This description is derived from a participant observation conducted in class on 29th November 2015.

I arrive early and sit down in my usual place. One after the other, more students walk in but it stays a very small group today. The lecturer and tutor of this class (L3) arrives and hands out feedback sheets to everyone who has held his or her presentation recently. He then asks about the assignment which is due this evening. Afterwards he begins today’s lecture on lobbying in defence of Human Rights by stating that it is a very interesting one. Maybe not content-wise, he adds, but the topic is very interesting. He explains that the term ‘lobbying’ comes from the US practice to corner politicians in the lobby of a venue. Lobbying is a huge practice is in the US, he says and asks an US-American student whether this is correct. To highlight how much influence a lobby can have, L3 talks about an article he once found which discussed why smoking is good for you.

When explaining the procedure of speaking in front of the UN, L3 uses the example of an expert meeting in Geneva he attended. He says that he would normally prefer to outline his speech very briefly in the beginning and then talk freely about the topic. However, this is not possible when speaking in front of the UN because the speaker has to stick very closely to the paper submitted beforehand. That makes is very boring and passion is rare, L3 says. But he admits: “As I keep saying: The UN is a monster of an organisation”. When speaking at the meeting, he adds, he has been nervous for the first time after 10 to 15 years of public teaching. Luckily, some other Australians were able to help him. Some students ask a few questions about details of the procedure and L3 answers them.

Going on, L3 often adds “in my experience” or “my opinion” to the statements he makes. When he explains how important it is to know one’s allies and to lobby in a group, he uses the example of a friend who was trying to gain status with the UN for a group of care practitioners. They were not heard until one day they were able to help the daughter of someone with power who was ill. Later, when he mentions the former special rapporteur for Indigenous issues, L3 tells us that he once sat down with him to discuss what to do. He also wants to use an example when talking about extensive negotiations on UN level but cannot remember exactly what it was about. When he outlines the development of the Universal Periodic Review, L3 tells the class that he used to watch the daily update available on YouTube.

L3 finally finishes the lecture by apologising for the poor referencing on the lecture slides because he asked a friend for advice. It is not his favourite topic, he admits. After checking the time, he is happy that he managed to “stretch” the lecture to a reasonable length.

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