Global conversations
The session is over, the resolutions are all adopted and UN blue smoke has finally risen through the holes in the Council ceiling. After weeks of lock down without food, daylight or other things that make us happy, the Council delegates can start to think about a return to normality. But for those afflicted by Post-Traumatic Council Disorder it can take some time to recover. Some delegates will wake up … Read more »Habemus Resolutiones
Strange things happen to the passage of time at the Human Rights Council. The days go on forever, the weeks feels like months and don’t get me started on what the months feel like. I’d thought this was just the inverse of time flying when you’re having fun but to make matters more confusing time seems to speed up when you’re trying to make a statement in the Council. The … Read more »Metaphysics, Mathematics and Mayhem
It’s not often that you go to an event at the UN and end up staying much longer than intended. Usually it’s the other way round. But this week’s high level panel on the ‘power of empowered women’ was one of the best UN discussions I’ve seen and a fitting prelude to international women’s day this week. It was a packed house in the UN ‘s main assembly hall and … Read more »Powerful Women
Anyone who has been through a March session of the Human Rights Council knows that you never come out it of quite the same person as you go in. While the rest of the year’s meetings are important, seasoned Council goers will tell you that March is special. It’s the main event; the Saturday night feature film; the big one. The demands of the session can take a heavy personal … Read more »Showtime
Human Rights Council sessions rarely end up being either a resounding success or an unmitigated disaster. They rather tend to be a mixed bag with some good things, some bad and a few which leave you scratching your head, wondering what it meant and why it happened in the first place. The September session was much like any other but I couldn’t help leaving the Council Chamber on Friday feeling … Read more »Little to cheer, something to fear?
My second week of the Council session got off to a particularly bad start as I managed to put my back out while playing with my son at the weekend. My boss Ian cheerfully put it down to age catching up with me. I like to think I’ve a few good years left in me yet, but whatever the reason, if any colleagues reading noticed me grimacing in meetings, this … Read more »Growing Older, Getting Colder
I hope you had a good rest over the summer. Judging by the hectic pace of the first week of the September Human Rights Council, you’re going to need it. Unfortunately my own plans for a final restorative weekend before the Council began didn’t quite work out. Anyone who’s lived here for a while will know that the Swiss take their laws about making noise in the evenings quite seriously … Read more »Sleepless nights, slavery and skateboarding
It was a strange June Council session. By starting much later this year, it felt like school had been punishingly extended for 3 extra weeks, just as the bell should have been granting us our summer freedom. Everyone did their best to wear their polite, professional faces. But the truth was, we all wanted to get out of the Council chamber, having had back to back meetings for months. There … Read more »Quietly Momentous
Anyone who’s lived around Geneva for a while will know that the weather here plays nasty tricks. In winter the sun shines down serenely on fresh snow all week, only to turn into a vicious arctic ice-blast by the weekend. And in summer the downpours coincide with Friday afternoon work-leaving times just a little too suspiciously. This year the weather has felt particularly spiteful: after hiding in its bedroom like … Read more »Staying in for the summer
The much awaited second round of the Universal Periodic Review finished its first session on Monday. There’s general agreement in these parts that the UPR has been a big success since it began 4 years ago, so the second round began with more excitement than you get at a diplomat’s house on Eurovision night. Without fail, every country has turned up to face recommendations about how to improve its human … Read more »Walking the UPR walk and mounting the pressure on Syria