The 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council (read URG’s report on the session here), held from the end of February to late March, was, in many ways, like any other session of the Council. The failure of States to agree on modest but important efficiency proposals in the run up to the session meant that the agenda remained over-full, and space for meaningful dialogue and cooperation remained extremely limited. Amongst 98 high-level speeches, seven panel discussions, consideration of 95 UN reports, 14 interactive dialogues with 20 Special Procedures mandate holders, the adoption of 14 UPR outcome reports, and 260 side events, States somehow managed to negotiate and adopt 42 resolutions – most continuing old initiatives and a few introducing new ones.
However, beneath a familiar surface of UN documentation, general debates, panels and resolutions the 37th session (HRC37) carried with it deep geopolitical symbolism. Specifically, the session provided further evidence of a new Chinese assertiveness at the Council - a new determination to present a Chinese vision or worldview on human rights, and further proof (if indeed it was needed) that as the world's hegemon, the United States, threatens to step back or 'disengage' from the UN's apex human rights body ..
> Read more here
LATEST report
URG's Human Rights Council Session Reports aim to provide all stakeholders with detailed and timely analysis of each regular session of the Council. Here the URG presents information and analysis on the 37th regular session of the Human Rights Council ( HRC37), held from Monday 26th February to Friday 23rd March 2018.
Read it here
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URG Insights
NGO advocacy and the Council's prevention mandate
By Nicolas Agostini, Representative to the United Nations for DefendDefenders
As the Human Rights Council enters its teenage years, the Council’s ‘prevention mandate’—i.e., its responsibility to ‘contribute, through dialogue and cooperation, towards the prevention of human rights violations and [to] respond promptly to human rights emergencies’—has become one of the hot topics of discussion. Operationalising the prevention part of the Council’s mandate was the central theme of the last Glion Human Rights Dialogue (Glion IV).... > read more
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Wanted: new High Commissioner for Human Rights
By The URG team
Later this year the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, is due to appoint a new High Commissioner for Human Rights – the UN’s most senior human rights official. This is a vital moment for the Secretary-General, for the UN and its human rights pillar, and most of all for millions of people around the world whose fundamental human rights are downtrodden on a daily basis...
> read more
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Inter-American Court clarifies human rights obligations of States in the context of environmental protection
By Liliana Ávila, Senior attorney of the Human Rights and Environment Program at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA)
On February 7, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights shared its response to an advisory opinion solicited by Colombia on the international obligations of States regarding activities that could negatively impact the environment.
Advisory opinions are legal concepts in which the Court, as the highest human rights court in the Americas, seeks to unravel the meaning and purpose of international human rights laws; and also to support member States and the organs of the Organization of American States in the fulfillment of their international obligations...
> read more
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URG Events
FUTURE EVENTS
April 20th / 2018
Oslo
'Meeting on international support for the national implementation of human rights obligations'
(By invitation)
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May 30th-31st / 2018
Le Mirador, Chardonne
'Glion Human Rights Dialogue 2018 (Glion V): The place of human rights in a reformed United Nations’
(By invitation)
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Past EVENTS
March 6th / 2018
Room XXII, Palais des Nations
'Launch on the UN Environmental Rights Initiative’
(Public event)
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