UN Conference on Children 2002

This blog is taken from my book page 116:

“One of the most fascinating experiences I had while being on the board of Street Kids was being a delegate to the UN Conference on Children in New York in 2002. The other delegates were fellow Board Members Bill Richardson, field worker Veronica Torres and Executive Director Rosemary McCarnie.

Originally, the conference was scheduled for September 2001, however, 9/11 got in the way. This conference attracted delegates from many countries from around the world and included a youth contingent, country presidents, NGO workers and children’s advocates, politicians from both rich and poor countries, as well as well-known humanitarians such as Kofi Amin, Romeo Dalaire and Stephen Lewis.  We mixed with all attendees, participating in workshops together.  Several of their stories stand out.

The first was the heart-wrenching situation of a young Kenyan girl who had AIDS and because of the stigma could not talk about it. When she tried, her community cut her off.  But slowly she was taken back in.  A man in the audience stood up and stated, with considerable passion and to much applause, that we men need to change our behaviour.

Hearing Romeo Dalaire speak from the floor in a session (I was sitting three seats down from him) was also incredibly moving.  He shared some of his experiences of having to make decisions affecting children while he was commander of the peacekeeping forces in Rwanda.  Some of these experiences tore him apart.  His internal torment is now well-known and speaking about these situations was a part of his therapy.  Since this time, I have had several discussions with him. He suffers from post-traumatic stress.  I am told one way of dealing with PTSD is to be proactive in a good cause and he now has a foundation working with former child soldiers and has just written another book describing his experiences.

A third session, I recall, was a panel moderated by Stephen Lewis.  During the session, attended by about 400 people, a teenage Palestinian girl stood up, gave her background and tearfully said, “Why do the people of Israel hate me?  I’ve done nothing wrong.”  There was a pause and then silence.  Then, on the other side of the room another girl stood up and said, “I am from Israel and I do not hate you.”  The room went silent for what seemed like forever.  Many people were in tears, including me.  Finally Stephen Lewis said (as only Stephen Lewis can) “These two girls have just done more for peace and understanding than politicians have done in years.”  Spontaneous applause erupted.

After returning home from this conference, I vowed to spend much of my time working on behalf of marginalized children.

Til next time.

Chris Snyder