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Inside this Issue: Youth Cafeteria Campaign, Latest Update The Way Forward: Open, Unscripted and Interactive NGO Input at the Ministerial Dialogue with Representatives of the Major Groups Is your suitcase heavier upon return? IISD's Climate Knowledge Management Project Cracking the Peanuts or the Coconuts? |
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Friday, May 16, 2008Youth Cafeteria Campaign, Latest UpdateBy: Youth CaucusDuring our first conversation with the cafeteria’s manager (on Tuesday), we agreed to meet him on Thursday to get some feedback on our remarks. Shortly before the agreed time, he approached us, saying that he was not allowed to meet us, as we did not get the written permission to carry out a “campaign”. For the same reason, he took a bunch of completed suggestion sheets out of the Aramark feedback-box and gave them (“back”) to us. As a matter of fact, we did NOT carry out the campaign we had planned (write posters, give suggestion sheets to all people sitting in the cafeterias, etc.). We decided to suspend it yesterday after getting totally lost in the UN bureaucracy. Aramark had referred us to its UN counterpart to obtain approval for our plans. The person in charge then directed us for approval to two different UN-departments. We did not manage to find an appropriate contact person in either one of them (despite a whole afternoon of efforts). The only action we took was to make the official Aramark feedback forms available on our desk (for people who would like to react to the article we published on Tuesday). Many members of the Youth Caucus, however, decided to individually fill in a suggestion sheet and submit it. Some other people might have done the same. We feel sorry for those of you whose feedback cards might have been associated with us. We cannot tell whether submitted suggestions have been read at all, as Aramark refuses to speak to us. In short, we feel silenced for jointly discussing a problem and then individually pronouncing ourselves about this issue. We were taught that the freedom of assembly and the freedom of speech are fundamental rights. We hope that we will not get into problems for posting this article. Hopefully, the freedom of press does apply within these corridors. As we are leaving, we hope that “Green in the UN” and next year’s Youth Caucus will be able to continue our struggle for fair trade and a more sustainable cafeteria. |