Visit to the UN 

Finally the day has arrived! Today we had our UN visit. To be more exact we were at the OHCHR – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – where we heard four speeches/lectures regarding the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section- Research and Right to Development Division.

But to start from the beginning, today we haven't had a collective breakfast and since we had to be at the UN building not before 9:30 we all could sleep in. After Roy's birthday party from the night before, most of us were quite happy about that.

The day started with several presentations from Belén Rodriguez de Alba, Michèle Buteau, Ana de Souza and Aleksandra Plesko about the rights of indigenous peoples and their opportunities of fellowships at the OHCHR. We learned so much, thank you again to Mrs. Rodriguez de Alba for organizing this.

Because of that visit we also gained access to publications of the UN, which we all thankfully accepted; some of us actually took a huge pile of books with them.

To finish off this great morning, we went to the international conference center to get some real good lunch. 

In the afternoon we had, for the first time this week, some time off to visit the city or spend some more time at the UN – two of us Swiss participants have chosen to visit the Palais des Nations and had the most pleasant time since our badges from the morning still counted and they got access to several areas which a guided tour would not have visited.

At four o'clock p.m. we all met again at "la Maison des Associations" to learn more about the GIMUN. This NGO, as well the height of their Finance & Fundraising Director, impressed all of us. Maeva Cherpillod and Aleksandar Stojanov told us how every student can get involved at GIMUN and especially at the annual conference. They showed us a little bit about the problems of starting a project, which we will learn more about in the upcoming days; looking forward to that.

In the end Madlen Kobi from INCOMINDIOS told us what they were doing and their involvement in projects with indigenous people.

Since Roy will be leaving on Friday morning, we all met at the end of the day for dinner outside “la Maison”. Another perfect day has passed by so quickly.