Sharing My Story: Representing Social Work at the UN and Select Local Human Rights Activism

The author shares primarily select experiences having represented social work at the UN in Geneva from 2006 to the present time. Taking the adage to "think globally and act locally," seriously, he also shares local human rights activism as Town Representative for Amherst, MA. Engaging in what can be called a "phenomenological reduction," he places these experiences in context, by the urging primarily of students, by sharing with the reader an experiential journey, recounting his burgeoning interests in human rights as a teen at the Catholic Worker in New York City; his experiences in Eurasia and in Alaska; his connections with the International Fourth World and The Indigenous Peoples Coalition among others; and most recently his research and experiences as a Fulbrighter in Pakistan. He also shares some of his field work recounting observations and conversations with governmental and non-governmental representatives in Geneva, and for sometime, previously, at the UN in New York. He shares select portions of most recent policy oral statements given at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in September 2015 on, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Report of the USA to the UPR process, the world drug abuse problem, and the rights of peasants, and finally, a written statement on eradicating extreme poverty before the 24th session of the HRC in September 2013. Before concluding, he mentions in its entirety Warrant Article 28 "Creating a Human Rights Culture" passed almost unanimously before Amherst Town Meeting in May, 2015. He concludes with suggestions for human rights activism, like cultivating human rights as a way of life and appealing to the human condition, which moves towards altruism in times of urgency.