As Britain faces a future of ever faster and deeper change, it is more important than ever that its human rights record and related compliance with its international human rights obligations and commitments is completely transparent, so that the State can be held to account and we can see where improvements might be made. That’s why the Equality and Human …
In China, women from the Muslim Uighur minority are allegedly subject to rape and forced sterilisation in the so-called ‘re-education camps’ where hundreds of thousands of people are detained solely because of their religious affiliation. In Egypt, religiously justified family laws on e.g. marriage, divorce and custody of children discriminate not only against women, but also religious minorities, leaving religious …
En los últimos años, muchos han comenzado a examinar más a fondo la relación entre el Consejo de Derechos Humanos y la Tercera Comisión de la Asamblea General. A medida que nos acercamos al final de 2019, ahora es un momento adecuado para revisar el trabajo realizado por ambos organismos este año y el nivel de eficiencia alcanzado. ¿Estos dos …
Quick summary During the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the Third Committee, the UNGA Committee tasked with addressing human rights issues and concerns, ran from 1 October 2019 through 21 November 2019, at UN Headquarters in New York. This year’s Third Committee featured presentations by a number of senior UN officials, including Ms. Michelle Bachelet, the High …
As part of the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the President of the Human Rights Council (Council) gave statements to the Third Committee at UN Headquarters in New York City and engaged in an interactive dialogue with member States. These interactions provided an opportunity for a discussion of cross-cutting human rights …
There is little doubt that one of the modern world’s principal political challenges is the rise of hate speech, particularly in the cyber arena. Such hateful and intolerant expression, especially when widely circulated via the internet, promotes populism, extremism and radicalisation and deplorably leads to violence and murderous attacks. This incitement tears societies apart, threatens democracy and the rule of …
What happened to the UN’s Human Rights up Front initiative? This is a question many human rights advocates have asked since UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took office in 2016. A recent report on the UN’s failings in Myanmar during the atrocities committed against the Rohingya in 2017 has put this question in stark relief. The independent review , conducted by Gert Rosenthal, …
Does respecting universal human rights mean that everyone must accept and adopt unified sociocultural values and practices? Clearly the answer is no. Yet at international level we see regular efforts to malign specific countries or societies based on their religious and cultural backgrounds. Despite a general agreement among scholars that present-day human rights are the common heritage of all civilisations, …
Yesterday’s elections to the Human Rights Council for the three-year membership term (2020-2022) brought some good news, but also served to demonstrate – again – the complacency and short-termism that characterises most States’ approach to these important polls. First, the good news. Overall, the elections strengthened the composition of the Human Rights Council. In the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), for example, …
More than two decades have passed since the concept of an ASEAN ‘Socio-Cultural Community’ (ASCC) emerged for the first time. The idea first appeared in proposals for a ‘Community of Caring Societies,’ adopted by ASEAN countries in their ‘Vision 2020’ (adopted in 1997). Six years later, ASEAN proposed to build an ASCC in its ‘Declaration of ASEAN Concord II’ (Bali …
