Annual UN Conference for NGOs- Soroptimist International

Mexico City- Today over 800 delegates from around the world attended the annual Department of Public Information / Non Governmental Conference (DPI/NGO )in Mexico City . This is the 62nd conference of its kind-and is the one conference held annually for the UN and Civil Society. This is and the second time that this conference has been held in a site other than the UN headquarters in New York City. Soroptimist International has a delegation of 4 people with President Hanne Jensbo from Denmark, SI Programme Director Dawn Marie Lemonds from USA, Kate Moore from UK and Dr. Summer Lockerbie from USA. The title of this conference this year is Disarm Now! for peace and development.

The 4 SI delegates converged excitedly to the gorgeous historic opening site callled Ex Convent of St. Hipolito. We were thrilled to sit in the 5 th row and have a perfect view of the opening ceremonies- which included presentations from a combination of UN luminaries such as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Under Secretary Kiyo Akasaka, Host Country officials including Patricia Espinoza Cantellano-Mexico Minister of Foreign Affairs and two Nobel Peace prize laureates- Miguel Marin Bosch and Jody Williams!

This conference is the first totally bilingual DPI/NGO Conference ever held and all workshops, round tables, key notes and Break out sessions included speeches and interpretation in both Spanish and English! People who are interested in following the main speeches and events of this conference are encouraged to go to the conference website-www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference.

Highlights from the first day included encouraging and challenging words from SG Ban Ki-moon:
-I turn to the charter of the United Nations which starts out with the words- "We the people....." You - the NGOs are the real heros and the driving force in our world community......you are the reason that many important issues have been brought to the UN including the current issue of disarmament......
-The world is overarmed and underfunded...Military funding is over a trillion dollars a year and is rising everyday....arms are the number one cause of civilian death and most of these deaths happen in non-military zones.
-We must act....we must continue to speak out against nuclear weapons. The are immoral and should not be afforded any military value.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon articulated a 5 point plan to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. He has launched a new acronym WMD - which stands for We Must Disarm ( not weapons of mass destruction.) He talked about the 4 F's that are now challenging our world and stretching the capacity of every nation to protect its population: Food, Fuel, Finance and Flu. He made a compelling point that many of these issues could be satisfactorily dealt with if the money allocated to miltary endeavors could be spent on humanity and human issues.

He urged civil society and NGOs to be at the forefront-"the mightiest force of change is in the power of the people..."

At risk of missing so many other important messages, the speech of Nobel Laurete Jody Williams electrified the audience. Jody Williams described herself as a child of the 50's who was taught to "duck and cover" under the desk and that would protect her from a nuclear war. She was so terrified as a child with these scare tactics that she said her greatest desire was to have a personal bomb shelter.....she then realized that this didn't make sense because if she was protected and everyone else died- what was there worth living for? Jody said that she didn't want any other child to have to face the fear of nuclear war...yet....it is a very real fear.

She offered up some very practical suggestions for the audience of people from many countries-
1. Write President Obama and press him to match his words in his campaign speech with actions toward eliminating nuclear weapons.....equally we should write Gordon Brown in UK and ask him to not continue supporting Trident
2. Press for your government to have a summit to discuss nuclear disarmament and support a UN Convention
3. Work together- don't spend so much time defining turf- and trying to get credit for your organization- Make a concentrated and coordinated effort to insist on changes in your governments and for the world.

This conference allows people to come together from around the world representing many diverse NGO entities . Each of the NGOs have a passion to promotion of peace, humanity and disarmament. The opportuntity to stand in line next to a woman from Somalia and hear her story and then listen to a passionate presentation from a one armed woman from El Salvador whose father and husband were both killed before her eyes is unexplicable. Daily we attend Round Tables, Break Out Sessions and workshops. Sessions are complex and simple-like the topic. They challenge our brains and our hearts.

The day ended with a wonderful hosted reception held in another historic building with great Mexican treats and gorgeous chamber music. We enjoyed this wonderful evening with our two new friends Marina Walker of Canada and Sarah Walker of UK- young women volunteers with World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts who are working at the Cabana in Cuernavaca- about two hours away. They are going to be in our workshop that we will be presenting tomorrow at the Conference.

I listened to all of the issues of war, civil unrest, the effects of war and tools of war on civil society. We learned once again that women bear an additional cost -the cost of violence, lack of financial resources, the added responsibility of taking care of the family and so many more costs bourne simply for being female. It was made clear that disarmament and all of the other related issues is a gender issue. Women must be involved in the identification of the problems and be active partners in being part of the solutions.

We ended the day- exhausted and gratified to be part of this amazing "think tank" and look forward to the two days to come.

Dawn Marie Lemonds