What are the world’s human rights priorities in 2019, and what to look out for in 2020?

by Grace Kennedy, former Universal Rights Group NYC and Danica Damplo, Universal Rights Group NYC Human rights institutions and mechanisms

Human rights analysis of high level speeches during the general debate of the UN General Assembly Each fall, the world leaders descend upon New York to speak at the general debate of the UN General Assembly (GA). The world’s presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and assorted dignitaries are allotted fifteen minutes each to discuss the global crises and trends that …

What are the world’s human rights priorities in 2018 and what to look out for in 2019?

by Danica Damplo, Universal Rights Group NYC Human rights institutions and mechanisms, UN General Assembly/Third Committee

Human rights analysis of high level speeches at the General Debate at the UN General Assembly What are the human rights situations and issues world leaders have on the brain in 2018, and what will they be prioritizing over the next twelve months? The best place to get a sense of both is the general debate of the UN General …

Human Rights Council Elections: clean slates continue to undermine the Council

by Peter Splinter, Human Rights Consultant and Former Representative of Amnesty International to the United Nations in Geneva By invitation, Human rights institutions and mechanisms

On 12 October 2018, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will hold elections for 18 seats on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for a three-year term starting on 1 January 2019.  All five UN regional groups have clean slates – in which the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacant seats. [1]   These clean slates turn the election into …

Strengthening coherence between the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee

by Geneva Uncategorized BORRAR

One consequence of the General Assembly’s decision, in 2006, not to make the new Human Rights Council a main body of the UN, on par with the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); and of its 2011 decision to maintain that subsidiary status; has been significant institutional confusion about the relationship between the Council and the GA, …

What are the world’s human rights priorities in 2017 and what to look out for in 2018?

by the URG team Prevention, Prevention, accountability and justice

Human rights analysis of high level speeches at the General Debate at the UN General Assembly  What are the human rights situations and issues that keep world leaders up at night in 2017? What are the human rights priorities of governments for the next twelve months? The best place to get a sense of both is the general debate of …

Sibling rivalry? Measuring and understanding the uneasy relationship between the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee of the GA

by the URG team Human rights institutions and mechanisms

A comparative analysis of Council and Third Committee resolutions The relationship between the Third Committee of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council sometimes appears not dissimilar to that of two brothers. Like brothers, for the most part, these two key UN human rights bodies get on well, with both understanding that they are part of the same family …

General Assembly reaffirms prerogatives of the Human Rights Council

by Rose Parris Richter, Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group and the URG team Human rights institutions and mechanisms

“The decision facing us today is a decision on the relationship between the Council and the UN General Assembly.” — Delegation of Singapore to the UN On Monday 21st November, towards the end of a particularly eventful session of the Third Committee of the General Assembly (see related URG blog ), UN member States took the historically important decision to respect …

Brexit, the US Presidential Election, and ‘Post-Truth’ politics at the UN: a common thread?

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group and the URG team Human rights institutions and mechanisms

Friday 18th November 2016, UN headquarters, New York On 15th November Oxford English Dictionaries declared ‘post-truth’ to be its international word of the year. Defined by the dictionary as an adjective ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief,’ Oxford Dictionaries said use of the …

General Assembly

The Emerging Struggle over the Council’s Prerogatives

by Marc Limon & Toby Lamarque Human rights institutions and mechanisms

It seemed innocuous enough. In December last year, the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee adopted a short resolution taking note, as per normal practice, of the annual report of the Human Rights Council, but deferring consideration of one particular Council resolution ‘in order to allow time for further consultations thereon’. This additional wording, which was subsequently endorsed by the General …