Thursday, April 14, 2011

Alexi Knock - Geneve, Switzerland - March 27-28 (photos by Alexi Knock)




After staying the night in Anemasse, France, we piled into the vans and took a surprisingly short drive to Geneva, Switzerland. Geneva is home to the Human Rights headquarters of the United Nations, so it was literally the perfect place to learn more for our human rights course. Upon arriving in the city, I noticed right away that most of the people were dressed in business attire. This was because the majority of them are involved in the UN; and for the day, so were we. Our first stop was the UN Human Rights Commission, where a guest speaker spoke to us about his duties with the UN. We learned that the UN is divided into several different departments and is constantly striving for peace and cooperation amongst countries. After the UN Human Rights Commission meeting, we visited the United Nations office of Geneva. Surprisingly, the building was beautiful and had artifacts and paintings donated from all over the world. Because of this, the building itself was a symbol of the unity of the countries. One of the most spectacular parts of the building was the ceiling of the famous Room XX. It was painted by Miquel Barcelo in 2008 and created to look like the interior of a cave. Visiting the buildings of the UN in Geneva was extremely inspiring and strengthened my hope that maybe one day the Declaration of Human Rights will be followed by every country in all situations.

No comments:

Post a Comment