Does Bachelet's Mission to Cameroon point towards a more prevention oriented future for UN human Rights?
Marc Limon, Executive Director, URG
In early May the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, undertook an important mission to Cameroon, a country beset by serious human rights challenges especially in the context of unrest and violence in the west and north of the country. That a High Commissioner would undertake an urgent visit to a country facing a situation of serious human rights violations is not, of course, surprising in of itself. What was noteworthy, however, was Bachelet’s approach to the visit and tone of the press statement she issued at its conclusion. Both emphasised the importance of cooperation between the Cameroon Government and the international community, as well as – crucially – the importance of adopting a preventative approach to arresting the emerging crisis. This is in marked contrast to the usual approach to such missions, which, broadly speaking, has tended to emphasise monitoring, reporting and – often – public criticism of the State...
> Read more here
LATEST Policy Reports
Commentary on the worldwide human rights situation is often characterised by assertions of an unfolding human rights crisis in much of the developing world, and back-sliding in some of the world’s major democracies. Clearly human rights violations are far too commonplace in all parts of the world, and we have a long way to go to realise the vision set out more than seventy years ago by the architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But is it correct, as some would have us believe, that the global situation of human rights is worse today than it was five, ten or even fifty years ago? The short answer is: without better empirical measures of human rights performance, we do not know ...
> Read it here
|
|
|
URG Insights
The independence of the internation civil service, 1919-2019: minority rights at the League of Nations and human rights at the UN - Part 2
By John Burley, Formerly UNDP; Office of the Director-General;UNCTAD 1972-2004
n part one of this blog post, which can be read here, I described the origins of the independent international civil service, created in 1919. I also highlighted the importance of the adoption, as part of the overall Treaty of Versailles, of a set of treaties on minorities (i.e. the minority treaties). Part two will look at how the secretariat …
> Read more
____________________________________
UN peace and security reform: an update
By The URG NYC Team
The main objective of the peace and security reforms is to improve the capacity of the peace and security architecture of the UN to support all stages of a ‘peace continuum,’ from prevention to conflict resolution to peace operations to peacebuilding. .…
> Read more
____________________________________
Human rights and elections: a call for coordination and action
By Avery Davis-Roberts, Associate Director of the Democracy Program at The Carter Center
In 2018 alone, more than 100 electoral events took place around the globe, including in the United States where an estimated 113 million registered US voters turned out to cast ballots in a highly contested mid-term election. This year, elections will take place in every region of the world, including in two of the most populous nations, India and Indonesia. …
> Read more
____________________________________
UN management system reform: an update
By The URG NYC Team
This post is the second in a series of blogs produced by the URG NYC team to take stock of the implementation of the UN reforms, which were adopted in the past 18 months, and provides an update on perhaps the most opaque series of reforms: changes to the UN management …
> Read more
|
FOLLOW US
|
|
|
|
You can follow our work via our website, Twitter and Facebook.
|
|
URG Events
FUTURE EVENTS
June 10 / 2019
Tunis
Reconciling the right to non-discrimination and freedom of religion
(By invitation)
> Read more
June 17 / 2019
Geneva
NGO Roundtable - Measuring global human rights trends and the impact of the global human rights system
(By invitation)
> Read more
_________________
PAST EVENTS
May 27 / 2019
Chardonne
The Glion Human Rights Dialogue 2019 (‘Glion VI’): ‘Towards 2026 – Perspectives on the future of the Human Rights Council’
(By invitation)
> Read more
May 24 / 2019
Geneva
Friday Exchange: The 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
(By invitation)
> Read more
|
