SKELTON FAMILY NEWSLETTER-IIe
No. 1d ------------------------------------------------------------------ 18 August 2000
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Diana L. Skelton Addresses the United Nations
Diana L. Skelton is a descendant of John Skelton (ca. 1750-1816) and his wife, Catharine Hepler (ca. 1750-ca. 1821), of Shenandoah County, Virginia.[1] A graduate of the Washington International School, Diana holds a B.A. degree in History and Soviet Studies from Cornell University. In 1986, she joined the Fourth World Movement Volunteer Corps, an organization dedicated to the war on extreme poverty in the United States and around the world. http://www.atd-quartmonde.org
Diana and her husband, Patrice Faujour, also a Fourth World Volunteer, live in New York City and have two young daughters, Joline Mariya Faujour, age 9, and Delora Kathline Faujour, age 6.
On Tuesday, 11 July 2000, Diana addressed the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on the subject of human rights. The text of her presentation is reproduced below; permission has been granted for its publication here.
Diana Skelton
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11 July 2000: New York, NY Press Release
United Nations Headquarters (ECOSOC/5902)
Economic and Social Council
2000 Substantive Session
Eighteenth Meeting (AM)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONTINUES DISCUSSION OF
FOLLOW-UP TO MAJOR UN CONFERENCES
A special session review of every major United Nations conference every five years was a very demanding process and probably not cost effective, Ado Vaher, Director, Office of United Nations Affairs and External Relations of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICCEF), told the Economic and Social Council this morning.
As the Council met to continue its consideration of the reviews and follow- ups to major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related field, Mr. Vaher said that while major periodic reviews were necessary, they could take place in high-level Assembly sessions as 10-year events. That would allow time for significant accomplishment, an understanding of developments and new trends and accommodate a comprehensive preparatory process that drew on national experiences.
DIANA SKELTON, International Movement ATD Fourth World, said human rights should be mainstreamed into the coordinated follow-up to major conferences and summits, by action on both the part of the United Nations and that of civil society. At the level of the United Nations, it was imperative that the Organization not allow itself to be used as a forum for every government to defend its own interest. The follow-up to conferences should not be polarized into conflicting views between developed and developing countries. If such follow-up was to be separated into technical and political levels, both must be carried out in a spirit of co-responsibility with regard to respect for human rights. Every country, rich or poor, should be held to its commitments and respected for its contributions.
At the level of civil society, she continued, the human rights framework required that each and every person be reached. If implementation of conference aims were to be achieved, the most isolated and vulnerable of the world’s citizens had to be included in equal partnership with all others, including those living in the worst forms of poverty. Their voices needed to be heard in the forums and discussions, which now included only academic professors as "experts". University knowledge had to be supplemented with the wisdom of those familiar with the grass- roots impact of social and economic policies.
In the reviews of conferences and summits, the language called more and more for the voices of the poor to be heeded, she concluded. Yet those people’s voices remained faint and were seldom heard at the United Nations itself. Living in extreme poverty around the world and in the poorest communities, however, they managed to make life livable for themselves, their families and neighbors. The term "expert" should be redefined so that the wisdom of such people informed deliberations.
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[1] The earliest known history of the family of John Skelton and Catharine Hepler, his wife, is reported in the following: Earl F. Skelton, “The John Skelton - Catharine Hepler Family: From the Shenandoah to the Midwest,” in National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 80, No. 4, 245-264 (1992).
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Earl F. Skelton, Ph.D., CG
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Copyright © 2000 by Earl F. Skelton
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