From Geneva with a Smile

(This is an extended version of a writing that I submit to the IALDF as a contribution for their newsletter, end of April 2007)

I was proud and flattered to be chosen to join the IALDF funded joint six month internship program between the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva, from January to July 2007. Geneva which houses a lot of international organizations have long become the city of interns, where hundreds of young people coming from all over the world to have an experience in one or more international organizations to pursue their future career plan in human rights field. Only a few of those organizations provide salary, a living stipend or even just a monthly bus pass to cover the intern’s transportation. So it is almost impossible for someone from developing countries (especially an NGO worker with lower middle income like me) can support their own internship in this very expensive international city. I thanked the IALDF to give me the opportunity, and hoping that in years to come, more NGO workers will be granted with this wonderful experience.

Geneva is a very beautiful city, international in its organizations and peoples. I get confused sometimes in public places such as the tram and buses, where people speaks with their own languages, but most of them speaks French, as it is the official language of Republic Canton of Geneva (although the size is so small Geneva is an independent cantonal under the Swiss Confederation). I have just known it here that Swiss has four official languages in different parts of the country-German, French, Italian and Roman-and only a few of common Swiss people I met on the streets speaks English. I have the opportunity to learn French at a language schools run by one of Geneva’s biggest supermarket chain. But seems like I am progressing very slow since that until know the only full sentence of French that I used the most still “Je ne parle pas francais” (I don’t speak French .

Geneva has a lot of beautiful buildings and parks, with the view of the snowy Alps surrounding the city. Situated in the middle of the continent it has no beach, but has a long riverside and lakeshore. The weird thing is they called it beaches (as Geneva Plage and Baby Plage- a small corner in the lakeside near the Parc des Eaux Vives furnished with sands, swings and fences to make it just like a swimming pool dedicated for children, but of course children brings their parents that also took advantage of the place). I remember the hotel in Toba which I visit in 2004 that also called its lakeshore beach. But I do enjoy a nice walk at the lakeshore and riverside, as the winds and water sparks calms my soul.

The weather is nice now that the spring has come. I have experience the coldest of winter (it reaches -10 celcius at night) standing in the bus stop at Gardiol with my fellow intern at 11pm waiting for the last bus in the middle of a heavy snow. My first snow…it was amazing to see the off white scenery but still hate the cold. Wearing at least 3 pair of clothes at a time, having influenza continuosly…But glad that it’s over! Now the average temperature is 22 celcius, still a little bit windy for me, enough to still make me want to put on my jacket every morning when I go to work. But the funny thing was these people are such a sun worshipper that this temperature is enough to make them filled the parks and lakesides on weekends, with their t-shirt off or even bikini sun bathing. Even one day I saw someone actually bring a waterspray (just like what people use in the Arabian gulf while doing haj pilgrimage) and spray it to herself and her children in the middle of street in sunny day. I thought that they should go to Jakarta, or even to Mecca to really experience the heat.

Food is relatively not a problem. As I have my own magic com to cook rice, it feels like home only that I missed my mother’s salty cook. Of course since I am never been a good cook, all I capable of is only simple stuffs. I bring my lunch to the office just like the old days in KPU few years ago (one of the reasons is to save money because the food here is very expensive, also that the meal portion here is too big). Being a muslim requires me to be careful on the food since Switzerland doesn’t have a MUI like Indonesia to give halal label. Most bread, biscuit, cakes, chips etc. contains gelatine or lecithine out of pork, also foods like pizza, sandwich and lasagna contains pork or ham in it.So I really have to be very careful in reading their labels, a little hard since most of them are in French, German and Italian. Even to buy a chicken you should question about its halal status, whether or not it butchered in Islamic way (as this once a subject in my bi-weekly Islamic sermons in the Indonesian Mission). For me now, at least I do my best to be careful on what I buy and the rest is up to Allah to decide…

Another thing about being a muslim women with the veil in my head, I get used to the strange look that people give to me. Actually they supposed to get used with women weaing headscarfes since there are so many Middle East and African muslims here, maybe just because I am an Asian? I always want to say to them “Did your mothers never tell you that it’s not polite to stare at people?” But now I get used to it, I stare back and smile to everyone that stare at me. Now I really understand what it is like to be a minority, and what is racial profiling and counter terrorism measures are all about. I experience a couple of inconveniences with the UN security guard at its Pregny Gate, the only gate at the UN with the metal detector and baggage check, actually this is a discriminatory since anyone coming with cars like the ambassadors, and permanent badge holders can use the front gate, which should have save much time and energy. Anyway few times at the Pregny Gate the guard treat me special,one day he ask for my passports, one other day he fix sticker label in my backpack. I thought it was just an ordinary routine but then I realized that my friends, the Caucasian even the Chinese doesn’t get the same treatment. At the last day of the Council I get the sticker again, I get furious and I asked them why I am getting the sticker, one of them said that it was only because of my bag is big. I told them that my friend also has a big bag and why she does not get the sticker, and the man said “OK, I give your friend the same sticker, are you satisfied now? It’s just a routine…not a big deal.” Of course I am not satisfied with the answer, and as I already have a conversation about this topic with my (now former) Manager at the ISHR, I tell her about it and she said that she will make sure that on behalf of NGOs they will question the UN secretariat about the discriminatory treatment.

One thing about the very famous Swiss cheese fondue…that a Swiss friend called it “the Swiss religion”. That one night at Gardiol at this friend’s house, I with a few of ISHR’s interns are fondue-ing. Fondue actually is just a hot melted cheese cooked mixed with garlic and wine, and then you dip bread croutons into it. Of course for me he made a special one, non alcohol and no garlic (because I hate the smell), it turns out that it has no taste at all and it made me nauseaus.

