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Should Commitments to Implementation Factor into Elections to the Human Rights Council?

November 8, 2016

Following the recent celebration of the UN Human Rights Council’s tenth anniversary, one of the key questions for its next decade is how it can play a more effective role in promoting the implementation of human rights standards and norms and its own and other UN bodies’ recommendations. This shift is critical given the serious deficiencies in implementation, despite the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s call almost 15 years ago for a focus on the ‘implementation of the commitments we have made’ in an ‘era of commitment and implementation’. The recent Universal Rights Group Glion III report points to ‘important signs that UN Member States are increasingly turning their attention to the question of implementation, and how best to support it’ including within the Council. Recently, the President of the Council remarked that the Universal Periodic Review process holds ‘great potential to lead the charge’ in this regard. Tomorrow, the Council’s UPR Working Group will hold a half day panel discussion on ‘national reporting processes and structures’ as a key means to…

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Embedding Human Rights in Internet Governance

November 3, 2015

In Resolution 56/183 (2001), the UN General Assembly welcomed the creation of an inter-governmental World Summit on the Information Society (‘WSIS’) to address the digital revolution and the increasing digital divide between the global North and South. During the Summit’s two phases (Geneva, 2003 and Tunis, 2005) a common desire and commitment to build a…

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Governing the Future with Sustainable Development Goals: Hopes and Challenges

October 16, 2015

The summit of world leaders that took place at the UN General Assembly in New York at the end of September marked an unusually harmonious moment in international politics. In the summit 193 countries acted in concert to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are set to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the beginning of…

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Surveillance without Borders: The Unlawfulness of the NSA Panopticon, Part II

November 4, 2013

This is Part II of a post assessing the international law implications of the U.S. National Security Agency's global spying program. Part I focused the general international law implications of the program. This part focuses on potential violations of human rights law and breaches of the law of diplomacy. Constitutional fundamental rights binding the…

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The Legality of Military Action in Syria: Humanitarian Intervention and Responsibility to Protect

August 28, 2013

It now seems fairly clear that the US and the UK are set to take military action in Syria in the coming days in response to the recent chemical attacks there. The UK Prime Minister, UK Foreign Secretary and the UK Secretary of State for Defence have all asserted that any action…

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