The early departure — yet again — of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights suggests it’s time to re-think the office’s priorities and strengthen its mandate. The announcement in December 2017 by Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein of Jordan that he would not seek a second term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights—leaving the post in the middle of 2018—came …
The commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of Switzerland’s membership of the United Nations presents an excellent opportunity to recognise the strategic importance of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG). Importantly, the Human Rights Council (HRC), the principal UN intergovernmental body mandated to promote and protect human rights globally, and the OHCHR tasked with its support, are both based at …
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has set about the modernisation of some sectors of the United Nations and has been fulsome in his recognition of the interrelatedness of the three sectors of the UN: peace and security, development, and human rights. He has made impassioned statements about the need to protect human rights. But, beyond rhetoric, there has so far been no …
