Somalia and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s work in Mali. More recently, I also attended a meeting convened by the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Gaols on measuring progress in the implementation of the development goals and a briefing on the situation in the Philippines and the response of the international community. While my work has remained more or less the same on these side events and briefings as I am tasked with writing a report at the end, one thing that I would like to mention is the humbling experiences that I have run into with our Ambassador. As I was sitting in Canada’s seat for the briefing on the situation in the Philippines , the Ambassador walked in as he had to deliver a statement on behalf of Canada later on. As I offered him my seat, he declined and made me stay seated until it was his turn to give Canada’s statement. In today’s staff meeting, the Ambassador again reiterated his appreciation for the work that the other intern and I have done for the Mission. No matter what their rank or position, one thing I have learned is that everyone here is so down to earth and wonderful to work with that it will be hard leaving these guys behind. Hopefully, I am able to work my way up and come back soon!!
Au revoir!
Rabiya
No comments:
Post a Comment