The 2011 CIVICUS World Assembly has ended. This Assembly – the tenth in the history of CIVICUS – coincided with the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, which brought an added degree of poignancy to the discussions.

The irony was not lost on delegates. The Assembly offered several opportunities to remember those who have lost their lives to war or terror attacks, at the hands of brutal dictators, or as the result of humanitarian disasters – both natural and human-made. The most touching of these was a late-night candlelight procession down one of the main streets of Montréal with Assembly delegates following a 65-strong youth choir singing Leonard Cohen’s haunting song Hallelujah.