30th July 2020 Geneva, Switzerland
These are such strange days. We still don’t know if this will prove to be a painful but relatively short-lived episode of global distress or if we’re in this for the much longer haul. Will we look back on this as a defining moment of international cooperation to overcome one of the greatest health challenges […]
7th July 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia
Last year, a Pride Parade took place in Skopje for the first time. The Parade was a protest and shall remain so until LGBTI people are able to enjoy all human rights and society is fully liberated. However, last year there were several reasons to celebrate. The Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination was […]
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15th May 2020
17 May is IDAHOBIT, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. While there are many special days to mark throughout the year, this is an important one to me personally. Last September, my wife Martina and I took part in the first PRIDE march in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was a happy day for us, […]
7th October 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
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 […]
10th December 2018 Skopje, North Macedonia
This year the 8th day of Chanuckah falls on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Chanuckah is celebrated as a festival for children. This is the story we tell them. Long ago, the Jewish people in Israel lived under the rule of Antiochus Epiphanes. He did not want to rule over a place with many […]
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6th December 2018 Skopje, North Macedonia
Last week I hosted a meeting with nearly twenty people who work in various organisations in Macedonia on human rights issues and the support they provide to the people who are on the margins of the society unable to fully exercise their rights. I was particularly pleased that we also had among the guests a […]
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2nd October 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
When the US walked out of the Council last session, there were plenty of doom-mongers foretelling the multiple ways in which everything would fall apart, drawing on the Council’s darker moments of its stuttering early years, before the US joined. There may be more testing times ahead, but this was the Council’s most successful session […]
24th September 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
I’ve often thought that children make the best negotiators. Kids seem to know better than anyone how to stay focussed on what they want and strike home when defences are down. If you ever need a lesson for succeeding in a multilateral negotiation, I’d recommend spending some time observing supermarket check-out queues on a Saturday […]
17th September 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
Over the summer, I have grown a little bit more intolerant. Not to family holidays, heatwaves or even World Cup exits, but to all things dairy. In many countries, this wouldn’t be especially problematic, but in Switzerland, I am having to rethink my breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as my usual Council mood-enhancer – […]
10th July 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
There’s little point writing about anything not related to football at the moment and I wouldn’t expect anyone to give it much attention if I did. By a happy coincidence, plenty of the countries who qualified for the World Cup finals were busy at the Human Rights Council too. I’m happy to report that we […]