Arriving in Geneva

Today, 26 August 2015, I arrived in Geneva. It had been a long trip. I left Eindhoven yesterday at 11 PM by train, and then spent the night waiting at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, where my flight departed at 7 AM. It was a quick flight, less than 1,5 hours, and after my arrival – without having had any sleep- I went straight to the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) at Palais Wilson, to join the session of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee).

Around 9.30 I was at Palais Wilson, and immediately I saw many familiar faces, such as Vicky from IDA, several EDF members, and also Nagase from Japan (I have met him in 3 different continents already). And it was really nice to meet the CRPD Committee members again. They greeted me warmly. There is such a great atmosphere of understanding and cooperation here. I love it!

At 10 AM the CRPD session on Brazil started. It was quite interesting, and I listened to the constructive dialogue, while I was preparing my presentation for tomorrow’s side event on the EU’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). During the small coffee break I sat with my allies from the International Disability and Development Consortium IDDC), who told me that Gabor Gombos would be coming too!! And Gabor is one of my colleagues from WNUSP and ENUSP, and a former CRPD-Committee member, and a very inspiring person, and I hadn’t seen him for quite a while. I was really happy to know he was on his way)
Eventually I did not go back to the session on Brazil, but I finished my presentation for tomorrow, and emailed the ENUSP board for approval of the draft. And then I sat with Gabor and the IDDC delegation, and we had interesting talks and a good time together.

During the lunchtime, the side event of IDDC on international cooperation and the role of the EU took place. It was interesting to hear Mrs. Hellen Grace Asamo from Uganda explain that there needs to be a stronger linkage between the development partners (big donors lik EU) and the national governments in developing countries, otherwise the governments may leave the care for persons with disabilities at the hands of international NGOs with the risk that it all collapses when the NGOs leave. So the EU should make more efforts to engage with the governments to raise awareness and to secure implementation at the domestic level.

After the lunch, I joined the session on Qatar, while doing some more email work at the same time. There were zero NGO or DPO submissions from Qatar, which is a tragedy in itself. And the Qatari government delegation wanted us to believe that disabled people do not feel disabled in Qatar. To me this sounded more like a defensive dialogue than a constructive dialogue… It was really interesting (and quite bizarre) to witness this situation.
However, I couldn’t stay till the end, because at 5 PM I had a meeting with Gabor Gombos and Alex (of IDA). We talked about some matters related to WNUSP, and brainstormed a bit on several ideas. It was a very pleasant and empowering experience. Afterwards Gabor and I walked together to the train station Cornavin and said goodbye to each other again.

Then around 8 PM I arrived at my hotel, located at the French border. (I have to stay in France due to the rules of EU funding (via EDF) which should not be spent outside EU). The Geneva Residence is basically more of a student flat with many apartments and studios. My studio is spacious with a dining room, TV room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, balcony, and of course a bedroom. Enough space to throw a good party here ;) which could be a plan when the wifi keeps on failing.

Anyway, I walked a little bit around in the neighbourhood, looking for cigarettes, but failed. So then I went back to my hotel-studio to write my blog and some other emails. And now that is done, and I can go to sleep (finally)! Good night!