But the nice thing is that in spite of all the things so expensive in Geneva, only chocolate that is cheaper here comparing to Indonesia. And they are good chocolates too, and I have the obsession to taste every kinds of chocolate on sale in the supermarket, starting from the cheapest that only priced 30 cents.

In my first three month with the ISHR I was join the United Nations Monitoring Team, where I have the opportunity to learn and observe the UN human rights mechanism in practice. I was assigned to monitor and report back on various meetings of the Human Rights Council and its working groups. I learn a lot of new things including the new mechanism of Universal Periodic Review, which I have never heard before. I realized that all these international mechanism are not so popular in Indonesia although it should be beneficial for the works of human rights NGOs. I also have the opportunity to monitor the 70th meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, especially in the examination of two countries, Macedonia and Antigua & Barbuda.

At the 4th session of the Human Rights Council I met a lot of NGO representatives from all over the world working on various issues (including some from Indonesia who presents that time). I also join some interesting parallel meetings and workshops organized by NGOs and they gave me a broader update of recent developments on human rights all over the world, from the people that work on the issues, instead of the diplomats at the Council. I also have the opportunity to attend some of the sessions of the Advanced Geneva Training Course in International Human Rights Law and Advocacy, which organized annually by ISHR for selected experienced human rights professionals from NGOs all over the world. It was very inspiring to hear their experience and opinions from the work that they have done in their countries, like Zimbabwe, Sudan, Palestine, and the Occupied Syrian Golan.

In my last three month internship with the ICJ I get more sense of applying human rights on the ground, as I am interning with ICJ’s Asia Pacific Programme, which mainly dealt with human rights situation in the South and South East Asia including Indonesia. My internship with the ICJ has also broaden my network, as the ICJ has commissioners, sections and affiliates in more than 70 countries worldwide.

I was amazed on how international organizations make the best use of information technologies to enhance their work, something that I always dreamed to happen in Indonesia. Wide range of information is available in their websites, very comprehensive and always updated. Especially for ISHR which aimed to give information as services for NGOs in the regions that has limited access to the UN. I always compare it to the condition in Indonesia where not enough resources devoted to this sector. Even the ICJ has complaining that they have the trouble to seek information about Indonesia, not only because of limited information available in English in the web, also the fact that the NGO websites are not updated regularly. Even if they wrote an e-mail asking for those information, only few of them get an immediate response. Maybe the language and also the lack of culture of making the best use of information technology remains as problem for Indonesia.

And as bonuses from the experience, I also met new friends, from the offices that I am intern with, NGOs that I met during the human rights meetings, and also Indonesian living in Geneva. I make friends with a lot of Indonesian at the bi-weekly Islamic sermons.

One night I also invited to a dinner with the Indonesian Ambassador for the UN and the UN-Indo Jenewa, a network of Indonesian working in international organizations in Geneva. It turns out to be a dinner to welcome the head of the Indonesian Investment Coordination Agency (BKPM). I was a little bit disappointed because I thought it was organized in relation to the Human Rights Council that will take place few days after. I have been thinking why does this dinner had to happen, and finally I get the idea when the honorable guest made his speech, he stated that he hope that Indonesian working in international organizations could be “ambassadors” for Indonesia, maintaining Indonesia’s good reputation in order to get the international (investors) trust. And he also reiterates his wish to me when we shake hand at the end of the night. Actually I think he remember me the most because I was the only one stating something negative.

This is what happens. I get a little furious when he stated that that infrastructure and the high cost labour are among the biggest obstacle of investment in Indonesia. Then I took the floor and spoke about Presidential Decree (Perpres) 36 about Land Procurement for Public Needs and its judicial review (which I am proud to be a part of it), forced evictions of the poor in the name of “public need” and the condition of labour which is far from being well and prosper. And he responded in a way that I must admit very brilliant and concise, but of course in a perspective of an investor and businessman. And of course because I already have my own mindset, it doesn’t satisfy me, but I realize from the beginning that’s what the man do for a living and no way that a statement from someone like me could change his perspective. I only concern that these Indonesian working in international organizations seems like loosing connection to what happen on the ground.

Anyway, remembering the BKPM man’s statement, I only hope that with my being in Geneva I can also be the “ambassador” for Indonesian NGOs and peoples, helping them in relation to access the international organizations here in Geneva. I always trying to spread any information, publications, and capacity building opportunities in relation to human rights that I received to my NGO and activists networks in Indonesia. I also going to try to take Indonesian cases that might be a concern of the ICJ, as I am trying to do now with a case of an NGO worker sexually tortured by the Aceh Police.

And another good thing resulted from this experience is that now I have the eagerness to continue my study for a postgraduate level, either in international human rights, international criminal law or international labour law. Peoples I met during this internship are finishing their postgraduate study in an age as young as 23, which is not common in Indonesia. For someone working in NGO like me, it usually took at least 3 years after finishing graduate studies one could continue to postgraduate. Either to save enough money to fund highly expensive postgraduate study fee in Indonesia, or to have enough working experience as a requirement to apply for a postgraduate scholarship abroad. I used to think that as a practicing lawyer (in an NGO, moreover) I would not need any postgraduate degree. Now I realize that human rights and international law is not just about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, laws and instruments but a very broad and interesting field to explore. Meeting these young people inspires me to also continue my study, not for a prestige, or just to make my price higher, but as a form of public accountability, reassurance of the quality of service that I am about to give to the public.