More food, less thought

Stephen Toope, president of the Trudeau Foundation, gave a lunch hour Food For Thought talk at CIGI today. His thesis: the UN cannot protect basic human rights around the world (and should not be expected to either). Why? Because the UN is not an autonomous body and is dependent on member states for pretty much everything. Thanks Stephen, tell us something we didn't know. At least the Vincenzo's lunch was worthwhile.

To be fair, the talk was more informative than that. There were bits on UN reform and which direction the UN should take in the near future to be more effective. I'm just being extra cynical because of the stress of finishing my human rights paper by Monday.