Day 5

I began the day with a meeting at Barclay's bank to set up my banking account here. The young guy who interviewed me and took my information was helpful and THOROUGH. The meeting took about an hour. Next I spent a few hours finding necessities at the pharmacy and grocery stores, and finally arrived back home in the early afternoon. Read quite a lot in the afternoon on non-governmental organizations in international law, which is also the title of a text written by Anna-Karin Lindblom, a Special Adviser in human rights issues in the Ministry of Justice Division for Democratic Issues in Sweden. She was a visiting scholar here at one time and actually wrote part of the very long book I am now reading (circa 500 pages) while she was here.

At 6pm I went downstairs for our barbeque with the members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (baically the British State Department) who are visiting the Center this week. I spoke with Harriet Cross, a woman about five years older than myself who is about to become a "First Secretary of Human Rights" within the UKMIS, or UK Mission to the UN. This means she will be representing the UK government on issues of human rights in the United Nations Office in NYC. Her past experience has been as _____ and she has visited the holding centers in the UK for suspected members of terrorist organications, examining and reporting on their conformity with the appropriate UK human rights standards. She has also done some work on indiginous societal issues within the UK. I also spoke for a short time with one of the legal specialists of the Office about Darfur and causes for the failure of the AU mission there. Also met Elanor, one of the current diplomats to the Falkland Islands, and with John Barker, a lecturer here who worked on the South African Constitution and has worked on a number of sustainable development project. I look forward to speaking with him more about his past and present projects.