4th July 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Late on Friday evening The Council came to a sweaty and cantankerous finish. Well, it sort of did. Not content with causing disruption and delay through 50 hostile amendments to a range of important resolutions, Russia then forced the Council into extra time by persistently objecting during the appointment of the Special Rapporteurs. Time eventually […]
6th June 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Each of the three annual sessions of the UN’s Human Rights Council has its own character. This reflects the issues that everyone knows will dominate the session. But each member of the Council also has their own priorities, too. The June session of the Council starts on 13 June and runs to Friday 1 July. […]
10th May 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
One of the thorniest controversies in the WHO right now goes by the catchy acronym, FENSA. This stands for Framework on Engagement with Non State Actors. Beneath this bland surface lies one of the great dilemmas facing all international agencies. What is the appropriate role of business in policy making? Just to be clear, in […]
21st March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Sorry for last week’s silence. A bout of family flu and some absent colleagues kept me busier than usual but thankfully everyone’s fine again. The middle two weeks of the Council session have been typically frantic with everyone trying to work out the version of their resolutions to table which they hope will attract the […]
21st March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
The Syrian conflict is the source of the most immediate threats now facing the United Kingdom and Europe. Dealing with it has become the most important agenda in Geneva. Our citizens have travelled to the conflict and came back radicalised and ready to commit acts of terrorism. Regional rivals have been drawn into the conflict […]
8th March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
By the end of this year the President of the United States and the Secretary General of the United Nations could both be women. Women have made more progress towards real equality during my lifetime than in the previous 20,000 years of human history. When my mother was a British diplomat, she did not think […]
Read more on Let This International Women’s Day Be Different | Reply
23rd February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Like all governments and international organisations, the UN sometimes gets a bad press. Recently the UN faced critical headlines following the release of an opinion by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Julian Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the UK. Now, the decision to conclude that someone who is evading Swedish justice by […]
Read more on The UN’s Role On Human Rights Is About More Than Julian Assange | Reply
8th February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Last week’s conference in London did not solve the Syrian refugee crisis. That requires an end to the conflict. The suspension of the peace talks in Geneva last week shows we’re not even at the end of the beginning of that process, as Churchill might have said. But London did some important things. It raised […]
28th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
No other international gathering attracts such mythology. The place where the world’s economic elite co-opts its political leadership. Or the best place in the world to discuss and solve global problems. The arguments for and against Davos rage every year. But it’s as popular as ever. BIG SHORT Just before this year’s Davos gathering, Oxfam […]
Read more on Davos: Big Short or Indispensable Summit? | Reply
11th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
The Geneva institutions are facing big questions at the start of 2016. Will the humanitarian system adapt to the challenges of protracted conflicts and unsustainable mass migration? Will the World Trade Organization (WTO) rediscover its role at the heart of the global economy? Can we respond effectively to the growing threat of pandemics and the […]