Human Rights Council

The UN General Assembly Suspends Russia From the Human Rights Council, Effective Immediately

• April 7, 2022

United Nations members voted on Thursday to strip Russia from its seat at the Human Rights Council, over alleged civilian killings in the region around Kyiv, Ukraine. The proposal, presented at a General Assembly emergency special session in New York City, was backed by 93 countries. Russia, China, Belarus, Syria and Iran were among …

Human Rights, Peace and Security

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US Envoys Encouraged to Voice Dissent in New Diplomacy Policies

Barbara Crossette

• November 3, 2021

It is not news that morale in the American State Department hit new lows during the Trump administration, under a president who despised and insulted the institutions and people engaged in international affairs. On Oct. 27, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the United States Foreign Service Institute to diplomats, members of …

US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

An American Feminist, Honored by France, Carries On a Tireless Global Fight for Women’s Rights

Barbara Crossette

• October 6, 2021

Jessica Neuwirth, a pivotal force in promoting and supporting the rights of women and girls worldwide, was appointed to the rank of chevalier in the French Legion of Honor by the French government in a ceremony in New York City on Oct. 5. The citation said: “This high distinction expresses the gratitude of the …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women as Changemakers

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Human Rights Council Dithers While the Earth Burns

Peter Splinter

• October 5, 2021

GENEVA — It is time for the United Nations Human Rights Council to take climate change much more seriously than it has been and to treat the issue with the urgency, deliberation and action that it demands. The Council has the tools to do so, and it should use them now. The recent Intergovernmental Panel …

Climate Change, Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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Hey, Biden-Harris Team, What About the UN?

Stéphanie Fillion

• November 17, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden’s first message to fellow world leaders was clear: America is back. But there’s a glaring omission in his foreign policy plan: the United Nations. After four years of the Trump administration’s defunding and leaving UN organizations and agreements, the United States’ relationship with the UN is ripe for revival. But what, …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

They Call It Multistakeholderism. Where Does That Leave the UN?

Harris Gleckman

• September 2, 2019

Global governance is slipping away from the United Nations. Whether it is in managing the Internet, where the UN’s governing structure offers only an advisory role for governments; or climate change, where the most exciting actions are now corporate-led partnerships outside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; or the Gates Foundation-sponsored Gavi, The …

Development, Governance, SDGs, WORLDVIEWS

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Once Again, Haley Accuses Others for US Failure at Rights Council Reform

Barbara Crossette

• July 22, 2018

In the middle of last week, when the Trump administration was still unable to say how it “lost” more than 2,500 children torn from their asylum-seeking parents at the border with Mexico, Nikki Haley, the United States envoy to the United Nations, was telling a different story to a sympathetic group in Washington, D.C. …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch

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WORLDVIEWS

Leave the UN’s Human-Rights Treaty System Alone

Bertrand Ramcharan

• January 7, 2018

The United Nations Charter requires each and every member state to discharge its obligations by faithfully carrying out norms of legally binding international human-rights law. These may be norms of international customary law, those contained in treaties or those flowing from general principles of international law. The human-rights provisions in the Charter were amplified …