Recent developments have made it easier for civil society to engage in advocacy in before various UN human rights bodies. The changes particularly benefit NGOs that lack a permanent presence in Geneva and New York, allowing them to watch sessions or in some cases even participate even when travel to Geneva is not feasible. Online Speaker Lists for NGOs at
Read moreOn September 8, Adnan Latif became the ninth Guantánamo Bay detainee to die in U.S. custody. [NY Times] The military publicly announced Latif’s identity today, the eleventh anniversary of the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001. Those terrorist attacks gave rise to a more public, aggressive and extensive “war on terror” whose features have included the use of “black sites”
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The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, will present his annual report on government reprisals against persons who report human rights abuses to the UN at the Human Rights Council in September 2012. The Secretary-General’s report (A/HRC/21/18) presents numerous countries and cases where human rights defenders were subjected to intimidation and harassment by government for interacting or communicating with
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1) Define your objectives realistically Why? As with any form of advocacy, the first step for engaging with the Human Rights Council is to clearly define your objectives based on realistic expectations of what is achievable. Advocates should recognize that the Council seeks to promote respect for human rights primarily through political dialogue. The Council holds no mandate to decide
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On Monday, the Philippine Senate ratified the International Labor Organization’s Domestic Workers Convention (DWC), paving the way for the DWC to enter into legal force next year. The Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (No. 189), is the first international treaty to address the specific vulnerabilities and rights of the estimated 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide, most of
Read moreLast week the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) debated a key concern of its subsidiary NGO Committee’s work to review and recommend NGO applications for ECOSOC consultative status. According to the UN Department of Public Information, Cyprus speaking on behalf of the European Union highlighted concerns that: over the past few years, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations continued
Read moreThe Secretariat of the United Nations Human Rights Council* is seeking all governments, national human rights institutes, and non-governmental organizations in consultative status to nominate persons to serve as the Chairperson of the upcoming Forum on Business and Human Rights.
Read moreThe United States government’s program of targeted killings has come under close scrutiny in recent days, during the United Nations Human Rights Council* twentieth regular session (ongoing through July 6). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Human Rights Program (HRP) staff attended the session to raise concerns about human rights in the United States, and specifically the targeted killing policy.
Read moreLast Friday, prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was hospitalized after being beaten by security forces in the capital city of Manama following a large demonstration. [BCHR; Washington Post] Mr. Rajab believed the security forces to be nationals of Bahrain and of other Middle Eastern and South Asian nations. [For more on
Read moreOn December 7, IJRC hosted Boston Human Rights Night, bringing together the legal, academic and social just communities to learn about one another’s work and discuss the relevance of international law and mechanisms to their advocacy efforts. Panelists Gabor Rona (Human Rights First), Martha Davis (Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy), Christy Fujio (Physicians for Human Rights), John
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