International Law Commission Session

Last week I took some time off from work, to visit the 63rd annual session of the International Law Commission at the UN-Palais des Nations. The ILC is the highest committee you can get in as an lawyer for public international law - so basically its an assembly of "wise old men" passing through recommendations and resolutions. The sessions for the substantial discussions were unfortunately not public. So when I finally could visit, they were only passing through laws on which they had already agreed. Nevertheless I found it really interesting to experience, how this committee works.

Although around 30 men (no woman) were assambled to pass a law about the "responsibility of international organizations", only 2 people were actually "participating" in the session. A German lawyer (I recognized his German accent), who was VERY picky about the wording - of course it had to be a German, who else cares about the wording that much! And a French lawyer, who was the "specialist" in the matter in question. 25 others were not reacting at all, one was playing games on his i-pad (I was sitting right behind him, so I could see) and 2 to 3 members were giving few little inputs from time to time. Even though they were only discussing matters of wording and sentence structure, their conversations were quite fun:

German lawyer: "I would prefer not to use the word "through" here. I would propose to use "within"."
USA lawyer: "I would propose "throughout"".
British lawyer: "In my opinion "thorughout" is a too northern-american term. Just leave "through" here".
(discussion continues - no agreement reached)
British lawyer: "Let's just hear, what the specialist has to say".
French lawyer (specialist): "What do you ask me? I am French. And the French translation is totally fine!".
German lawyer: "and I wanna add, that I don't like the example, which is used here. Maybe the specialist can finde a better suited one..."
French lawyer (specialist): "I will be happy to add an other example, if you do the research for me".

So this gives you an idea, how laws are made on an international platform. And this is, where such historical events take place:




And at last, I wanna share an amazing view from my way back home (this chair is right infront of the Palais des Nations):

Open air cinema

Last Thursday, I met some intern girls from OHCHR to go to the open air cinema together. In Geneva Ciné Transat offers a free open air cinema in the park "perle du lac" just by the lake, every summer. You just have to come with a blanket, some wine and snacks to have a great movie classics experience through all genres! And not only the movie is enjoyable - the view you have, is most beautiful, too. We saw my all-time favourite anime from Miyazaki Hayao "Howl's moving castle" - it was all in French... but still it was a wonderful almost-full-moon-night!

Recalling the last few weeks

Well, well. Haven't written blog entries for a while. Time just flies so fast and my life just shifted from "soooo boring" to "sooo much stuff to do!". But before I start talking about my personal stress level, I wanna quickly recall my passed few weeks.

Let's see:

• There was this one evening, where I went out with some girls from my foyer to have some dinner. Well, actually, two of us wanted dinner, the other two just wanted dessert. So, we sat down at this quite pretty looking restaurant and made the obvious decision to share meals (also to save money). Just to be told by a VERY unfriendly waitress that sharing is not allowed. How can this be?! So, I had the brilliant idea to not share a "hot brownie with icecream" but order "one brownie" and "one icecream" which in the end cost the same. End of the story: Waitress got really mad, we still had dinner, but I officially hate that place and swore to spread this story to the world, so this place will not survive this year! So don't go to the "chicken place" (I forgot the real name, but it's the only place which has chicken) at Bourg-de-Four!! We still had fun and those ugly waitresses didn't get any tip *hahaha*!

• next, I did a fotoshooting at ILO (no nothing official).

• I started walking to my work and back (takes about 50 min. one way)
• I took part at a internship workshop at the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), where I met a lot of nice interns and listened to experts all day long, how difficult it is to work for the UN (did you know that the divorce rate lies by 80 %?!).
  
• There I met one Japanese intern and another Korean intern, who is actually Japanese, but only has a Korean citizenship, but no passport and... ehhhh... anyhow it was really confusing. But they are really nice and they took me to dinner with an additional Japanese intern, who was a guy before, but is now a girl.

• Then I went to Berlin for a long weekend. And it was paradise!!! Everything sooo cheap and I met a lot of friends.

• Back in Geneva I passed a sunflower field and found a rainbow....

• Party!!! It was a birthday party from a Chinese girl, I didn't even know. But I was invited anyhow. But cocktails in Geneva are soooo expensive. I don't wanna pay 20 CHF for a pina colada!!!

• On a nice Saturday afternoon, I visited the Patek Philippe museum. It is a watch and clock museum - and oh! It is soooo nice! I have to write a seperate blog on that one! So stay tuned!
  
• Had some green tea and goat cheese icecream ;-) was kind of wired - it really taste like sweet goat cheese....

• On my way home, I also went to the House Tavel, which is the oldest house still standing in Geneva. Nothing special, but its right next to my foyer and kind of nice to look at - and its entry is free.

• Couple days later we had a UN-lunch at the World Health Organisation (WHO). It sounds pretty impressive, but its just a get together of many interns from all kinds of UN-organisations. Still nice. And the view from the WHO building is a-ma-zing! You can also see the ILO building ;-)

• When the weather is nice, I go to the beach for a swim...

• And the Euro is drowning, too.... It's unbelievable! 1 CHF = 0,97 Euro?!?! I mean come'on! I get paid in Euros! My savings are melting away like ice in the sun... Why now?!?!? Half a year ago the rate was 1 CHF = 0,70 Euro. So unfair....

• Last Saturday I went to CERN. Couldn't take part at the tour (doing that this Saturday), so we just had fun at the CERN souvernier shop and on two exhibitions. But honestly, I didn't understand a word at this exhibitions. What the hell is an up- and what a downquark?! Maybe I will find out more this Saturday, so wish me luck!

• Last Sunday, I wanted to visit many more museums, since it was the first Sunday of the month and I was told that museums are for free! So, I did my research, made a list of the most expensive museums and started walking - just to find out that all of them are private museums and therefore not free of charge.... *buuhhhhh*.
  
• Oh! And since last Thursday it's fêtes des Geneve - time! That means we have a big fair around the lake with rollercoasters, drink and food stands, music, etc. The theme of this year is India. There will be a BIG firework on the 13th of August with Bollywood music in the background. Seats on my deck terrasse are already reserved! ;-)

• *puuuhhhh* so, that's it! Can't believe I finally managed to write everything down! Last, but not least, you can have a nice laugh at me being the famous reformator Calvin: