If you follow the work of the United Nations (UN) you may have already discovered that 2015 seems to be the year for the ‘development’ pillar of the organisation. Three main agreements are expected to be adopted until the end of the year and the complexity of the negotiations are increased by the interconnectedness amongst them. The first agreement is …
Climate change was top of the agenda last month at the UN’s leading human rights body, writes Manuel González-Sanz, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Cecilia Rebong, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Philippines to the United Nations at Geneva, Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, Marc Limon, Executive Director of Universal Rights Group. Following great efforts by a …
Ever since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came into effect in 1948, the relationship between human rights and Islam has constituted a topic of heated debate. As of today, politicians, NGO workers, academics and journalists continue to discuss the compatibility of human rights and Islamic legal systems, traditions, and cultures. Geographically speaking, these debates encompass both Muslim countries as …
In the last decade, the international human rights framework has become addicted to norm-setting, devoting far too much effort to refining norms, tools and protocols, and not enough to their actual implementation. There have certainly been some important new normative initiatives, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But now the challenge is that the international …
En 2016, le Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU célèbrera son dixième anniversaire. Bien que celui-ci ne sera pas accompagné d’un examen formel de son travail et de son fonctionnement, contrairement au cap des 5 ans d’existence du Conseil, il représente une importante opportunité de faire le point sur l’organe des Nations Unies et sur ses accomplissements et échecs. …
In 2016 the UN Human Rights Council will celebrate its tenth birthday. Although the anniversary—unlike the Council’s five-year mark—will not be accompanied by any formal review of its work and functioning, it represents an important opportunity to take stock of the UN body’s achievements and failures. And what is immediately clear is that although the Council is good at debating …
The 28th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC28) saw a number of developments with highly significant implications for the future of the Special Procedures mechanism, the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the UN’s human rights protection system. Some of these developments were undoubtedly positive and in line with the recommendations put forward in the recent Universal Rights Group-Brookings Institution policy report on Special Procedures . Others, with potential implications …
Casual observers of the Human Rights Council may have been forgiven, in the run up to the body’s 28th session (2nd to 27th March), for a degree of bafflement at repeated and sometimes quite excitable references to a three letter acronym: JIU. The reason for all the excitement was the publication of a report by the JIU (Joint Inspection Unit – the UN system’s independent external oversight …
The 28th session of the Human Rights Council marks the end of the initial three-year term of the mandate of the Independent Expert on human rights and the environment . Over the past year, in my capacity as the Independent Expert, I have focused on identifying, promoting and exchanging views on good practices relating to the use of human rights obligations to inform, support and strengthen environmental policymaking. …
A policy report of Universal Rights Group (URG) on ‘ Combatting Global Religious Intolerance: the Implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 ’ has rightly pointed out the complexities of the issues surrounding freedom of religion or belief and the fight against global religious intolerance. The report provides useful historical insights about the UN’s journey to confront and combat racial and religious intolerance. It is interesting to note that on 25th November 1981 …
