RESPONSES TO THE CERTIFICATE
AS AN INTERRUPTION
Radhika Coomaraswamy responds to
Shyalina’s performance at the end of her
Keynote Lecture at the Opening session of
the World Conference on Statelessness.
" For the past fifteen years or so I have
been in positions of authority mainly
at the United Nations. I try not to get
used to it but am treated with a great
deal of respect and deference. So at the
end of my speech when this young girl
got up and challenged the authority of
our words with her narrative of what
survivors really undergo and how we
have failed them, I was taken aback.
Till she started walking onto the stage I
did not know it was a performance. But
even for a moment she made us pause,
think and reflect. Her passion kept us
enthralled. It was a voice that is rarely
heard in conference halls. That is the
purpose of art- to challenge us to take
another look at the world and to see it
see it in different ways. "
Radhika Coomaraswamy
Former Under Secretary General and
United Nations Special Representative
on Children and armed conflict.
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