last day of the COSP

And here is my final blog about the Conference of State Parties at the UN in New York, also written from home:

At Friday 19 July 2013 was the final day of the Conference of State Parties on the CRPD. Again I was at the UN building at 10 AM. I went to the plenary session which was also the closure of the official part at 13.00.
I was sitting in the back of the big conference room, and I heard the messages aimed at empowering and inspiring State parties to take the mission of inclusion home with them, and practice it in the local and national contexts. While I was sitting at the back row, I was approached by several people who wanted to talk to me. So I left the conference room and had some interesting dialogues, about my presentation and other issues related to the CRPD and persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. It then became basically a day full of networking and exchanging views and business cards. In between all the interesting contacts, I went to pick up my UN badge for annual access. Of course I’m very proud of that badge. It even has my colourful picture on it, and it opens UN-doors :)

After 14.00 in the afternoon, the UN DESA (Department of Economic and Social Affairs) had organized a DESA Forum: Dialogue on the Post-2015 Development Framework and Disability.
I was again sitting in the back of the conference room, and still had some short chats with various people. Session 1 was mainly about accessible tourism, transport, infrastructure and some economic aspects. I didn’t find it particularly interesting.
In between 2 session I then I approached the EU delegates because I had some questions about worrying developments in the Netherlands (not ratified CRPD yet, a reservation on the prohibition of torture, and several law proposals and plans that are really opposite to international human rights standards, such as expanding forced treatments, upgrading solitary confinement into “secured rooms”, and another new plan for law reform by a big political party (VVD) to put national law over international standards). But the EU delegates said that the EU cannot make statements on human rights and national substances, which is a task of the Council of Europe (CoE) – and it’s questionable whether they will be helpful.. So that was slightly disappointing, but at least it was made clear that I shouldn’t put my expectations there.

I listened a bit more to the questions and answer-session at the UN DESA event (still on access and transport, infrastructure). And at the end of this session, at 16.00 I left. The next session would be about disaster management, and I wasn’t expecting to be needed there. This Forum was added to my programme quite unexpected, when I heard about it on the first day. I didn't find it particularly relevant for my domain fo expertise, and I felt too tired to really pay attention anymore, so I decided to leave.
The UN DESA Forum hosted another session on the next day, Saturday 20 July. This would be a session on a disability-inclusive post-2015 development agenda, taking place from 10 to 13.00. This would have been very interesting to join, but it wasn’t very practical in time for me, because of my flight later that day. And after 4 full days of conference-sessions, I decided that I needed these few hours on the Saturday for myself, just as I had planned before. The consultation on the Post-2015 Development Framework and Disability will be a continuous process for the next several months (Also see: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/development-beyond-2015.html


So on Friday afternoon, after 16.00 I left the UN building, and I dropped off my laptop and paperwork at the hotel, and then went out to see some more of New York city. I decided to take subway 1 all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan, to look at the Statue of Liberty.
I walked to the waterside, and watched the sunset, with a far view on the Statue of Liberty. And I had a nice talk with some nice fishermen. I then moved to Midtown again, where I walked around in the mainstream areas again. I was really enjoying the atmosphere there. A guy with a zombie-painted face showed me the way to “Times Scare”, a haunted house with free Scaryoke Karaoke hosted by a gender-illusionist, who made it into a comedy show. I really had a good laugh there. After that I walked around in the area of Times Square, where I got to hold a big snake, and I had my drawing made by a street artist who did a great job. It’s like New York city is a festival on itself. Entertainment is everywhere. I really had a nice time there. I went back to my hotel at around 2.30, when my feet were really sore from walking.

The next day, Saturday 20 July I packed my bags and stalled them in the luggage room of the hotel. I had about 3 hours to walk around and have some lunch before taking off to the airport. I aimed to go to the Village, which is an area a lot of people recommended to me. However, I took an interesting turn and ended up in Soho and at the border of Chinatown, which was also very nice and interesting to see, but I was constantly watching the time, because of my departure.

I went back to Penn stations area to collect my bag, my poster and my artwork and carried it all to the airport. It was still very hot in New York. It was said to be the heaviest heatwave in 7 years or so, with all days above 40 degrees, and much humidity. But then, when we were in the airplane, it suddenly started to rain severely, including a thunderstorm. Our plane was already on the active take-off-track, but all flights were held on to the ground, until the weather passed. There appeared to be a beautiful rainbow, which I unfortunately couldn’t see due to my seat (and I had to remain seated), but many people talked about it in the airplane. I enjoyed the thought that we couldn’t leave New York because of a rainbow in the sky, which kept us there, like a beautiful goodbye sign :)

The cabin crew was impressed by my hair, and asked me if they could touch it. Then they even offered me something extra to drink, and I was treated like their VIP. That was really funny. At the end, just before landing, they even invited me to the back of the airplane, to take a picture all together: the 4 people of the cabin crew and me. It was very funny. They were nice people, and I really enjoyed my flight.

After an overnight flight I arrived in the Netherlands at 8 AM at Sunday 21 July, and then after several hours I arrived home around noon. By then I was really exhausted and fell asleep almost right away. In the early evening I woke up for a few hours, but I was still exhausted and maybe jetlagged, and I’m experiencing the European heatwave here – which is heat without air-conditioning nearby. I can’t say that’s really better than New York’s heatwave – so it took some time to get some energy back.

Now it’s 2 days later, Tuesday 23 July, and I’m physically recovered from the entire trip, and I’m having a lot of good memories of the entire mission in New York. My presentation went well, and a lot of people (including UN officials) requested more information on my model. So that was a very good experience. I also met a lot of nice and interesting people, did much networking, and the vibe at the conference was quite okay. And also New York as a city was absolutely great to explore, and everybody seemed to like my colourful Mohawk and my outfit. I felt very welcome. So I had a great time. Everything went very well, and I enjoyed being there.

There might be a chance that I will go back to New York in September 2013 for the UN High Level Meeting on Disability and Development. I will try to do so (if I can find funding). I am already looking forward to going there again. I love New York, and New York loves me :)