23rd June 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
I wonder what Napoleon Bonaparte would have made of the Human Rights Council. I suspect the man who said an army marches on its stomach would ask how on earth we all survive. By week 2, the typical Council diet goes something like this: Breakfast: coffee, and gummy bears (5 minutes). Lunch: a sandwich that […]
16th June 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
The Human Rights Council is getting too big for its trousers. I know how this feels as I have had to buy a new more spacious suit recently. June sessions used to start slowly, simmer in the second week and come nicely to the boil in week three. But this year week one has begun […]
31st March 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
It’s hard to convey quite what it’s like to go through a March Council session. The four-week experience is a prolonged assault on the mind, body and soul and while the end of the session is a cause for elation it also feels distinctly post-traumatic. The process of stress-decompression and re-entering normal life needs to […]
25th March 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
Every Council delegate will know what a strain the March session can put on your family life. Things have got so bad that I’m now considering looking for a new wife. It’s not for me though. My wife has got to the point that she’s told me she needs someone like her to help look […]
17th March 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
Human Rights Council sessions are always tough but this one feels particularly lacerating. As we reached the midway point on Friday evening there were some desperate looking faces heading towards the exits, including my own. The impact of several weeks of negotiating human rights at the UN is physically demanding, mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. […]
10th March 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
With all the talk these days of business and human rights it can only be a matter of time before Council sessions start getting corporate sponsors. When it happens I hope that manufacturers of beta blockers are first in line to put their name to the March session and that they have plenty of freebies for […]
6th March 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
A lot has happened here since the end of the last session. Starting with the most important, I became a dad again, when my little girl entered the world last November. My son had cleverly timed his birth 3 years ago with the Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child but […]
30th September 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
Council sessions are bad for your health. So bad, in fact, that I’m thinking of inviting colleagues from the World Health Organisation along to the next session to see if they agree with me that all delegates should be issued with a health warning so that they can take suitable precautions at the outset. The […]
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23rd September 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
I’ve often thought that subscribers to chaos theory would do well to spend a week or two watching meetings at the Human Rights Council. The principal idea is that a small random change at one point can result in major unexpected consequences later on. It would be fascinating to try to catalogue the seemingly minor […]
16th September 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
September didn’t used to be like this. It was the session which could be relied upon for a genteel beginning as delegates eased themselves in after the summer, meeting new colleagues and renewing old acquaintances before getting down to some serious Council business. But not any more. This session has got off to a blistering […]