We had a tour of the United Nations buildings including the Palais des Nations today. It was very interesting. I would have liked to seen much more and actually observed some of the meetings that were happening. Since I teach int'l politics, it made my heart beat faster just to be here. Over 10,000 meetings were held in this location last year. There are 80 conference rooms (large and small) in the building. The annual Int'l Labor Organization meeting was being held this week.
Meeting hall for the Human Rights Council
The roof of Human Rights Council is designed by a Spanish artist with different colors and shapes to represent the many different peoples and beliefs in the world that come together.
Panorama of the Human Rights Council hall.
Group getting a briefing from our Chinese tour guide. She noted that the meetings are video streamed for anyone to watch (unless your country blocks it) - she made the aside comment quickly and moved on with her script : )
The council chamber of the League of Nations. Walls also done by a Spanish artist symbolism the progress of man socially, politically and scientifically.
This room has a lot of flexibility, with two different doors for parties in conflict to enter from different places. Tables that are movable for different shapes and configurations that are agreable to conflicting parties.
Pictures on the wall of the Council room were intriguing.
The land for the Palais des Nations was donated after WWI. The donor stipulated that peacocks should always be on the grounds. We saw at least four of them.
It was so cool to see diplomats from all over the world walking through the halls.
No comments:
Post a Comment