6th December 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
The Human Rights Council turned its attention to Syria again on Friday last week with another Special Session called by the EU- the 3rd consecutive time in 7 months it had met in response to the Assad regime’s ongoing brutality. This level of attention is a clear indication of the international outrage at what is going […]
6th December 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
You wouldn’t expect an international meeting on torture prevention to be a happy occasion but November’s global forum on the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture had the feel of a large and joyous family gathering. Given that the Optional Protocol is still in its youth, the atmosphere was more one of Barmitzvah than […]
3rd October 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
As the September session of the Human Rights Council drew to a close on Friday, there were some glum faces around, especially amongst the NGOs. The NGOs provide a much needed reality check to the rest of us and I think it’s a fair criticism that civil servants are often all too ready to point […]
Read more on Cheap Seats, Backsliding and Cuban Democracy | Reply
19th September 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
It’s been a tiring week. The Council has been busy enough but it hasn’t helped that our 6-month old seems to have lost the knack of sleeping at night for more than about 30 minutes at a time. My own dad, over from the UK, sees this as his own private revenge for the years […]
Read more on Protesting: Peacefully, noisily and a little too much | Reply
5th July 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
The Human Rights Council broke new ground this week and I ended up rather in the thick of it. On Tuesday, as part of the UK’s decision to do everything it can to hold the Gaddafi regime to account, the team in Geneva went after the 16 signatures needed from Human Rights Council members to […]
24th June 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
Life is full of unwritten rules which help determine the limits of acceptable behaviour and which help you avoid making embarrassing and sometimes costly mistakes. The peculiar world of the Human Rights Council is no exception. No one tells you these little bits of conventional wisdom like, don’t deliver the first 2 minutes of your […]
6th June 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
There’ve been some major changes since I last updated my blog. I’ll start with the most important, which is that I became a dad for the first time in early March. Funnily enough, my son Ben was born on the Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child which has reinforced an […]
8th March 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
Guest blog by Jacqui Hunt, Equality Now This session of the Human Rights Council sees the appointment of a new mechanism to promote women’s rights – a working group to focus on discrimination against women in law and practice. A significant milestone in respect of women’s rights of which the Human Rights Council should be […]
1st March 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
These are heady days at the Human Rights Council. On the back of Friday’s firm action on Libya, senior figures from around the world descended on Geneva today for the start of the Council’s March session. It’s the first time so many leading politicians have come to the Council and with them came the world’s […]
Read more on A visit from the boss (and everyone else’s) | Reply
23rd February 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
I’m not sure how it started, but there’s a growing trend in UN human rights meetings these days to convey displeasure through culinary metaphor. The German Ambassador did this to great effect when he revealed his reaction to the latest set of proposals on the Human Rights Council Review, which is finally approaching a close […]