United Nations Visit

Yesterday Ana and I went on the tour of the United Nations headquarters here in Geneva. I could not believe it was her first time to visit after living in Geneva for 17 years.

The office in Geneva is the second largest office of the four major UN offices in the world. It is second in size to New York`s office, and third and fourth are Vienna and Nairobi. After WW1, the League of Nations was established to prevent another worldwide catastrophe. Since that did not work out so well, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations following WW2 in 1946. As it was signed into incipience, Lord Robert Cecil proclaimed, ``The League is dead, long live the United Nations!``

We were only able to visit one conference room during our visit. In this room, diplomats from each country meet to discuss international rules and regulations. There are clear glass booths wrapping around the top of the room; this is where the interpreters sit in order to rapidly translate the conversation into one of the six official languages of the UN. English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic are the six languages allowed to be spoken at any time in any conference of the UN. However, heads of state are allowed to speak in their own native language if they so choose. They bring their personal interpreters along with them so their message can carefully and diplomatically be translated into an official UN language.

This is the room we visited. I forgot my camera, so these are pics taken from the internet.


The mission statement of the UN is as follows.

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

I really enjoyed the visit, even though it was cut short because three of the four rooms usually visited were being occupied by conferences. Maybe in the coming years I will attempt for an internship at the UN in Geneva or New York, who knows.

Here is a pic of the front of the UN.