Tag: OHCHR

7th October 2019 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Zombie Wonderland

Council sessions often drive a temporary wedge between delegates and their families. The heavy hours estrange us from our partners and children and conversations tend to become rushed and reduced to topics of basic functional necessity.  So I was slightly thrown when my son wouldn’t let me get out of the door early one morning […]

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23rd September 2019 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Badly Opened Boxes

There are different ways to open boxes of breakfast cereal. When my wife does it, the box looks like it’s been magically opened by a graceful spell – the packaging remains in pristine condition and the re-sealable cardboard tag slides effortlessly into its allotted place. Whenever I do it, it looks like a pack of […]

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3rd July 2017 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

The End of a Cycle

The Council came to a hot and weary end last Friday with some good results on the issues that mattered. Most importantly the EU and the African Group reached agreement on an investigation into reports of serious violations in the DRC. The Council also passed strong resolutions on violence against women, discrimination against women, child […]

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20th June 2017 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

In praise of peahens

One of the more amusing oddities that comes with going to the UN is having meetings interrupted by the screams of the peacocks that wander freely outside. It often seems like the vicarious expression of the feelings of those of us trapped inside for hours on end, arguing over any number of things that really […]

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27th March 2017 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Kicking the Habit

My last blog worried some of you enough that you offered to send biscuits to my children in adult-proof containers. I’d like to offer some reassurance that my kids have started hiding their chocolate almost forgiven me for my thievery and that I am now receiving professional support for my wafer addiction. My wife has […]

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13th March 2017 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Change in the Air

While there haven’t exactly  been howls of protest about my online silence these last few weeks, the number of people asking what I’ve been up to rose to three on Friday (excluding my last boss who is clearly still keeping tabs on me from afar), so I feel a little sheepish and neglectful. The main reason […]

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27th June 2016 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

From Rain to Roast

Civil service convention dictates that I should avoid expressing a public view on important domestic matters, so I’ll leave all talk of last week’s referendum to others. I’m free to discuss the weather though and after endless weeks of rain, this week’s dramatic rise in temperature caught many of us by surprise. As someone who […]

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16th November 2015 Geneva, Switzerland

by Julian Braithwaite

Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva

How Can Geneva Help Paris?

How can Geneva help Paris? I was going to write this week about antimicrobial resistance, the stealthily spreading obsolescence of antibiotics that will cost the world an estimated 10 million lives a year by 2050 if we don’t act now. But after Friday, that somehow didn’t feel right. With over 130 mostly young people massacred […]

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30th September 2013 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Sleepwalking, Stress and Civil Society

Council sessions are bad for your health. So bad, in fact, that I’m thinking of inviting colleagues from the World Health Organisation along to the next session to see if they agree with me that all delegates should be issued with a health warning so that they can take suitable precautions at the outset. The […]

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