Verity Robson
Legal Counsellor, UK Mission to the United Nations, Geneva
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23rd July 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
After 13 sessions, dozens of resolutions, and innumerable late nights staring square-eyed at incomprehensible drafting changes, my tenure as part of the UK’s negotiating team at the UN Human Rights Council finally concluded last week. It had been a tense session, conducted mostly virtually: as I’ve commented elsewhere, it can be difficult to reach compromise […]
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6th August 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
Shortly before the summer break, I had the privilege of co-hosting at the Palais des Nations the first ever conference for the alumni of the UN’s International Law Seminar (ILS). Since 1965, the ILS has been organised at the Palais to coincide with the session in Geneva of the International Law Commission (ILC). Every year […]
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23rd July 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
Last month I squeezed in a visit to Kigali in Rwanda for the 5th Commonwealth Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference on International Humanitarian Law (IHL). I was there to speak on two panels, about the UK’s recent report on implementation of IHL and about our forthcoming global summit on preventing sexual violence in conflict. The UK […]
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29th March 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
Here in Geneva yesterday we celebrated the publication earlier this month of the UK’s first ever report on national implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL). Alongside UK Ambassador Julian Braithwaite and Michael Meyer (Head of International Law at the British Red Cross), I spoke at a reception for IHL experts from permanent missions and international […]
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19th March 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
The implementation of the rule of law, like human rights and fundamental freedoms, is a key means by which the power of the state is constrained. While human rights address the relationship between the state and its people, the rule of law governs the relationship between the branches of the state. Its implementation ensures that […]
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7th January 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
It is fair to say that the UK and Argentina have had their differences. Yet at the end of 2018 the Permanent Missions of the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom came together, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to commemorate the completion of a joint humanitarian project to […]
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