13th October 2014, Geneva An alliance of organisations, of which the Universal Rights Group is part, has commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to carry out a global programme of research to build understanding of business awareness, commitment and progress regarding human rights. As part of the research, the EIU will survey over 750 businesses (including major multinationals and SMEs) …
Comment promouvoir efficacement aujourd’hui l’abolition universelle de la peine de mort?
10 Octobre 2014, Journée mondiale contre la peine de mort La peine de mort est un acte cruel, inhumain et dégradant : elle n’est en rien utile à la lutte contre la criminalité et elle est toujours le signe de l’échec de la justice. En ce 25ème anniversaire de l’adoption du Protocole international visant à abolir la peine de mort, …
The Secretary-General’s Budget Outline and the human rights pillar: responding to a “global scandal”
Next month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will release his Budget Outline for the biennium 2016-2017. This will provide a preliminary estimate of the resources required for each of the fourteen parts of the UN’s regular budget. The Budget Outline is a crucial moment in the long process that will eventually end with the General Assembly’s adoption of the programme budget …
Report on the 27th Session of the Human Rights Council
The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, makes his inaugural address at the opening of the 27th session of the Human Rights Council. Quick Summary The 27th regular session of the Human Rights Council was held from 8th – 26th September 2014. At the opening of the session the new UN High Commissioner for Human …
Human Rights Council President, Bureau and Member States must respect the role and rights of NGOs
The right, and indeed the responsibility, of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to critique governments, expose and pursue accountability for human rights violations, and advocate for changes in law, policy and practice should be uncontroversial and uncontested. This is particularly the case at the UN Human Rights Council, the world’s apex body for human rights debate and dialogue, the mandate of which …
Priorities and opportunities for the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
As the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, begins his term in office, H.E. Ambassador Alexandre Fasel, Catarina de Albuquerque, H.E. Ambassador Triyono Wibowo, Ted Piccone, H.E. Ambassador Carsten Staur, Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Harriet Berg, Phil Lynch, H.E. Ambassador Mehmet Ferden ÇarikçI, Professor John Knox, H.E. Ambassador Jorge Lomónaco, Roland Chauville, Dr. Rosa …
Syria calls for greater UN intervention in domestic human rights situations…
…or at least, it did. In the early 1950s, as diplomats in New York sat down to negotiate what would become the two international human rights covenants, Syria’s delegation to the General Assembly’s Third Committee was in the vanguard of efforts to arm the UN’s human rights machinery with stronger implementation mechanisms to ‘pierce the veil of national sovereignty’* that …
Report on the 21st Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the Occupied Palestinian Territories
On 23rd July, in view of the on-going crisis in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council (‘the Council’) convened a Special Session on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The meeting – the 21st Special Session since the Council was established in 2006 – was called by twenty-two members of the Council, namely …
Failing To Protect: Systemic weaknesses within the UN human rights machinery
On 20th March 2014 the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) attempted to hold a minute of silence in the UN Human Rights Council’s chamber in memory of Cao Shunli. Ms Cao was arrested on 14th September 2013 as she attempted to board a flight to Geneva. A human rights defender in China, Ms Cao was en route to the …
Health of the Special Procedure system moves to the centre of the Council’s agenda
For the first time since the Council’s five-year review in 2011, the 26th session of the Human Rights Council that ended on 27th June saw the health and impact of the Special Procedures mechanism move to the centre of the political stage. States could not resist continuing to add new Special Procedure mandates – the 26th session saw members create a 51st active …
