Tag: Human Rights Council

15th July 2025 London

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by Baroness Harman KC

UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls

International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva

Meeting women in diplomacy at a reception for UK re-election to the Human Rights Council.

On 24 June 2025, I travelled to Geneva to mark International Day of Women in Diplomacy, celebrating the important role women have played – and will continue playing – in building peace, fostering international co-operation and addressing global challenges. Diplomacy used to be a men-only profession, a profession that excluded women and missed out on […]

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25th July 2024 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Wearing thin

Among my blessings in life is having an Irish mother-in law and I’m just back from a post-Council trip where my wife did some digging into her family history.  A good number of her relatives were refugees fleeing persecution in both Eastern and Central Europe from the late 19th Century.  Ireland was where they were […]

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5th April 2023 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Groundhog Council

I think it’s over. But I’m not entirely sure. Each morning for the last six weeks I’ve been waking up to the grim realisation that the Human Rights Council session was still going and going and going. It went on for so long that I’ve lost track of everything. What day it is, my name, […]

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12th October 2022 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Number 51

I’ve always had a fond attachment to the number 51. It was my house number growing up in Manchester, as little Robert. My first memory there was my parents bringing my newly-born baby sister home from the hospital. And my mum was born in the year ’51 (as well as some more famous but less […]

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8th April 2022 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

It was 20 years ago today…

On 8 April 2002, I started working at the UK Mission to the UN.  I’d had no diplomatic experience. At all. And I’d never been to a UN meeting. I’d only ever been to Geneva once – for my interview, which I started off by spilling water all over the table (I’ve always had a […]

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20th January 2021 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

The Next President

I feel a bit sheepish about not doing a blog at the end of the last session. By the time we’d finished in October it really felt like the less said about the non-stop misery fest that was 2020 the better. I’ll put the fact that not a single person mentioned it down to collective […]

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19th March 2020 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Corona Council (24 February – 13 March)

I’ve long had a sense of foredboding about the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council. Those of us who’ve been around these parts longer than most tend to measure our life-spans in the number of Council sessions we’ve racked up, as well as years. I worked out some time ago that session 43 would […]

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7th October 2019 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Zombie Wonderland

Council sessions often drive a temporary wedge between delegates and their families. The heavy hours estrange us from our partners and children and conversations tend to become rushed and reduced to topics of basic functional necessity.  So I was slightly thrown when my son wouldn’t let me get out of the door early one morning […]

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19th March 2019 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Verity Robson

Legal Counsellor, UK Mission to the United Nations, Geneva

The Rule of Law in the Human Rights Council

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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10th July 2018 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

World Cup Council

There’s little point writing about anything not related to football at the moment and I wouldn’t expect anyone to give it much attention if I did. By a happy coincidence, plenty of the countries who qualified for the World Cup finals were busy at the Human Rights Council too. I’m happy to report that we […]

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