Robyn Seth-Purdie, our Government Relations Coordinator, blogs from the UN Human Rights Committee Meeting in New York.

We arrived last night and looked set to get back to the hotel early, but the airline lost our luggage between San Francisco and New York, so that took a chunk of extra time and put a dampener on our excitement at being here.

Travelling overnight from Australia always involves a moment of truth at about 3am when your allocated space seems to be closing in on you relentlessly and escape is not yet in sight. Following that ordeal, there is the novelty of the US migration inspection – they now have digital prints of all my fingers and thumbs and a digital photo of my face, definitely not looking my best.

Australia wants to be a leader and must seek to uphold all the ideals that it wants others to pursue.

The heating in our rooms last night was so hot that even without the PJs - in the missing baggage - it was still too hot. The bellboy work me up at 7:15am - probably shortly after I just managed to sink into a really deep sleep, and said he had the bags. A few uncoordinated minutes of headless chook activity ensued. Bags were handed over, but I couldn't find the tipping money and had to let it go.

After acquiring my UN pass I met the other NGO reps. on the delegation – Phil Lynch, and his team from Vic Human Rights Law Resource Centre, Teena Balgi from Kingston Community Law Centre and Leah, who is based in NY and represents the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. We reviewed our topics and speaking roles and joined the Committee Meeting in Committee Room 11. I was last here in 1994 as a member of the Government Delegation to the UN Conference on Population and Development - almost another lifetime ago.

The Human Rights Committee has important business to attend to - a new Chairman must be elected and we listen with interest to the process of nomination and advocacy on behalf of favoured candidates. The newest member of the Committee - from Japan - is elected. The other major contender was a former Amnesty Legal adviser and a well-respected human rights advocate and academic. Not all of the thinking behind the process is immediately obvious.

The Committee goes overtime and the NGO speakers - on Chad, Rwanda and Switzerland - commence, but are held over until after lunch. Disappointment - I was holding myself together until lunchtime and must now try even harder to last until the end of the day.

I check my emails at lunchtime and discover that I have interviews awaiting me at the end of the day. A well-earned rest could be some time off.

We assemble outside the Committee Room after lunch, waiting to be called in. At last it's out turn - we've heard shocking reports from the NGO representatives from Chad - it seems that rights activists there are declared enemies of the state and if they are lucky flee immediately thereafter.

Still, Australia wants to be a leader and must seek to uphold all the ideals that it wants others to pursue.

We all speak in turn. I follow up at the end, reminding the Committee that a recurring theme through Amnesty's briefing paper is that rights protections are not equally enjoyed by all groups in Australia's jurisdiction - and that Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers both miss out in particular ways, which I outline. I conclude with the view that these matters warrant the close attention of the Committee.

We are all relieved - the Committee was attentive and asked questions. They will have a chance to obtain more detailed information at the informal briefing during the lunch break on Monday.

Robyn Seth-Purdie
Government Relations Coordinator
Amnesty International Australia

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